In principle, there's nothing objectively wrong with having a game with a sad ending, grim tone, and an increasingly hopeless atmosphere.
Where this doesn't work is when the game keeps trying to tell you that you're going to be the one who changes everything for better or worse - when it clearly has no intention of letting you stray from the rails, no intention of indicating that anything could be better, and a vested interest in hurting any character that dares crack a smile.
Putting aside the fact that we spend an entire game spinning our wheels in the city of pain and hypocrisy with no agenda other than "wait for the vindictive spirit of the plot to apply another hobnailed boot to the gooch", the Mage-Templar debate is impossible to give a damn about because both sides are overpopulated with the most unsympathetic characters imaginable, all of them in the business of eradicating the sympathetic ones before the climax.
But even if I could find it in my heart to root for anyone, there's no point, because it seems like almost every single mission ends in failure. The Bone Pit? The business goes to hell. Rescuing the Qunari mage? The guy kills himself. Try to stop tensions between the Qunari and the Chantry from escalating? Fighting breaks out anyway. Try to save the mage underground? They all end up dead. Side with the mages in the finale? Orsino turns on you anyway. Side with Meredith? She turns on you anyway.
There are only a few quests with the possibility for a happy ending, and while they are much appreciated - especially Feynriel's story - these are fading embers in a story that is actively extinguishing itself.
As for the companions, Merrill, Varric, Isabella, and Aveline are aways likable, optimistic, constructive, and above all, fun... and as I said, the story hates anyone who even tries to be happy, so they get crapped on.
Now, I know that Merrill is supposed to be a foolhardy blood mage who dooms her entire clan through her experiments, but it's hard to believe because we never see any real direct consequences from them: instead, her clan gets themselves killed of their own volition in increasingly stupid incidents - to the point that one literally dies by running away from Merrill (who was trying to help him) into the jaws of a monster. So, I can't take the narrative seriously, and as far as I'm concerned, Merrill remains the moral victor.
And the characters that do achieve their goals and end up fulfilled? Anders, who was changed from a happy-go-lucky jokester into a bitter fanatic who will not shut up about the cause, will not stop treating people around him like shit, and actively aids the descent into misery through sheer force of pointless extremism.
But somehow, he's not the worst character around: that award has to go to Fenris, who combines the worst aspects of Wolverine, Vernon Dursley, and Marvin the Paranoid Android, a man who will never miss an opportunity to whine about how miserable his life has been and then undermine any sympathy I might feel for him by being a mean-spirited freeloading jackass who will betray you in exchange for the opportunity to murder innocent mages.
You can't modify his behavior, you can't chastise him for being a twat to Merrill, and you can't even drive him away - you can only sell him or kill him, and then only towards the end of the game, and neither option is all that satisfying.
Faced with all this, what the hell is my reason to care?
How Grimdark Becomes Grimboring
In principle, there's nothing objectively wrong with having a game with a sad ending, grim tone, and an increasingly hopeless atmosphere.
Where this doesn't work is when the game keeps trying to tell you that you're going to be the one who changes everything for better or worse - when it clearly has no intention of letting you stray from the rails, no intention of indicating that anything could be better, and a vested interest in hurting any character that dares crack a smile.
Putting aside the fact that we spend an entire game spinning our wheels in the city of pain and hypocrisy with no agenda other than "wait for the vindictive spirit of the plot to apply another hobnailed boot to the gooch", the Mage-Templar debate is impossible to give a damn about because both sides are overpopulated with the most unsympathetic characters imaginable, all of them in the business of eradicating the sympathetic ones before the climax.
But even if I could find it in my heart to root for anyone, there's no point, because it seems like almost every single mission ends in failure. The Bone Pit? The business goes to hell. Rescuing the Qunari mage? The guy kills himself. Try to stop tensions between the Qunari and the Chantry from escalating? Fighting breaks out anyway. Try to save the mage underground? They all end up dead. Side with the mages in the finale? Orsino turns on you anyway. Side with Meredith? She turns on you anyway.
There are only a few quests with the possibility for a happy ending, and while they are much appreciated - especially Feynriel's story - these are fading embers in a story that is actively extinguishing itself.
As for the companions, Merrill, Varric, Isabella, and Aveline are aways likable, optimistic, constructive, and above all, fun... and as I said, the story hates anyone who even tries to be happy, so they get crapped on.
Now, I know that Merrill is supposed to be a foolhardy blood mage who dooms her entire clan through her experiments, but it's hard to believe because we never see any real direct consequences from them: instead, her clan gets themselves killed of their own volition in increasingly stupid incidents - to the point that one literally dies by running away from Merrill (who was trying to help him) into the jaws of a monster. So, I can't take the narrative seriously, and as far as I'm concerned, Merrill remains the moral victor.
And the characters that do achieve their goals and end up fulfilled? Anders, who was changed from a happy-go-lucky jokester into a bitter fanatic who will not shut up about the cause, will not stop treating people around him like shit, and actively aids the descent into misery through sheer force of pointless extremism.
But somehow, he's not the worst character around: that award has to go to Fenris, who combines the worst aspects of Wolverine, Vernon Dursley, and Marvin the Paranoid Android, a man who will never miss an opportunity to whine about how miserable his life has been and then undermine any sympathy I might feel for him by being a mean-spirited freeloading jackass who will betray you in exchange for the opportunity to murder innocent mages.
You can't modify his behavior, you can't chastise him for being a twat to Merrill, and you can't even drive him away - you can only sell him or kill him, and then only towards the end of the game, and neither option is all that satisfying.
Faced with all this, what the hell is my reason to care?