Just bumping this thread. In my initial play through I was really confused as an RPG newb for the first 10 hours. By 20 hours I got a lot more comfortable. There are a ton of fetch quests and while you don't have to do all of them you will have to do quite a few because you need to earn "power" by doing things which will unlock main story missions and other parts of your map.
I really thought I would like the Witcher 3 more than DAI based on hearing the story was better, less fetch quests and the combat was supposed to be better. After playing 15 hours of the Witcher 3 and over 100 hours of DAI I can say this: W3 still has fetch quests, the combat is a lot better in DAI and the story in DAI isn't that bad. I also find the environment in DAI to be more interesting, colourful and better to explore in. I found I missed the party system quite a bit from DAI over playing with a single character in W3.
Now the Witcher 3 had less obvious fetch quests but they are still fetch quests even if they are dressed up a little more with cut scenes. When I had to chase down a goat in that game all I could think was - this isn't a blatant fetch quest? DAI had a ton of these things leading into collecting shards and doing constellation puzzles as well. While there were too many, the maps were littered with things to do which encouraged exploration. You wanted to explore everything and that was a good thing. You were always running into loot, bad guys, caves or things to do.
The combat is certainly different but I found W3's combat limited and very repetitive. While there is strategy pre-fight (what oils or spells to use) the actual combat felt weak (strike & dodge all the time). With DAI you get a ton of cool moves to use as you level up. I did find playing with a mage boring after awhile in DAI but the true beauty is to play with more than just your character. I am re-playing this game right now and have decided to run with a 2 handed warrior. But the last hour I played with Varric. Using his crossbow and more long range attacks was fun. He can also use stealth and disappear. A dual wielding rogue is part long range but more up close assassin vs a brawling warrior. Since I was just trying to learn the game my first play through I rarely used anyone other than my own character. This time I am mixing it up and having all kinds of different moves is cool. Besides your basic attack (R2) you can map 8 different attacks for your character (using L2 to get the secondary wheel). There are so many moves and options to upgrade as you choose what type of character you want. And each of the 4 different classes (warrior, rogue dual wield, rogue archer, mage) have a lot of different specializations. My warrior is just charge in and smash. I do have a grappling hook to pull guys in close and I also have a shield break right now when going up against humans with shields. Timing that move correct is nice. At the end of the day there is SO much more variety in combat in DAI. Major advantage imo if you are willing to play with all four members in your party. That IS intimidating on an initial play through as you have to learn how to use each person properly.
There are of course tedious RPG things to do. Besides a lot of different fetch quests you do have to collect a lot of herbs and ore in order to craft potions and weapons/armour. You don't have to craft a lot of things and can buy stuff from the merchants or just loot them. At least you can fast travel quickly and quickly upgrade something if you want unlike W3 where you had to hunt down an armourer with the right level. The horribly unresponsive loot button in W3 drove me nuts compared to the easy DAI approach of picking things up if you were anywhere close to them. Having to repair weapons and armour in W3 also felt extremely tedious. My second play through in DAI is a lot more comfortable since I don't have to learn anything in DAI and that helps too.
