So, I'll offer my postmortem.
Having purchased the game in September, I've now completed three playthrus, and started a few others that I dropped. I did all three as a sword and shield warrior "Champion". I tried a two-handed warrior once, but quickly discovered I hated it. First playthru was on normal difficulty and I finished the boss fight without losing any HP. I believe I even maintained full guard through the entire fight. I actually felt sorry for the poor deluded old man, seeing as I was not only trouncing him, but had pretty much repeatedly humiliated him throughout the game. That playthru lasted 150 hours.
Next I did Hard difficulty and I admit the first part was hard. Especially the Fallowmire because the undead would poison my folks (which I certainly never noticed on the Normal difficulty, though I also came to the Fallowmire much later on my first playthru). The only AI difference I noticed was enemy mages--they started using glyphs much more deviously. However, I knew way more about potions and smithing so after about the halfway mark, the game became quite manageable. Also, I had discovered that I could kill all the demons but then walk away and leave a rift open, which earned me all sorts of prizes and gave me access to many runes much earlier. (And, of course, you can close a rift but not claim all the stuff and come back later for more prizes, but I consider that cheating!) The final boss fight was about the same level of difficulty as on Normal. Total time was 120 hours.
Finally I played on Easy to see how quickly I could do the thing. Got in just under twenty hours. Skipped SO MUCH, including all non-essential characters. I certainly could have done it even faster but I find I simply can not refrain from collecting stuff. (It's right there! Twenty steps away! I'll just grab it quickly!) It's a curse. That was the most difficult Final Boss fight...As in I think maybe I lost some guard.
I may play again on Nightmare, though for the time being it simply doesn't appeal to me. After taking about a week off I tried fiddling with it a few days ago and quickly lost interest. If I ever get an XB1 and can purchase the DLC, I'm sure I'll play again. The only real DLC I had on my PS3 was the Black Emporium and it was totally broken. Broken as in I couldn't even shut the system off after visiting it; I had to do a hard reboot. So I didn't even try the Avvar. Anyway, I've logged way more than 300 hours since September and I'm not sure how healthy that is.
I loved the story, even though I never felt particularly threatened by Coryphee-wuss. There were parts that were beautiful, even on my last gen system. On first Playthru (Normal) I made Vivienne the New Divine. On my second (Hard), I softened Leliana and made her Divine. On my third (Easy) an unsoftened Leliana became divine by default I guess (because I did nothing and spoke to no one about the subject). So there's a reason to play again: make Cassandra the Divine! (Aside: On my first two playthrus I romanced Dorian, and on my third I didn't do any pursuing and somehow wound up with him again!)
I didn't do any of the main quest lines until I had completely the most of each location possible. I went into Crestwood and laughed at the enemies. The dragon was an easy kill. But in all fairness, I did this knowing that I didn't want to get on with the story. They clearly discuss Hawke being in Crestwood though. Well, anyway, I study the Wiki before any decision so I shouldn't talk
