I've seen a lot of complaints on my dash in regards to the characters not brought back in DAV.
Here's the thing friends, most of those characters would be difficult to bring back because their status is indeterminate. Bringing back characters who have personalities and desires shaped by past player choice is always difficult (Hawke comes to mind) but it's even more difficult when a character could be alive or dead, gone to this faction or that, accomplished a goal or not.
Is it possible to bring back Zevran or Fenris or Anders or Shale or Iron Bull or any of the other numerous characters who had different turnouts depending on your choices? Sure, but consider how much of a pain in the butt scenes like those are.
There was an attempt with the nightmare demon where you have Stroud/Alistair/Loghain and Hawke, and that quest and the appearances were very heavily criticized.
Now imagine areas in which you wanted your favorite PC to show up. Would they have improved the plot of the game? Been a cool side quest? And with each place they participate, consider that there needs to be an alternate to take their place for the players who have killed that character off in their runs. In this story, it simply makes more sense not to include them, imo. I'd rather have a good, cohesive story than a clunky attempt at fan service (which is often what the cameos end up being)












