[Megathread] Mass Effect Andromeda

[Elim Garak]

You all know that in the game Ryder will be the first name, not the last. Just like Shepard.

[Mirishka]

You all know that in the game Ryder will be the first name, not the last. Just like Shepard.

Assuming you're not trolling (though you likely are), that would be wrong. Shepard (and Ryder) is the last name of the character, it simplifies the dialogue recording process because a last name is gender-neutral.

Anyway, some new tidbits were just released about the Andromeda player character. Apparently you're kind of an average person who eventually becomes a hero, unlike Shepard who was a hero before the first game even picked up (Skylian Blitz and all that).

[Lahis]

Anyway, some new tidbits were just released about the Andromeda player character. Apparently you're kind of an average person who eventually becomes a hero, unlike Shepard who was a hero before the first game even picked up (Skylian Blitz and all that).

Well she is a N7, so while not a Hero on Shepard's magnitude at the start, she is still a bad ass.

[Gib Lover]

Fem Ryder looks meh to decent, but good lord that Asari is one of the ugliest videogame characters I've ever seen.

[Mirishka]

Well she is a N7, so while not a Hero on Shepard's magnitude at the start, she is still a bad ass.

Not necessarily. Something could happen that necessitates using the gear or undergoing the N7 training/etc.

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Fem Ryder looks meh to decent, but good lord that Asari is one of the ugliest videogame characters I've ever seen.

Not all of them were attractive in the old games.

[corebit]

As long as the character customization is more robust this time around I don't care how ugly the vanilla 'Ryder' looks or not. The problem with Bioware games is that you can't really create a truly different face since the options are so limiting. DA:I was a bit better in that regard but still miles behind other games like FO4 or BDO.

[Greevir]

As long as the character customization is more robust this time around I don't care how ugly the vanilla 'Ryder' looks or not. The problem with Bioware games is that you can't really create a truly different face since the options are so limiting. DA:I was a bit better in that regard but still miles behind other games like FO4 or BDO.

They really need a face sculpting system. Not just an advanced potato head.

[rhorle]

Yeah, I believe that the ships/etc launched during Shepard's lifetime, but the 'hundreds of years later' thing probably describes the time it took to get there.

One of the books (I think revelation) states Humans can travel around 50 times the speed of light. That would still be 50,000 years of travel assuming Andromeda in Mass Effect is the same relative distance as in the real world. I also found it unlikely that it launched before the Reaper war as it has a coalition of races and something like that should have been noted or at least referenced in the construction efforts of the crucible. I don't think they could afford to construct both.

Given the distance of 2.5 million light years it seems more likely that they exploited the Reaper FTL (30 light years in a 24 hour period) or other relay tech to travel out of the galaxy faster. With reaper tech it would take about 227 years to go 2.5 million lights years. There is also a ship in the E3 trailer called the Tempest which looks like similar to the Normandy.

[Elim Garak]

Assuming you're not trolling (though you likely are), that would be wrong. Shepard (and Ryder) is the last name of the character, it simplifies the dialogue recording process because a last name is gender-neutral.

I know it is intended to be a last name, but it will be used as the first name in the game just like Shepard was. Even by friends and lovers in intimate one on one conversations. Wrex: Shepard. Shepard: Wrex.

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I also found it unlikely that it launched before the Reaper war as it has a coalition of races and something like that should have been noted or at least referenced in the construction efforts of the crucible. I don't think they could afford to construct both.

It could be a secret joint project like Normandy was. Also retconned. It's not actual events it's a fantasy, some slack is expected to be given for something new that was not mentioned in the past. It doesn't really matter if it was mentioned or not in previous games, what matter is if it's possible.

EDIT: Just re-watched the E3 trailer, the narrator is adamant about survival of the species. So it is implied they took off before or during actual Reaper invasion. It wouldn't make any sense for them to send an expedition into another fucking galaxy after Reapers were defeated - because they already have a whole galaxy to explore beyond Mass Relay limitation. And such a mission would've been impossible if Reapers had won.

[Cosmic Janitor]

After the cheap ending of the original they try to ignore it now all-together? I'm also not sure how I like that they abandon literally everything they have build so far lore wise and just throw you into a new galaxy or what ever. The game will stand and fall upon it's RPG elements like story, dialogue, characters, etc. But the premise is already disappointing to me.

[May90]

I wouldn't make such far-fetching conclusions just from a couple of short videos. Might be anything; the mission might have launched even before the galaxy was aware of the Reapers, for example, just as an exploration mission, hidden from the galactic community, so taxpayers don't complain about wasted money... There are so many possibilities; I will just way for the release before making any assumptions.

I also don't quite understand this pessimism I see in most people nowadays. So far no gameplay videos have been shown, we know almost nothing about the game - and yet people already say that the game will be disappointing and flop... Nazrark was right, making a joke above about time people need to carry out judgement of the game.
I've absolutely loved all 3 games, and I've absolutely loved the ending - one of the hardest moral choices I've ever had to make in a video game, possibly even in my entire life. I also liked DAI, and although it wasn't quite my favorite style of game (I prefer story-based games to be truly story-based, and exploration-based to be exploration-based; unless these two elements are really well intertwined, which I've seen only in Witcher 3 so far), I definitely do not think that quality of Bioware games has dropped. Regardless, again, we don't know literally anything about the upcoming Mass Effect, so this pessimism people demonstrate is really weird to me. But, well, to each their own.

[Adam Jensen]

I suppose that makes sense. If they left before the ending of ME3 it means they weren't affected by the arbitrary beams of blue, red or green (the last one would of had a huge impact). So they can ignore the ending and still keep the lore intact.

So wait a minute? Is the story "the Reapers are coming and if Shepard fails, we all die, so lets go colonize another galaxy?"

Or am I just speculating right now?

[corebit]

I also don't quite understand this pessimism I see in most people nowadays. So far no gameplay videos have been shown, we know almost nothing about the game - and yet people already say that the game will be disappointing and flop... Nazrark was right, making a joke above about time people need to carry out judgement of the game.
I've absolutely loved all 3 games, and I've absolutely loved the ending - one of the hardest moral choices I've ever had to make in a video game, possibly even in my entire life. I also liked DAI, and although it wasn't quite my favorite style of game (I prefer story-based games to be truly story-based, and exploration-based to be exploration-based; unless these two elements are really well intertwined, which I've seen only in Witcher 3 so far), I definitely do not think that quality of Bioware games has dropped. Regardless, again, we don't know literally anything about the upcoming Mass Effect, so this pessimism people demonstrate is really weird to me. But, well, to each their own.

It's not pessimism when the ME3 endings were widely decried as terrible. Bioware later sort of made it up with Citadel which was the closure everyone wanted for Shepard. So it's natural that people are a lot more reserved and guarded this time around.

I personally think recent Bioware games have concentrated more and more on their romances to the detriment of the main story. I mainly buy their games for the epic and engaging stories and the romances are just a bonus to me, but not a main selling point.

[Adam Jensen]

After the cheap ending of the original they try to ignore it now all-together? I'm also not sure how I like that they abandon literally everything they have build so far lore wise and just throw you into a new galaxy or what ever. The game will stand and fall upon it's RPG elements like story, dialogue, characters, etc. But the premise is already disappointing to me.

It makes sense to ignore the ending, it's too profound of a change to the galaxy for BioWare to make a game that allows for all four endings to be chosen, they'd either have to make four versions of the game, one for each ending, or pick one and call it canon.

Going to Andromeda means we can skip all the endings altogether. Even the "Reapers Win" ending remains viable. Human civilization, and all the others, died in the Milky Way, but the remnant still survives in Andromeda where we start over again.

Unless the Reapers decide to hoof it across the blackness to Andromeda to fuck shit up over there now . . . (I honestly hope that isn't the plot.)

[corebit]

Unless the Reapers decide to hoof it across the blackness to Andromeda to fuck shit up over there now . . . (I honestly hope that isn't the plot.)

I thought Reapers lie dormant at the edges of the galaxies and wake up to harvest every 10,000 years, or is it mentioned in the lore they are only localized to the Milky Way?

But I think they aren't going to be the main baddies in ME:A, they are kinda overused at this point.

[Cosmic Janitor]

It makes sense to ignore the ending, it's too profound of a change to the galaxy for BioWare to make a game that allows for all four endings to be chosen, they'd either have to make four versions of the game, one for each ending, or pick one and call it canon.

Going to Andromeda means we can skip all the endings altogether. Even the "Reapers Win" ending remains viable. Human civilization, and all the others, died in the Milky Way, but the remnant still survives in Andromeda where we start over again.

Unless the Reapers decide to hoof it across the blackness to Andromeda to fuck shit up over there now . . . (I honestly hope that isn't the plot.)

Why they did that is fairly obvious. I'm simply do not like the premise. It's a different approach to your narrative, previously we were soldiers of established parties, now we will be foreigners meddling in the affairs of an unknown universe. Given the distance/elapsed time there is hardly any sense to connect the old plot with the new one, which for all intents and purposes negates a lot of the reason for this to be a mass effect game. They could have told that story with any IP to be honest. As I said though, that doesn't mean it's good or bad necessarily, the game will be judged on it's own. It's just rather transparent how the name was used because it recognizable, not because it is the mass effect we know and (mostly) love :P.

[May90]

It's not pessimism when the ME3 endings were widely decried as terrible. Bioware later sort of made it up with Citadel which was the closure everyone wanted for Shepard. So it's natural that people are a lot more reserved and guarded this time around.

I personally think recent Bioware games have concentrated more and more on their romances to the detriment of the main story. I mainly buy their games for the epic and engaging stories and the romances are just a bonus to me, but not a main selling point.

People seem to be reserved and guarded towards all releases nowadays.

Weird, I thought romances were much less important in their latest games. In DAI especially, they were very short, clunky and out of the sky. My female Inquisitor meets Blackwall, they talk for a minute about random stuff, then suddenly flirt... In DAO and Mass Effect games the romances made much more sense, in my opinion.

Why they did that is fairly obvious. I'm simply do not like the premise. It's a different approach to your narrative, previously we were soldiers of established parties, now we will be foreigners meddling in the affairs of an unknown universe. Given the distance/elapsed time there is hardly any sense to connect the old plot with the new one, which for all intents and purposes negates a lot of the reason for this to be a mass effect game. They could have told that story with any IP to be honest. As I said though, that doesn't mean it's good or bad necessarily, the game will be judged on it's own. It's just rather transparent how the name was used because it recognizable, not because it is the mass effect we know and (mostly) love :P.

It is pretty common in fiction to use recognizable settings to tell a completely new story; it makes it much easier for players/readers/watchers to get into what's happening. How many Forgotten Realms stories there are out there, for example... I think they made it clear that they wanted the new Mass Effect series to be a truly new series, not just continuation of the previous games, so of course it is not that same Mass Effect we know - by its very design.

[zealo]

Well she is a N7, so while not a Hero on Shepard's magnitude at the start, she is still a bad ass.

The character shown as the player character has a designation starting with an A on her armour rather than N7 in the newest trailer, although what that means only bioware knows at this point. I don't think she's a N7, considering the character sporting that one has already been noted to not be the player character.

[Deleted]

People seem to be reserved and guarded towards all releases nowadays.

Weird, I thought romances were much less important in their latest games. In DAI especially, they were very short, clunky and out of the sky. My female Inquisitor meets Blackwall, they talk for a minute about random stuff, then suddenly flirt... In DAO and Mass Effect games the romances made much more sense, in my opinion.

I can totally agree with that... romances in DAI were *horrible*, sadly - all of them.
ME romances actually had some impact to them and while the flirt and lines are cringeworthy, the game didn't forget about them in an instant.

Muh Tali *snuggles*.

Shiiit not only that, the characters themselves had so much more impact than in more recent Bioware games :/.
RIP my magnificent Salarian buddy.

"I am the very model of a scientist salarian, I've studied species turian, asari, and batarian.
I'm quite good at genetics (as a subset of biology) because I am an expert (which I know is a tautology).
My xenoscience studies range from urban to agrarian, I am the very model of a scientist salarian."

[Elim Garak]

The character shown as the player character has a designation starting with an A on her armour rather than N7 in the newest trailer, although what that means only bioware knows at this point. I don't think she's a N7, considering the character sporting that one has already been noted to not be the player character.

Might be the famous Andromeda program.