Could Bioware be pulling a Nier with the next Mass Effect?

[CloudAtlas]

I'm guessing Bioware will use their statistical analysis and just decide amongst themselves what the canon ending and choices are. That will piss off a lot of people, but we've seen that they don't really give a shit about that.

"Not giving a shit" - that must have been BioWare's secret for the critical and commercial success most of their games enjoyed over the last 20 years or so.

I still don't understand how could they be so stupid to make a game with more than one ending in a time where sequels dominate the market. And they already knew that they were gonna make more Mass Effect games. If they ever decide to make a game set after ME3 they will piss off a lot of people who didn't make the choice that Bioware decided to expand upon.

Yes, not allowing for different endings based on the different choices the player makes over the course of a game that values choice so highly surely was a very "stupid".

I would like to see a game set before the First Contact War, when humanity first discovered the Mass Relays or the prothean ruins on Mars. Imagine what they could do with that.

Yes. You develop a rich universe with many unique alien species, space flight and what not, and then you make a sequel that includes none of these ingredients. That's an idea I wouldn't call "stupid" at all.

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So yeah, basically I'm saying Bioware needs to pull something like that with the next ME game: Parallel/ Do you agree? Disagree? Do you have a totally different way that they could possibly continue the series while retaining the ending? Discuss!

Parallel universes are always lame. BioWare will have good enough writers to come up with something to make a proper sequel. It's well possible to tie up all different endings into one scenario, without too many plot holes. Even I can do it, and they have writers who surely are better than me. And if they opt for the perhaps cleaner option, making one ending canonical, well, that's totally fine be me too.

 

[thiosk]

It is my suspicion that the next entry into the ME series will be so far removed from the events of ME that it might as well be in a parallel universe. I didn't play ME2 or 3, but didn't the ending break interstellar travel? I suspect ME4 will actually occur a long period after methods of travel are reestablished, and there will be a lot of fractious internecine fighting as isolated populations reencounter one another.

 

[jehk]

Let's face facts, it's going to take nothing short of an absolute retcon and rewrite to satisfy most of the fanbase after what happened with the original games ending.

Disagree with this fact. A vocal minority is not the fanbase.

 

[Agayek]

Fuck ME4. They shouldn't make ME4 at all. Let the universe go in peace.

What they should do is make a Mass Effect MMO (or a single-player RPG, I'd settle for that) set during the Krogan Rebellion. It's the perfect setting for an MMO. As long as they don't go full retard and try to make another wow-clone like they did with TOR, it'd be an amazing game.

 

[Brainwreck]

Alternatively, they could pull a Call of Pripyat (see, that's not an expression either) and decide to go with the happy ending. With horrible consequences. You saved everything forever!... not. Good job. Now someone else has to un-fuck everything.

 

[teebeeohh]

...it was a well written, emotional roller-coaster about a fathers desire to cure his daughter of a life threatening disease...

wasn't Nier the game where, in the Japanese version, it was a younger guy looking to cure his sister but they changed the dynamic to father/daughter and made the main character older for the west to avoid mayn of the cliches people dislike about JRPGS(androgynous lead, everyone over 20 is old ect)


OT: i actually would like non-rpg games set in the setting, a tactical shooter during the first contact war, grand strategy during the Krogan rebellion, fleet tactics (think homeworld) at some point(because they put a lot of thought how the technology impact ship combat and we never get to see that), some kind of stealth game as a salarian spectre, something open world, just you and your ship against the galaxy.
actual sequels should be set several centuries in the future, because that gives writers more freedom and allows for the consequences of your choices to be visible but not that important anymore (for the smaller choices, on the big ones like curing the genophage, what happened to the quarian/geth and such we will have a definite canon one at some point but we knew that from day 1). You could even have character be still alive, Liara has about 900 left in her and with her chosen profession it's not that unlikely an RPG-protagonist would run into her. Same goes for Grunt and Wrex, i don't think Krogan die of natural and they are really popular.

 

[Another]

I think it would have to be a prequel. Personally I think a cool game would be during the First Contact War, with two protagonists. One turian and one human, and see both sides of that conflict. It would be shorter than the other mass effects probably, but a shorter war story sounds pretty cool.

 

[Mikejames]

To be honest, the best part of Dragon Age II was the fact that the tried to make it a smaller story focused on Ser Hawke and Kirkwall. They just completely flubbed the execution and made three completely separate arcs with nonsensical losses of time in between, and made Kirkwall a bit too... I wouldn't really say small but it certainly didn't feel all that lively.

OT: I wouldn't mind. But I didn't mind that-which-must-not-be-named either. I do think the best course of action for them to take is place it in a point of time completely unrelated to Shepard though, and so the best way to avoid any potential fallout out of making something into concrete canon would just be to go before the entire Mass Effect trilogy began in the first place. There's still plenty of lore for them to play with and build off of, anyway.

Yeah, a lack of polish and overarching direction seemed to be more of an issue than the actual idea behind Hawke's story was. I have trouble picturing another world-ending threat like the Reapers, so a strong character focus may be what's needed to set it apart. Bioware's been good about that.

I expect humans to still be involved. The First Contact War seems to be a popular choice, though it's also derided because we already know how it will turn out in the end. Maybe the next game will lose the military focus entirely? Maybe we'll live out our Firefly fantasies and captain a smuggler freighter, fostering camaraderie alongside a retired Turian veteran, a trigger-happy Quarian and a mysterious Hanar missionary?
...
I can dream.

 

[CloudAtlas]

Let's face facts, it's going to take nothing short of an absolute retcon and rewrite to satisfy most of the fanbase after what happened with the original games ending.

Disagree with this fact. A vocal minority is not the fanbase.

I was hesitant to be the first one to say that, but... yea. This.

But you know, since many of the ending haters vowed in forums and such to never ever buy a BioWare game again, they're not the group BioWare might want to pay too much attention anyway.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

"Not giving a shit" - that must have been BioWare's secret for the critical and commercial success most of their games enjoyed over the last 20 years or so.

It's something they've been cultivating these last couple of years. Bioware is not the same company they were before they were bought by EA.

Yes, not allowing for different endings based on the different choices the player makes over the course of a game that values choice so highly surely was a very "stupid".

You're obviously one of those people who think that the ending made sense, so I won't bother arguing with you. I'll just say that you're 100% wrong.

Yes. You develop a rich universe with many unique alien species, space flight and what not, and then you make a sequel that includes none of these ingredients. That's an idea I wouldn't call "stupid" at all.

I didn't say a Mass Effect game. I said a game. One that is just set in the same universe. I just think they could do something interesting with the team of people who lead the expedition that discovered prothean ruins on Mars or the Mass Relay.

 

[Gearhead mk2]

My money is on a boring, bland, clone-stamped EA third person shooter with tacked-on ME references.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Do you honestly believe Bioware don't give a shit about what their fans think? Are you mad? I'm guessing I probably won't be able to talk you out of your cynicism, so I'll talk to it. Pleasing more people = getting more money. Even if you insist on ignoring all the times Bioware have made a show of listening to their fans, surely you can appreciate they understand that pissed off people won't buy more of their games?

Some of them don't give a shit. Some of them are just ignorant about what the fans actually want. Hence, The Extended Cut DLC.

I'm sorry, but WHAT? Just pause a second. Look at your username and avatar. Remind yourself what game he's from.

Human Revolution is a prequel. It doesn't matter how it ends. We all know what happens afterwards.

How can you be so much of a fan of franchise that makes heavy use of player choice and multiple endings that you base on online persona around it, and then lambast a company for making a similarly branching story? Hell, ME3's ending is practically a carbon copy of Deus Ex's! The whole draw of Mass Effect, from day one, has been player choice. Your mileage may vary on whether or not they succeeded but multiple endings was pretty much the core concept. And it sold.

Because thematically, it didn't make any sense. Mass Effect 3 ending should have been the culmination of the trilogy. The ending should have reflected your previous choices. But it didn't. I don't mind multiple endings if they make sense within the game. In Mass Effect 3 they didn't make sense. Look back 2 years prior to Mass Effect 3 and you'll see a perfect example of multiple endings done right in Mass Effect 2. EMS score didn't make any god damn sense. Why would EMS score influence the energy released from the Crucible? They are using a blueprint to build it. It can be either finished or unfinished. And it was finished.

And what if they don't? What if they come up with a story where all ME3's endings are valid starting points?

Do you honestly believe they can make a game that takes into account 3 possible states of the universe? They couldn't even figure out how to make the choices to save or kill the Rachni queen and preserve or destroy the Collector Base influence the game in any logical way.

It literally wouldn't be a Mass Effect game.

I never said it had to be.

 

[Joseph Harrison]

I'm still hoping for a Mass effect RTS game but I feel like that's never gonna happen. Otherwise I feel like they probably make a sequel. I mean think about it, I could have a file where a Male Shepard chose Synthesis, cured the Genophage with Urdnot Wrex and Eve, Brokered a Geth and Quarian Peace and saved the Rachni. I also could Have a Female Shepard that chose destroy, stopped the genophage, killed Wrex and let Eve die, killed the Quarians and killed the Rachni. In one save there are 4 more races that are alive 5 if you count the reapers and everyone is part synthetic. Even if you chose a single canonical ending there is still SO much variation that a sequel would be near impossible.

 

[Soulrender95]

They could pull a Nier but they won't, I mean they could also do a sequel and completely ignore the last part of ME3 entirely without ruining there 'artistic vision' for ME3's ending and leave it intentionally unclear as to exactly what happened, Shepard ran to the beam then things went crazy and then the reapers just disappeared, this would mean players who absolutely hated ME3's ending could ignore it entirely if they so choose, the people who had a favorite ending(excluding Refusal) could accept there ending is what happened.

Set it 5-10 years later with certain events/choices would be imported as codex/back story info but with little impact on the actual plot just minor dialogue and interaction differences like Krogans recovering slowly despite not being cured of the genophage and being more hostile towards humans if Shepard did destroy the cure, or recovering mildly well and being neutral if they were cured and wrex died, to being on good terms and recovering steadily if cured and Wrex lived.

At least that's the way I'd handle a sequel if it was my job to do so, it might seem like a cop-out to do it that way but that's only because it is.

 

[OtherSideofSky]

Bioware is completely incapable of being weird enough to make anything which could be reasonably compared to Nier. The games they make are probably a lot better mechanically speaking and technically have better writing and narratives than Nier, but they inevitably make to much sense to be in the same league.

 

[Pawkeshup]

You know what would truly be epic? Pull an FFX-2. Set it immediately after the events, except Sheppard is alive, and is now a gay porn star singing sensation, his biggest hit being "Let's Bang, OK?"

 

[grey_space]

I'd rather see them pull a far-future-universe Mass Effect out of their hat. Move on several hundred/thousand years, make the threat smaller and more relatable, and make everything as much removed from Mass Effect's foolishness as possible. I don't need to save the galaxy. Give me a ship and a crew and let me forge my own tale.

Sounds awesome. Make a cross between Firefly and FLC; just moving from system to system doing shit.

Loads of smaller plots rather than big epic depressing plotlines. That way if they fuck a story arc up, it's only one small arc among many others.