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

[Mikejames]

And even that is ignoring the fact that in synthesis and control the reapers share all the knowledge of the races that lived before them (rewatching all of them it turns out this is not explicitly stated in control, but I have no reason to not believe Space Jesus Shepard would share the knowledge), causing a cultural and scientific Renaissance of unimaginable size. There is no way to move forward in Mass Effect other than resorting to head cannon.

Well, sticking with my Destroy headcanon would make things simpler, but I don't see Bioware declaring a canon outcome.

yeah, but those variables are exactly what everyone is so upset about, ask a begrudged Mass Effect fan one thing they hated about the ending, and often they will say that their "choices didn't matter" making an entire game centered around exploring the galaxy crafted by Shepard's decisions would fix that problem.

I imagine the next game will be something like ME2, a crew of mostly new characters exploring the galaxy and facing a threat significantly smaller than usual, not involving destruction on a galactic scale. imagine if the Geth or the Quarians were already dead when ME2 comes around, enough would change for it to matter, but not enough to fundamentally alter the experience

I'll have to object. One of the issues with ME3 was that there were just too many variables to account for to make suitably diverse stories. We're talking about multiple major/minor choices acknowledged over a full trilogy, so imagine how thin they would have to spread development if they were accommodating for several major choices right from the start.

The implications of Rannoch, Tuchanka, and the final decision are disparate enough that Bioware wouldn't be able to do anything substantial with at least three races, and forcing everyone to be half-synthetic would have to have some noticeable impact.
I just want them to avoid something unnecessarily watered down.

 

[Gatx]

I just finished the game recently with the extended cut so I'm not bitter like some of you, and imagining possible continuations for each ending is actually getting me kind of excited.

On the one hand destroy has Shepard alive, but Bioware has stated that you won't be playing as "Shepard" (or anyone like him, which is a really nonsensical statement considering he's completely customizable...) but I think that at least guarantees that you won't be playing as Shepard, so there's no need to have him alive. It does leave everything open for the whole cycle being repeated thing though.

A control continuation would be interesting, with god Shepard acting as the villain.

Synthesis could have some kind of rebel group disliking the idea of being forced into synthesis and wanting to separate organics and synthetics.

Refusal wipes the slate clean pretty much letting Bioware do whatever they want in a similar setting with the same powers and stuff.

Worst case gameplay-wise though - multiplayer was some kind of testing ground and the new game will be some kind of multiplayer focused Diablo style dungeon crawling loot grind.

Honestly, I believe Bioware really are capable of declaring one ending as canon (or explain away the differences between the three with a hand wave to get everything back in a unified post-ME3 universe) and just moving on. They've done it before for the sake of convenience (look at how easily they worked in thermal clips just because it suited their next game, for example) and I'm sure they'd do it again.

As for pulling a "Nier"... n'yeah, as others have said, I don't really see it being their style. Retcons and hand waves yes, complicated stuff not so much.

Technically they've already done it with ME2 - the 3rd game won't acknowledge your ME2 save if Shepard dies so that particular version of the ME2 ending is noncanon.

 

[otakon17]

The only way I can see them pulling off a sequel is if it's set so far in the future that the endings do not matter in the long run. Or better yet, in ANOTHER galaxy nearby the Milky Way. A new, even faster traveling technology has been found and you play one of the brave few to go out and explore this new frontier on the behalf of Citadel space. What you encounter is unknown, so you take the best of the best with you. And then you discover a galaxy populated almost entirely by A.I.'s or some such, I don't know. But the key point is that it's far enough in the future that the consequences of the last game aren't immediately noticeable, kind of like how they had Atton Rand detail what happened in KotOR II to the Exile and you corrected him/corroborated with him on what happened in your game(before game save transfers and the like).

Besides, a prequel during the First Contact War would be not only predictable but boring. Humanity was in it's infancy concerning armor and weapons, and the heat sinks would be back as well. Hell they didn't even have Biotics yet, it would be a step back gameplay-wise in my head. On the other hand, a strategy-rpg like XCOM: Enemy Unknown would be awesome with the ability to recruit different species with inherent traits for missions and the like. But knowing EA, they'll have them shovel out a damn near "guaranteed" cookie cutter sequel in a years time.

I think Dragon Age III will be the last game I get from Bioware under EA at this point. It was nice knowing you Bioware, I'll miss ya.

 

[Kingjackl]

It's not as hard as people think. just have it set a few decades in the future (so old characters can still have their obligatory cameos) and just have people say "Commander Shepard stopped the Reapers" and leave it at that. Even if people didn't hate the series, no sense dwelling on things when there's new stuff to be done.

 

[freaper]

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.

It would be interesting to see how veterans of the franchise react to the racism present at that time: (almost) everyone loves Garrus and Mordin, but most humans during the First Contact War probably thought differently about aliens. It might make for an interesting dynamic, and even explore the racist phenomenon.

 

[RJ 17]

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. And given Bioware have decided they wish to stick with the ending no matter what everyone thinks, i don't exactly see much of a return for them if they want to make anything else set in the universe as it currently is: Set it as a prequel, then everything's a foregone conclusion and few will wish to give it a chance due to what awaits later. Or, in the case of some of the events in the Codex, we'll already know how it ends. Set it as a proper sequel after the ending and...well, where do we go from here?

Since when did making a prequel become impossible because you already know it ends? Didn't we all know Anikan was going to turn into Vader? Didn't we all know how GoW Judgement was going to end? Since every prequel is - by definition - something that comes after the original but is set before the original, don't we already know how most every prequl will end?

If you ask me, the biggest problem that ME faces with making a prequel is the simple fact of time. At least if they're wanting you to play as a human main character again, the humans have only been on the galactic map (so to speak) for little over 20 years. After the First Contact War (which could be a setting for a possible prequel) the only other major conflict other than the Skillian Blitz (which Hero Shep defeats singlehandedly) that the Alliance has been in is the Reaper War. So unless they intend to let you play as a race other than human and set the game before Humanity's rise, there really isn't much of anything to make a prequel out of.

As for making a sequel, you'd think that'd be quite challenging as, depending on your favorite color out of Red, Blue, or Green, the galaxy could be a VERY different place.

Spoiler: As if these are still needed...but just in case.

With Red, the Geth have been wiped out along with the Reapers, though there's a chance Shepard survived in the galaxy that is rebuilding itself ad its technology after the war. Not that Shepard's survival matters seeing as how they've stated that Shepard's part in the games is over.

With Blue, Shepard has effectively become a god and is in complete control of the Reapers, using them as a galactic police force to keep the peace.

Annnnnd if you went with Green, the galaxy has become a boring utopia with everyone happily getting along with one another as they're all effectively the same on the inside.

Seems to me the most likely scenario will be a sequel set far into the future (maybe a hundred years or so) after the end of ME3. Take the Star Gazer scene, he's telling the story as though it's been a LONG time since Commander Shepard saved everyone. If they do make it a sequel, they won't have to rewrite or retcon anything. All they'll have to do is what they did at the beginning of Knights of the Old Republic II: have a conversation at the beginning of the game that's essentially an interview of "What happened during Commander Shepard's adventure?" "Well I thought she activated the Crucible and it destroyed all technology making us rebuild from scratch." "Yeah, that's right, I remember reading about that in history class." or something like that. In short: a way that you can set up the prior trilogy's canon to establish the basis and current state of the galaxy.

 

[I Max95]

And even that is ignoring the fact that in synthesis and control the reapers share all the knowledge of the races that lived before them (rewatching all of them it turns out this is not explicitly stated in control, but I have no reason to not believe Space Jesus Shepard would share the knowledge), causing a cultural and scientific Renaissance of unimaginable size. There is no way to move forward in Mass Effect other than resorting to head cannon.

Well, sticking with my Destroy headcanon would make things simpler, but I don't see Bioware declaring a canon outcome.

yeah, but those variables are exactly what everyone is so upset about, ask a begrudged Mass Effect fan one thing they hated about the ending, and often they will say that their "choices didn't matter" making an entire game centered around exploring the galaxy crafted by Shepard's decisions would fix that problem.

I imagine the next game will be something like ME2, a crew of mostly new characters exploring the galaxy and facing a threat significantly smaller than usual, not involving destruction on a galactic scale. imagine if the Geth or the Quarians were already dead when ME2 comes around, enough would change for it to matter, but not enough to fundamentally alter the experience

I'll have to object. One of the issues with ME3 was that there were just too many variables to account for to make suitably diverse stories. We're talking about multiple major/minor choices acknowledged over a full trilogy, so imagine how thin they would have to spread development if they were accommodating for several major choices right from the start.

The implications of Rannoch, Tuchanka, and the final decision are disparate enough that Bioware wouldn't be able to do anything substantial with at least three races, and forcing everyone to be half-synthetic would have to have some noticeable impact.
I just want them to avoid something unnecessarily watered down.

all they need to do is acknowledge that our decisions mattered, they don't need to change the game on some profound level, the problem with ME3 was that they acknowledged very few of our choices in previous games, kill or free the Rachni, doesn't matter we're still fighting Rachni, rewrite or destroy the heretic Geth, doesn't matter they joined the Reapers anyway, it was stuff like that that frustrated players even before the ending

it was Bioware spinning our choices in such a way in order to basically eliminate consequence in all but a few instances, i'm not saying they should do the same thing in the next game, all i'm saying is that these Choices don't have to wildly change the game, Bioware could put a new spin on things and make it so that one person could play through the consequences of the Destroy ending while another could do the COntrol ending, while both of them are essentially playing the same game

 

[CloudAtlas]

Uhh, actually yes it does. That's exactly what it means. People wanted one thing, Bioware gave them something else.

Many people were unhappy with plot holes and such, and many of those issues were addressed with the Extended Cut. So, to many, BioWare gave a lot of what they wanted. Just not to everyone. But anyone who believed that BioWare would make significant changes to the story itself was seriously deluded. That rarely, if ever, happens with any piece of art, however flawed, and certainly not with a piece that was such a big critical and commercial success.

The Extended Cut did show that BioWare cares. In a way, they did what they could without relinquishing authorship.

As, well, bewildered as I was about the ferocity of the ending controversy, I just hope that something good comes out of it: That developers pay more attention to the consistency of their story, its narrative and its themes.

 

[Mikejames]

all they need to do is acknowledge that our decisions mattered, they don't need to change the game on some profound level, the problem with ME3 was that they acknowledged very few of our choices in previous games, kill or free the Rachni, doesn't matter we're still fighting Rachni, rewrite or destroy the heretic Geth, doesn't matter they joined the Reapers anyway, it was stuff like that that frustrated players even before the ending

it was Bioware spinning our choices in such a way in order to basically eliminate consequence in all but a few instances, i'm not saying they should do the same thing in the next game, all i'm saying is that these Choices don't have to wildly change the game, Bioware could put a new spin on things and make it so that one person could play through the consequences of the Destroy ending while another could do the COntrol ending, while both of them are essentially playing the same game

To simply change whether or not everyone's eyes had a green tint to differ between Destroy and Synthesis wouldn't be enough. If they were going make a direct sequel acting like these decisions mattered, they would have to be big changes because there are big differences. I don't want the Krogans and Quarians completely written out of the next story because they're potentially dieing off in other people's saves.

I'd like another Mass Effect game that feels tailored to our personal choices, but I just don't see it realistically happening directly after ME3. There's less restrictions and more potential in starting with a new story that's not already bogged down by years of player choices.