PSA: Play as emotional / casual Ryder, not logical / professional

I just mix it up as I feel fitting to the situation. Depending on who I talk to IRL, I might sound cold and unsympathetic, because some people are best approached that way, I think. 

I pick and choose depending on the situation.

Would it have been nice to have the giant douche lines from MET, sure. I don't mind the new system though because I get to pick a lot of lines and ways of doing things I would actually do if I was there in person.

My emotional Sara had some good lines on that rescue Angara chick main mission on the ice world

90% of the time when I try casual I get bottom tier GotG fan-fiction level of writing. It is often so silly it undermines the entire premise of the game and turns the pathfinder mission into a joke. I'm all for humor and levity options in dialogue (LOVED sarcastic Hawke) but to me the casual options are almost never funny and almost always immersion breaking and cringe inducing.

Sorry for the rant, I'm just disappointed with much of Ryder's dialogue. It's like you hate PeeBee and suddenly realize you sound just like her. Maybe it works better as Sara, I've only tried Scott so far. Logical/Professional is a bit robotic but at least I can accept that an actual person in the pathfinder's shoes would say those things.

I really like a mix of logical and emotional. It isn't 50/50 for me though. I am 76% logical, 12% of the time emotional/casual each. Logical Sara really loves science and she has a heavy passion for reading, books, and scientific study. Emotional lines really only add to this and give her more compassion with squadmates. If you mix in some casual ones on missions she has a love of exploring which fits right into the science loving, bookworm I've envisioned her to be. When I was talking to a certain squaddie and he asks how eyeballs work I actually get to tell him exactly how they work. If you are heavily emotional or casual ryder you don't. This dialogue changes too "you have a good point". Anyways logical Sara is so me. I'm a biologist so science is important to me.

I am pretty sure that it is made this way so you can MIX dialogues and create a very personalized version of ryder. Mixing dialogues is really the best way to play imo.

I have been avoiding the emotional/casual responses like the plague playing Sara. I do not want to sound like a crying whiny little girl. If that means I end up sounding like a Vulcan, I'm ok with that. You're in a mind-blowingly bad situation. Being emotional isn't going to help me be a leader.

I like the casual because you get to sound sarcastic. It would be the response I would use the most. Yes, even to authority figures. I used to almost sound the same way when I was in the military, and the SGT was going out a stupid order.

((Minor spoiler for the first hour of the game))




One of the payoffs for dominant emotional I've found so far that I appreciated was later on Sara being able to show actual some damn grief / pain over what happened to her father... early on the reaction (even the emotional one) is so muted and out of place... I know what losing parents is like and most of my friends do as well, we've all had to support one another when a parent dies and it's a hard thing... Ryder's initial response is just alien (it fits ok if you went with the "we weren't close" line, but not otherwise)... thankfully, later in the game emotional Ryder has a genuinely human / pained moment that had me going "Finally! Thaaank you, this person is finally dealing with this shit in a believable manner!".

I get that a lot of people want to be commander Shepard, space jesus badass extraordinaire... but I've played that (and liked it, don't get me wrong)-- she / he was a tough grizzled veteran and no spring chicken (let's not forget shepard was in her / his mid 30s by the end of the trilogy)... But Ryder is just a "kid".. little to no experience at 22 yrs of age (and anyone who is 22 and thinks they know anything.. don't)... They haven't had the time or events in their life to really warrant being some (believable) badass tough individual that chews glass and gives icey glares that make people wimper in fear or demand respect. Sara / Scott Ryder is barely little more than Jenkins from ME1.. a redshirt... a so-so soldier working in a civilian research project, ending up in an impossibly difficult position due to a twist of fate.

They have no experience, no appreciable life history to warrant being a believably confident strong leader. Real humans experience doubt, have cracks in their emotional armor that they either mask or wear on their sleeve... so when given the ability to show doubt, confusion, nervousness I find it genuinely refreshing because 99.9% of video games have you playing as Superman / Superwoman.. absurdly confident, all but flawless, respected, feared if not worshipped... it's old... here I can play a human I actually can relate to and believe, it is refreshing and watching the character grow from nervous & unsure into an actual leader is truly appreciated.

Rather than shepard where right from the start of the title screen you're established basically as a badass super hero before you even even touch the controls of the game.. which was fine, since it was established through Shepard's history... but it's nice to actually experience where you can see your character growing into the leader she / he needs to be.. rather than just 'ok, you're a badass hero.. go hero it up".

Public Service Announcement.

It's an olds thing. =)

emotional and casual lol?

He talks and sounds like whiny 15 year old no thank you, logical and professional actually sounds like an adult with a military past that's now a leader of a crew.

I honestly wish i could throw Liam and Peebee out the airlock

And gil as well and suvi too while im at it.

LOL, that's what I'm doing. So far my Ryder is a sarcastic know-it-all. When I asked Jaal about Angaran physiology, he asked how my eyeballs worked, and my Ryder preceded to say something like, "The lens focuses light through the vitreous humor, a clear gel-like substance that fills the back of the eye and supports the retina. The retina receives the image that the cornea focuses through the eye's internal lens and transforms this image into electrical impulses that are carried by the optic nerve to the brain." Jaal was not impressed. Anyway, totally different response than I've seen on YouTue. Nice touch.