What type of unit did Cora serve in, again?

MEA varried between two and four dialogue options per wheel for the same reason that ME2 inconsistently ranged between two to five options per dialogue wheel- because you don't want to use all possible options on the dialogue wheel for all conversation points, because word count makes quantity and 'quality' a zero-sum trade off. The word budget is fixed- there must be a decision of when to spread words out for length (providing a general arc) or duplication of resources (providing for role-playing).

Which, again, comes down to 'what will you remove to offer more dialogue options.' That's not something you can wave off by saying Bioware is afraid- you have to make a judgement/recommendation of what, specifically, will be cut.


You've raised a specific issue- the number of dialogue options. There's a specific way to improve that when faced with a zero-sum context of a word budget. What, specifically, gets cut that matches and allows those redundant narrative paths?

Have we seen an Asari commando unit doing anything other than getting completely obliterated yet?

"Weather here is crap. We used to have much better weather on Thesia...I was on Thesia because I was serving as an asari commando at the time."

"My day was great. It reminded me of this one time in Asari band camp..."

In the MEA universe, the movie series is called Asari Pie.  And the pie is - wait for it - blueberry.

It's almost as bad as Miranda mentioning how she is perfect and has daddy issues in every conversation.

Or how Thane mentions in every convo that he is dying and has a son.

Oh right, the companions from the past trilogy are exempt from criticism. Boo andromeda!

Cora has her entire arc of coming to terms with the fact that she was not made pathfinder. She also has issues with hero worship and figuring out that she is not a leader.

She also has plenty of banter with other characters and situations that reveal more anout her.

Cora's character would have worked better if she was an actual asari. Sometimes I wonder if that was the case early in development but that seems unlikely.

Hero worship...of asari

banter ...about asari

What you point out goes beyond a writing problem, its also a conversation mecanisms problem to me. its like they didnt figure out meaningful conversation trees and dumped all info together. Makes it highly repetitive and kills the feeling of a 'bonding arc' with the characters.

How about using the actual system (professional/casual/emotional/thinker) to get to know specific sides of characters? Thhat would have helped. Like if you go casual with Cora, she'd chew you about not being the leader she would have wanted and eventually would put her guard down and enjoy herself in the adventure. If you go proessionnal with her, she's ok with you much quicker but you never get her sending you poems and talking about growing a garden comes way later or only if you switch to emotional with her. Emotional for the poetry and flowers but also having her be a 'big sister' to Ryder (like the side she shows when helping the younger asari on the Asari Ark). If you go with the thinker/scientific approach, then you get to talk shop and discuss her biotics and Huntresses.

I could figure out something for Liam just as well:
professionnel: chew him about being too casual about the job.. he doesnt like you too much at first but after he makes his big mistakes, he comes around and realizes why youre a stickler sometimes.
casual: you 2 get along from the get go and bro it up,  and you get that drink on the citadel on the dirty coach much earlier then professionnal Ryder (before his LM as it is right now)
emotional: mistakes are made for learning, Ryder is understanding of the hotheadness, the team is a family
thinker/scientifc approach: Lets hear about HUSTL and tactical teamwork

I could go on...

But honestly, I fear Bioware is just to afraid to make choices right now and offer strong narrative threads because it would 'force the player' out of being able to access everything at ounce. So they kinda put your soup, meal and dessert all in the same plate and be like 'you get everything right now! thats freedom for you!'. Suprise, it doesnt taste so great.

After what I saw at  3:20 the last thing I would call Asari are a joke.

And at 4:10 - 4:22 she turns back into the joke.
She is 'all-powerful' but not smart enough to avoid the trap and not powerful enough to break out.

Nope. Still a fucking joke. The blue tentacle head has to use all that power when all Shep has to do is run and gun it to complete any mission in game. BW goes to all this trouble to try and prove that Asari are some master race, but they all die like dogs just like the rest before the mighty Shepard. Fuck'em.