I want to say Vetra had me at , but I knew I'd choose her before release.
I've wanted a female turian romance since Nyreen, and Vetra was more than worth the wait. Hearing her voice the first time just made everyone else became a non-option. Totally understand you, Traynor. I also love tall women - as Sera says to a Qunari Inquisitor, woof. But to the core of the character - I loved her focus on getting things done, the overall sincerity of her romance, the vulnerability she expresses to Ryder, and how even her combat abilities/AI tied in with her need to help others. Turian “blushing” is also one of my favorite animations in gaming.
I’m annoyed they didn’t clear up physical compatibility questions for Turian/Human relations with a sex scene, but she’s still my favorite Mass Effect romance by far.
You'll only see it for a small portion of the final mission for some reason. Which is a shame, because wearing the civies we have in a port where almost everyone hates the Initiative is a terrible idea.
N7 is aesthetically my favorite. It looks as gorgeous and iconic as ever, but wearing it feels like stolen valor. So damn nice for biotics though.
Hyperguardian is a close second (minus the helm), but I don't really like the Andromeda Vanguard = Melee approach.
Those 2 sets feel the most like Mass Effect, protective hardsuits that look just right for the universe. Lower level Initiative and Pathfinder look nice too, but their stats are so lackluster. I wish crafting could let us decide the stats on pieces of armor.
Vetra, with Drack and Jaal as close seconds. It's apparently difficult for me to not love the turian/krogan squadmates, and I found Jaal's VA superb. I just wish I didn't dislike the Angaran visual design so much.
The rest of the squad was okay, I'm just glad they didn't bore me like some in the trilogy did. That's worse.
Lexi was my favorite of the non-combatant crew, and I hope to see more of her in the future.
Outside of the crew, probably Efra, Vorn, and the other Pathfinders.
I wouldn't really want the other pathfinders in my team, because having them following my orders would only reinforce the impression that we are THE pathfinder, while the others are, well, more a filler. I want less of that, not more. But having more interactions with them, including a few missions like the kett ship where they come with us, hell yes!
Now I'd love Sloane, but she might be dead so she's a sure no. Reyes would be cool if they give me the option to space the lying asshole. And Cassandra Verner, we need to finally have a Verner in our squad.
It would really be cool of the other pathfinder teams did big and amazing things too, that way you don't end up with Captain Kirk / Enterprise syndrome.
Originally in Star Trek Kirk and the Enterprise weren't supposed to be outliers, Starfleet was supposed to be full of Ships having big adventures...but we know how that turned out.
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Honestly, I wouldn't want any of the cool characters as permanent squad members, I like them where they are and doing their jobs. Leave Kandros in security, leave Sloan/Reyes running Kadara, leave Kesh duct taping the Nexus together. Now it would be cool do missions where they are temporary team members.
One of my biggest disappointments about the trilogy is we never got to see Garrus reach his full potential as a peer to Shepard after ME1, even his Shadow Broker dossier touches on this. Even though Wrex was my favorite squadmate and I missed using him, I liked that he was able to go on to bigger things.
There's a lot I like about MEA, but after two playthroughs, its biggest weakness is Ryder.
Firstly, their abilities never feel earned, because they have a superpowered AI in their head that does most of the work. They don’t need a class, because that AI lets them be all the classes. Beyond that, Ryder is gifted a state-of-the-art stealth ship because of it. They’re the rich kid who inherits everything when their parents die. And yet, Ryder is supposed to be a more relatable PC.
Secondly, I thought it was a good decision when they said they were removing Renegade and Paragon. I don’t really like alignment meters because they make it easy for players to start playing mindless Renegade/Paragon/Light Side/Dark Side. I figured it would add more nuance, but it hasn’t. Instead, we have 4 flavors of Paragon, and it’s nauseating. My Shepards often skewed more Paragon than Renegade, but I want to see Ryder stop being so damned naïve.
Finally, that is another issue with Ryder. They don’t really have a spine when dealing with some people. “Looting is wrong!” Really Ryder? Ignoring the hypocrisy when any RPG player character takes an issue with looters, that’s one of the worst player character moments I’ve ever seen, made worse by SAM’s “best not to agitate them further, Pathfinder.” And this was after a terrible, terrible, casual weather joke on Voeld. That’s when I reflected on it, that this isn’t really an isolated incident, especially on Kadara and Elaaden. When dealing with hostile characters, Ryder is rarely allowed to be outwardly confrontational with them – only passive aggressive.
The non-stakes of the main story and cutting the Claymore were damned close contenders though.
Movie night was emblematic of one of my main issues with Andromeda's story, after Ryder. Citadel was well received, but it seems BW made a knee-jerk reaction in thinking they should base the tone of Andromeda off it. I liked Citadel, but the reason many aspects landed well was because of its timing and previous games. Trying to replicate that same feeling without earning those moments made it come off as tone-deaf and hollow.
Mostly linear. I don't like how prevalent open world games are now, and in most cases the story suffers for it. Exploration became kind of a wash in MEA anyway, someone had already been there.
Maybe. I was fine with them removing it initially, until I began to view it as they only removed Renegade in favor of more flavors of Paragon. I've played 5 Shepards and 2 Ryders, and my Ryders don't feel anywhere near as varied as my Shepards do.
I don't like them, because I don't like classless systems. Characters with limitations are more fun to me, not masters of everything. After Citadel (and Omega for that one interrupt), I wanted to see more class recognition like those DLCs had. Seeing Shepard actually use biotics or engineering instead of aiming that shitty Avenger or Predator made the cutscene character feel more connected to the gameplay. But profiles aren't going anywhere as long as Ryder is the protagonist.
No, because their playability leaves their personality and powers too malleable and ill-suited for an NPC with major presence. Sara and Scott have some defined backstory, but they are not Bethany and Carver.
God help all of us if this game ever has PvP, can you imagine what the joys of class balancing would bring? It's a bloody nightmare in things where it was designed in from the ground up.
Yeah, and we really don't need to see biotic effect pvp becoming Benezia 2.0.
I've enjoyed SRs more in MEA than most of the trilogy, largely because of the longer range engagements than the smaller environments of 2/3. I think they're fine as is and would rather see other weapons brought up a bit. Even the Black Widow wanes a bit on Insanity with the bullet sponge health. If I expected any nerf to Infiltrator its more with the Bio-Converter/Life Support synergy, especially effective with the Isharay. Not a nerf I really want, just a feeling of "this is probably too good to be true."
And I agree the combat team seems to have things in hand, it's one aspect of the game I can't really find faults in. I'm hoping when the patch is actually here we'll have some good details on the actual changes.
Since I hadn't yet built a sniper Favorite, I wasn't aware of this synergy. I'd seen that BioCinverter augmentation and made that association; but I didn't realize that it also interacts with Life Support. That sounds too good, indeed, and not at all logical.
My first Ryder did some light flirting with Keri early on, she said didn't care about being on the side if Ryder got into a relationship. That Ryder also flirted with Peebee initially, turning down the casual option. Later I locked in Vetra, Peebee did her whole scene post loyalty mission, nothing seemed to conflict when I accepted. Later, Keri wants to meet for drinks after an interview, specifically mentioning she has someone watching out for "you-know-who" and there's no way to end the task without going back to her apartment. Now that Ryder is just hiding from her on the Tempest, should have known better than to flirt with an Asari.
Oh, wow. If you throw out too many flirts, you end up eventually being forced to cheat? That's icky. Good thing I either don't have my character flirt at all, or keep it restricted to a single target.
Yeah, that's why that task will forever remain unfinished on that file. I even tried to do the last interview without meeting her for drinks in hopes it would basically stand her up, but no such luck. Admittedly I was curious to see the romance conflicts they coded, otherwise I prefer to stay with focused flirting.
My first Ryder did some light flirting with Keri early on, she said didn't care about being on the side if Ryder got into a relationship. That Ryder also flirted with Peebee initially, turning down the casual option. Later I locked in Vetra, Peebee did her whole scene post loyalty mission, nothing seemed to conflict when I accepted. Later, Keri wants to meet for drinks after an interview, specifically mentioning she has someone watching out for "you-know-who" and there's no way to end the task without going back to her apartment. Now that Ryder is just hiding from her on the Tempest, should have known better than to flirt with an Asari.
I'm in a parallel situation.
I was flirting with Peebee and Keri just because the flirting dialogue is usually hilarious; I turned Peebee down, yet there's no option to turn Keri down (except to not finish the quest). The weird thing is that the flirting dialogue from Ryder to Keri early on acknowledges something about stopping if Ryder's situation changed.
Yeah, that's why I was surprised to hear that there was dialogue saying otherwise. I'm just going to avoid flirting with multiples in the future, and especially Keri. There's a lot of people with Tempest romances that have had duplicates sitting in Ryder on movie night though, so romance conflicts seem buggy generally.
I keep wondering if they're going to try to smack down Infiltrator, and it'll still persevere like it did in ME3MP. It'd help if they weren't being so damned vague with info in general. A lot of augmentations don't even have numerical values visible to players.
I haven't really used the SRs, yet, but I've read about their effectiveness. I'm not sure if I'd want them nerfed, other weapons slightly improved, or things just left as is. Enemies are a bit bullet-spongey on Insanity, but it's not too bad.
A huge part of the effectiveness of SRs is that their users are generally targeting the head with a huge damage number. Enemies should drop like flies, under these circumstances. Give the same exact rifle and encounter to someone who sucks at shooting, and see how good it is. They'd likely be better off with a Revenant or a similar bullet-hose.
The team that handled combat seems to have their stuff together, so I'm optimistic that these adjustments could be good. I wish someone were sharing real data with us (or just giving accurate descriptions in-game for the first time ever). It would make everything so much easier.
I've enjoyed SRs more in MEA than most of the trilogy, largely because of the longer range engagements than the smaller environments of 2/3. I think they're fine as is and would rather see other weapons brought up a bit. Even the Black Widow wanes a bit on Insanity with the bullet sponge health. If I expected any nerf to Infiltrator its more with the Bio-Converter/Life Support synergy, especially effective with the Isharay. Not a nerf I really want, just a feeling of "this is probably too good to be true."
And I agree the combat team seems to have things in hand, it's one aspect of the game I can't really find faults in. I'm hoping when the patch is actually here we'll have some good details on the actual changes.
The lack of detail on the balance changes is a little annoying. Going to have to go through all the descriptions again (assuming they are up to date).
Its even worse for abilities (combos) and items (projectile augments) that have no stats in the first place.
Yeah, I'm really curious what they are going to do. This can be literally ANYTHING. Might be some small changes to damage for 2-3 abilities OR they can completely change how profiles work (maybe add cooldown for profile switching instead of the abilities).
I keep wondering if they're going to try to smack down Infiltrator, and it'll still persevere like it did in ME3MP. It'd help if they weren't being so damned vague with info in general. A lot of augmentations don't even have numerical values visible to players.
I don't mind this at all. It's becoming quite ridiculous to be able to play a goddamn psychopath and everybody still kissing your ass. You know, like Renegade Shepard. That was ridiculous.
Renegade isn't as psychotic as people say it is. Maybe a pure Renegade, but mix it with Paragon and you have a perfectly grey character. I don't mind playing a goody-two-shoes at all, it was something I did in DA for a long time, but at least the choice to do something else was always there for people who wanted something to spice up their playthroughs. It doesn't even have to be "psycho" choices in MEA, just a little more aggressive and dominant.
Renegade varies so much. You can be threatening someone, making a pragmatic decision like shooting while some pyjak rants, or just randomly yell about how you won't be a puppet for the Asari. ME1 was probably the most psychotic renegade overall, but on the other hand you can choose to recruit Morinth so... I preferred mixing it up too, because some Paragon decisions are nauseatingly naive and make Shepard look like a moron.
Morrigan's my top romance from BW for sure, and probably my favorite part of DAI. To be honest I'm not sure where they'd go from here without Ryder. They wrote themselves into a corner with the ME3 endings for continuing the Milky Way, short of canonizing one of them. And their preferred ending is probably the least popular one. At least with Control/Destroy you could handwave them away with enough time. They can start expanding on Vetra with an actual sex scene.
Destroy is canon. I know people can make "their Shepard" however they like but the "character" of Shepard that Bioware created would only ever pick Destroy. He also lives in only that ending and that was deliberate on Bioware's part.
Yep Morrigan showing up and gushing over My Warden was the highlight on DAI and probably the only part of that game I actually liked.
I'd be the one "expanding" for a Vetra sex scene if ya know what I mean.
I agree it's the most in-character for Shepard regardless of alignment, and it's the most sequel friendly by far. At least Control could have the Reapers withdraw from the Milky Way. There's just no way they can continue with Synthesis, no matter how much they love it.
DAI is the only Bioware game I've played just once, and feel little urge to amend that.
...Thinking about their continuation, I'm sad we'll miss whatever Alec's reaction would be to Ryder sleeping with a turian.
Morda would be enjoyable, on some level. She is much more friendly and willing to work toward the Initiative's goals than the game conveyed. She truly believed in the fresh start in Andromeda, which is why she moved her entire clan. I considered her, momentarily; but then I recalled her joyful demeanor during the slaughter on the Nexus. The krogan deserve a seat at the table, but I'd not give her the seat at the table. Let her prove how cooperative and diplomatic she really wants to be, first.
Morda is a birch, just like Sloane. But both of them are the lovable kind. This position is an official olive branch to the krogan for the past, both the MW and the Andromeda stuff. It still feels like a lulz choice though, I think Kesh would be more suitable for the post.
I half-expected them to Arl Eamon Ryder as if they wanted their mabari to be their champion when they picked Morda.
To each their own, I found Tali meh usually. I never wanted to romance her because she always struck me as a little sister type. I think they will continue Ryder, unless longer term sales reflect a disappointment. If they don't use Ryder, I'm not after anything specific. I got my hope for a female turian romance after Nyreen's appearance in Omega. I hope they do continue Ryder, because I want to see them grow a bit more.
I'm curious to see where the Vetra romance will go, I think the only romance I wanted to see continue from Bioware was Morrigan in DAO. While I prefer what Mass Effect did with having the same PC and Squad in multiple games, I always enjoy first meetings and first romances more than expanding upon them. But Vetra is definitely one I'm looking forward to them expanding upon, I'm just not sure how.
Morrigan's my top romance from BW for sure, and probably my favorite part of DAI. To be honest I'm not sure where they'd go from here without Ryder. They wrote themselves into a corner with the ME3 endings for continuing the Milky Way, short of canonizing one of them. And their preferred ending is probably the least popular one. At least with Control/Destroy you could handwave them away with enough time. They can start expanding on Vetra with an actual sex scene.
ME1 is my personal favorite still (just not..combat). I love the Suicide Mission for what it is, but I hate that it hamstrung the squad composition in 3. Every ME2 squadmate that isn't Garrus or Tali got sidelined because they could all potentially be dead. It sucked assembling this new team, bonding with them, and losing everyone but Team Dextro. Even though I liked Vega more than I was expecting, I hated them bringing a new guy in the final act, and I was perfectly fine with disembodied EDI. Would have preferred to have Grunt, Miranda, or Jack back instead.
Vetra will be my canon romance for Andromeda though. I never settled on one for the trilogy because I was never huge into any of them. I liked ME1 Ashley a lot, but that changed quickly in ME3.
Ashley was meh in 1, in 3 I only tolerated her cuz she got hotter (shallow ). I'm still curious if they will continue with Ryder in MEA2, if so then yes Vetra will be my canon romance in this new trilogy or however many games there will be. However if they don't use Ryder, what romances would people most like to see?
To each their own, I found Tali meh usually. I never wanted to romance her because she always struck me as a little sister type. I think they will continue Ryder, unless longer term sales reflect a disappointment. If they don't use Ryder, I'm not after anything specific. I got my hope for a female turian romance after Nyreen's appearance in Omega. I hope they do continue Ryder, because I want to see them grow a bit more.