DA fan gives ME:A a second chance (Text Based Let's Play)

Oh my goodness. That was so enjoyable. Except for the part where I got lost. The Mechs were harder than Calot.

Although there were a lot of excellent lines, the one that lingers is.

Ryder: "Hold me, Liam." As we're both getting air locked. Liam cracks up. And Cora tells us this isn't the time.

at the end, the game tells me I've earned Liam's loyalty. Which made me wonder what could possibly come up that would cause it to be tested.

Till next time. My cold and I are headed to bed.

I would say the asari sword is the best. It makes Ryder invincible when used. I used it for my insanity melee speedrun.

So, watching the Let's Play on youtube, I was very angry with Liam. Who the F would give our ship specs out to ANYONE and how would it help ANYONE to do so...Certainly not the initiative. We've already got the best ship in Andromeda (we outran the Kett through the scourge and only needed repairs) and the Angarans lost their best form of space travel to the Scourge/Kett and are all ooooo and ahhh over the Nexus and Tempest.

But the Dialogue choices right off the bat are thus.

(This is all on you-0-We'll fix this)

A childish me might say "This is all on you." But I'm play a pro/logic Ryder. I'd JUST got done telling a VI program that the PAthfinder works closely and relies on their excellent team. Also, it doesn't matter if it was a subordinate; leaders of an organization always suffer if their subordinates screw up. If Ryder doesn't fix this, Ryder will pay for Liam's fuck up. So, no. Not going to use THAT dialogue to yell at him.

Then as the mission is proceeding into madness, Ryder had the option of trying to remain optimistic and keep morale up or "whine" by saying "I'm not a fan of the plan." My Ryder is not a whiner and understands the power of morale.

I finally DO get mad/ let loose at Liam when he's lost his temper and punching shit. I understood the dialogue of "The principal is going to get mad if you dent the lockers", which I used, as mocking his naivete for thinking it would all work out and for losing his cool. I was calling him a child, and I meant it.

Although I loved the "shoot the terminal" moment on the LEt's play on youtube, I'm glad my Ryder didn't end up doing it, because that would have implied she'd lost enough patience just to shoot problems. which for my RP, wasn't professional and didn't represent her under pressure anyway.

By the time we're getting spaced out the airlock, you are again left with two options: Casual vs logical. At this point, they could die. This whole thing is absurd. And absurd + an actual fear for your life can make you joke. I don't think my Ryder has a lack of humor but the situation is completely bad and absurd, so I went with the casual. I also happened to know from the Let's Play that all the Logical would say is "I don't like this plan." or very near to that repitition. Excuse me? who would say that as their life was in danger? So yeah, Ryder cracked a joke as their life was in peril, but it the VA also had a tinge of mockingly asking for a real need. Romantically, I'd like to think I'd be held as I died. my Ryder was frightened. Cora held herself together more and didn't find any humor in the absurd, which made it all even more absurd.

Then after it's all said and done with, Liam rips himself his own hole, owning his mistakes, saying how he'll be better, and apologizing. That's more lines than my Ryder was going to get and summed up all she was going to say. She was just glad the whole thing was over with, and at the end of it, she'd covered up her subordinate's failure, not destroyed the appearance of what a Pathfinder represented to the public, and took out some raiders that were already preying on "her people."

Rather than, probably inffectually, warning him to watch his steps... that line just feels redundant. its done. Let's move on from it. So, Ryder picked Casual and said they'd done good.

I did linger over keeping that Angaran woman under watch until the specs were stripped from her though. I should have picked that... but then I wondered over the implications of imprisoning an Angaran while I was just saying hi to the Angaran Delegates the day before...the fact that she'd been rescued and was deeply grateful... My Ryder and I took a chance on the "goodness" of people. Ryder isn't a Commander, she's a Pathfinder. They'd approach people different ways. A commander can't take risks with individuals and have to focus on numbers and the benefit of the many. A pathfinder has that luxury.

But yeah, Liam needs to be more closely watched...hopefully now that I have his loyalty, he'll come to Ryder first rather than LAST.

At this point, the three characters I've most spent time with are Jaal, Liam, and Cora with a splash of Vetra, and a drop of Peebee and Drack.

The sad thing about Jaal is that even though he has content- I mean, he is essentially Solas. I dragged Solas everywhere my first DAI game because he was my Elven Pass Card to elven lore and magical things and I was playing a human. I'm dragging Jaal everywhere, so now I'm getting all the angaran content available. His content is, "I am an Angaran representative." more than an actual person. He has this grand "surviving under an occupation, a good portion of my family is dead, resistance fighter history" yet he sums it up in a few sentences like it's boring. And this representation comes from a self proclaimed emotional species. Well, if they're culturally pre disposed to be emotional, they're also apparently culturally predisposed to be private as fuck, because you're never going to hear it out of his mouth. Well, he'll certainly share his thoughts on how he finds you and your actions wanting.... He knows everybody (random NPCs saying hi to him all the time) yet he doesn't appear to have any close ties. Except with the Moshae, whom he sees as a wise mother type- but then he's scripted to be willing to sacrifice her for the faceless angarans in the Exaltation chamber. So even this protrayal is contradictory.

Two women on Aya are gossiping about his love life, with one adding that both he and the curator are oblivious to flirtation. I like this because it makes him more like a person who had unrequited crushes and less a "Stand in Resistance Angaran Freedom Fighter" symbol. It's humanizing him. But then it becomes glaringly obvious these two gossiping angaran women don't know him at all. He flirts with ALL the females (wasn't he supposed to be bisexual?). He's dropping compliments about their bodies and personalities like rain drops on Havarl. Which also is a bit hard to believe unless you're going with "healthy male wants to bang alien chicks" trope, because humans/asari/turians look nothing like an Angaran and it should have come up that he finds their appearance strange first, attractive second. What is it called, demi sexual? When you're attracted to people you admire/care about? is the only thing to explain this, I guess. But he never mentions he has that sort of sexuality, or that it's normal culturally for his people to be so.

The only thing I found particularly interesting is also pretty subtle. You ask him about his dreams/career goals and he essentially says he that he received no education (which is contradicted by his being the student of moshae, but lets ignore that a moment.) That due to the occupation, school has essentially become scattered and indefinitely post poned. That he's remarkably intelligent is supported by his consumption of Kallo's manuals on the ship? and that he's reading milky way history in his own down time. He adds that he has no dreams or aspirations, blaming it on the occupation. At first, I scoffed at this. You can have dreams in spite of war- look at the young Curator. But then I checked myself (I have no idea what it's like to be under an 80 year Occupation) and gave it a second thought. It's rather sad. He doesn't feel a sense of loss from not having aspirations, as war's dominant focus in the Angaran's life and culture. he sees nothing wrong with having no goals outside of surviving the Kett. And as a Highly Industrialized Milky Way Ex Resident who got to run after their (probably low paying) passion due to opportunities given by the society and high earning parents.... I should really understand the full sadness that is... THAT. you know?

Anyway. Jaal is complex. His romance his awkward and, so far, poorly done. But there are gems in his confused protrayal to be found and that's where I am on him.

Good char summaries. You need to spend more time with Drack though. Grandpa krogan is awesome.  One thing on Cora - she was in the Alliance before shipping off to be a commando and definitely has abandonment issues, like, times 3. 

PS - you don't want Jaal and Vetra together either - they will eventually talk about Peebee.

Hopes for the Party Companions at the end of the game:

Jaal: That fighting off the Kett in a final epic battle, he decides to have a "dream" of being something other than a resistance fighter.

Cora: It's kinda obvious that she's going to decide the Pathfinder team is her family. So, I guess I'll hope for something harder. That she'll let go of her Asari obsession by association of being accepted. And that she'll stop undermining Ryder in her comments.

Liam: Hanging out with the Protag, he's probably not going to be hit hard with how life is not a Movie. But I hope he grows up a bit, and finds something he's passionate about. Because he comes off as somewhat listless and out of sorts. IT'd be really cool if his new passion took him AWAY from fighting. And I hope he ends up with Verand, romantically.

PB: That she'll keep the good aventurous spirit while dropping all of her ridiculous aspects. I don't want her to be Liara either but... her outlandish behavior comes across as trying too hard. I hope she becomes more comfortable in her own skin.

Drack: Seems pretty happy with himself. But I'm disappointed that the Genophage thing I went out of my way to fix as Shepard got ret conned (in a way) so I'd like to see the Krogan flourish in this new galaxy and be respected for what they bring to the table.

Vetra: I hope she finds a life outside of raising Sid. It's time to have one.

When it comes to the non party companions, I really only have one person I have hopes about. and that's Kallo. He's WAY more emotional than Jaal, and I would love him to...let go of the past a bit more and embrace the present. HE obviously has some attachment issues, considering he gave up a life in the milky way to follow a ship. Gil sees the ship as a tool, but Kallo is like... in love with the Tempest. It's a mental presence. I'm surprised he ever leaves the Tempest, to be honest. I'm curious where he goes on the Nexus. I kinda think he doesn't expect to outlive settling into the Milky Way. Like, he's going to die flying the Tempest and can't even fanthom leaving her.

I plan to hang out with Drack more the next planet that requires lots of driving; probably give Jaal a bit of a break and pair Drack with Vetra, since they seem to be friends. (egads, biotic free. My shotgun will have to work harder) And maybe finish up some quests on Voeld with that Duo. Voeld is a planet which is the most narratively interesting planet thus far that isn't 100% Initiative focused. When it comes to PB, I feel like I'm a bad person for not dragging her to every vault but she's so...not my favorite character. Does she pair well with anyone?

I must have forgotten about Cora being Alliance but now that you mention it-- wasn't she kicked out? for like, starting a fight or something? all the more reason to devote herself to the Asari Huntress-ness.

Thanks for the tip. Honestly, I just don't know about Jaal. I want to be swept off my feet, not back handedly woo'd by an alien.

It annoyed me, too. Shepard dealt with all that political BS, and Mordin lost his life to cure the genophage, but in MEA the krogan DNA just randomly fixes itself?   

It was one of the major disappointments of the trial when I learned that back in March. My Shepard was one of sacrifice and I'd bawled when Mordin died.

Only to have it be a "problem" once more in Andromeda. And I'm like.... fuck you, Bioware.

They've only marginalyn improved their birthrate. I wouldn't call it a cure.

I understand all that. It doesn't ignore canon, never claimed that.

But I remember the first time I tried to play ME1 and the ONLY thing that I really remember was finding it so horrifying what the Salarians did to the Krogan and how it'd "be nice" if we could fix that. Then we actually GOT to fix it. There was a COST to fixing it, though, in the form of Mordin's life. 

The emotional frustration of coming to a new Galaxy and seeing all my work, effort, loss... ignored and undone. It was a bit of an emotional blow considering Iw as doing MEA's trial right after I'd finished the ME2/ME3. Even if it does make sense.