Opinions on the characters (Especially squadmates and Ryder) of ME:A, based on their own merits. Gre

Alright...

Kallo: he was ok... weird, but ok.
Suvi: i didn't like her voice (yeah, i can see the mob with pitchforks coming), meh material
Pewe: this is crack she was weird, she could act professional 1 sec then act like a spoiled brat the next, didn't like her, but she is my canon LI, cuz... reasons.
Drack: Badass
Lexi: good enough
Cora: 3.5/10 could use less asari comando talks.
Jaal: 6/10 not enough alien, but kind of a cool guy
Vetra: she was good, got the feeling that she was left with less character development than the others.
Liam: He was weird, he was supporting in the beginning and then a total idiot at the end. Best Loyalty mission tho'.
Gil the Grill: ugh... just ugh. too smug.
Broryder: like his VO, shame that he can't be more "renegade", but i liked the casual responses, kinda of reminds me of Hawke.
Sisryder: didn't like her VO or her deliver of the lines, same issue as her brother.


With all considered: this crew was Meh

it's just an opinion, dear reader.

I liked Drack, particularly when he laments about the challenges of being so long-lived, like having a lot of body parts replaced due to 1,300+ years of life as a warrior.  i think many humans would like to live as long as Asari or Krogan, but they don't understand how hard such a long life could be.  As we age, many of us are going to live with some form of pain (hopefully only mild to moderate), but imagine living for centuries with back, knee, neck or other physical issues.  Not to mention the emotional pain of losing friends and loved ones when you're only 200 and you have 800-1,000 more years of life left.

Cora was OK. Her constant Asari worship got tiring, though.  At least she came off as an adult, unlike Manic Pixie Girl PeeBee.

The rest of the squad mates are forgettable, IMO.

I did not hesitate to shoot her in the end, so, yes the moral conflict did not exist for me. Mainly I just did not like doing multiple tiny sidequests in this mission. If it were just "meet Kalinda", "fight over the artifact" and then do the volcanic mission I'd be fine. I also would have replaced the moral conflict with having an option to clandestinely kill Kalinda after you have arrested her AND you have the artifact. When she is defeated, and if nobody would know, even PeeBee, and it's not an impulsive decision, then it becomes an actual choice. Overall, I think my biggest problem with PeeBee is that I simply have a hard time believing she is a successful scientist. If the roles were reversed, and Kalinda was a serious scientist and PeeBee was spirited girlfriend/treasure hunter "assistant" of hers, I'd buy it, and be more interested in those two characters, and in someone who is not exactly nice on my team.

My two favorite characters outside of Ryder were Suvie and Kalo. They both felt far more well rounded than anyone else despite not having as much dialogue. Maybe that's the key? Less dialogue would force the writers to be more creative. I like that they made Liam a fuckup, but he needed to grow beyond that and he didn't.

Meh overall.

Ryder - meh. Too nice to be a leader (people walk out of his meetings without waiting to be dismissed!), but too special (because of SAM) to be an "everyman." Always feel a bit of fraud wearing the N7 armor. Though being able to have a "romance in every port" was all right if that's why people play MEA.


Liam - annoying jerk. Too optimistic ("If you take a chance for the right reason, it's supposed to work" lol wut?) - whyTF was he made a part of the pathfinder team? Also, he adopts a "holier than thou" attitude towards Vetra. Fuck Liam.
Peebee - "discount Liara" who develops into a decent character if you complete her (very long) quest tree. Problem is, if she's judged on her (annoying) first impression, few will want to (telling her to get off is the best interrupt in the game). Her romance is decent as well.
Vetra - Gave me flashbacks to the OT. One of the best written (and voiced) characters in MEA. Romance was awkward and oddly not endearing.
Cora - ASARI COMMANDO. Not much more to her than that. And her voice is flat and generally emotionless. (I had the same criticism of her VA in the original Witcher game). Too emotionally dependent on others (whether Alec Ryder or Serissa). WhyTF did Alec pick her as his #2? She's completely unsuited to be a leader, even a backup leader.
Drack - discount Wrex whose good banter with squad-mates can't make up for zero character progression. He just IS. He doesn't go anywhere. The krogan voice-acting in his loyalty mission is some of the worst I've heard.
Jaal - new-universe Garrus. Decent character with good struggles and complications, but lacks development. While we help Jaal solve his problems, he's still the same Jaal. We helped Garrus and got to see him grow from a pissed-off C-sec officer into someone who can fulfill his purpose (Dr. Heart mission). Taken further (over the course of OT), we get to see him blossom into a merc / military man who was feared in his own right. No progression (or promise of progression) like that for Jaal: Sure we defeat Aksul, and meet Jaal's mom, but Jaal absolutely should have taken the promotion and moved on. Perhaps in MEA2 we would have seen him in a more important role but not a squadmate, in much the same way that Wrex journied from disgruntled merc to clan-leader. Yes, MEA is one game, not three, but there's no promise of Jaal becoming anything more than he is (unless I missed something).

I thought they were good. But certainly not memorable like many other Bioware companions are. And I don't feel any sort of 'bond' with any of them, like I do with companions from other games. They just don't 'touch me' -so to speak- deep enough.

Me too, and that would suck.

Overall, I'm gonna go with good. Not quite up to par with the OT, but tremendously better than the rest of the bullshit AAA trash that gets pushed out there.

I feel like this poll is a bit limiting however, which I understand given the constraints of the board.
Let me go into some detail...

1. Vetra: Easily the best character in ME:A. She had the most interesting personality and backstory as well as the best romance. She wasn't quite as good as Tali, but I'll let that slide as it wouldn't be possible to beat best space waifu.

2. Jaal: Second best in ME:A. Takes my second spot for personality, backstory, and romance. He managed to be unique and present a cool, "outsider" perspective. He is no Garrus, but different and unique in a good way.

3. Drack: Third place for everyone's favorite krogan grandpa. Liked him more than Wrex or Grunt in the OT. Best krogan squaddy so far.

4. Peebee: She was a pretty good character in her own right. Better than Liara and not so forced onto the PC as Liara was. Her character and backstory were interesting and I found her likable. Plus, full frontal nudity romance scene  and a pretty good romance ark to boot.

5. Ryder: I felt I could relate to to Ryder far more than Shepard. Shepard was a badass powertrip fantasy whilst Ryder was someone actually relatable. Ryder reacted to things like I would and said things that I would as well. Ryder is the better protagonist due to the level of relatability.

6. Liam: I know everyone loves to hate on Liam and say that he is a shitty character, but he is not. Liam may be a fuckup, he may be naive, and he may be a dick to best space raptor waifu, but he is actually an overall good character. He actual had a personality to like or hate, unlike Jacob or Kaidan.

7. Cora: Resident weabloo. She is very annoying with the overbearing asari and biotic talk, but a decent character under the cringe. Still would take Miranda or Ashley over her.

I really hope to see more of Ryder and the crew, but I have a feeling that the amount of REEEEEEEEEEE ME:A's haters stirred up prolly 86'd that.

Good. Not Amazing, but no different from the other sets of companions. All games have some blander characters and some who are more interesting.

I voted "bad." Only one that I really liked was Pelessaria. She was distinctively different from others and definitely in a good way. Vetra and Cora both seemed interesting at first and especially Vetra's introduction was quite good, but both turned out to be somewhat shallow characters. Too much of their character arc revolved around one theme or character (Vetra's sister and Cora's history with the asari).

Drack was a fine krogan character and again I really liked his introduction. His banter with other companions was often hilarious. However his role in the story turned out to be somewhat boring. Maybe because I thought the krogan storyline was kind of convoluted, contradictory and weird. I really disliked it for the most part so that's probably why I didn't like Drack's story all that much either. Jaal was the same. Seemed like a cool character. I like his deep husky voice. I thought the Angaran were too human like in their behavior and their story wasn't exactly exciting either - partly due to lack of meaningful options (huge issue throughout this game) and different approaches to the situation with them.

Liam's attitude was really annoying to me even more so because you couldn't really get angry at him or tell him to leave after compromising the entire Initiative with his stupidity. Not especially great character, just there for the comic relief every now and again.

All those companions I really didn't care about any of them. They just rarely had anything interesting to say and quickly grew too bored to even want to talk to them. Pelessaria was the one bright light for me. Cora was actually pretty good too, once you got to know her better. Still not nearly as interesting as Miranda or Ashley though. 

Ryder was probably the worst part of Andromeda for me. Their background and personality seemed to be pretty much fixed and the dialogue "options" were 80% of the time just the same thing said in a different way. There was also the constant character defining autodialogue that really annoyed me. Ryder was probably honestly the single worst thing of MEA to me and really just ruined the game.

 Initial grades of the squad/crew, 1 - 10 (5 = average/C).

Jaal: 8
Drack: 9
Peebee: 7
Cora: 6
Liam: 4
Vetra: 6
---
Gil: 5
Lexi: 7
Kallo: 4
Suvi: 6

Averages out to 6.2 if my math is right. Seems right. 'Just an okay cast IMO.

Note: opinion of characters is subject to change through subsequent plays.