Is the Citadel DLC the culprit?

I don't get how people don't see the light tone of MEA being a result of Citadel's success. Whether you like that tone or not is of course anyone's own business, but the similarity of some of the stuff in MEA with Citadel is striking. I mean, look at the loyalty missions in MEA: tonally exactly like Citadel, yet out of place while you are still in the middle of a serious main plot with everything at stake. That's why I play them - with the exception of the Asari Ark - after the main arc nowadays. At that point a goofy adventure like Liam's can be fun. Almost feels like DLC.

Citadel worked so well as the last piece of the trilogy, because it made fun about everything you experienced over three games, while jokes about killing exiles "that don't even try" when you encounter them first are not really my humor.

I have lots of fun with MEA, but the tone being too light is one criticism that I'm fully behind. I hope another ME will be more serious again. A question of taste of course, but in comparison to the trilogy I'm not surprised that this gets mentioned a lot.

It has it's moments.

1. Liam's loyalty mission.
2. Peebee's loyalty mission.
3. The Acheron being a total ham. 
4. Liam's constant jokes.
5. Ryder's "funny" autodialogue. 
6. FRyder's embarrassing first flirt with Suvi.
7. Jaal's cringey love letter to MRyder or FRyder. 
8. Liam's shirtless scene with Jaal. 
9. Almost every time Ryder tries to be a badass. 
10-100. All the hilarious technical glitches that seriously make MEA one of the funniest games of this year. 

Well, I guess, I always wanted to, because I enjoyed it a great deal Particularly since I've just played Inquisition before it, heh. I don't see why all Mass Effect games have to be the same, particularly since we did swap the protagonist and the Galaxy.

Andromeda isn't really like Firefly.

First it should be pointed out that Whedon originally wrote Mal Reynolds as a tortured soul, but FOX forced him to make it more light hearted. The difference between the tone in the pilot (which was never aired on TV) and episode 2 is mind boggling. While Whedon did make the series more light hearted, there was always a serious and darker tone permeating through the whole series. The humor cut through the seriousness without ever really overtaking the show. There were still wonderful worlds and beautiful cultures in Firefly (contrasting with Andromeda that felt empty) but most importantly some really emotional moments that are absent in Andromeda. For example, were there any quotes in Andromeda as poignant as

Lol, he was a pretty big arsehole in the pilot. Quite bitter. More than a bit of a bastard. Ryder would never do something like that.

Fillion described the original Reynolds as a "tortured soul" and Whedon said Reynolds was going to be "everything that a hero is not." That would have been an interesting character to play. Instead we got Ryder who's just ... unprofessional would be the nicest thing you could say.

Another thing that made Firefly successful was the tension. There's tension everywhere on the ship, nowhere near as much as originally, but there's tension between Reynolds and the Priest, the consort, Jayne, Simon. Andromeda had no tension anywhere, everybody was buddy buddy. Mal isn't really "buddy buddy".

Mine would.

I agree with colfoley The way I was playing my male Ryder, Casual-Emotional with all darker solutions, he had some resemblance to Darker Mal, and certainly did take a number of shots that reminded me of Mal ("everyone making so much fuss" for example when shooting Akksul with everyone going "Oh! Ah! The Angara's public opinion, Ryder! Think of that!!! He wants you to make him a martyr!"). His dealings with Reyes reminded me the party episode and his endless game with Inara...

The key word though is that it reminds me, not copies Firefly. I love both the show and the game, and I find neither inappropriate.

I did play my first Ryder as Professional-Logical female, all good quest resolution, and there was a notable difference.

Damn I forget if Robert shot Aksuul or not.  I am not entirely sure actually .  I mean he tends to do the more bad arse thing so he probably did it not because he was worried about Jaal but because Aksuul was an annoyance too dangerous to be kept alive...you know I actually think he did because I was worried that would make Jaal permanently mad at him...wait maybe he didn't after all *sigh* I HATE MY MEMORY....

But to the larger point Robert was a casual-professional type, some logical thrown in there for good measure.  So he came off as really a pragmatic bully smartass.

I'll admit to some confusion Iakus, what exactly is your point? I thought most Andromeda critics (you yourself included) argued that Andromeda was too lighthearted and you couldn't play a super serious character? Yet both Kirk of ST VI fame and Mal Reynolds, were super serious, sometimes dark and derranged figures.

Ah now I get where you are coming from.  And granted maybe from a personal standpoint they did swing the pendulum too far the other way but Andromeda did have its serious moments that Ryder could play seriously.  Again, general advice, don't pick the casual or emotional dialogue options.  The scene with Aksuul is definitley a special call out for this.  But then the assault on Meridian, the evacuation from the Archon's ship, and a few others. 

or kick them into an engine turbine.