If you could remove a plot element/character from MEA what would it be, and what would you replace i

I don't see how we unring the AI bell in the MEU.  It's part of the setting.

Open world design

Replace everything with a fix for ME3's ending.

Eh, I don't want to start Ending discussion, but Synthesis' catch is that it happens to everyone simultaneously. The technology and organic-AI hybrids were there for a while, see Zha'til, Saren, Project Overlord and Collectors for reference.

oh stawp

* Kaetus: He's unnecessary. He turns a great character in Sloane Kelly into an unimaginative Aria redux. Aside from that, Sloane's relationship with him is toxic. Should have kept Irida from Uprising. She would have created palpable conflict within the Outcasts and been a better friendemy for Sloane than Reyes. As far as an LI for her, keep her single and add her as a fling option or give her to Addison. She straight up says she left no one/nothing behind in the Milky Way. She would have changed so drastically after the issues with the Nexus that it makes little sense that an old romantic relationship would be relevant.

I find Addison to be a better potential LI for her in that these two characters have a Jack/Miranda dynamic: They strive to improve each other, and challenge each other in an amusingly healthy way. Plus having the Director of Colonial Affairs have an ongoing affair with the leader of the Outcasts (and vice versa) would be some soap opera fun.

If Sloane dies, it creates an element of tragedy for Addison which would further cement her as a jaded, brokenhearted anti-hero and add empathy for her abrasiveness.

* The Archon: As an adversary...snooze. I preferred the Initiative/Angara infighting to this guy. I also agree that the Kett are really bland.

Spender and the Roekarr were better adversaries. OR Vehn Terev should have been kept alive. Angara soldier willfully turning over his own kind to the Kett? It would have been far more cathartic to go after this guy. Especially if he were made into a Kai Leng.

* Sergeant Talini: She figured prominently in Nexus Uprising. Where is she in the game? I liked her. I would rather have her on the Tempest than Liam.

* Hakim Barakat: Keri's producer. I personally think that his presence is just to create a random NPC eyesore behind Ryder or Keri during the Path of a hero cut scenes, or push Ryder out of the way through forced character pathing after Keri's interview is over. She admits she does her own editing, and isn't the thing on her shoulder her camera? Why is he there?

He gives -a- quest that could have been handled through oh uh Keri sending Ryder a panicked letter, Kandros, Davis, or have someone on the Tempest like Cora or Vetra say, "You need to check on Keri."

Every dialogue option you picked felt like they said the same exact thing, just with a different tone of voice. Different tone =/= personality

I'd prefer less VA (none for the avatar, ideally) and more dialogue options; more melee combo attacks (currently there are 3 - stab, running stab, jumping attack; neither can be linked into a combo).

I guess, open-world and collectibles are an important part of the "exploration" story line, so it'd unreasonable to remove them.

Actually, the reapers being the metal-and-science manifestation of Lovecraftian monsters is what made them a fresher than they otherwise would have been and certainly moreso than the Kett. As far as yet another borg ripoff being better than that, I guess it comes down to personal taste, although given how many Borg ripoffs there have been in SF across games, films, etc.  I don't see how.

I would remove the Kett and have the Scourge as the enemy. Some type of biological life form that slowly takes over systems - you could even have it having hallucinatory effects to drive people mad.
The vaults / remnant could have been a lost species attempt to fight back. And failing.

I just found the Kett to be rather bleh. The lack of variation in character models didn't help, nor did the fact that they were rarely a threat.

Removing a plot or a character won't help, it just adds more emptiness to the game which was already quite silent from time to time.

I would only add things:

- More options to make the planets liveable. Real science, and seeing the cities and villages to expand and have more visitors, new technology, changes.
- A real crew to our ship.
- Longer lifespan for my daddy-o.
- Brother/sissy as a squadmate
- Discussion about the revelations of the Reapers and the possibility of destruction of your homeworld, GODDAMNIT WTH.
- The missing Arks
- The Jien Garson story (honestly, this game didn't reward my searching, this mystery was actually one of the most interesting ones)
- A real ending with the revelations of origin of the Scourge and was it Jaarlan?
- MORE MUSIC.
- Right movements to the eyes of Salarians
- More muscle to Turians and better shading to their skulls

Okay, I would remove one thing:
- No shuttle travel between the systems. It is impossible.