The Pyjack's Den! The ME News Discussion Thread

Maybe. After all they were also on the first teaser and then on the geth poster.

Hence why I mention codex or log entry - you can't have a visual representation of Shepard unless they have a helmet on. I do want some reference being made to Shepard myself but with the apparent time jump it has to be some kind of refe4rence to history. A statue maybe. Or a side quest involving a grandgrandgrandgrand child of Conrad Verner being a huge fan of The Shepard. Something that would be fun and make you feel warm and fuzzy. 

Yes, that's what I actually meant. Maybe the Shepard VI too available in a store somewhere. 

Sorry but that's not true. Bioware (and other RPGs in more recent years) have shown some level of comfort with multiple character creators. You could literally just have a sequence where you contract Shepard's appearance, whether at the start of the game or at an appropriate point mid-game. Yes, you can do it, at least as long as the creator is designed to inclusively accommodate Shepard-like appearances.

It really wouldn't be remotely impossible to include Shepard, logistically. Hire Meer and Hale (still working voice actors), include their looks and animations (the 'feel') in the design process, and have the writing include Shepard in the plot. Even though I'd demand against something so hamfisted, they could even just canonize Destroy, freeze Shepard's body, and Laz Project 2.0 it decades/centuries later. Yes that would be dumb and please please don't do it Bioware, but they *could*.

Small reminder, Dreadwolf did voice acting years ago. All the while Ali Hillis is in the dark with NME, even as we know Liara will be in NME in some role.

Once again this is a proof that Dreadwolf has no normal development and it was meant to be released in 2019/2020 originally before the reboot. So yes, Jeff's 2029 NME release comments are absurd assumptions.

Yes, it's possible in terms of the technology - the Shepard VI in ME3 has your custom character's appearance. What I mean is apart from appearance and gender, a Shep character cameo would have to be really limited in order not to invalidate people's different choices  (too much). Unless they canonize heavily, in which case the VI could have more dialogue. Hey, maybe we could have a VI game casino like in the Citadel DLC and you could play with The Shepard on your team.  

I regard Shepard themselves to be a much more limited character than others think.

Two (three?) main paths, a bit of variance by the end of the trilogy, and a noting of certain choices made. Shepard has never gotten into their personal philosophies on anything past a sentence or two. Shepard has never gotten deep into their relationships with others beyond a scene or three.

I don't regard them to be some blank cardboard, but I also think Shepard's easier to reflect in a return (NOT saying it WILL or MUST or SHOULD happen) then say, Hawke. Hawke would at least get deeper into their own motivations, and had three tonal options that gradually flavored some default dialogue, making their DAI appearance potentially jarring. And they still showed up. Shepard can *relatively* be whatever. Not saying it would be great, but that it'd be much more possible than I think many (really its more common in fan spaces; any casuals I know DGAF) believe. *IMO.*

I'm not going off some players' wishes (like certain Cerberus fans here, or very specific Canonizers, etc), but how the games actually depict the character and the guardrails they've already put up for that. Shepard was made a soldier grunt dude(marketing default) for a reason - whatever they care about doesn't necessarily need to matter, and they also don't need to more visibly emote at any point. They are down to business, and we just get some choices that are on the relatively benevolent side, or relatively ruthless side. This did expand into Shepard having more distinct beliefs, but again, the focus was always on the action, not deliberation. Compared to a hell of a lot of choice based RPGs.

I don't know how they'd deal with ME3 endings. But I do believe that Rannoch and Krogan related choices wouldn't need to matter almost at all, depending on the nature of Shepard's return. Do we expect to get into convos about Quarians, Geth, and Krogan? Do we need to for the plot at hand? Maybe, maybe not. Writers can do a lot. They might not do it the best, but they can do a lot. I often think people expect too much that a returning protagonist is almost as if they're a constant major companion that we regularly recap previous games with like they're a walking codex of all past choices.

On one hand, I could absolutely see the 2029 release date as plausible. It's been almost ten years since Dragon Age Inquisition, and five years since they announced Dreadwolf. Based on how Bioware has mishandled previous titles, I could completely see that as a legitimate possibility, but I still heavily doubt the next Mass Effect is that far away. Dreadwolf's biggest issue is the number of times the project has been rebooted, but I know for a fact that the next Mass Effect has been in the works since in some form or another 2019 at the earliest. If it hasn't been rebooted at all, there's a decent chance that it could be farther along than this "report" seems to indicate.

This reddit thread raises an interesting point on Mass Effect writing.

So we know of only two people working on ME narrative, neither of whom worked on previous BioWare titles.

Michael Tucker didn't even work on any previous game before, however he is deeply knowledgeable about writing and it's what landed him a hire in BioWare.

Mary DeMarle worked on Deus Ex HR and MD, as well Guardians of the Galaxy, games that are similar to Mass Effect.
Brianne Battye and Sheryl Chee could be potentially moved from DA team to ME team at later date, they have worked on ME in past. But Patrick Weekes is not happening, he is head writer of Dreadwolf. He'd need to be demoted to work on NME.

I keep forgetting they are enby/gender fluid for some reason.