Mac Walters answers 101 questions about Mass Effect Andromeda

One of contractors building the Hyperion mistook a cryopod for a regular sleeping bunk...

(Seriously Cole, didn't you learn not to sleep on the job during the attack on Eden Prime?)

I disagree about Javik being put in as DLC because of being initially unfinished. Javik felt like a cash grab. I'm not one to generally say that, but he really did. He was intricately woven throughout the plot. 

I could say the same thing about James and Garrus. He had content written for nearly every mission in the game. (He was fully integrated into everything post-Palaven.) It was clear that he was ready by launch.

That sounds like my experience.  The first time I finished ME3 (in late May of 2014,) I didn't have Javik's DLC.  I really wasn't missing anything.  I picked it up and replayed ME3 with him in September of that year. I enjoy the flavor and perspective that Javik brings, but I didn't feel like the game was affected. Thessia is really the only place where I felt he added to the overall plot imho.

This shit, pisses me off!

No companion deaths.

No continuous story.

No continuous story basically = pointless loading saved games.

I'm still very skeptical of the game. Knowing that no squaddies can die took it down one more notch. The big worry I have after the trailer and all that, is that I can't figure out where the drama in the game is going to be. I know where it CAN be, which is the first contact with other species, if the villain is good or if there's interpersonal conflicts aboard the arcs or perhaps believable family drama for the twins and their dad or even their yet unknown mom... but the thing is that neither the trailer nor the other released content really hints at any dramatic hook for the narrative, so it's just hard to get excited for anything but the "impressive" visuals or the novelty of having new races and whatnot.

I'm not complaining -- I didn't know the dramatic hook for ME1 either until I played it, but it was very clear for ME2 and ME3 that Shepard's death or the Reaper war was going to stir up the pot in the plot (rhyme!) and with DA:I we at least knew there was this demonic rift and the goal was to close that (which happened before the plot even thickened lol).

Dramaturgy was the biggest issue with DA:I, partly because of it's open-world elements taking up so much of the game-design. I feel there's plenty of reason to be skeptical about Andromeda for the same reasons, when they haven't exactly shown us yet what it is we should be so excited for.

It's an overreaction. Zip had too much ryncol.

Mac said that MEA is a stand alone story, complete in its own right. They did not design it as part one of a trilogy, though sequels haven't been ruled out as a possibility. Basically, they are approaching this conservatively. You can't blame them, after ME3.

As to the "no companion deaths" thing, I think he just got blindsided by the question while being completely honest. I bet he wouldn't mind getting a do-over on that one. He did say that characters could die, just not squaddies.