Adressing the 600 Pound Gorilla in the room

Bear in mind that ME3 was supposed to be their response to certain criticisms they learned from with ME2... and with those responses came like 50 new issues such as autodialogue "becuase Shepard was a static brick in ME2!" and lame side-quests because "It makes no sense for Shepard to be doing random tasks for people that doesn't relate to his mission" and that totally made it a better game, right?

I can already BioWare making ME:A and thinking "Hey, they really didn't like the lack of in-depth story in the side quests in DA:I. We need to make as many different stories as we can, let's start with a CSI-mission where you solve a random murder. Let's have another one where Pathfinder becomes a secret agent and let's have one where he starts a food-store with his dad". I feel like BioWare's had a history of addressing problems with half a solution and half a new problem.

One of the rare instances where:
1/2 + 1/2 =/= 1
Yep.
I am almost to the point of:

My concern here is that we'll find something completely new that hurts the quality of the game. If you've noticed, ever since DA2, there's usually been at least one major flaw in each game, that damaged the experience for a lot of people. With DA2 it was the reused maps. ME3 it was the ending, and DA:I it was the overabundance of meaningless filler. I have to wonder what it's gonna be with Andromeda.

The game will have flaws for sure, just like any game does. Whether it has major flaws remains to be seen. They've already talked about how side quests will feel more meaningful, and how main story won't be locked behind having to do side content. So any concerns about the game being flawed like Inquisition, should be remedied at this point. However the question is, will Bioware screw up in a different department? 

What if they take a KOTOR 1 approach to the sidequests? Those were fairly involved and helped along the main missions most times. OH WAIT! Maybe if they go with VTM: Bloodlines approach to quests. Those were quite devious and packed into a fairly small hub of places. Sometimes you dont have to go to wide open spaces to have interesting side missions.

The best side mission was this one:



This scared the crap out of me the first time I played it.

I suppose all I am saying is: Well thought out side missions over "grab X item 10/10 from X planet", then profit.

My dislike for DA:I has dialed back a little bit since I did my last full playthrough a couple of months ago with Trespasser DLC. I have a feeling that Andromeda could be disappointing around launch but surely it'll feel like a really good game once all DLC is out. ME3 also got a huge upgrade with what its DLC brought to the table. Vega didn't have a whole lot of memorable scenes in the vanilla game, so Leviathan gave him some room to shine and generally more squad banter and opportunities for conversation and Citadel DLC took that to 11. DA:I got a new zone with Jaws of Hakkon (which I didn't like, welp!), it had more dwarven story-content via The Descent and Trespasser gave it a more cinematic story-driven content and an ending that rounded the experience off in a more meaningful way. It didn't remove the god-awful fetch quests (which are only awful because they're not story-driven. They're actually fine from a gameplay POV) but it made up for it by remedying the drive to do optional stuff with taking on meaningful expansion content instead.

That said, I'm almost sure ME:A will be DA:I and a bit of ME1 and a bit of ME2 and a bit of ME3 and then overall better than DA:I. Imagine DA:I with guns. It's already a way less monotonous experience then because each encounter expects you to maneuver and be active instead of setting up your tank while you shoot magic spells in the safety position and then pause a little bit while you oversee the combat. When the gameplay mechanics are now built for traversal it makes much more sense that we're playing a somewhat open-world game and that we go from one objective on a planet to the next.

I'm just crossing my fingers that the critical path is at least 20% longer than it was in DA:I becuase that game's optional-critical ratio was fucking broken. Even (here we go) Witcher 3 had so much main-story stuff that you started to wonder if the amount of side-quests really was that staggering in comparison in the end.

As for approach to side-content, I think people should forget the KOTORs and the Mass Effect 1s. Those were made in a time when the writers were more end-all-be-all in the game-design hierarchy. They still matter a lot at BioWare but primarily they have to put a lot more trust into writing something that has to be executed by another department of the studio in the end. They communicate of course, but I saw an interview with Drew K saying that between ME1 and ME2 the writers lost a bit of control becuase the production got more professional and that he used to even program parts of his own quests which he didn't do anymore, and it's because the game-production is handled a little bit differently nowadays. If we're lucky we'll see more cinematic side-quests with unique objectives and intricately branching paths though, but I won't hold my breath.

Honestly they could have probably done with two more main story quests that were more or less fleshed out before Champions/ Abyss, one more before IYHSB, and probably a quest or two before Wicked Eyes. All this assumes of course that they did not relate and fix much of the side quest content to make it...while still optional...impactful on the main story.

I trudged through DA:I - I found the main conflict underwhelming. I thought the graphics and settings were great. Too many WoW-type fetch quests as others have said - didn't fit the other DA games I thought. In some ways, the story of DA2 was better than DA:I (though the recycling stuff was awful.)  

Something was missing from this game, especially obvious when compared to the greatness of Witcher 3. Engaging, interesting, unique quests all the way through.  Too bad DA:I came out around the same time - but Witcher 3 seemed to nail everything that DA:I did not.

From the Twitter reading from ME:A devs I've done, they have learned the lessons of the fetch quest problem from DA:I - at the minimum.  Quests just to add "quantity" to a game actually are a big minus for me (and I think others) - however quests that add 'quality' to the game are terrific.  I'd much rather have less quests that are QUALITY than more quests that are QUANTITY.

I'm hopeful for ME:A in this aspect - I'm just worried I won't care as much about the characters this time around than I did with Shep and the originals - and the stakes...

Sure there are plenty.  Such as A Towerful of Mice, A Princess in Distress, Family Matters, Ladies of the Wood and Of Dairy and Darkness.  All interesting, different, unique and compelling.

None are fetch quests - they have an interesting story to them, different outcomes and in general are more satisfying - that's what I'm saying.  They were beefy, with several steps as well.

600lbs is a big gorilla. just saying

I'd agree with most of this, but I think my biggest worry in terms of MEA becoming another DAI (and that's not even a very big worry) is that, as much as I really liked DAI, I had a sense of "what, that's it?" when I finished the game the first time prior to any DLC being released. And I REALLY, REALLY don't want that sense of a story going too fast like I did with DAI.

If you skip a majority of the side quests and just do everything necessary to get through the main story, it only takes you about a day... give or take... to fully finish the story. I want a main story that not only drags me in, but leaves me feeling satisfied when I finish the game, not cheated because it was so short. As someone else pointed out, a large majority of DAI was side quest content that had little to no impact on the overall storyline. There were next to no opportunities for RP during those sidequests, and it really felt more grindy like an Asian MMO with that large of an abundance.

Again, don't get me wrong. I do love DAI, and I love the overall story. Especially with the most recent and last DLC that was released for it. But I can't help but hope that BW listens to the fans and doesn't do a repeat with more sidequests than story content. OR makes a decent portion of sidequests relevant (or feel relevant) to the overall story.