What does Mass Effect Andromeda need to do well to succeed?

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There is only one sentence that answers your question.

Engage the player from start to finish.
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I see the move as the best opportunity for fans to recapture that initial sense of wonder they had with ME1 simply because it will ALL be new to all of us... just like it was when ME1 was first released.  If they stayed in the Milky way or kept the old characters, then there was a greater chance that it would just be a "run of the mill" sequel to an old franchise.  Since Minius asks the question in his video, my greatest worry is that there are fans who are just so adamant about "not going along with the change" that they are prematurely "tainting" the experience for themselves and for others.  They want to hold Bioware so tightly to the "old lore" and ending situation that they won't allow ME:A to succeed in freshly capturing their interest with a great new story and all new characters in a great new location.

It's going to take some leaps of faith for us to make the intergalactic "jump" to Andromeda... but IF we can let go of our "old lives" in the Milky Way, I do have faith that Bioware is quite capable of rewarding us with an extremely fun new game to play in the "Mass Effect" style.  Part of that initial sense of wonder in the ME Trilogy came from fan willingness to just go along with all the actual logical "impossibilities" imbedded in the initial lore.

Well they're going open world with it. I'm really enjoying many of the zones in DAI I have to say, which surprises me, but I don't want a huge open world game as it inevitably takes away from the missions. ME3 had really good side missions, Grissom Academy for example. Those are what DAI is sorely lacking so I hope ME:A does in fact have larger side missions and that they haven't been jettisoned in favour of 'exploration'.

In short, I want it to be a BioWare game, not a Bethesda game, with a strong storyline going all the way through it and a satisfying conclusion. DAI's ending is pathetic but is fixed with Trespasser. It should not take a DLC to get the ending of the game right, let's hope they don't do that again.

Also I hope combat is very similar to the trilogy and plays well on PC, and I already expect the characters to be great cause they always are.

And if we can not have any pre-order, micro transaction, DRM, 'this DLC only lasts one play through' bullshit that'll go a long way too.

I don't know about that. ME2 had an incredibly goofy beginning, but yet it's my favorite game.

I'm still pessimistic about MEA though. The whole thing feels unnecessary and uninspired. A cashgrab. But I have a tiny bit of open mindedness left to change my mind.

Is the general answer of "not suck" too nebulous?

Honestly, I don't think it will succeed because too many people want it to fail...but I do think it needs to really stand out as a game and an RPG in order to be noticed. It should feel like Mass Effect, but be fresh at the same time.

Thats incredibly hard to pull off, but I hope it does succeed.

A thorough and well-developed explanation for how the hell they are even able to go there in the first place.

Above all else, I think the original trilogy is beloved for its characters and settings. The overarching plot is nothing particularly special (Ancient evil threat - band together - defeat evil threat - let's all go home and have pie), but the relationships and worlds we got to experience along the way were an absolute treat and why after so many years I continue to discuss and play the games.

Andromeda's very concept throws this completely out of the window with new characters, new settings, new races etc. A completely fresh start, yet still "Mass Effect" in name and still carrying the expectations that fans of the series have come to demand.

It's inevitable that the new will draw comparisons to the old. So I hope for the sake of this game, they can replicate the wonderful characters and magic from the original trilogy.

It should be fun.

Ask 6 people and you'll get six answers. (We need Sylvius here.)
I say combat gameplay supported by the traditional strengths of Bioware: characters, storyline and voice acting.

I'm not sure they capture what makes a good exploration game. The levels (or maps?) in DAI were too engineered to convey a sense of wanderlust. Too many hard boundaries, too much funneling.

There's a desert map in DAI I found quite good - well, mostly the northern part. It had some dwarven ruins in it and the north was a mountain range with an area behind to explore and it opened back to the west. Still I missed some options to climb the mountains. In contrast the map of Skyrim is nearly perfectly designed. There's paths to guide you but if you leave these paths you can discover alternate ways (and stumble across things). Yet there is little wasteland, most of it looks unique so you can recognise it and use this knowledge to navigate.
In Fallout the map is littered with places to discover and investigate.

However, Fallout and Skyrim you're mostly walking. In MEA we'll have a Mako and it looks speedy. Does it mean we need to cover distance? Empty space between hotspots? Or is it feasible to go on foot for nooks and crannies. Will the rivers have fish jumping around like in Skyrim? Butterflies settling on flowers? Aurora Borealis? It takes a lot of time to pack a map like this and Fallout and Skyrim are not particularly famous for character and story - I guess we cannot have all of it.

So when I hear them put exploration forward - it's not really been Bioware's core quality. How good can they make it? If it's not really cutting it, will it have a negative effect on the rest?

Meaningful decisions:
Yeah, right. Don't get too hyped about making your mark in the universe. The trilogy took this promise too far. Well, not the promise, rather the hype. If you just look at the possible combinations of decision outcomes and consider the amount of time you have to keep those branches "meaningful" it should not be surprising that they cut back some branches to keep the work at reasonable levels. Assuming the trilogy would create a unique storyline for thousands of special flowers was an illusion. I'd rather have a limited set of "meaningful" decisions with a good script than n! half-assed ones trying to maintain the illusion.

Combat gameplay:
The true evolution of the trilogy culminating in ME3 and ME3MP. Now in MEA were not glued to the plane anymore. How will this affect gameplay. Will it go astray from the good mix of powers and gunplay? The pacing? Will there even be MP? Is DAIMP any indication what combat mechanics might look like in a Frostbite Mass Effect?

Acceptable Transition:
Done in 5 minutes. Winter The Reapers are coming. We need a contingency plan. We cannot rely on some single Commander to save us all, because that would be kind of silly. So we pull out some plans from the undermost drawer about this intergalactic expedition which is so ridiculously expensive, but these are interesting times now. Done. My take on it (no claim to be the first to "invent" this obvious plot).
And if I can come up with something, a bunch of paid writers surely will do, too. Whatever they come up with: We have to deal with it.

Plot and characters:
Go hand in hand in a Bioware game I'd say. Well, it's Bioware, so I assume there will be some effort put into it. I expect they cast another batch of excellent voice actors and it'd be a waste if the characters weren't fleshed out. Just assuming they don't cut on it to have more budget for exploration... But looking at the eye-browed Asari close-up in their video I'd say they have a good toolset for creating characters right there.

A sense of wonder:
Highly subjective? I can imagine some and I'd like to experience them. I expect some visual wonders. In Elite Dangerous you have to seek them out. They are there. It's just they are right next to another thousand of bland generated generic places. But since that game isn't really story-driven, I assume it might be easier to see them in a Bioware game.
Apart from that some sense of "wonder" should come from the ambient. Lighting, design, sound and music all play their part in setting a mood and immersion.

The most important thing for ME:A to succeed is for it not to be too caught up with its predecessors, it needs to stand in its own, but at the same time acknowledge that it is part of the same franchise.

I'd like no squadmates that are familiar with the previous cast & only passing mentions to the ME:T.

Just my opinion

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"...too many people want it to fail..."

No me. I'm in with the new all the way. And the reason? ME3's asinine ending(s).