Interesting excerpt from Mac interview regarding Andromeda as a series and where it's going next

This exact statement is what I dislike most about Walters' attitude and IMO, it's a safe bet that it's exactly this attitude that introduced so many problems into the ME franchise (I don't want to say ruined it because I still like it but it definitely squandered a whole lot of potential).

The mistake that Walters makes here is to separate the characters and story in his mind and put them into different drawers that may interact but are not one whole. This is just wrong. Characters and story need to work together, they need to complement each other and be one unified concept. Great characters will never take off and fulfill all their potential if they don't have a great and fitting story to act within and great stories don't work if the characters in them are flat or don't fit the needs of the story.
It's only when you bring them together that things really work out.

I feel like Drew Karpyshyn still understood this and you can see it in ME1. Every main character is a reflection that fits into the story. For example, Garrus is the more positive reflection of the villain, Saren while Ahsley is a fit for the storie's aspect about humanity trying to cope with it's recent introduction into an alien galactic community, etc. There was always a back and forth, a symbiosis if you will between the characters and the story.

Now look at ME2, where did ME2 work best? During the loyalty missions because those were stories that actively were about and worked with the characters. The main story did not. It barely involved the characters at all and was about an issue they were all (even Shepard) only peripherally related to at best and it sucked.

Which parts of ME3 worked best? The Tuchanka and the Rannoch ark, why? Because here again, we had a symbiosis between characters and story (Wrex and Mordin mostly for Tuchanka, Tali and Legion for Rannoch). That worked.

Now, ME:A even had the advantage that all the Characters are by definition involved in the main story as they are part of the Initiative. However, I feel like they tried almost everything in their power to keep the character arcs separate from the main plot arc. Even Jaal's arc is more about internal anagaran politics than it is connected to the main plot, although his people are fighting the kett and deal with the remnant on a daily basis.

IMO, Walters sees the old BioWare games in the wrong light. KotOR's characters, BG's characters, Jade Empire's characters, they all didn't just work on their own. Bastilla, Jolee and HK-47 didn't have a great plot arc because they were just awesome on their own (well, HK maybe but he is special ) but because they were intricately connected to what was going on in the game overall.
I don't get how any respectable writer can make such a false dichotomy like that, not to mention setting priorities like that. It's counter productive and I think in the ME franchise as it developed from ME2 forward, it shows.