I feel like Andromeda took a very long time to finish and simultaneously was way too short. Overall I loved it way more than the fandom as a whole seems to, but I am disappointed it’s not getting any DLC content or the other games that were planned in the series. I loved my Ryder (who I made super punk and romanced Peebee with) and I loved my companions and I want more time with everyone. I loved the nods we got to the trilogy, like Kandros name dropping his sister Nireen and the correspondence Liara sends our dad. I’m hoping since Liara seems to be the focus of the next game and she does have a very long life span that somehow we can use her to connect all the games and find out where some of the loose threads were leading. I wanna know what happens to our mom and who the secret partner was in the initiative. It’s disappointing we won’t get to see what they originally planned, but I’m still looking forward to replaying this one a bunch and smooching all our friends who will let us.
Up next: I think I’m finally going to play some of the Final Fantasy series. I’m also in the middle of a renegade run for the ME trilogy. And of course on stream you can watch me weave my canon world state as we anxiously wait for DA4 to be released.
I’ve been spending the past few months working my way through my first playthrough of the Mass Effect trilogy, and I finally finished it last weekend. I figured that would be the perfect first edition of Monday Musings. First, let me introduce you to my character.
Jane Shepherd was an infiltrator, spacer, sole survivor. She didn’t sign up to be a hero, but she’d step up when no one else would. Her best friend was Garrus, and her boyfriend was Kaidan. She stayed loyal to him even when his faith in her wavered. I think I can safely say I will never love a Shep as much as I loved her, but I do plan on replaying the series to try a few different choices I didn’t in my first run. When I was playing ME2 I decided I would likely want to replay with my save for 1 but try romancing someone instead of waiting for Kaidan. Because of multiple things involving ME3, however, I think I need to give the game some time and space before I do that. It might feel backwards, but I want to look at some of those things first then go back and review the series as a whole. The reasons for this is, I’d like to end on a positive note, and ME3 is a game that tears your heart out through your throat.
I mentioned wanting to revisit ME2 and romance someone rather than stay loyal to Kaidan. The someone I wish I had romanced was Thane…. so you can imagine how much it hurt watching him die in ME3. He cared so much about us as a friend, I can’t imagine how much more painful it is saying goodbye as a former lover. As soon as it happened, I turned to my partner and asked, “we get to stab Leng in the face, right?” (It may have not been in the face, but I did get to stab him and it was very satisfying).
Despite the emotional rollercoaster, I was still prepared to immediately replay the second and third games, until I got to the ending. I gather the ending is controversial among the fandom. I know my partner has voiced his disappointment, but usually I find it very hard to truly hate anything. I went in fully prepared to make my own judgements on how things wrapped up. I do not usually hate things, but I hated the ending of this series. There are a few problems I have with it. 1) it feels extremely convoluted. I found myself having to try to break it down to my partner and make sure I understood what was happening. 2) It made me feel like most, if not all, of my choices came down to a multiple choice problem where Shep is left to decide the fate of the universe. 3) I was fully prepared for Shep to die for the cause. The way it happens feels incredibly unsatisfying, at least to me. I’m all for the hero sacrificing themself so the rest of the universe can continue existing. ME is full of decisions like that to agonize over. Every one of those choices made me feel like while there was no “right” answer, there were positive outcomes to be had amongst the awful. None of the options at the end gave me that feeling, only a sense of “this feels less awful than the other options”.
Having said that, I overall would still give the game a positive review and would replay the series again. I still want to try all the romances and see how making different choices changes the story. I love that things you do in one game will influence events in another one. I want to focus on all those positives and not let the ending ruin it for me. The characters are great, the story is mostly fantastic, and the world is fascinating to explore. Dragon Age will always be my preference in the BioWare roster, but I consider myself a Mass Effect fan now, and look forward to discussing these games with friends for years to come. And who knows, maybe there was no satisfying ending for what this series built itself to be. But I got to share a fascinating game with my partner and my friends, and those memories will always have value. The Legendary Editiion comes out in about a month, and I’m very much looking forward to watching many hours of gameplay as half my Twitch follow list revisits the series (and others get to experience it for the first time).
Let me know in the comments your thoughts on the series. Who were your favorite characters? What was your favorite romance? Are you looking forward to the remaster? Next week I’ll dive into my favorite series and why I will replay it till the day I die – Dragon Age!
