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Mass Effect Sequel: How to do it
Topic Started: Jun 7 2013, 09:12 AM (587 Views)
Huzzahfortimelines
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So I didn't know if I should post this in the Mass Effect sub-section, or the debate section. It's a Mass Effect topic, but it invites debate. If a moderator considers this out of place then by all means, move it.
WARNING Obvious Spoilers are obvious, so if you have not played all the Mass Effect's yet, don't look. I won't be putting things from the main games in spoiler tags, but I will put ME:3 DLC's in spoiler tags, because they are still quite recent. I'll be highlighting these dlc's, by putting a letter with a color before the tag, so you know which one I'm talking about:

(L)= Leviathan
(O)= Omega
(C)= Citadel


I've been hearing a lot of comments how Bioware would go about making a sequel. Some say they'll canonize one ending, others say they'll remove the ending, and some even say they'll make an alternative universe. After looking at them, I think that I found a way for Mass Effect to have a sequel, without having to remove the endings, or canonize one. Keep in mind that this is purely theory, and speculation stuff, and although it will probably be true, because Bioware listens to every word I say, keep in mind that it's not backed up with any evidence.

One of the main problems fans have with sequels is: How do you top it? How would you top a massive C'tulhu jellyfish robot invasion, that threatens the entire universe? Well, you could make giant robots that throw universes around like shurikens, but who in their right mind would think of that? (L)
Spoiler: click to toggle

And here's my thought: you don't. Trying to be bigger than the original trilogy would be extremely difficult, and damn near impossible. So now what? I think Bioware would be able to branch up in two topics:

1. Personal- this isn't even necessary as a sequel. Make a personal story, get to know certain characters. Maybe a conspiracy plot on a colony, involving ExoGeni? A revenge tale? anything's possible here. However, because it's not necesarily bound to a sequel, I won't discuss it here. What I will discuss:

2. Politcal up in this universe. After the reaper war, the universe is likely in quite a shock. a lot can happen in this time-frame. What if we skip over, let's say, 600/700 years, and follow the story then. The universe will have changed dramatically, breathing fresh air into it, with new gameplay possibilites etc. What if, in 600 years, the universe is in political conflict. Think of it. Wouldn't it be interesting to have seen Middle Earth become a Game of Thrones-like series, where kingdoms fight for power? I'd say, that would have been pretty neat.

So now your question would be, Huzzah, but what about the three choices? Wouldn't we have to canonize one ending? And I will say, no, not really. The only ending that needs to be thrown away would be the refuse ending (plus the destroy bad ending), and that's pretty much a big long game-over scene, with a happy twist at the end. So how would one do it? Well, save-file transfer would be necessary. I recently read a topic on the BSN called: Synthesis is inevitable. This is what the theory states:

Synthesis: Synthesis has been achieved immediately.
Control: Synthesis has been achieved with the help of the Catalyst.
Destroy: Synthesis has been achieved on it's own.

Cut to 600 years later, and synthesis is now available in every ending. Congratulations! He also discussed how this will have effect on gameplay, but I won't go into that much detail here.

Now, we have combined the endings together. But what of the choices? There are still 2 other major paths in the story, involving the Krogan, and the Geth. Well, save-transfer here will be necessary. Let's first go to the Krogan:

Genophage cured: The Krogan live, and are allied with the humans. (more will be explained later)
Genophage sabotaged: The Krogan live, aren't as powerful, and are allied with the humans. A cure was found 100 years later, which prevented the total extinction of the Krogan.

And The Geth:

Quarians flotilla destroyed: The remaining Quarians gave up, and they were supported by the geth. Not as powerful as the geth.
Geth killed: The quarians made new geth, and decided to make an alliance with them, under friendly terms. The geth aren't as powerful as the quarians.
Alliance: The geth and quarians live together in harmony. Both are equally powerful.

And there you go. All the choices can now be put into the game, with some alterations depending on the three major choices. Now onto the plot:

It's been 600 years since the reaper war. The races, who at first lived together by guidance of the council, have had a falling out. Now, a war is on the horizon between different factions. After the fall of the council, many races allied with each other to gain a foothold in the soon coming war. Now, there are 4 factions:

The Flight Alliance(silly names are silly, don't take them seriously :P )- An alliance between Turians, Humans, and Krogan. The most militairistic of the factions, they believe that the universe should have a democratic government.

The Dawn Empire- An alliance between Asari, Hanar, and Drell. They believe that the galaxy should be ruled by the council, in a monarchy. (the high races select rulers of the galaxy, and place the individuals to rule).

The Qua’son- An alliance between Quarians and Geth. They believe that the final step of evolution is immortality, and the only way to gain it, is to ascend organic races into a synthetic form (keep in mind that synthesis allows machines to have the exact same qualities as organics). With this, the galaxy can be governed by the consensus. (Also, with control ending, the Geth worship the catalyst as their god. All hail the Shepard baby.)

Tamon- An alliance between Salarians, Volus, and Elcor. They believe that the galaxy should be run by companies, promoting a galaxy with pure capitalism.
(Also, think of the multiplayer. It basically writes itself).

What about the others?

The Reapers:

The reapers are off chillin' in dark space, regardless of Synthesis or Control. They're basically scouting, trying to find civilization beyond our galaxy. In destroy, they would be dead of course, and normal scout-ships are sent out.

The Yahg:

The Yahg are slowly rising up as a new race, and no one actually knows what to do with them. Some want them as slaves, others want to prevent another krogan incident, and some want to repeat the krogan experiment.

(L)
Spoiler: click to toggle

The Batarians:
What, all five of them? Seriously though, they’re almost extinct. Without the help of another race, they are basically doomed. Some still remain on Omega, but if you would count them, you wouldn’t get past the 2000 mark.

And then there's you. In the story, it's made sure that you won't have any background that forces you to join a side. You join a side throughout the story. Will you join The alliance of Asari, Drell, and Hanar? Double-cross them? Your decision.


And that's basically how I would envision a Mass Effect sequel. So what do you people think? Could this pass as a sequel, would it be too hard, or would the story be a massive dissapointment?
Edited by Huzzahfortimelines, Jun 7 2013, 09:13 AM.
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Penguins4Freedom
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The Lord of Misrule & The Abbot of Unreason
Huzzah I think y'all not answering the big question of them all: What about the Vorcha? Huh? HUH? WHAT ABOUT THEM?

To be perfectly honest, the whole Synthesis thing just bugs me. I mean everyone is all green and glowy and shit. It's distracting and I am just annoyed that there wasnt an option where by the organics and synthetics didnt have to kill each other or fundamentally change who they were. If the next game is building on this then they'll have to convince me that the story is worthwhile.

Huzzah, you're theories on the new game are perfectly acceptable. Although perhaps having all the militarily inclined races all together may give an unfortuante edge, especially since they will probably hold the majority of habitable planets.
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Huzzahfortimelines
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Penguins4Freedom
Jun 7 2013, 09:42 AM
Huzzah I think y'all not answering the big question of them all: What about the Vorcha? Huh? HUH? WHAT ABOUT THEM?

To be perfectly honest, the whole Synthesis thing just bugs me. I mean everyone is all green and glowy and shit. It's distracting and I am just annoyed that there wasnt an option where by the organics and synthetics didnt have to kill each other or fundamentally change who they were. If the next game is building on this then they'll have to convince me that the story is worthwhile.

Huzzah, you're theories on the new game are perfectly acceptable. Although perhaps having all the militarily inclined races all together may give an unfortuante edge, especially since they will probably hold the majority of habitable planets.
I do hope that the whole synthesis thing is just there for a few weeks, showing that the races need to adjust. After that, maybe it'll get back to normal again. (What would be cool, is if the synthetic-look only returns once you activate a biotic power).

And having all the militairy races together was kind of intentional. I could imagine the Krogan, and Turians only respecting those who have a strong militairy. Basically, it's the "'Muricah" alliance.
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Penguins4Freedom
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The Lord of Misrule & The Abbot of Unreason
Just saying, that the balance of power in this universe may be tipped in favour of the Turian/Krogan/Human alliance. While the Asari/Hanar/Drell may have a lot more soft power (due to Entertainment and Service Industries), realistically the hard power centric Alliance would be the only Super Power in this universe. So yeah probably America then :P. Not saying the idea has potential though. I would definitely play your game.
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PvtCryan502
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More than Just a Conjurer of Cheap Tricks
I like it.
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Huzzahfortimelines
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Penguins4Freedom
Jun 7 2013, 10:53 AM
Just saying, that the balance of power in this universe may be tipped in favour of the Turian/Krogan/Human alliance. While the Asari/Hanar/Drell may have a lot more soft power (due to Entertainment and Service Industries), realistically the hard power centric Alliance would be the only Super Power in this universe. So yeah probably America then :P. Not saying the idea has potential though. I would definitely play your game.
WELL GOOD BECAUSE HERE IT IS. IT'S CALLED MASS EFFECT: COOKING MAMA EDITION.

I'd say that the Asari are the most advanced race, but yeah, the Krogan/Humans/Turians would be the most powerful in a full-out war. Then again, you can't balance everything out.
Edited by Huzzahfortimelines, Jun 7 2013, 10:57 AM.
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ViperKang
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I think calling the next set of games a "sequel" distorts what Bioware has been saying. They say that Shepard's story is done. Which means that the next games will more than likely take place well after the end of the Reaper War as you need to give breathing room between Shepard and the new story. Also an alternate universe wouldn't work well as it'd be seen as a cop out and you would have to fundementally change the lore as the only possible alternate universe would be one in which the Reapers don't dominate the past, present and future of the glalaxy.

To quickly explain the cop out that I mentioned, recently Injustice: Gods Among Us came out and SPOILERS!!!!!!! it's an alternate universe story. Many people were unhappy with this as it means that the developers played it safe by not exploring any major changes to the established universe. Same with an alternate universe story in Mass Effect. People want to see the fallout of something as major as a galactic invasion not a parallel universe story.

Now as far as the endings go I think it's obvious they will canonize the ending simply because of how Mass Effect 2 and 3 are treated. If you don't use the genesis comic and do a straight forward playthrough they have an established "story" for you to play off of if you don't want to customize it. Therefore I'm sure that the same holds true for any following games that continue within this main universe. Because I highly doubt they'll link the two series together by save transfer especially since they mentioned that they wrote Mass Effect 3 without save transfers in mind as it was the last game. So following that train of thought you would most likely have a Bioware approved "canon" story to follow up the original games.

Now as far as what would make a good game would be if you did a more condensed game. You can only have so many "Galaxy is in danger" stories. I think something more along the lines of Mass Effect Galaxy would be appropriate where you are a high ranking soldier or a Specter investigating a political disturbance or maybe trying to stop a powerful rogue group. Take it to a more personal, condensed level so people can breath instead of having them play galactic hero twice in a row.
Edited by ViperKang, Jun 7 2013, 11:04 AM.
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Huzzahfortimelines
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Well, LOTR is still a sequel, even though it doesn't have the same main character. As long as it's set after the original story, I'd call it a sequel.

Yeah, I don't agree with the AU at all, to be honest.

But who says you can't do a genesis-comic before the sequel-game? You'd only need those 3 choices, and you'll be set. The only character who would survive from the original trilogy would be Liara, and the only major choice you have with her would be romance. (I'd also say it's very likely that she'd be in a sequel-trilogy, at least as a cameo, because she's literally the only companion you can't kill).

Well, it's not that the galaxy is in danger per se. It's just an issue of: who's going to rule the galaxy, and what rules are we going to have next? What races will win the war? The Krogan/Humans/Turians aren't going to go extinct if they lose, they're only going to be pushed down a notch.
Edited by Huzzahfortimelines, Jun 7 2013, 11:28 AM.
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ViperKang
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I feel that it's obvious Liara will be in the next games as Bioware has show a HUGE bias toward her. And you COULD do a genesis comic I'm just saying it's highly unlikely that they will do anything close to how this original tirlogy worked as far as save transfers. The universe will still mostly be canonized. That's my feeling on it.

As far as who will rule the galaxy it's obvious the Council will continue to rule. The whole point of Mass Effect 3 is to continue the status quo and in pretty much every ending the Citadel is rebuilt and Council rule is asuumed to continue to be. Hence why it would be logical to have a condensed story within the new political world of a post-Reaper galaxy. And hence why I mentioned being a specter agent. I don't see the Council NOT being the overall governing body.
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Huzzahfortimelines
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I don't see why the council couldn't fall into dissaray. I'm sure there'll be tension eventually, and I think it would be an interesting plotline of what would happen when the system breaks. It would also be a "grey" story (not black and white), because there isn't a real "bad guy", it all depends on beliefs, and viewpoints.

I wouldn't have anything against Bioware doing a more personal story, but I would like to see a story that delves more into a political plotline.
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