So assuming next Mass Effect is a sequel, how is BioWare going to address ME3’s ending?

[Era of not Yakuza]

Remember when you choose who would represent humanity in the council but in the end it didn't matter?
Or when you helped Legion and the geth but they ended up working for the reapers anyway?

They will find a way to ignore whatever ending people chose and it will be disappointing

 

[ItchyTasty]

I want both. They should jump far enough to where major hubs have their Relays up and running, but smaller networks are still being fixed or being ignored. It'll add some tension.

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That sounds like a good idea, I'll admit :D

 

[TheMadTitan]

That sounds like a good idea, I'll admit :D

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You hear that Bioware!

Hire me for some pitch ideas!

 

[SavoyPrime]

If you have high enough EMS after the Priority: Earth patch that fixed the endings post release, they show that the Relays aren't fully nuked during the endings and are in degrees of just being dinged up to fractured, only becoming outright destroyed like the originals if you don't cross the thresholds.

And if you did things right, it'll show that Galaxy went right back to work repairing the dinged up Relays. Which they should, given countless species trapped in systems that likely didn't have proper food for them to survive.

I imagine they could play with this to varying degrees by having Relays that needed significant repairs to some that only needed some new fuses and a coat of paint.

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I never went back after the patch. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[EatChildren]

They have to pick or construct a canon. There's no way around it. They'll probably go with Destroy or some remixed variation of it. They'll probably want to introduce new species and antagonists which combined with all the species represented is going to balloon production requirement probably unreasonably, so I expect some species to be massively downplayed or axed out of representation.

Given the indication that Andromeda will link in somehow, I also wouldn't be surprised if it took place 600+ years after the end of the Trilogy. Permitting them to work with a chosen canon with enough ambiguity that they don't have to explicitely address everything and flexibility to make some major changes.

 

[SirDante]

Dead Reapers and blown-up relays pretty much means Destroy will be the canon ending.
As it should be.

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As it should be, it is the only logical Sheperd choice for Paragon and Renegade.

 

[metal]

Hopefully destroy ending and retcon the Geth and other AI being destroyed (just how I pretended my game ended because those endings were terrible).

 

[Deleted member 68874]

They should use the destroy ending.

Am I crazy for thinking we'll play as Shepard again?

 

[TheMadTitan]

They have to pick or construct a canon. There's no way around it. They'll probably go with Destroy or some remixed variation of it. They'll probably want to introduce new species and antagonists which combined with all the species represented is going to balloon production requirement probably unreasonably, so I expect some species to be massively downplayed or axed out of representation.

Given the indication that Andromeda will link in somehow, I also wouldn't be surprised if it took place 600+ years after the end of the Trilogy. Permitting them to work with a chosen canon with enough ambiguity that they don't have to explicitely address everything and flexibility to make some major changes.

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Don't see why they'd have to axe or downplay current races to showcase new ones. If whatever engine they use can showcase 10000 NPCs on screen at once, that can be filled with all of the seen Milky Way races and any new ones that were only disclosed in text along with anything else they introduce.

 

[EatChildren]

Don't see why they'd have to axe or downplay current races to showcase new ones. If whatever engine they use can showcase 10000 NPCs on screen at once, that can be filled with all of the seen Milky Way races and any new ones that were only disclosed in text along with anything else they introduce.

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Rendering costs isn't the problem, it's the demand for increasing scope of new assets and having them modelled, textured, rigged, and voiced in meaningful ways with also enough divisity within subsets. No studio can keep piling on species after species and have them meaningfully represented without it additing significant time and effort to production.

It's more logistics than anything. Good toolsets that can procedurally diversify assets would be a useful solution in a situation like this, but given I'm pretty sure they planned that for Andromeda and Frostbite is a notorious bastard of an engine.....yeah.

 

[Darkstorne]

Destroy is the most likely one to follow, but doesn't solve the colossal flaws of awful writing and ludicrous coincidence. Anderson, how did you get up here? Illusive Man?! No seriously, how in the fuck are YOU here?! Am I expected to switch off my brain for this entire ending?

Indoctrination Theory is the only ending that makes sense, AND it leaves a lot of room for loose ends to be followed up on. I just don't think Bioware have the balls to go for that.

 

[lairo]

Destroy is the most likely one to follow, but doesn't solve the colossal flaws of awful writing and ludicrous coincidence. Anderson, how did you get up here? Illusive Man?! No seriously, how in the fuck are YOU here?! Am I expected to switch off my brain for this entire ending?

Indoctrination Theory is the only ending that makes sense, AND it leaves a lot of room for loose ends to be followed up on. I just don't think Bioware have the balls to go for that.

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I remember when I thought they'd have the guts to use IT to retcon the ending in an unexpected marvelous free ending DLC, showing that the indoctrination also affected the player in a meta way, and then using that to have the ultimate ending that beat the reapers by fighting the narrative itself. Then the real patch came...

If they don't mention the reaper aftermath in the next game, and then if they don't somehow do away with that starkid bullcrap, then no lessons will have been learned and I won't have a reason to play a story that lame.

 

[Jolkien]

Didn't they say way back the red ending (destroy) is the on considered canon ?

 

[TheMadTitan]

Rendering costs isn't the problem, it's the demand for increasing scope of new assets and having them modelled, textured, rigged, and voiced in meaningful ways with also enough divisity within subsets. No studio can keep piling on species after species and have them meaningfully represented without it additing significant time and effort to production.

It's more logistics than anything. Good toolsets that can procedurally diversify assets would be a useful solution in a situation like this, but given I'm pretty sure they planned that for Andromeda and Frostbite is a notorious bastard of an engine.....yeah.

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Not every species needs to be voiced and be fully articulated. Volus and Elcor could probably just be ported over from ME3 minus maybe a handful that would play significant plot importance. They could exist as dressing, just like some new races could largely exist as scenery aside from a handful.

And if the Andromeda stuff was quality enough for Turians, Salarians, and Krogan, they could probably import those assets rather than working from scratch wholesale.

That's also assuming that they don't mostly add things that can't be built off of human skeletons.

 

[Fiery Phoenix]

Did you watch the teaser OP? They already picked Destroy, aka the only ending that made any sense.

 

[Camisado]

Commander Shepard wakes up suddenly, dripping in sweat. They hear a shower running and gointo the bathroom. *Personal companion of your choice* is showering before turning around and asking "Shepard what's the matter?"

Then "Juicy" by Biggie Smalls plays

 

[Kalentan]

You know, if they wanted to make more races playable, they could do a thing where generations have passed since the Destroy Ending and many of the races stuck on Earth had to ultimately live there. Earth eventually was rebuilt but as a galactic melting pot, so a lot of races such as the Turians, Asari (at least new borns, which could result in some interesting tension), and so on seem a lot more "human" while still keeping their unique qualities.

You get a Turian with a deep southern accent or a very irish speaking Asari and so on and so forth.

Maybe it's just me who thinks that could be a cool idea.

 

[LhommeCornichon]

by making one canon

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Destroy. Just dive right in and tackle the consequences of it.

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Dead Reapers and blown-up relays pretty much means Destroy will be the canon ending.
As it should be.

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Bite the bullet and use Destroy.

It's the best set-up for a sequel anyway.

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[Lucky Aces]

Just confirm the indoctrination theory. Suddenly the story goes from disappointed ending that rivals with tv show Lost, to one of the most well told stories in Video Game history.

But it seems like they are just going to choose one ending and that being the destroy ending logically.

 

[Shopolic]

As others said, it follows the destroy ending and it seems it'll happen hundreds of years after ME3. Because Liara as an Asari has some wrinkles on her face and it seems she's in another stage of Asari's life now.

Indoctrination theory 🤭

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lol that was some Kojima-theory for a ME game! Some people really thought we'll see a DLC to confirm this theory, like Chapter 3 for MGSV.

 

[Shirkelton]

Hopefully with courage and confidence, otherwise it doesn't matter what story they choose.

 

[Patitoloco]

The real question is not that, but how will they make Garrus return.

 

[Van Bur3n]

Most likely utilizing the control ending and going from there, given that it's the good ending. I don't see why they would choose the bad or super fucking weird ending.

 

[Shopolic]

The real question is not that, but how will they make Garrus return.

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He won't be back for 99%. :(
Turian lifespan in about 150 years and it seems story occurs after that. Although it's a sci-fi game, so there are possibilities for things like Cryogenic Sleep!

 

[TheEchosOfTheCyborg]

1. Destroy ending I guess, still has the issues of Shepard committing knowing genocide on AI and the Geth and don't like the idea of Bioware promoting the nasty "F*** you! Got mine!" mentality the fandom displays in these types of discussions (as some posters already displayed here.

2. Given the remasters, maybe add a 5th option?

3. A mixture of all 3 or 4?

4. Multiverse (my personal preference because even if one if more focused, it means everyone's ending is valid and the one that means every can be happy and opens up a ton more story ideas and potential gameplay mechanics.

 

[sirap]

Reading this thread just makes me even more angry that they wasted away Andromeda's premise.

 

[Mivey]

The real question is not that, but how will they make Garrus return.

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He won't be back for 99%. :(
Turian lifespan in about 150 years and it seems story occurs after that. Although it's a sci-fi game, so there are possibilities for things like Cryogenic Sleep!

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He'll be forever calibrating giant guns in Turian heaven.

 

[BassForever]

They'll probably retcon the whole AI/Geth being destroyed mess, they're too popular in Bioware's eyes.

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This is my thought as well, destroy ending but retcon the Geth being gone. Anything they want to salvage from ME1-3 will be retconned or will have survivors return from another galaxy like Andromeda that have no idea what happened in ME3.

 

[svacina]

Edit: To be clear I'm taking the piss about the IW solution. Please don't do that.

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Why, that was the best part of IW.

 

[Mechaplum]

Anything but the indoctrination theory.

 

[CarlSagan94]

They will canonize the destroy ending for sure. Its the simplest ending to continue the universe. For other questions like the genophage, my guess is that it will take place far enough in the future where that won't matter much. If you sabotaged the cure, a new one will have been created post ME3. Maybe they will do like the DA Keep and allow you to transfer some choices to have the world a bit more personalized but I wouldn't expect much. The geth may still have been destroyed by the crucible but its easy enough to imagine that the Quarians rebuilt them.

I was against it initially but now I think canonizing an ending is not so bad. When writers canonize an ending, it doesn't mean its the 'best' outcome, for example in the sequel of Metro, the bad ending was the canonized one.

 

[Deleted member 29857]

Didn't destroy have an additional scene where Shepard was alive? I chose green at the time, but now thinking back I realise how stupid of a choice that was. Destroy should be canon.

 

[Sandersson]

Pick the blue ending.

 

[Buff DrinkLots]

Lol that was some Kojima-theory for a ME game! Some people really thought we'll see a DLC to confirm this theory, like Chapter 3 for MGSV.

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Mind really is capable of some crazy things in order to deal with trauma lol.

 

[Old Luke]

They will probably stick with Destroy and somehow bring the Geth back.

Also, the Next Mass Effect will be released at least 10 years later than 3. It's ok to pick a canon ending or come up with something else.

 

[Necromorph]

The less cool option.

 

[SDBurton]

Whatever ending they pick, I just hope that there's only one ending in the sequel that you can get.

 

[SofNascimento]

They aren't going to pick any ending. It will be a new one with some loose connections to the possible ones we had.

 

[RowdyReverb]

Was I the only one who picked Synthesis? I thought it sounded so sci-fi and it would resolve so many of the galaxy's conflicts if everyone could just understand each other better.
Admittedly, that doesn't make a great setup for a sequel though.

 

[EvilBoris]

Do a JJ Abrams and start ME4 with a sequence that sends the characters back in time or into an alternate reality.

 

[TolerLive]

Is anyone else interested in Mass Effect (4) going full character/race customizer on us? I'd love an elder scrolls type option where not only do we build our own character but we pick a race. Let me play as a krogan. 💚

 

[Bishop89]

Was I the only one who picked Synthesis? I thought it sounded so sci-fi and it would resolve so many of the galaxy's conflicts if everyone could just understand each other better.
Admittedly, that doesn't make a great setup for a sequel though.

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I honestly can't remember but I'm pretty sure I originally picked synthesis too for that very reason.

 

[ILikeFeet]

4. Multiverse (my personal preference because even if one if more focused, it means everyone's ending is valid and the one that means every can be happy and opens up a ton more story ideas and potential gameplay mechanics.

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This need to please everyone is only gonna further damn Bioware, IMO. The choices people made should just be valid for the first trilogy, after that, everyone needs to move on

 

[Iucidium]

by making one canon

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That'll pander to fans and make an announcement video for it to garner favour and begin the inevitable hype

 

[Kalentan]

Is anyone else interested in Mass Effect (4) going full character/race customizer on us? I'd love an elder scrolls type option where not only do we build our own character but we pick a race. Let me play as a krogan. 💚

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I think if they do, it will be the races that got stuck on Earth following the destroy ending. We'll jump a few generations, so Liara is alive but now you have Earth-born Turians, Earth-born Krogans, Earth-born Asari and so on. So that practice they're already more Human-like due being on Earth and will allow players to easily put part of themselves into said character.

You'd get cool unique scenes of when you meet people from your race that were stranded on other worlds and how they have changed as well.

Plus, wouldn't a Southern Krogan with a deep accent be both hilarious and awesome? Like they could be a companion who dreams of being a cowboy lol.

Dumb but could be fun.

 

[TolerLive]

I think if they do, it will be the races that got stuck on Earth following the destroy ending. We'll jump a few generations, so Liara is alive but now you have Earth-born Turians, Earth-born Krogans, Earth-born Asari and so on. So that practice they're already more Human-like due being on Earth and will allow players to easily put part of themselves into said character.

You'd get cool unique scenes of when you meet people from your race that were stranded on other worlds and how they have changed as well.

Plus, wouldn't a Southern Krogan with a deep accent be both hilarious and awesome? Like they could be a companion who dreams of being a cowboy lol.

Dumb but could be fun.

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Awh man now i cant get the idea of a Krogan who sounds like Arthur Morgan out of my head. I need this.

 

[Plasma]

The dead reaper kind of implies that they picked the destroy ending, though I guess you could get around that by saying it was a reaper that was killed during the war. I still think destroy makes the most sense though, you could even put Geth in the game by saying they created a hub outside of the galaxy so they weren't affected when the space laser magic destroyed all synthetics in the galaxy.

 

[Herne]

Either Synthesis ending where everyone ignores it, or, far more preferably, Destroy ending and everything that entails.

 

[Barnak]

There is no chance they're going to allow you to choose between multiple races. Mass Effect are story driven games, you can't do that if you have to write and record lines for 5+ different races, 2 genders per races, for a 30+ hours video game. If you do, you're going to have a very simplified story, with little choices, that is just going to disappoint fans expecting something like the trilogy.

 

[HBK]

Dunno. They may canonize one ending, especially as there's one which seems to please the most rabid fans, but that would mean they'd throw away what was the basis of the games up until now: player choice. Even if most choices were cosmetic at best, they were still taken into account and that was like the major point of both ME and DA games. To have a custom game universe you shaped with little choices over time.

But where they stand, they probably need to build upon the rubble, so maybe they'll just shrug it off one way or another and be done with it.