If they had some competent writers, which I don't think they have left anymore, they would start by first looking at the galaxy after the end of Mass Effect 3. What is the state of it and what does it imply? Obviously, there are several endings, but they can always pick one as a canon ending - many games do that. So, let us say that the Galaxy got rid of Reapers - Destroy ending being canon - as it is the only one that is close to the guiding principles you've been going the entire game. What does the Galaxy look like? Heavily damaged relay network, no synthetic life forms, cured Genophage and so on. To me, that smells like a power vacuum that some races just couldn't wait to exploit in the post-war chaos. Turian and Asari fleets heavily depleted, old grievances coming back up, downtrodden races uniting to take on the Council races. It does not need to be this existential threat on a galactic scale as Reapers were. They can STILL play a part through the lore and those 'rebel' races searching for ancient superweapons previous races tried to develop to fight the Reapers - with you and your crew being on their trail, destroying their plans. It can open a new trilogy, first ending with the civil war starting. You and your crew start the game by checking out suspicious activity on some fringe world you have access to, those seeing to rebel are searching for ancient archives (like you were investigating a suspicious behavior on your first mission in the first game) and slowly unravel the conspiracy, climbing up and up (maybe even leading to one of the Council Races that are trying to take primacy now and establish the Empire they think they deserve) while having side quests that are connected with the repair of relay network, so you can increase the cohesion of the Council and prepare for the upcoming threat. And, in the background, you can have the original idea of dark matter playing a larger role in the whole story (in a similar way that Saren was the main villain in the first game, with Reapers being in the shadows). Through the various quests over time, you discover some major problem within cosmology, dark energy/dark matter, that is your broader quest intertwined with fighting the Galactic civil war and some main villain like Saren was. It can have TONS of political intrigue, race against time, reinforcing old alliances in the new post-war Galaxy. Maybe even choose sides? Play the game of thrones? All while there is a bigger mystery unraveling behind the scenes as the games progress. But I don't think they have anyone capable of writing on such a scale anymore. We'll probably get some generic main villain with domination fetish and all characters from previous games, main one included. Instead of a new chapter in a war-torn galaxy that is disconnected from each other - which is a wonderful playground for any good writer.
The only thing I disagree with is having no synthetic life forms. Since the good destroy ending it just targets Reapers. That way you can tie in the original idea on why the catalyst is created which is that synthetic and organic life will naturally conflict.
I mean, Synthetics are coming back, key art and teasers show the Geth are still around. They’ve either been rebuilt or something else happened. Not having them around would definitely be a loss, the story elements with the Geth were important for the story of the original trilogy, and would make the meaning of the endings less meaningful. As for what the Galaxy would look like, it’s been heavily implied that this may be a sequel to not only the Mass Effect trilogy, but also Andromeda. I think if we’re talking 630 years in the future, things wouldn’t be war torn and disconnected. Hell, it’d be a good chance for them to try something different like you said. The Mass Relays only connect so many systems, what else lurks out there in the galaxy that we can’t access? Perhaps we’ll find another mode of travel?
I’d also like to note that Mike Gamble is the head of this project, and has many ME trilogy Vets with him. I don’t think we’re getting a repeat of Andromeda thankfully. I think we could see another banger with how Dreadwolf is doing
destroy is the only non indoctrination ending. the others mimic how indoctrinated ppl justify not fighting the reapers. like the illusive man or the scientist Kenson in Arrival. but there is still potential. maybe factinos that want to use the remains of the reapers for their goals. or simply the krogan wars. since it IS reasonable that their birth rates will cause conflict again. civilizations still have faster than light travel. just no more instant zip around the galaxy with mass relays. the X series (x. x 2. x terran conflight, x reumion x-rebirthand further) did that, with space travel being dependent on star gates made by an old synthetic race, who got destroyed in a conflict to break their control over the course of organic life (hey...mass effect took a lot of inspiration from that it seems...)
@@zomcom11 I remember in the original Destroy ending, Geth were done for as well. But, you can have it both - they ARE destroyed, but one of the new badies searches for their blueprint to make them again, as they are technically outnumbered by Council races... so you have the chance to influence the outcome. Do they get resurrected? In what way? It could be a story chapter all on its own. In general, I think they ought to try the Destroy ending, as it leaves the damaged galaxy disconnected and leaves the room for Humanity to step forward as now a dominant power, taking you on a new trilogy journey of uniting the galaxy once more (will you go for council-style of human imperium style?) and fighting the rebellion with some unknown overarching baddie lurking in the shadows. I would just hate to see the events and history of previous games be just a line in a dialogue in the future games. Make it count - it was a galactic scale war of extermination, it should lave a HUGE mark and nothing should be the same. It is the first ever cycle to survive the Reaper purge.
There is stuff to build off, like maybe it’s 50 years in the future Some of the old crew maybe passed away, with the others being important Some quarians can wear no suits but a group rebel against the fleet and there can be like extremists to go back to the old ways Krogan fighting to get on the council so old wounds reopen. There could be a shadow govt to take out throughout the game that want to overthrow order, and liara finds out about it. But no one on the council believes you. Except their newest member of the council, who really knows how it is sometimes with them, Garrus. And I think his knowledge of that would make him want to shape up the council. He could do some off books digging and find something that leads to the source, the Salarian councilor that replaces Valern(bc they live to 40) has been stategically planning all this and is 2 steps ahead of you. Ik this won’t happen but I just made a 10/10 ign game right there.
@@dreammirrorbrony1240 They could be a very effective villain, they're powerful, still a bit mysterious and fairly interesting IMO The downside of making the leviathans the bid bad is that in many ways they feel (and even look!) a lot like the Reapers, so it might not feel fresh enough😵💫
They do mostly seem like the secretive kind, aware that their time in the spotlight as the apex species has passed long ago, and an attack on the vastly larger advanced galactic societies would be strategically weird (sort of like AI Italy in my HOI4 save when they declared war by themselves all alone vs literally the entire world) 🇮🇹😂
What we know is that the villain has to be so grand that Shepard has to return from the dead again just to deal with it as Shepard has become too legendary to deal with street level villains
Not specifically bigger than the reapers like while the main reason Shepard was resurrected was to fulfill their destiny to beat the reapers that wasn’t really the plot of ME2 as the plot of ME2 was to beat the collectors who’ve spent the last 2 years abducting human colonists in the terminus systems and while the collectors themselves were a big threat they were still just a species and destroying their ship is really all that had to be done as from what we can tell they only have one ship which was easily destroyed by 2 blasts from thanix cannons which I’m pretty sure most of the citadel fleet consists of but this isn’t really saying that they should do the collectors story again just that they can make an entire humanoid species the villains again (perhaps the species that the statues on ilos represented?)
@@axelnilsson5124 I see what ur saying! Like we neeed a proper powerful villain, and that it wouldn't be enough for the main antagonist to basically just be the Blue Suns or something😂
If they had some competent writers, which I don't think they have left anymore, they would start by first looking at the galaxy after the end of Mass Effect 3. What is the state of it and what does it imply? Obviously, there are several endings, but they can always pick one as a canon ending - many games do that. So, let us say that the Galaxy got rid of Reapers - Destroy ending being canon - as it is the only one that is close to the guiding principles you've been going the entire game.
What does the Galaxy look like? Heavily damaged relay network, no synthetic life forms, cured Genophage and so on. To me, that smells like a power vacuum that some races just couldn't wait to exploit in the post-war chaos. Turian and Asari fleets heavily depleted, old grievances coming back up, downtrodden races uniting to take on the Council races.
It does not need to be this existential threat on a galactic scale as Reapers were. They can STILL play a part through the lore and those 'rebel' races searching for ancient superweapons previous races tried to develop to fight the Reapers - with you and your crew being on their trail, destroying their plans. It can open a new trilogy, first ending with the civil war starting. You and your crew start the game by checking out suspicious activity on some fringe world you have access to, those seeing to rebel are searching for ancient archives (like you were investigating a suspicious behavior on your first mission in the first game) and slowly unravel the conspiracy, climbing up and up (maybe even leading to one of the Council Races that are trying to take primacy now and establish the Empire they think they deserve) while having side quests that are connected with the repair of relay network, so you can increase the cohesion of the Council and prepare for the upcoming threat.
And, in the background, you can have the original idea of dark matter playing a larger role in the whole story (in a similar way that Saren was the main villain in the first game, with Reapers being in the shadows). Through the various quests over time, you discover some major problem within cosmology, dark energy/dark matter, that is your broader quest intertwined with fighting the Galactic civil war and some main villain like Saren was.
It can have TONS of political intrigue, race against time, reinforcing old alliances in the new post-war Galaxy. Maybe even choose sides? Play the game of thrones? All while there is a bigger mystery unraveling behind the scenes as the games progress.
But I don't think they have anyone capable of writing on such a scale anymore. We'll probably get some generic main villain with domination fetish and all characters from previous games, main one included.
Instead of a new chapter in a war-torn galaxy that is disconnected from each other - which is a wonderful playground for any good writer.
The only thing I disagree with is having no synthetic life forms. Since the good destroy ending it just targets Reapers. That way you can tie in the original idea on why the catalyst is created which is that synthetic and organic life will naturally conflict.
I mean, Synthetics are coming back, key art and teasers show the Geth are still around. They’ve either been rebuilt or something else happened. Not having them around would definitely be a loss, the story elements with the Geth were important for the story of the original trilogy, and would make the meaning of the endings less meaningful.
As for what the Galaxy would look like, it’s been heavily implied that this may be a sequel to not only the Mass Effect trilogy, but also Andromeda. I think if we’re talking 630 years in the future, things wouldn’t be war torn and disconnected. Hell, it’d be a good chance for them to try something different like you said. The Mass Relays only connect so many systems, what else lurks out there in the galaxy that we can’t access? Perhaps we’ll find another mode of travel?
I’d also like to note that Mike Gamble is the head of this project, and has many ME trilogy Vets with him. I don’t think we’re getting a repeat of Andromeda thankfully. I think we could see another banger with how Dreadwolf is doing
destroy is the only non indoctrination ending. the others mimic how indoctrinated ppl justify not fighting the reapers. like the illusive man or the scientist Kenson in Arrival.
but there is still potential. maybe factinos that want to use the remains of the reapers for their goals.
or simply the krogan wars. since it IS reasonable that their birth rates will cause conflict again.
civilizations still have faster than light travel. just no more instant zip around the galaxy with mass relays.
the X series (x. x 2. x terran conflight, x reumion x-rebirthand further) did that, with space travel being dependent on star gates made by an old synthetic race, who got destroyed in a conflict to break their control over the course of organic life (hey...mass effect took a lot of inspiration from that it seems...)
@@zomcom11 I remember in the original Destroy ending, Geth were done for as well. But, you can have it both - they ARE destroyed, but one of the new badies searches for their blueprint to make them again, as they are technically outnumbered by Council races... so you have the chance to influence the outcome. Do they get resurrected? In what way? It could be a story chapter all on its own.
In general, I think they ought to try the Destroy ending, as it leaves the damaged galaxy disconnected and leaves the room for Humanity to step forward as now a dominant power, taking you on a new trilogy journey of uniting the galaxy once more (will you go for council-style of human imperium style?) and fighting the rebellion with some unknown overarching baddie lurking in the shadows.
I would just hate to see the events and history of previous games be just a line in a dialogue in the future games. Make it count - it was a galactic scale war of extermination, it should lave a HUGE mark and nothing should be the same. It is the first ever cycle to survive the Reaper purge.
Reapers: *die*
Leviathans: ...somebody toucha my toaster...
The Leviathans' only weakness since they live in water, just throw a big ass toaster in there!
@@Noctazar "they touched our boats"
@@thecursed01 *United States of Leviathans has entered the chat*
@@DoctorEpicPhD space vietnam and the galactic afghanistan cluster: "come and take it"
Prematurely elevated yahg?
Yahg rebellions ---> Yahg genophage ----> Yahg version of Wrex ----> ??? -----> profit
@@DoctorEpicPhD the ??? is the next shadow broker XD i always take liara to shurkesh in ME3 just for garrus to make that joke and her reaction
@@thecursed01 it's essential to pick the squadmates with the best lines for each mission, way more important than combat stats and skills😂😂
@@DoctorEpicPhD agreed XD
There is stuff to build off, like maybe it’s 50 years in the future
Some of the old crew maybe passed away, with the others being important
Some quarians can wear no suits but a group rebel against the fleet and there can be like extremists to go back to the old ways
Krogan fighting to get on the council so old wounds reopen.
There could be a shadow govt to take out throughout the game that want to overthrow order, and liara finds out about it. But no one on the council believes you. Except their newest member of the council, who really knows how it is sometimes with them, Garrus. And I think his knowledge of that would make him want to shape up the council.
He could do some off books digging and find something that leads to the source, the Salarian councilor that replaces Valern(bc they live to 40) has been stategically planning all this and is 2 steps ahead of you.
Ik this won’t happen but I just made a 10/10 ign game right there.
@@boisteve Councilor Garrus? Let him cook! 🤩😂
@@DoctorEpicPhD he knows the beaurocratic bs like no one else
Plot twist garrus was getting blackmailed to lead u off track over his identity as archangel but when u find out u use him as a double agen
the councilor garrus plotline is thickening🍿🍿🍿👀
Logically, the Leviathans would make the best villains.
@@dreammirrorbrony1240 They could be a very effective villain, they're powerful, still a bit mysterious and fairly interesting IMO
The downside of making the leviathans the bid bad is that in many ways they feel (and even look!) a lot like the Reapers, so it might not feel fresh enough😵💫
Background music and sounds overpower your speaking
@@willy-mp5bm Yeah not the first time I've gotten that feedback sadly😅 I'll try to improve my editing and microphone, thanks for the comment!
I agree. There are few Leviathans left and the galaxy knows about them. It'd be *dumb* for them to attack
They do mostly seem like the secretive kind, aware that their time in the spotlight as the apex species has passed long ago, and an attack on the vastly larger advanced galactic societies would be strategically weird
(sort of like AI Italy in my HOI4 save when they declared war by themselves all alone vs literally the entire world) 🇮🇹😂
What we know is that the villain has to be so grand that Shepard has to return from the dead again just to deal with it as Shepard has become too legendary to deal with street level villains
@@axelnilsson5124 Bigger than the Reapers? That would be quite the challenge! 🫣
Not specifically bigger than the reapers like while the main reason Shepard was resurrected was to fulfill their destiny to beat the reapers that wasn’t really the plot of ME2 as the plot of ME2 was to beat the collectors who’ve spent the last 2 years abducting human colonists in the terminus systems and while the collectors themselves were a big threat they were still just a species and destroying their ship is really all that had to be done as from what we can tell they only have one ship which was easily destroyed by 2 blasts from thanix cannons which I’m pretty sure most of the citadel fleet consists of but this isn’t really saying that they should do the collectors story again just that they can make an entire humanoid species the villains again (perhaps the species that the statues on ilos represented?)
@@axelnilsson5124 I see what ur saying! Like we neeed a proper powerful villain, and that it wouldn't be enough for the main antagonist to basically just be the Blue Suns or something😂