Rumination Analysis on Mass Effect 3
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- Опубликовано: 8 фев 2025
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"we cannot defeat the Reapers conventionally!" - Shepard ignores Hackett's defeatist attitude and kills a Reaper *ON FOOT* on Rannoch
And a whole fleet shooting at one spot.
Angriest Pat: It's Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine.
I knew I was not going to enjoy the story the moment the catalyst was first mentioned. Mass Effect was so far always about defying the odds through ingenuity determination and cooperation.
It didnt use magical plot ddvices, and it never needed them.
ME3 has many flaws, but I don't think this particular moment is a good example of one. Shepard merely targeted the Reaper so the fleet could gun it down. You kind of make it sound like he took it down in a one-on-one battle without any assistance at all lol
"The good is better, the bad is worse."
Yep, pretty much sums up Mass Effect 3.
to this day I dream of a remake of the trilogy using the gameplay mechanics of 3, and a full rewrite of the story of 3 I know it will never happen but it would be so good.
Mass Effect 3 is rated Nicolas Cage
I actually like this game. Except the ending is as bad as everyone says. I don't even like the remade ending. I like the increased drama and urgency. But I will admit the overall story isn't that great.
Last boss is Marauder Shields! How you could've forgotten him?!
"You know who's an anti-Shepard? Saren!"
Clone Shep: "Am I a joke to you?"
Lorerunner: Yes, but that's beside the point-
The last time I saw this rumination, you still had hair XD
Yep. Actually think the bald look suits him. Gives him a more distinguished boss man look
54:10 - 54:14 Actually. If you chose to give The Illusive Man the Collector Base you will, by default, have the Control Ending unlocked and have to build up resources to unlock the Destroy Ending.
i don't think alot of people do low ems runs to see that.
Yeah only if you have low EMS. I'm pretty sure most people have saves or use editors to give them all the war assets from 1 and 2. Even with out them, you can get a really high war score just from 3
“Ruins* aren't fun to fight through." “What IS fun to fight through?" “Gardens, electronic shops. Antique stores, but only if they're classy."
Hospitals. Hospitals aren’t fun to fight through.
Squad banter is a great idea. More games need to do it.
19:45 Let me add something here: It´s a weapon that no one knows what it is, what it does, if works or even if the schematics are complete... And the best part of all: It needs to fit in a unknown structure ... Main Plot of ME3...
And the combined forces of the galaxy were all-in on its construction.
"The rachni have finally joined the galactic community? Get them on this mystery device!"
If I remember correctly, they aren't even sure it's a weapon in the common sense of the word.
The best thing about Mass Effect 3 will always be discovering your channel all those years ago.
I literally subbed to you like 7 years ago because of Mass effect 3 videos and here we are again. Happy to see you’re still kicking and making interesting content
Replaying the game now as part of the legendary edition is truly incredible but also excruciating and frustrating because on one hand I have this game series that I love and these characters that I grew so attached to growing up as a child. (I played Mass Effect 1 when I was 11 for the first time)Then I have this lazy idle and frankly pathetic ending to an otherwise fantastic trilogy and every time I replay the trilogy I find myself coming back to your rumination perhaps to remind myself that my opinions is warranted which is ridiculous but thank you for continuing to speak what other gamers are thinking on a regular basis with your ruminations. Your much more in touch with how the majority feel about lots of topics than you might think. One thing is for damn sure. Your not some idiot just spouting crap behind a desk to us. Your still archangeia, smartest gamer on RUclips to most of us. Keep doing you....
Mass Effect 3 is how I discovered this channel all them years ago. No regrets. As for the game itself I constantly flip flop on whether I like it or not. One day ill be like "yeah I love it" the next ill be "oh that piece of rubbish". If the remastered trilogy turns out to be true I really hope they fix a lot of these issues or just full on remake it. It won't happen but hope does not need to be logical.
I discovered this all them years ago as well, and I feel about the same as you. when it comes to the remastered trilogy I lean towards hoping it being a full on remake... imagine ME1 with ME3 gameplay mechanics(or even ME2 for that matter), and then do some tweaks to ME2(to lead into ME3 better) and a full on rewrite of ME3... all with modern graphics it could be so good...
Ditto
Lorerunner: "I made that video, and It exploded and was shared on the bioware forum. And I still don't know why."
Speaking for myself and maybe a lot of others. The reason it blew up big, was because you were one of the first to speak up and defend the thoughts and opinions of people who were being shouted down by bioware fanboys and the lame media, trying to discredit gamers on the issue of the endings.
From the bottom of my heart I thank you, I've been subscribed since that day you made the video.
>the lame media, trying to discredit gamers on the issue of the endings.
Some things never change
Eight years, eh? Doesn't feel like that at all.
And honestly, to this day, your original Mass Effect video was one of the best game critique I've ever watched. regardless of the fact you might feel like it was "just some idiot talking".
What I want is a Mass Effect game that is just about solving crimes on the citadel.
Archengeia...saw the title and the date and thought, has it really been 8 years. You have worked hard and built a solid channel. Well done and thanks for the hours of content.
Godammit lorerunner I just finished a final and was about to go to bed, and then I saw you upload an hour long mass effect retrospective.
Ah well. If I fall asleep listening to it I can always rewatch it tomorrow!
The Starchild should have looked like Saren.
It would have been cool and easy to excuse away, since the Reaper had him in their control in the first game and he was on the Citadel when he died, with Sovereign attempting to take control of the station.
40:08
You are kinda mistaken there because you convince QUARIANS that they can coexist. Geth weren’t alien to the idea to begin with, it was Quarians who were the problem
Are the Quarians the problem? There was a galactic ban on AI, co-existence was never an option for the Quarians less they risk war with all nations in the galaxy.
This resonates so well, even today, simply because of the power of storytelling. Per your point, the reason we shared these sorts of discussions in the Bioware forums, and whatnot, was because we were all hurting. As strange as that sounds to some, games and film are escapism for many people. And over the course of literal years, you develop attachments to the characters and the story. So much so, that even the creators of those projects can actually end up betraying the fans, because they betrayed their own characters. At that point, it becomes communal, almost. The creator has as much an obligation to the fans and the story, as anything else. And the fans themselves attain a sort of camaraderie.
Moreover, in an environment where fans felt hurt, and were ridiculed for feeling that way, we turned to the only sympathetic minds that could truly understand our disappointment...each other. Hell, I've made friends for life out of the ME3 debacle. Even more, the sheer number of fan creations have been far richer than anything even Bioware could have imagined. I've written no less than 4 novel sized stories to get over my indignation, and I'm still always interested in new fan content and discussion. Sometimes, those discussions result in yet other projects. I even ended up creating a compilation of my favorite fan mods and videos, and shared it with my fellow Mass Effect friends, simply because we NEEDED some sort of physical disc to go along with the games, just so we could scour the horrid taste out of our minds.
Still, whatever my misgivings on the series, it still remains one of the most important series in my game collection. Mass Effect influenced how I view stories and sci-fi in general. At any rate, the Ruminations are much appreciated, and I'm glad you were able to find your way through troubled times. It's been a crazy 8 years...hope to see you in another 8...
Mass Effect 3 is how I found you on youtube, so I'm thankful for that, I love watching your work. One thing that still annoys me is that they killed Emily Wong via Facebook and we got that random reporter lady on the ship. They could have at least gave us Al-Jalani. The Jacob thing was blatant character assassination.
At least Al-Jilani has her epic moment in the Citadel coup where she warns everyone of Cerberus attackers.
What?! Killed via Facebook?
@@JayTohab yeah they had these news updates on social media
I'd think the reason the Reapers have grounds troops it's for the harvesting, those huge ships can kill a lot of people yes, but they can't collect them
10:53 If you think about it in the context at that time, considering Earth is basically a lost cause as they had nothing prepared for being invaded, Shepherd is really saying ‘We die, or we die’ which makes it even funnier
I'm not going to laugh at you for processing a work after you completed it because I do the exact same thing. Actually, I couldn't stop thinking about this franchise so much that I started to think up ways to fix mass effect 3 to the point to where I've actually developed skill in writing and game design, and it has caused me to think of getting a career as a game developer, which is probably going to end up badly but it's worth a shot. In my mind, one of the greatest things a fictional work could do is inspire people to creat other work which is what the trilogy accomplished and what you accomplished with all of your videos keep up the good work lore inspire more people.
Mass Effect also is probably what got me back into writing and wanting to be a writer...eight years later still not much luck but ever the dream.
I'm currently massively editing a Mass Effect 3 playthrough to fit a fic I wrote, so I agree 100%.
I liked angry joes option.. the fourth option is to... sit next to the star child and see who is right. That you tell the star child that it’s your team.. the people.. and everyone you brought together.. and you both weight. Even have it somewhat as a game of chance. If you hit x war score you have an 80% chance of winning.. below a certain number only 30% chance.. no matter what you do there is a chance of win and a chance of loss.. and you can take the chance over the sure thing
I was watching since your workplace ruminations Archengeia. What a journey it's been. So incredibly proud of all you've accomplished.
Let's fucking GO!
I just found your channel yesterday via the Rumination of ME2, one of my favorite games of all time. And In the very next day you upload this one to complete the whole Trio.
Great content, keep it up!
One thing that's shifted since they announced Mass Effect 4 is how they spin the ending.
They have "clarified" that apparently Destroy just kills the reapers. It doesn't kill the geth, or EDI, just the reapers. I think mostly so they don;t paint themselves into a corner for the story of 4.
I'm glad to see you haven't mellowed out on the endings as so many other people (I've seen) seem to have. I've done half a dozen or more playthroughs over the years since it's release, but have only gone through the ending twice (once with the original ending, once with extended cut), after that I've just turned the game off after the final confrontation with TIM, it still angers me just thinking about it.
It's funny, during the last season of Game of Thrones last year I found myself thinking about the Mass Effect 3 ending often. I feel like both caused feelings of lament for missed potential combined with feeling betrayed by inexcusably poor writing.
+1 on the whole GoT and ME3 comparison. There's one or two people I still regularly talk to about the endings. Hell, I just wrote another damn story based on my own ruminations with those people, lol.
"the good is better and the bad is worse" that perfectly sums up my feelings on this game
Found this channel by chance while doing deep dives into mass effect lore for an upcoming mass effect rpg Campaign I'm going to be running soon. I'm grateful to have found it, because deep critical analyses are rare on some of the subjects I enjoy. Thank you for the time, effort, and intelligence you put into these!
Great rumination! Really good points and it's nice to see your thoughts evolve during the time! More than 8 years ... it's been a while Mr Lorerunner! So happy to still hear your great analysis! Thanks for everything you are giving us! Hope it will continue for a long time!
I don't know who all is going to be interested in this, but this has been bouncing around my head for sometime and I need to get it out so I have room for other writing projects. This is how I would fix the core elements of Mass Effect Three.
Step One. Crucible is ejected. I have put it officially someplace where Q can't even get to it. :) Seriously, it was a bad idea to begin with and just needs to go. So where does that leave the story? We still start on Earth, the Alliance either believes you or not depending on who you put on the Council. If you chose Anderson, the Alliance has been working on defenses against the Reapers since the end of ME1. Anderson as a Councilor would have the political pull on Earth to do that, even if he is just one voice of four on the Council. If you chose Udina, well...he wants to get along with the other Council races so he tows the party line on the Reapers.
These two choices wouldn't be a Good choice or a Bad choice. Both have good and bad consequences. If you choose Anderson, Earth is much better prepared and fends off the first Reaper assault which is two Sovereign class Reapers and five destroyers, not the DOOM fleet we see in the actual game. Picking Udina means Earth gets curb stomped as in the game, but again, only two Sovereign class Reapers and five destroyers, but the rest of the galaxy is more likely to join with Shepard, IE its easier to get the Asari, Turians and Salarians to agree to joint ops under Admiral Hackett because Udina didn't step on as many toes as Anderson does.
Either way you are still going to Mars, not to pick up data on the Crucible, but to get Liara, as the Shadow Broker she's a major asset all by herself and really is all the excuse you need to go to Mars in the first place. Why she is there will be different depending on if you romanced her in ME1 and reaffirmed that romance in ME2. If you did, she was on Earth to support you during your downtime after blowing up that Batarian relay. If not whoever you DID romance will be on Earth and will be a squad member immediately, no matter WHO it is, except for Liara cause she was called to Mars just before the events of the game start up to help with some translations of a newly opened database for a computer they just got working due to Shepard's efforts in the previous two games. When you get to Mars, no stupid storm, its not needed. When you get there everything seems to be perfectly fine, Liara meets you and takes you down to the newly opened archives where we discover that humanity was on the short list for a direct cache being left due to humans natural resistance to Indoctrination, and that they were working on a way to improve that to near immunity to indoctrination.
The only reason the Asari got the tech cache on Thessia and not the Humans was because the improvements weren't ready in time and the Asari were already ahead in biotic development. Then Kai Lang shows up, with EDIs body, to steal some unrelated bit of tech. EDI's body hacks the security drones then the big fight starts. After you chase down Kai Lang depending on whether or not you gave the collector base to Cerberus or not is going to affect how he reacts to you. If you DID he's friendly and says he's been looking forward to working with Shepard and questions why you are back with the Alliance instead of helping Cerberus defeat the Reapers directly and securing humanity as the dominate species of the Galaxy. He also shows off some enhancements that Cerberus got from the Collector base. If you didn't give the Collector base to Cerberus Kai Lang is more along the lines of "I'm looking forward to killing you!" Either way you fight him for the first time here, mechanically the fight will be similar the only difference being whether or not he has enhancements and is holding back, or is honestly trying to kill you but with no enhancements. Kai Lang will get away with what he stole in either case. Furthermore the information Liara uncovered gives the location of the Prothean lab that was working on immunity for indoctrination. You now have three choices, you can go to the Citidal to attempt to rally the races of the galaxy, go after kai lang or go to the base. Thus ends the first part of the game. Let me know what you think of this so far.
I like it, you've definitely got some ideas worth implementing. My favourite thing is that your choices over the franchise seem much more meaningful whereas in ME3 a lot of it was just a change of skins for different characters and that's it
You got some great ideas but about the crucible plot device while I agree needs to be ejected. I think there is a way you can still have it in the storyline. Just make the crucible a trap planted by the Reapers give organics a sense of hope when in actuality it gives it disables they're weapons and technology making harvesting them easier. A total subversion of the whole Deus Ex machina trope.
this sounds really good, I am interested how you would structure the general fight against the reapers and the ending
It's been seven months. Where's the rest of it? Do you have a doc?
Awsome video, i could tell this game really ment something to you and the outro confirmed this. Im glad everything worked its way towards positivity. After watching one of your game ruminations it gets me hyped to sit down and really enjoy what im playing. Cheers.
The biggest thing I hate about this game Is how they erased the story of Mass Effect 2 almost completly.
1. Almost no one from Mass Effect 2 Is back on the Normandy.
2. Its like Shepard never worked with Cerberus and they have now become one dimensional bad guys ?
3. Shepard Is always angry !?
I remember when I first saw your original mass effect 3 video. It was nice to see someone put in words a lot of the things I was feeling at the time. I'm glad you've done well streaming and such. I also have to credit you with re sparking my love for kingdom hearts. I hope you have another good 8 years!
Dang, your views on the Cidital Dlc is what I was looking forward too. Glad you went though all the mass effect games .
1:01:13 it's worth a lot more than you could know
I second this!
I'm really grateful for ME3 because of your channel existing, I think that's about the only positive thing I can think of after my recent playthrough. Oh wait, the multiplayer and Citadel DLC too, along with party dialogue, and I think that's it.
I always though Shephard was the only "good" cell within Cerberus, so without them, they're stereotypical villains. But yeah their galactic strength for a group consisting of purely humans is ridiculous.
Ever been so hungry and worn down that you forget the term "head start"? That's Lore working for your entertainment.
Arch. I'll be 26 soon but. I like your ruminations I found that mass effect clip you made when I was 16. I was impressionable but you made an impact on me. And it was so bizarre how we shared ideas about mass effect and Dragon age.
Bit I'll be 26 soon. I have changed and I'm glad you work out man. Many things change hope your good. Intelligence is a benefit
I'm currently working on video game "movies" or episodes and I'm actually drudging through Andromeda which is a big woof. Bit I'm completing it before going back to Red Dead
Loving these re-Ruminations
Me and a good friend of mine used to run around a specific map in the multiplayer as Geth soldiers and duo it with flamethrowers on Platinum difficulty. Was a ton of fun.
I finally got to replay this with dlc thanks to the legendary edition and it is absolutely INSANE that Javik is dlc only. He felt so essential to the plot that I literally took him and Liara on every mission. I actually think I enjoyed this a lot more with all the dlc. It still didn't feel finished, but it felt closer, for sure.
Regarding the starchild, the entire time it was speaking I wanted to shoot the thing. It's entire logic is broken. It's an AI that was created by the leviathan to broker peace between synthetic and organics. It's problem was that synthetics eventually turn on their creators so it's solution... Is to turn on its creators? Like that doesn't solve the issue in any way.
And for the Reapers, perhaps I'm wrong but wasn't it implied THEY built the Citadel? So did they just... Not know that it was essential to the crucible? Cause as soon as they find out they take it over and move it to earth. How could they possibly not know that though? And how did the Protheans know that? Didn't the citadel get wiped out immediately when they found out about the reapers? How would they figure out the machine they were building requires a space station NONE of them had ever seen or set foot on? Oh well, onto more positive things.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Citadel DLC, but I definitely agree with it not really fitting with the rest of the game. Omega seemed kinda... Pointless. I did enjoy the evil General character though and I think it was the first time I'd ever seen a female turian, so that was interesting.
All in all I'd say I rather enjoyed it this time, despite agreeing with 90% of your complaints. I didn't feel like the Liara romance was as poorly done as you did, but maybe I was reading more into it than was actually there in the game.
The moment that really got me though? After you help the Elcor diplomat save some of his people from their home world. When you get back and you talk to him Shepard asks "how many were we able to save" and the Elcor just says "Not. Enough". For the first time in the series without their descriptor in front. You could almost hear the wavering in their voice, and for an Elcor thats incredible. I'm man enough to admit that made me tear up a bit.
If you ever get really bored and have the time, try out the Mass Effect Happy Ending Mod (MEHEM) and the Citadel Epilogue Mod (CEM) - it's the only way I play ME3 since they were put out there. Turns the ending into something coherent (though admittedly there's no variance) and makes the Citadel mod what it should have been in the first place... an Epilogue. Highly recommended, cheers! Oh, and yeah, I pretty much agree with your analysis of ME3.
Damn! you just pointed out all the issues I had problems with and not only gave them a "name" but also explained why they don't work!
Amazing job as always :D
i've been here since the original ending to ME3 blew up lol and my opinions on the ending and game in general hasn't changed but i can see being a little older and wiser to the gaming industry that the team did a great job making this game what it was in a very short development cycle, if they had another year or year and a half a lot of the writing problems would have been ironed out and that ending would never have happened like that, the citadel DLC with the "all hands on deck for this one" was a nod to that, also the normandy not thanix cannon shooting Harbinger and running as a distraction is crazy to me, its such a jarring moment lol also mike gamble being the project director for the next mass effect gives me some hope.
the writing/ending is not the only problem in the game. the story overall was terrible and nothing would fix it, it has nothing to do with becoming "wiser". also, the pandering done in the citadel dlc is some of the easiest writing someone can do, so that says nothing about how the actual game would've changed with more time.
The multiplayer still has a shockingly large and devoted playerbase. You can find games instantly still, over 8 years later.
I was rewatching the og series and I accidentally got into this video
The lack of hair gave me pause lol !!!
Your amazing keep it up !!!
yayyy been waiting for this one! Thanks boss
What, you're not planning on doing a Citadel Dlc rumination lol?
I havent watched your stuff for years, mostly due to me losing interest in gaming. Still, your work is far the best in the field. Your Mass Effect 3 Ending video was the first I watched back in 2012. This one brings back memories of that time. God bless you.
The background plus the lighting on you is hitting the perfect Rumination mood imo.
Nice dissection. Some notes : 7 million died in the first week. Source - teaser trailer. Considering billions of population, there would be indeed a (devastated) earth to save. Also, a deus ex machina in ancient Greek tragedy was the god that appeared in the very end of the play unexpectedly to save the day. The crucible appears (as a concept) right in the very first mission. Not a deus ex machina.
Here's to another 8 years, Loreguy
I think we should revisit Mass Effect 3 and it's failures once a year lol, great remake.
Awesome videos... :) I'm starving for these types of videos.
Welcome to the Ground Zero of multiple RUclips analytical/critic careers.
There are some good mods to fix the ending. For example JohnP's Alternate MEHEM & Citadel Epilogue Mod combined make it as satisfying as possible without rewriting everything from the ground up.
WAIT WHAT !?!? I only played the game briefly before learning about the endings but even then i did not god dam expect them to just erase the romance from the other 2 games....
I mean this is bare minimum stuff what the hell...
Just my assessment but for me, the reapers as a gestalt conscious spaceship is limited in its size and influence of their indoctrination. Ultimately it would be easier and quicker to convert agents to do the easy dirty work whilst the big damage could be done against something equivalent of size. Weird to think about but imagine the reaper drones equivalent of micro-scrubbers whilst the space ship body is a generic super high powered water jet. Both in tandem would be quicker to clean out then each individual use.
Writers giving us the middle finger and the game news, who were supposed to side with us and didn't, is why I hate what happened with this game.
Which in turn, led to gamer gate. Never throw your customers under the bus.
They even objected to the idea of the extended endings due to "artistic integrity"
I honestly think that the majority of Mass Effect 3 is fantastic (I respectfully disagree with your opinion on the first few missions), with the ending being the only real drawback. I love the many side missions that allow you to interact with your old squamates to see what they're up to, and both Tuchanka and Rannoch are outstanding. I even like Thessia for the most part because it really provides a good example of exactly how hopeless things are at that point in the war. Even on Earth, I enjoyed the ground crawl through the city and eventually towards then Conduit. The ending is lackluster, but even if it was admittedly quite bad, the journey is what really matters in my opinion, and I'll pretty much never be unhappy to play back through the game.
Long-time viewer here, since that first video eight years ago, sharing that same sense of crushing disappointment after years of personal investment in this trilogy - right from day one, for me. It's almost strange to circle back around to this game again, but it's been absolutely wonderful to follow your progress in that time, Lore.
After all you've overcome to get to this point, it seems fair to say that *you* cannot be beaten conventionally! ;)
Here, indeed, is to another eight years.
I love your videos :) You are well spoken and intelligent person
You are amazing, love your videos and streams!
Only 4 times, I thought Everyone beat each game in the trilogy at least 10 times or more by now.
I dunno man I liked James Vega. He is annoying at the start but once you get to know his character he is pretty observant and off the cuff especially when he said this about the Citadel " It's... not right. It looks pretty, calm and peaceful, but it's not right. It's all just an illusion. They'd rather believe in this than face the truth". He just says it as he sees it.
"Stand in the ashes of a trillion dead souls and ask the ghosts if honor matters." On of my favorite quotes!
@@zogwort1522 You're missing the point, I think. What I'm getting is that honour is often chosen in favour of pragmatism. If you want an example, look at Ned Stark in A Game of Thrones. The decision that would yield the least loss of life would be to allow Joffrey to take the throne, and gain influence over him and his rulings, all with the revelation of his true heritage in his back pocket in case the little shit gets out of line. However, Ned is a man of honour who couldn't bring himself to lie to the world and live it for that long, as well as dishonouring Joffrey's uncle Stannis by willingly keeping him from his inheritance. In so doing, Ned causes both of the old king's brothers, Stannis and Renly, to have support claims to the throne and to begin campaigns to take it, separating from the Seven Kingdoms. Ned's son, while ruling in his stead, was already marching south with his bannermen to get Ned and his daughters back, but Ned's declaration that Joffrey's rule is illegitimate angered him enough to have Ned beheaded, which pushed the Northern troops further into war, so much so that Ned's son gets crowned King in the North and completely separates as an independent state. The Northern military marching south provides an opening for the Iron Islands to attack the North and pillage it's settlements.
TL;DR Ned choosing honour over the safe option was the final domino that began the War of the Five Kings that persisted for several years and caused countless deaths. What was one man's honour worth if this is what it wrought?
Similar to ME2 with Conrad Verner flipping out on you even if you charmed him in ME1, the Lair of the Shadowbroker dlc failed to set a correct flag for continuing the Liara romance in the save file. So if you don't use a save editor to correct the flag she forgets about the tour of the Normandy. The first time I played ME3 I remember this happening and have never played it again without correcting the flag.
so what we are getting here is biowares import software just does not work. and it seems to just be liara with that issue garrus ad tali continue the romance when they join.
Regarding your point about earth still fighting after months, the game does point out that it's not just earth but also that once the major population centres are destroyed the Reapers have a harder time finding and killing or acquiring people. Which makes sense.
Once you figure out conventional warfare doesn't work, the next step is guerilla warfare. There's even some notes later in the game about suicide attacks on husk facilities.
And the fact that Reapers aren't trying to wipe out all life everywhere is a limitation on them, they can't just have death stars laying around because they want life to continue
0:22 "Why Mass Effect 3? Why did you do this to me?"
ME3 "The Mako sends her regards."
8 years huh? damn.... we've really comes full circle. I remember I was in senior year of high school when you did the original Mass effect 3 video. One of the things I love so much about that original video that's how you analyzed and went to full detail about why the ending did not work in a way that at the time no one was really doing but when you said gave your critiques you can tell it came from a place of love and that's why I think the whole Mass effect community and myself who watch the video fell in love with your channel but also shared it.
Now I'm a senior in college and you're still giving me things to think about but I think the line "the good is better, the bad is worse" best sums up how I feel about this game. I haven't played in years and I would definitely love a remaster to come out to see if my viewpoint still remains but the fact remains that Mass effect 3 was one of gaming's biggest disappointment and led to the ultimate downfall of BioWare.
I'm glad to see you was able to build something out of all of this craziness that is Mass effect 3 and I look forward to seeing your next video as always.
This is the type of content we all want from you, could you do an Andromeda Rumination too
Kai Leng is the Anti-Cauthrien. I don't know if they couldn't come up with a way to make the fight actually difficult enough that you would lose, or if they didn't have any ideas for what could happen if you won. So they simply do not allow you to win and treat you like a chump for losing. I've seen some annoying bits of cutscene magic, but this is at the top.
Edit: You didn't mention the Omega DLC, which I don't really mind overall. But it had something the entire Mass Effect series should have had: Class-specific choices. The game acknowledging your character's gameplay skills in lore and giving extra options. It was just one instance and only for one class, but it was finally added. I haven't played Andromeda, but I know it abandoned the class system, so I don't know if something like this was implemented. So the Omega DLC will stay in my mind as that one moment when my Engineer could finally show some of those tech skills.
I dunno, the Garrus one pretty well acknowledges prior romance, but probably because the only way to romance Garrus *is to have done so in 2.*
Speaking of "middle finger to players", I remember there was a huge thread on the official forums, and that thread was about fans trying to make sense of the whole trilogy story concluded by rainbow endings. As the result of those talks that huge thread presented the theory of how Indoctrination works, how and when it affected the player character, how the third installment of the series actually shown the Indoctrination process in progress, and what exactly happens within the Citadel. The integrity of the explanation was so sound it got wide popular and even tied the very last moment of the game where the player sees Shepard breathing in the rubble. The choices the player made throughout the game suddenly got their own new meaning of fighting for free will even for a brief period of time just enough to do something meaningful for all those who would continue the battle even after Shepard is gone.
The downside of the explanation was that it implied the game story is not actually finished. And many players were satisfied even with an unfinished game just because the story made sense to them.
What did Bioware say in public before the Indoctrination Theory emerged? Something like: "We deliberately made the game ending somewhat vague so that players would discuss it for years". I don't remember atcual quotations actually, it was so long time ago.
And what did Bioware do when the Indoctrination Theory emerged? They deleted its thread from the forums! :D
Just like: "We want the players to discuss the ending, BUT NOT THAT WAY!!1"
Considering the upcoming updates with sayings like "we want to make endings more clear" it brought hopes to players, but nothing came even close to what the players developed themselves and shared among each other.
Release of the updated endings was okay, but its combination with the delition of the largest story discussion thread from the official forums really made an impression of a "middle finger". It was a gem dedicated from fans to the trilogy they love - and that's how it was treated in the end.
God I love these ruminations. Tank you!
I still think of Citadel as a sort of afterlife for the players. You're even invited to just end the game before the characters leave. It's a weird apology and celebration and doesn't fit as anything but an epilogue and post-script, but takes place in the lowest time of the game. So... yeah?
Lorerunner, I agree with just about everything you note (esp. about the bust size) about ME3, yet every year and a half or so, I playthrough the entire ME trilogy because I love the characters and the team. ME3, for me, offers lovely fan service moments, such as the wonderful shooting contest with Garrus. And after many playthroughs, I now like James Vega as a well-intentioned, loyal soldier; I even let him call me Lola. I don't play the London battle or the final galaxy child scene anymore. I finish everything up to that point and then have the party in Anderson's apartment!
Synthesis is so obviously intended as the superior third option they straight up just took the name from the Hegelian Dialectic.
I never forgave them for what they did to Kelly in that game. The only female romance option that didn't require you to actually kill anybody.
How dare you not aknowlede the fact that Marauder Shields was the last boss. He was no ordinary Mook. He tired to save us from the ending. I say may his name live on and never be forgotten.
Damn it. At the end- right to the feelings.
I still remember finishing ME3, staring blankly at the screen as the credits roll and just muttering to myself, "Is... is that it...?"
But to me it's a testament to how good these games were overall, that the ending left me so hollow. It still was one heck of a ride.
So I am one of the few weird people who likes the majority of Mass Effect 3, and yes I know that means most people would put me in an asylum consequently, and while I agree with a lot of this, there are a couple things that kinda stick out to me.
Also, some of this may be headcanon based on how I interpreted things.
First, in my opinion, the Reapers are like the droid in Kotor 2 on Telos working for Czerka in the databank, the small one, not the golden one you get to control for a while, where when you point out it's two main directives are mutually exclusive, it just breaks and goes insane. Reapers were told to preserve organic life while preventing the chaos they cause, more or less, and the two were mutually exclusive thus the best answer the reapers could come up with was basically a form of taxidermy. Which is why they need ground forces. They are harvesting races, not eliminating them. They fight a war of attrition on the ground where for every person lost to the reapers, is also one soldier gained by the reapers. While in the sky they display dominance on an almost unfathomable scale (that turn would have ripped our ship in half)
Conventionally defeating a reaper is mentioned a lot as being inconsistent with the need of the crucible I would like to argue that is not necessarily true. Reapers could be defeated conventionally by this cycle. The Reapers could not be defeated conventionally by this cycle.
My best analogy for is to compare it to Star Wars.
Star Destroyers could be beaten when handled properly, ie the Reapers on Rannoch and Tuchunka.
A single Star Dreadnaught like The Executioner could be destroyed with a lot of luck and taking advantage of arrogance, ie a Capital ship like Sovereign. The Alliance has one of the strongest navys and it took the entire 5th fleet, suffering considerable losses, to beat one capital ship and a group of Geth ships. The Alliance has 8 fleets total and it took 1/8th of their entire navy to take on a Capital Reaper and it's escort of ships that are inferior to reapers and that was with help from Shepard, damaging Sovereign through Saren.
But what about a fully completed Death Star which hasn't been sabotaged? ie Harbinger who far outclasses the other reapers? a whole different conversation.
Now the Protheans could somewhat fight the Reapers conventionally and held on for centuries. But what if the Protheans were an anomaly while the current cycle, at least on its face, was the norm. The Protheans, in their cycle, saw their own version of the Morning War between the Quarians and the Geth and, as a response, they dominated the entire galaxy, assimilated the races into the Prothean Empire, and destroyed the synthetic uprising. Protheans were not a species by the time the Reapers showed up, they were a culture like the Mandalorians or the Covenant, and they were a culture whose major war had been fighting synthetics. The Protheans had far more martial might than the current cycle (they beat the Rachni for example while the current cycle needed to uplift the Krogan who by the time the reapers arrive are far from the strength they had against the Rachni) and had developed to overcome a synthetic threat during the Metacon War. Thus I suggest that the Protheans were an anomaly while the current cycle of divided species is the norm.
My explanation of Cerberus is far more headcanon.
Cerberus is hinted at as being EXTREMELY well funded multiple times, in addition to this, they have the facilities and capabilities to design, prototype, and build the Normandy SR-2. So they potentially have the resources and facilities to build armor, ships, weapons, etc. So all they need is bodies to fill all the armor and ships they suddenly have is ME:3. Cerberus soldiers are shown on Mars to basically be half husks at this point. Sanctuary, a place where many people are fleeing, is experimenting on people with Reaper tech and under control of Cerberus. That is one place for them to get bodies to put in their armor and ships.
Also, the Destroy and Control endings become defaults based on Mass Effect 2 whether you destroyed or kept the Collector base.
This is going to be a controversial opinion but I actually really like the idea, if implemented properly and no lies otherwise are made, of getting to Mass Effect 3 and realizing that against the Reapers, your choices didn't matter. That while Shepard could have profound effects on the galaxy such as Rannoch with the Quarians and the Geth, the Reapers are a force beyond that and in the end, it doesn't matter what Shepard did, or did not do because the Reapers are so fundamentally a tier above. Everything you did prior to going back to earth was basically an onside kick just to get an opportunity to throw the hail mary against opposition far better putting all your hope on a less bad outcome on an all or nothing play and 4th ending is where that fails and everything is sacrificed just to buy time and give the next cycle a chance to win the war conventionally. (Ignoring the writers being gifted great PR and taking a shit on it.)
My god I wrote an entire book on this and by the time I got to this point I forgot some of the things I wanted to bring up.
Wow - I'll be listening to this again when I'm not also trying to problem solve in Excel! You'll probably call me a weirdo for this, but I still like your old videos - I didn't come on with Mass Effect but I've listened to all of them (some multiple times). You did manage to add to your previous thoughts though. You have the kind of developed analysis where I can't perceive the seams, only the final product. (And as for the end, possibly right back at ya. Here's to another 8 indeed. :) )
Before I get too deep into this, everyone should play through the modded version of this game with ME3 Recalibrated, the Happy Ending mod, extended conversation with Anderson, Citadel Mod, expanded Spectre mod and Expanded Galaxy Mod. It's worth it and it actually makes the game much better.
Yes... But you know is a lie... The glowing kid is now stuck in our minds...
The reason most people think a lot of the third game is good is because of the music. The music in ON POINT and carries most of the game.
"The reason most people think a lot of the third game is good..."
Most people... Like... Some people?
but most of the music is just reused from 2.
Really the ending in the Citedel dlc is more of a real ending of Mass effect 3 than the actual ending in the game.
I was one of the very few people that kind of defended the ending, maybe because I had so low expectations after seeing how much hate it generated that it actually took me by surprise and I welcomed the fact that it was rather unconventional and left me thinking a lot after I finish it. Years later of course I can see the many problems with it, and on my last playthrough I used the Mods that skip the whole Starchild thing and jumps into Citadel as an Epilogue. It was a nice and different experience.
Modded playthrough, Lore runner. Play it on PC with EGM, Improved Thessia, Happy Ending or JAM, Improved Return to Earth. I'm currently playing ME3 and editing the videos to fit a fanfiction trying to address a bunch of the plot holes. I agree with a lot of the issues you talk about, but I ignore a lot of what I hate and embrace the Krogan Cure and Quarian homeworld-Geth synthesis. If you do the Paragon route and use mods, the entire experience is different. You don't lose EDI and the Geth after going through hell to save them.
25:24 That's not really true, man. You got 1 interaction slightly different when you meet liara and then (i believe after the attack on the citadel) you got the "it's been a while and it's all crazy but should we keep this going?" talk. And... yeah, it's not really super well done, but you gotta deal with a lot of stuff and for most of the game you have that sense of urgency, especially until that point, and you companions from previous games are warm enough towards you (IMO that... it actually makes some sense that they leave it like it is right now, although a couple more interactions regarding you relationship would be nice xD.
Great summary of Mass Effect 3 but I can't help but notice so many lights in the centre-west of Australia where there is nothing but desert.
I'm not saying it was aliens, but it's aliens.
Regarding being unable to beat the reapers "conventionally", I think the game does handle it somewhat consistently. It doesn't mean that they can't destroy reaper ships with normal ordinance (Sovereign was defeated in ME1, after all), it just means they can't beat all reaper fleets in head on engagements efficiently. A reaper will simply be able to destroy too many ships for it to normally be worth it. In the secondary codex, there are some entries about battles that happened in the war, as well as reaper strengths and weaknesses. Guerilla tactics were required to make progress, which makes sense.
I guess this isn't explicitly stated, but I always assumed the reasons why the reapers had tons and tons of mindless grunts on the ground was because I assumed they were relatively easy to manufacture (since they came from corpses), and because of the limited number of actual reapers. In addition, I figured they would be used to carry off people to harvest them into making new reapers.
On the galaxy map the reapers do effectively attack everywhere in the galaxy at once, but I think this was supposed to be a gameplay concession with the whole scanning "minigame", and to give a sense of scope and terror of the invasion. The vast majority of reaper forces came through Batarian space and then attacked the homeworlds of the two largest military presences, the Humans and the Turians, and once those planets were successfully destabilized move onto secondary targets like Thessia to further destabilize the galaxy. The rest of the planets could probably be handled with much smaller numbers. It's worth noting that in the ME universe, homeworlds are *way* more populated and important than colonies most of the time. Earth's population is like 11 or 12 billion whereas its largest colonies don't tend to go past 10 million.
And I'm referencing what you said at the end.
The ending is absolutely horrible. They kind of wrote themselves into a corner, and talked themselves into a corner too (by saying all your choices mattered). And they realize they had no way to resolve this overwhelming threat in any realistic manner. I know it can seem "edgy" to have dark endings, or the protagonist die as in Dragon Age: Origins (and really I almost never choose that option). But is happiness and positivity such a bad thing? Can we not ask for an ending like Lord of the Rings: Return of the King where everyone is happy and smiling at the end? Or at least give us something like Fallout where even though you may survive, and the places you impacted are better off for your efforts, you are cast out to make your own way in the world alone. At least the slide show let you know what happened to those places. This ambiguous ending is infuriating. And I don't think it's such a bad thing to want to remain human and maintain individuality.
The synthesis ending was a bit dumb but i saw it as the best possible ending, one where all lives evolve to a higher state of consciousness.
I think the "synthesis" ending is considered the extra "good" ending because it allows the Geth and EDI to live, more lives = more goodest. It's a pretty reductionist way of looking at things.