Ok it’s an odd statement for sure but stick with me a bit on this. Bigwigs are Bioware are making some statements that sound like they will give the Mass Effect series the “multi-verse” touch, ala Final Fantasy. Community Manager Chris Priestly first stated:
- “To call the next game Mass Effect 4 or ME4 is doing it a disservice and seems to cause a lot of confusion here.”We have already said that the Commander Shepard trilogy is over and that the next game will not feature him/her. That is the only detail you have on the game. I see people saying ‘well, they’ll have to pick a canon ending’. No, because the game does not have to come after. Or before. Or off to the side. Or with characters you know. Or yaddayaddayadda.”
Then Studio Director Yannick Roy chimed in on a NeoGAF thread to say:
- …Time does indeed matter, but the words prequel / midquel / sequel come loaded with a bunch of other assumptions that don’t necessarily all apply to the next ME game.
When I read these it sounds to me like they are going to take the ME formula and implement it in to different stories that have nothing to do with each other but follow the same principal, much like Square did with the Final Fantasy Series. The formula will be tweaked here and there but the story could be entirely new, having nothing to do with the previous games (unless they decide to brain fuck everyone years after the fact). What do you think though? Do you infer something different? Let us know in the comments section.
I kinda like the idea because if there is kinda a different story every game you don’t get what happened at the end of ME3
And, you don’t have to worry about whether or not your decisions fit in to the “history” of the Universe.
Or having to buy/reply all the games/DLC that came before it to understand the story and what not
case in point, you have to read all of the Halo novels in addition to playing the games to fully know why things are happening in each sequel as opposed to them putting the information in to each of the games.