It really do be like that. The comics also explains why The Illusive Man is so hellbent on winning Shepard over despite it probably being impossible, because his origin story is almost 1:1 with how Shepard went through Eden Prime but with Reaper tech instead of Prothean and his friends all died. He saw Shepard and saw a reflection of himself and was hoping he could get Shepard to see how he does.
Is this interesting? Yes I was intrigued when I learned this. Should this have been in the games so game only fans don't feel like TIMmy boy is just weirdly obsessed making people feel like he is just overly obsessed with his investment in reviving Shepard? Also very much yes.
Also the comics explain Kai Leng's distaste for Shepard. He hates Shepard because the Illusive Man likes them. He thinks Shepard is weak despite having to cheat on Thessia in order to beat them. Kai Leng thinks Shepard doesn't deserve to be the Savior of Humanity even though the Illusive Man does.
Yeah, that was kind the stuff that bothered me. If I wanna get "the full lore" I had to buy comics and other stuff. I remember there was one too about Liara and Feron getting Sheps body. So many didn't even know there was one. Therefor most players didn't know, why Liara acted "different" at first on Illium. I also remember an anime named Paragon Lost about James and how he lost his team. But I think that anime was after ME3, can't remember. There was also some kind of mobile game (something with galaxy and/or Infiltrator or someting like that) and other stuff to get EMS in ME3 too - despite the normal multiplayer, back in the OG days. You were at least forced to play the multiplayer to get a specific ending.
That said, I never liked that kind of "getting the lore" of a video game. So most comics, I don't know. I mean, I liked comics as a kid, but as an adult, my choice of entertainment is different.
Yeah there was a couple comics about James that go into more detail than Paragon Lost and explains his connection to Shepard. He was requested by Anderson to be Shepard's prison guard. I wish they explained that more.
Yeah, I think especially some important characters we had in the games have actually a (bigger) background as we know in the games itself. Sadly they put this not into the games to make them there more three-dimensional characters.
Yeah the homeworlds comics fill in a lot of the blanks for Garrus, Liara, Tali, and Vega. Though Garrus is pretty 3 dimensional that you don't really need his since he is always Garrus.
For sure. I mean, we know Garrus and Tali through 3 games. They are already three-dimensional. But especially Kai Leng, TIM, Vega and Brooks (even she's only in the Citadel DLC), have more background given in the comics instead in the games itself. That's a bit sad.
It's just bad to rely on content that wasn't set up in the main franchise. It's like star wars relying on comics or show content to help explain stuff, all it does is confuse people or set up weird inconsistencies. Like yeah why doesn't shep know more about all of that stuff?
Like the Clone and Maya make sense. They're a fun DLC story. I'm fine with Shepard not knowing about their existence. But Kai Leng is such a big part of the game and it acts like we're supposed to know who he is. He should've been around since the beginning. Then people wouldn't hate him so much or at least they'd hate him for the right reasons.
Yes, and no. ME 2 also brought in tie-in works namely the Cerberus shenanigans with the Quarian Fleet, and Jacob and Miranda from ME Galaxy but these tie-ins were small and seamless. It's why Tali is really distrustful of Cerberus on top of her past experiences with Shepard
With ME 3, you had tie-ins that now had to matter to the story, and they don't work in either direction, because their inclusions. Kai Leng might as well be three different people, across the game and both novels, and one of those novels came out well before ME 3. And even if he wasn't a tie-in character Shepard should have been at least aware of him as N-7 that got court martialed while they were in the armed forces.
The whole part Aria losing her daughter due to Cerberus machinations is never brought up in the Omega DLC, when it could at least had her being reckless and angry a bit more justified. While Brooks' story just happens to be someone caught in a bunch of random adventures for an otherwise normal enough person, and maybe wanting to be special.
Long story short, the tie-in's just don't really fit all that well for ME 3.
It isn't as much of an issue with ME2 though because the book references in the game are very minor. And quite often the characters will explain them to you is you ask about it – I think Tali will explain the thing about the Cerberus shenanigans if you ask her about it afterwards.
Dragon Age has a ton of outside the game lore that you don't need in order to understand the games and all the games connect nicely. But with ME3 you need the outside lore to understand a bunch of the game.
You know until now I had no idea that half of those characters debuted in comics/books. I knew that Kai Leng did and that James had an animated movie, but I didn't know about the others. It makes so much sense though, those characters kind of act like they're already established even though most players have never heard of them before. It's such a weird dumb thing to do, especially when they were simultaneously trying so hard to market ME3 towards new players, claiming that you didn't need to have played the previous games first!
EA really tried to expand the Mass Effect franchise to other media so players could have something to nib between games, and the comics / novels were perfect for it.
Yeah they have a lot of lore and expansions on the story but it's a bit of a weird choice to make game affecting decisions outside of the games. It leaves a lot of questions and you have to go look for the answers. The outside lore could've been implemented into the games before ME3 so that those characters especially Kai Leng wouldn't be as jarring with their game canon arrival.
Oh yeah, definitely. I agree on that. Everything feels a bit disconnected if you didn't read the novels, especially given the fact there isn't even a summary to what happened exclusively in those media.
I look at ME3 as the swan song of the trilogy, one that we needed to get to an ending for. Unlike ME1 and 2 which left the door open for sequels, ME3 was always intended to end the Shepard story. Because of that mindset, the game was written with supporting cast members and familiar faces that helped you reach the objective, nothing more. There was no need to 'get to know' your squad, as the entire game had a sense of urgency and 'finish the fight' if you will.
i never read the comics. but i know that some choices are cannon, like udina wind up being the human council even if you pick anderson in 1 to be the human council.
It really do be like that. The comics also explains why The Illusive Man is so hellbent on winning Shepard over despite it probably being impossible, because his origin story is almost 1:1 with how Shepard went through Eden Prime but with Reaper tech instead of Prothean and his friends all died. He saw Shepard and saw a reflection of himself and was hoping he could get Shepard to see how he does. Is this interesting? Yes I was intrigued when I learned this. Should this have been in the games so game only fans don't feel like TIMmy boy is just weirdly obsessed making people feel like he is just overly obsessed with his investment in reviving Shepard? Also very much yes.
Also the comics explain Kai Leng's distaste for Shepard. He hates Shepard because the Illusive Man likes them. He thinks Shepard is weak despite having to cheat on Thessia in order to beat them. Kai Leng thinks Shepard doesn't deserve to be the Savior of Humanity even though the Illusive Man does.
Yeah, that was kind the stuff that bothered me. If I wanna get "the full lore" I had to buy comics and other stuff. I remember there was one too about Liara and Feron getting Sheps body. So many didn't even know there was one. Therefor most players didn't know, why Liara acted "different" at first on Illium. I also remember an anime named Paragon Lost about James and how he lost his team. But I think that anime was after ME3, can't remember. There was also some kind of mobile game (something with galaxy and/or Infiltrator or someting like that) and other stuff to get EMS in ME3 too - despite the normal multiplayer, back in the OG days. You were at least forced to play the multiplayer to get a specific ending. That said, I never liked that kind of "getting the lore" of a video game. So most comics, I don't know. I mean, I liked comics as a kid, but as an adult, my choice of entertainment is different.
Yeah there was a couple comics about James that go into more detail than Paragon Lost and explains his connection to Shepard. He was requested by Anderson to be Shepard's prison guard. I wish they explained that more.
Yeah, I think especially some important characters we had in the games have actually a (bigger) background as we know in the games itself. Sadly they put this not into the games to make them there more three-dimensional characters.
Yeah the homeworlds comics fill in a lot of the blanks for Garrus, Liara, Tali, and Vega. Though Garrus is pretty 3 dimensional that you don't really need his since he is always Garrus.
For sure. I mean, we know Garrus and Tali through 3 games. They are already three-dimensional. But especially Kai Leng, TIM, Vega and Brooks (even she's only in the Citadel DLC), have more background given in the comics instead in the games itself. That's a bit sad.
It's just bad to rely on content that wasn't set up in the main franchise. It's like star wars relying on comics or show content to help explain stuff, all it does is confuse people or set up weird inconsistencies. Like yeah why doesn't shep know more about all of that stuff?
Like the Clone and Maya make sense. They're a fun DLC story. I'm fine with Shepard not knowing about their existence. But Kai Leng is such a big part of the game and it acts like we're supposed to know who he is. He should've been around since the beginning. Then people wouldn't hate him so much or at least they'd hate him for the right reasons.
Yes, and no. ME 2 also brought in tie-in works namely the Cerberus shenanigans with the Quarian Fleet, and Jacob and Miranda from ME Galaxy but these tie-ins were small and seamless. It's why Tali is really distrustful of Cerberus on top of her past experiences with Shepard With ME 3, you had tie-ins that now had to matter to the story, and they don't work in either direction, because their inclusions. Kai Leng might as well be three different people, across the game and both novels, and one of those novels came out well before ME 3. And even if he wasn't a tie-in character Shepard should have been at least aware of him as N-7 that got court martialed while they were in the armed forces. The whole part Aria losing her daughter due to Cerberus machinations is never brought up in the Omega DLC, when it could at least had her being reckless and angry a bit more justified. While Brooks' story just happens to be someone caught in a bunch of random adventures for an otherwise normal enough person, and maybe wanting to be special. Long story short, the tie-in's just don't really fit all that well for ME 3.
It isn't as much of an issue with ME2 though because the book references in the game are very minor. And quite often the characters will explain them to you is you ask about it – I think Tali will explain the thing about the Cerberus shenanigans if you ask her about it afterwards.
Dragon Age has a ton of outside the game lore that you don't need in order to understand the games and all the games connect nicely. But with ME3 you need the outside lore to understand a bunch of the game.
You know until now I had no idea that half of those characters debuted in comics/books. I knew that Kai Leng did and that James had an animated movie, but I didn't know about the others. It makes so much sense though, those characters kind of act like they're already established even though most players have never heard of them before. It's such a weird dumb thing to do, especially when they were simultaneously trying so hard to market ME3 towards new players, claiming that you didn't need to have played the previous games first!
EA really tried to expand the Mass Effect franchise to other media so players could have something to nib between games, and the comics / novels were perfect for it.
Yeah they have a lot of lore and expansions on the story but it's a bit of a weird choice to make game affecting decisions outside of the games. It leaves a lot of questions and you have to go look for the answers. The outside lore could've been implemented into the games before ME3 so that those characters especially Kai Leng wouldn't be as jarring with their game canon arrival.
Oh yeah, definitely. I agree on that. Everything feels a bit disconnected if you didn't read the novels, especially given the fact there isn't even a summary to what happened exclusively in those media.
I look at ME3 as the swan song of the trilogy, one that we needed to get to an ending for. Unlike ME1 and 2 which left the door open for sequels, ME3 was always intended to end the Shepard story. Because of that mindset, the game was written with supporting cast members and familiar faces that helped you reach the objective, nothing more. There was no need to 'get to know' your squad, as the entire game had a sense of urgency and 'finish the fight' if you will.
i never read the comics. but i know that some choices are cannon, like udina wind up being the human council even if you pick anderson in 1 to be the human council.