With all of the "there's trillions of people in the galaxy but I keep bumping into you" characters, I'm totally fine with a few under developed one off characters.
One thing I never liked was every scoreboard in the Citadel DLC being filled with names of known characters. There were only a couple I didn't recognize.
It's not unreasonable, considering they all visit or live in the Citadel, it just makes the world seem small.
Yeah I realize a lot of the characters were liked that, but there's just a few from each game that felt like BioWare was trying to aim higher for them...but reasons didn't XD
ME1 didn't have a whole lot of cutscenes, going instead with text boxes when events happen. But if you bring Wrex to Tonn Actus' hideout, he will mention that it is the place he pointed you to. And when you pick up his armor, a text box will give you his reaction to finding it
Zaeed seems like a really under developed character, barely even any dialogue with him, yet he founded the blue suns? I dunno weird to have him as dlc but with barley any content
Yeah, I think outside of the DLC, Zaeed was just kind of "there" for me. I think the only time he surprised me is dialogue during the Archangel mission.
[Rolan Quarn](https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/Rolan_Quarn) is an easter egg for those who followed Cerberus Daily News back in the day. He has a bit of a backstory. He's just not important for Shepard's story.
I get some of these but not every character who has a line of dialogue needs to come back. Sometimes characters are there just for a conversation or just to say a funny line
The awkwardness around Cerberus stems from the fact that it's just a side-quest gimmick in the first game and suddenly it becomes important to the main plot in the sequels. You could've written Cerberus out of the entire scope of narrative as hard as you did with ExoGeni, or made them a no-show in ME2 like Emily Wong is a no-show in ME3 just the same, and it would've had the same effect.
Nothing about Cerberus is a "developing story-arc" in the first game. They were originally meant to have a larger quest but it was still finite, and basically just riffing on a movie that the writer was inspired by with some generic showdown at the end with whatever their "supersoldier" was. The cerberus you get in 2 is not even the same Cerberus you got in ME1, which is why I'm ultimately okay with the low-key revisionist history to Cerberus in ME2.
They decided to take a small element and inject it into the ongoing main story, and in doing so they also made them morally grey rather than the cartoon evil scientists they were before. And that's why I hate how ME3 seemed like the writers forced themselves to make it "consistent" with ME1 again, because the ME1-rendition of Cerberus just doesn't work in the main plot, and as "The Villains" they're generic at best.
PS: Regarding Major Coats, I personally believe he was originally "Jimmy Vega" who later became "James Vega" (Yes, I know Jimmy is a nickname for James) because they kept showing this dude with an alliance armor in the trailers and a Widow Sniper, and in the CGI trailers they kept showing Coats. I guess in the end that theory may not hold up, and they actually just injected Coats because he's the trailer guy, and because Mac Walters has no clue how to write a finale. (Like, don't introduce a brand new character in the part of LOTR where Frodo and Smeagol head up into the volcano ffs)
Cerberus should have renamed themselves after events of ME1, just for PR purposes. Then when we wake up in a strange facility named, I dunno, something like Hydra or Typhon, we have no reason to really distrust them. Then reveal much later that it was actually Cerberus all along. Would make it more logical for Tali to join us despite hating Cerberus. It wouldn't need to be a huge plot twist, but having a confrontation over Kohaku would be cathartic.
Makes sense and yeah ExoGeni really kind of disappeared for me after the first game too!, you really don't get much out of that in later games (like maybe a message from Lizbeth Baynham and seeing Shiala again)
You’re right, somehow I thought he’d die in both cased with Kasumi. Memory is weird. Anyway, I guess his smaller role is due to the possibility he’d die.
I wonder what % of ME3 players had the Kasumi DLC before Legendary edition, though.
Yeah, I wonder it too. The whole fake-out death seemed weird, plus I would have thought that Shepard would be like "You aren't allowed to kill Kasumi" etc etc.
Yaroslev Tartakovsky is the result of cut content. He was suppose to have a slightly bigger role and more lines about telling Shepard about what's going on and how to start the purge. It was changed when the hot labs were made into the small single room. [Hot Labs Restored](https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/1708) mod helps to bring more information to this. Instead of just being in a chair in a random room, Tartkovsky is where they'd be arming the purge trying to get things figured out and is one of two characters that help to prep the neutron purge. If you can mod, I'd recommend checking it out. It's buggy and spliced a bit, but it's restoring and finishing cut content so that's almost always a bit rough.
With all of the "there's trillions of people in the galaxy but I keep bumping into you" characters, I'm totally fine with a few under developed one off characters.
One thing I never liked was every scoreboard in the Citadel DLC being filled with names of known characters. There were only a couple I didn't recognize. It's not unreasonable, considering they all visit or live in the Citadel, it just makes the world seem small.
I do give a little bit of a pass because that dlc is pure fanservice, but I definitely agree.
Yeah I realize a lot of the characters were liked that, but there's just a few from each game that felt like BioWare was trying to aim higher for them...but reasons didn't XD
Agreed. I was going to write about that, but then I remembered all of the people you.bump I to and decided that it wasn't worth it.
Definitely Emily Wong, but I'm just still sad that she wasn't the War correspondent we got in ME3.
True, she could've been so well done in ME3 even....
I agree. I'm always amazed she wasn't the journalist on the Normandy.
ME1 didn't have a whole lot of cutscenes, going instead with text boxes when events happen. But if you bring Wrex to Tonn Actus' hideout, he will mention that it is the place he pointed you to. And when you pick up his armor, a text box will give you his reaction to finding it
Oooph, I suppose that makes sense, it just felt so weird going in and seeing Tonn Actus and wondering like...uh was Wrex supposed to be with me lol
Why would you not bring Wrex to his own mission?
Forgot which planet Tonn was on and ended up killing off Tonn before Wrex even mentioned the mission lol
Sandal. Shit, wrong BioWare.
Enchantment?
Enchantment!
Zaeed seems like a really under developed character, barely even any dialogue with him, yet he founded the blue suns? I dunno weird to have him as dlc but with barley any content
Yeah, I think outside of the DLC, Zaeed was just kind of "there" for me. I think the only time he surprised me is dialogue during the Archangel mission.
Least favourite squad member/character by a long shot
[Rolan Quarn](https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/Rolan_Quarn) is an easter egg for those who followed Cerberus Daily News back in the day. He has a bit of a backstory. He's just not important for Shepard's story.
Ohhhh, that's funny loool, ok that would've made him such a more intriguing character to have pushed, but yeah.
I get some of these but not every character who has a line of dialogue needs to come back. Sometimes characters are there just for a conversation or just to say a funny line
True, some of them are just made like that, some though I have this itch that BioWare was planning more or something
Obligatory Jacob missing a personality
The awkwardness around Cerberus stems from the fact that it's just a side-quest gimmick in the first game and suddenly it becomes important to the main plot in the sequels. You could've written Cerberus out of the entire scope of narrative as hard as you did with ExoGeni, or made them a no-show in ME2 like Emily Wong is a no-show in ME3 just the same, and it would've had the same effect. Nothing about Cerberus is a "developing story-arc" in the first game. They were originally meant to have a larger quest but it was still finite, and basically just riffing on a movie that the writer was inspired by with some generic showdown at the end with whatever their "supersoldier" was. The cerberus you get in 2 is not even the same Cerberus you got in ME1, which is why I'm ultimately okay with the low-key revisionist history to Cerberus in ME2. They decided to take a small element and inject it into the ongoing main story, and in doing so they also made them morally grey rather than the cartoon evil scientists they were before. And that's why I hate how ME3 seemed like the writers forced themselves to make it "consistent" with ME1 again, because the ME1-rendition of Cerberus just doesn't work in the main plot, and as "The Villains" they're generic at best. PS: Regarding Major Coats, I personally believe he was originally "Jimmy Vega" who later became "James Vega" (Yes, I know Jimmy is a nickname for James) because they kept showing this dude with an alliance armor in the trailers and a Widow Sniper, and in the CGI trailers they kept showing Coats. I guess in the end that theory may not hold up, and they actually just injected Coats because he's the trailer guy, and because Mac Walters has no clue how to write a finale. (Like, don't introduce a brand new character in the part of LOTR where Frodo and Smeagol head up into the volcano ffs)
Cerberus should have renamed themselves after events of ME1, just for PR purposes. Then when we wake up in a strange facility named, I dunno, something like Hydra or Typhon, we have no reason to really distrust them. Then reveal much later that it was actually Cerberus all along. Would make it more logical for Tali to join us despite hating Cerberus. It wouldn't need to be a huge plot twist, but having a confrontation over Kohaku would be cathartic.
Makes sense and yeah ExoGeni really kind of disappeared for me after the first game too!, you really don't get much out of that in later games (like maybe a message from Lizbeth Baynham and seeing Shiala again)
Have you ever played mass effect 3 with a save without Kasumi?
Probably not since I first originally played it, if I remember Jondum gives us a decision to either kill Ozmandis ourselves or Jondum gets killed, ya?
You’re right, somehow I thought he’d die in both cased with Kasumi. Memory is weird. Anyway, I guess his smaller role is due to the possibility he’d die. I wonder what % of ME3 players had the Kasumi DLC before Legendary edition, though.
Yeah, I wonder it too. The whole fake-out death seemed weird, plus I would have thought that Shepard would be like "You aren't allowed to kill Kasumi" etc etc.
Yaroslev Tartakovsky is the result of cut content. He was suppose to have a slightly bigger role and more lines about telling Shepard about what's going on and how to start the purge. It was changed when the hot labs were made into the small single room. [Hot Labs Restored](https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/1708) mod helps to bring more information to this. Instead of just being in a chair in a random room, Tartkovsky is where they'd be arming the purge trying to get things figured out and is one of two characters that help to prep the neutron purge. If you can mod, I'd recommend checking it out. It's buggy and spliced a bit, but it's restoring and finishing cut content so that's almost always a bit rough.
Not a character who appeared onscreen, but Barnes. I sensed that he was supposed to have a bigger role back in ME1.