The Mass Effect Remastered Trilogy is rumored to be called "Legendary Edition" and is said to release next year, hopefully meaning the game is announced sometime soon.. The remaster would come at a vital time for BioWare and the franchise, as it tries to build momentum for the next generation of games.
While many fans will want the remaster to stick as closely to the original games as possible, there are some changes that BioWare should make to companions in the Mass Effect Remastered Trilogy. Some of these changes were planned for the games’ original releases, while others make sense in light of later changes in the series.
Remove Gender as a Romance Boundary
Shepard’s gender should not be a limitation when it comes to which characters the player can romance and would become far less of a boundary in later installments than earlier ones. Mass Effect 3 had same-sex romances, but mostly with new characters while some of the best romances in the game remained locked by the player’s gender choice.
Players who wanted to play through the original Mass Effect story with as few differences as possible would likely not notice the difference, as romancing characters is always optional, making it an unobtrusive update to the remaster. BioWare would need to be careful that this didn’t end up with every character assuming Shepard was trying to romance them, as the lines between friendship and romance can often be blurry in earlier BioWare games. If a player wants to play as a male Shepard and romance Garrus Vakarian, it’s their story to create, and in 2020, BioWare will have a tougher time explaining restrictions. This is especially true in ME1 and ME2, neither of which have gay male romance options.
Restore Cut Content
Some important character-developing dialog was cut from the Mass Effect games when they first released. Mass Effect companion Ashley William, in particular, caused a lot of bugs for unrelated reasons while Mass Effect 3 was in development, leading to some dialog being cut which could help explain more of her character motivations.
Cut Mass Effect content affects the companions across the trilogy, but it’s also some of the content which could be most easily restored without affecting the rest of the story. Mass Effect 2 was originally planned to allow players to recruit their companions in any order, and the only reason players don’t get all the dossiers at the start of the game was to allow the game to split onto two discs for the Xbox 360.
Not only that, but characters like Morden and Grunt had their conflicts cut from Mass Effect 2. Moments like this could help make emotional scenes like Morden’s decision to end the Genophage in Mass Effect 3 even more poignant if restored.
Restore DLC Characters
Javik from Mass Effect 3 and Zaeed from Mass Effect 2 were both more integrated into the main story of their games before being cut to be repackaged as non-essential DLC content. Javik, for example, was going to be the only character able to communicate with the Prothean AI that reveals the true nature of the Citadel in Mass Effect 3. These characters should be included in the remaster by default, but should also have some of the dialog and involvement that was cut to allow for the repackaging restored.
Lots of fans will be hoping for an experience of the Mass Effect Trilogy Remaster that closely emulates the original games. Ten years since the release of Mass Effect 2, BioWare should focus on restoring companion content that was cut and should open up more roleplaying options. These choices would enhance the experience for those who wanted it, while hopefully avoiding stepping on the toes of players who want to make their original choices a second time around and experience the games with upgraded graphics. For now, fans will be looking forward to an announcement.
The Mass Effect Remastered Trilogy is reportedly in development.