KJ

We finished playing through the main storyline of Mass Effect Andromeda this weekend. I've heard many of the complaints about the game, and I'm hard put to really disagree with any of them -- sub-par graphics, too many meaningless sidequests, an uncomfortable colonialism narrative, etc. But ultimately, I enjoyed myself. I found most of the characters interesting, played out a satisfying romance, and for the most part had fun with the gameplay. Since I feel no deep personal investment in the Mass Effect series overall, I feel like I spent less time comparing it to the other installments, and more time appreciating the game for what it was.

Rather than a straight up review, I'm going to tell you about my Sara Ryder and use her story as the framing devise for my thoughts on the game overall. Spoilers ahead.



( Pull up a barstool and settle in as I tell you a tale of a lady, her spaceship, and her traveling companions. )

Title: Another Round
Fandom: Mass Effect/Final Fantasy XII
Rating: Teen
Wordcount: 1142
Characters: Garrus/Balthier
Spoilers: Implied, for Garrus's recruitment mission in ME2
Notes: Written for the 2016 Final Fantasy Kiss Battle, to a prompt by lassarina. This is justira's fault, entirely. My first time writing any sort of ME fic at all, so be gentle.

Also on AO3.

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Garrus flipped a credit chit at the bartender. "Another," he said.

The asari shot him a hard glare. "Haven't you had enough already?" In answer, Garrus glared back, and the asari picked up the chit with a heavy sigh. "Fine." She tapped the chit to the reader, then frowned. "Huh."

"What?" Garrus drained the dregs of his drink and pushed the glass to the side. "Something wrong?"

"It's been declined," the bartender said.

Garrus clicked his mandibles in irritation. "That can't be right," he said. "Try it again."

The bartender crossed her arms. "It won't work," she snapped. "Besides, like I said, you've had enough."

"Fine," Garrus rumbled. "I'm sure another bar on Omega would be happy to take my money."

"Be my guest." The bartender tossed the chit at his face, but before it could hit him, a hand snatched it neatly out of the air.

Garrus turned; the hand belonged to the human man sitting next to him at the bar. The man studied the chit, pushed it toward Garrus, and then pulled another out of his vest pocket. "Let me cover it," he said.

The asari looked at him, glanced at Garrus, then turned back to the man. "You sure?"

The man shrugged. "Why not? I hate to see a good fellow go begging for a drink. And I'll take another of these" -- he tilted his own empty glass in her direction -- "as long as you're at it."

"He's not exactly begging," the bartender grumbled, but she took the proffered chit and verified it before pouring the two drinks and handing them over. Then she slid around to the other side of the bar, as though to avoid any further conversation, not giving them another look.

( Garrus turned toward his seatmate, who he thought might provide better company. )

vieralynn asked about my favorite aspects of the Final Fantasy series, and how these aspects compare to other fantasy/rpg video games.

My favorite aspects of the Final Fantasy games are characters, world building, and story, pretty much in that order. When I sit down to play a new FF, or come back to revisit an old one, these are the things I am looking for, and hoping to sink into. Of course, not every FF game has these in equal measure: the lack of world building in FFXIII kept me from investing as much as I would have liked, for example, and the stories vary in quality quite a bit, and even the games I love most (FFX, X-2, XII, and IV) have a dud character or a flat plot point here and there. But overall, I would say these have been the series' strengths for me.

As I mentioned in my answer to lassarina's question about RPG gameplay, I haven't actually played that many RPGs outside the Final Fantasy series, but the one other series I have invested in, namely Dragon Age, succeeds in all three areas listed above. Excellent NPCs across the board, interesting stories mostly told well, and a fascinating setting in the world of Thedas. So no wonder I've been drawn to it, both as a player and as a fan. Mass Effect is also pretty strong in these respects, especially the storytelling, but I didn't connect as strongly to the characters or the setting as I did to Dragon Age, or my main Final Fantasy fandoms (Spira and Ivalice). (I'm still not really sure why that was. Probably that's another post for another day.)

I think it's pretty safe to say that, so far, I've found the Dragon Age games more compelling across the board, in all three of these areas, than any of the most recent Final Fantasy titles (FFXIII and its sequel). And although I have some hope for FFXV, for various reasons I don't trust Square Enix as much as I used to -- especially not in how they handle characters and character development. It'll be interesting to see if I continue to be a fan of the franchise going forward.

Having never played this game before, it's hard to say how far in I might be. We've played 30-some hours, with sidequests as preferential to main-line quests, but we've also finished several of the major missions as well. Maybe we're nearing endgame? The only main plot quest I've triggered that we haven't done yet is Virmire... and I'm spoiled enough that I don't want to go to Virmire. Not until I absolutely have to.

Also it turns out that the Bring Down the Sky DLC mission, mentioned by a couple of people on my last post, is included in the game already, which is nice. I like it when old games come with extras. :) We played through that this evening and found it fun.

( Thoughts and commentary )