5 WILDEST Story Ideas Bioware DELETED from Mass Effect 3 (Cut Content)
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- čas přidán 1. 08. 2024
- In this video we’re going to explore the five wildest ideas that Bioware deleted from Mass Effect 3. This content was part of an early draft of the game’s script, which was leaked to the public prior to launch. Keep watching to see what Bioware had cooking.
MASS EFFECT 3 - WAS UDINA INDOCTRINATED OR JUST A TOOL?
• Mass Effect 3 - Was UD...
MASS EFFECT 3 - WHY YOU MUST BRING JAVIK TO THESSIA
• Mass Effect 3 - Why Yo...
RARE MASS EFFECT 3 DIALOGUE - ASHLEY AND KAIDAN ON EDEN PRIME
• RARE Mass Effect 3 Dia...
0:00 Introduction
0:46 Mass Effect 3 Beta Script Leaked in Nov 2011
1:37 Javik is the Catalyst
3:55 Ashley/Kaidan Teams Up with Kai Leng
7:21 Save Virmire Survivor or Liara?
10:03 Citadel Coup Originally Happened AFTER Thessia
12:57 The Illusive Man Final Boss Fight
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Let’s start with a little context about the leaked script and story changes. Before Mass Effect 3 was released in 2012, a version of the script leaked to the public, shedding light on some early draft ideas that the studio planned to include in the game.
Now some people have suggested that Bioware reworked the script as a result of the leak, but I haven’t found any confirmation of this and I’m not 100% convinced this is why some of these ideas were changed. For one, many parts of the leaked script are identical to what we see in game. And two, Bioware likely wouldn’t have had time to change a bunch of plot points in reaction to a leaked script. It’s more likely that they had already changed these ideas and that these earlier prototype concepts were included in the leaks.
In any case, I’ll put some links in the description if you want to look at the script for yourself. Be warned the documents aren’t easy to read through. Many of the concepts are presented out of order and the full script is a very long XML document. There is a more user-friendly version of the script that someone compiled, but many of the ideas are still out of order.
FULL MASS EFFECT 3 LEAKED BETA SCRIPT FROM 2011
www.mediafire.com/file/et5mom0...
EASIER-TO-READ MASS EFFECT 3 LEAKED SCRIPT
pastebin.com/KYJNWGug - Hry
Thane sacrificing himself to save the Hanar homeworld and his species' debt to the Hanar being repaid, would have been a GREAT plot point, and a POETIC conclusion Thane's life. Unfortunately, it's not there. 😔
That should have been in the game. No more children assassins. On a personal level, with his son, then on the macro by saving the Hanar home world.
After so much life taken, he would have spent his final years making sure that it never happened again
It would have been good if you could recruit kolyat tho
@@darkmaguire9656 Kolyat was not an elite fighter. He picked up a gun once.
yes
@@darkmaguire9656 Kolyat was a rebellious teenager angry at his dad, not a trained assassin.
I actually prefer the retail script for the Udina coup.
Having him indoctrinated feels like an easy copeout, and if I remember correctly Udina never complained about Shepard working with Cerberus in ME2.
I always had a fan theory that Udina was one of Cerberus' anonymous benefactors, ever since day 1.
Yeah, there were no ties between Udina and Cerberus (before the coup), but they had the same mindset, so it was not a surprise. Udina is a real “humans first” guy, who already tried to assemble an all-human council.
What he didn’t know is that IM is indoctrinated at this point, and he moved away from the “advance humanity” idea.
I just don’t know why the Asaris for example would send fleets to Earth, if they don’t have Asari representation in the council. An all human council/citadel doesn’t automatically become the boss of Council races.
Yep. My mind had always come to that conclusion. Udina was not indoctrinated, yet the Illusive Man was. The illusive man was convincing enough for Udina to fall in line with the Illusive Man's mind-set. What we need to remember is that Udina was humanity's council representative. He would have been only to happy to support Cerberus in that respect.
Yeah, having Udina indoctrinated does seem like an “easy out”
I still prefer the beta script version of the mission though; it brings back old squad-mates, still gives Thane a beautiful send-off, and seems to come less out of nowhere than the abrupt “Oh, it looks like Cerberus is trying to take over” of the actual game…just remove that detail about Udina and it’d be perfect
My take on Yew-diner - he felt his political power among humans slowly slipping away as Hackett built the Crucible and coordinated a guerilla strategy against the Reapers to buy time, Anderson led a resistance on Earth, while Shepard gathered alien allies. When the whole thing was over and humanity prevailed, Shepard, Hackett and Anderson would be hailed as the saviors of humanity while Udina would have been pilloried for ignoring all warnings for years and not even doing the equivalent of FDR’s fire side addresses to keep morale up. To save his political future, Udina tried to upstage Hackett and Anderson by seizing power and “liberating” Earth.
@@brainconqueror8095 That's a good one. I can see it.
Imagine Javik being this important.
You unlock him early, have him as a squadmate.
you may have several missions with him. Then the Thesia mission hits, and you literally lose him as a squadmate until he is recovered later in the game.
Imagine the impact.
This would actually be quite similar to what they've done in Knights of the Old Republic with Bastila, and that was done really well.
It would've felt much more "Mass Effect" that way, for sure. Although I'm glad they didn't re-do the "choose your squadmate to die" again, because as BD pointed out... who would choose the Virmire survivor over Liara? But, instead of getting a real ME plot, we got it turned on it's head to ensure there was a strong incentive for pre-orders and additional pay for DLC, because you gotta hit those quarterly projections, baby!
@@New2DM2 EA Sports. It's on the the disc! ...the dlc that is ...and you have to pay extra for it
The catalyst being that child always been incredibly stupid and annoying. Anything would be better than that, even if it was Shepard themselves
Honestly I can see why they cut this out. In the midst of a Reaper invasion it seems somewhat reductive to have one person play that big of a role. That being said I hate that he was a dlc character.
It is impressive what the team managed to pull under 14 months. I think the teaming up with Thane and Kasumi would have been awesome, and the one that made sense the most. thane sacrificing himself to save the hanar homeworld is a really good way to let him go.
Totally agree. Well said!
I always hated how sword boy can only win in cut scenes
The man literally has a plot armor generator in the palm of his hand lol
Until i hit that renegade prompt
Don’t lie, you died to him atleast 5 times first time facing him.
@@matthewanthony4606 Nah, I had the OP as hell Citadel DLC pistol
He literally needs a gunship to survive. "YOURE WEAK SHEPARD!"
Yeah? Am I crying & yelling "IM HURT COVER ME" every 30 seconds to a gunship?
Goddam you could have easily killed him on thessia.
Yeah, the Virmire survivor teaming up with Kai Leng would have been quite wild.
Would've been cool but the script for didn't make sense. I bet the reputation check would've been high for it
Shells, would have been super spicy role-playing if you had romanced them! Then in me2 they basically tell you to eff off for working with cerberus, and THEN work with Kai Leng? Oh man that would have made one heck of a villain! They would be more hated than the clone! Lmao
@@waynejacobs5092 I would prefer the option to convince the clone to join Shepherd's team- Cerberus made the clone in case Shep required any limbs replaced so it would make sense for the clone to go against Cerberus than Shep since Shep had no knowledge of the clone's existence.
@@nopity3057 you know what? I agree! That would have been an amazing turn-out! Plus the reapers would have probably shat themselves. The clone was a bad@$$ and a tough challenge. That would have been the best scenario. Imagine having a clone of yourself as a squad mate!
@@waynejacobs5092 And I feel it makes a bit more sense than the clone going after Shep who had no idea of the clone's existence.
Specters are very underutilised in the grand scheme of things.
Would've loved to see Kasumi in a main quest rather than a side quest. She deserves it.
Kasumi in ME2 is kinda useless gameplay wise but I agree she needs to be part of the main quest but she's a dlc character so bioware isn't going to focus on her that much
@@dr.science_0177 I think Bioware could have used her while keeping an alternative as backup if she wasn't hired or was dead, like they did with Mordin, Thane, Samara, Jack, Legion and others.
@@Arijit_Das_ yea but they are already part of the core game of ME2 without dlc so of course they have somewhat special missions
why dose she deserve it her loyalty mission wasn't that good and u cant even have conversations with her gtfo weeb
@@mrt4755 you can have conversations with her though
Truly speaking, i really would have loved to fight Harbinger in a final boss fight and defeat him through some means similar to Tuchanka and Rannoch. That would have been quite CLIMACTIC: the Best of the Galaxy versus the Best of the Reapers.
It also might have made more sense for the Catalyst AI to then want to talk to Shepard after defeating the First Reaper; all of a sudden organics were overcoming their solution and a change needed to be made.
yeah it could cut to each of your different war assets firing, from the turian ships to the quarian and geth, all focused on your laser gun like before.. It would be a bigger version and show how you united most of the universe all through your own skill. They could also tie how many war assets you have to what happens with the assault on him.. If you had the minimum maybe it still lives and decimates the fleet, if you have a bit more maybe you win but mostly destroyed, if you have the most you utterly decimate him while saving the most lives.
I would love to see the Normandy firing it’s Thanix Cannon at Harbinger and obliterating him
@@EnoYaka That would have been really epic indeed. And the damn war asset would have had a real purpose at least. It's a shame how many great opportunities were lost with the finale of ME3, I mean almost everything could've been better than the color selection they gave us in the end.
@@5elited that's why we need to honor him and his sacrifice
who? of course he's your friendly neighborhood Marauder Shields
Would've been more poetic if Javik had a more active role in destorying the Reapers since they destroyed his people.
Javik being the Catalyst would've been pretty cool. He finds out how you treated everyone throughout the games and that influences the ending. Would've definitely been better than the pick 4 endings.
There are 4 endings to the game??
@@winternet9478 destroy, control, Synthesis, and refusal
@@jasonajucum9114 what's the refusal ending I've never heard of it?
@@winternet9478 basically you decide not to choose and find some other way to fight besides rando starchilds choose a color and it ends with liara basically saying that the Reapers are winning but that pockets of resistance still exist
i dont believe it was in the original release but added when they add the newer ending scene.
though that doesnt make sense either as the DLC had already shown that a Mass Relay blowing up has the power to destroy the entire solar system its in soooooo chosing the "right ending" still would have destroyed all known life all the fleet ships all the planets just like the batarian homeworld
the ending is just a clusterflop that doesnt really make sense at all.
@@johnkeith8619 Doesn't the Refusal ending basically just mean the next cycle manages to succeed where the current one fails?
I could never let anything happen to Liara. I'd find a way to kill Ashley twice before leaving Liara to die on Thessia.
My philosophy: Save Liara thopugh the galaxy may perish.
Yeah that’s most likely why they cut it, the choice would’ve been too easy.
Kaidan may be boring, but I'll leave Ashley to be a fiery hole on Virmire every damn time. 😂
I love the sentence, "Was Udina indoctrinated, or just a tool?" because of the double meaning
The javik one makes sense since EA didn't initially make him available without buying his DLC. Growing up I was only able to play half the game because I couldn't afford any of the DLC
Thats why you pirate games
@@Captain_FAIL pirating media is wrong on so many levels that I don’t even know where to begin. But I guess I’ll start here: how would YOU feel if you poured your heart and soul into creating something, and yes a lot of people bought it, but a lot of people also stole it? You’re spitting in their faces. Behaving as if you are entitled to it. You’re not. It’s also counterintuitive. Having your work stolen destroys the incentive to create more works, because it will just be stolen, so why bother?
@@mikeburke8772 shill
@@DukeTheClydesdale he's right
@@mikeburke8772 Welcome to eastern Europe mate,we dont really have a choice but piracy, because were broke. Giving away 6K rubles for mass effect LE when minimum wage in my country is 12K rubles,and average pay in country overall rates from 20 to 30 thousand rubles isnt really an option, considering you have to throw away 6 more thousand on taxes,and 8-10 thousand on food. Crime or not,its the only way for us here.
Wow, as if Thessia isn't allready bad enough. Liara is allready pretty downhearted after this. Saving her over Ashley/Kaiden would only play even more into her survivors guilt.
Another kick in the teeth could be, if you didn’t choose Liara, but saved a romanced Ash/Kaidan it could have potential for a survivor guilt part two. Seeing as it could have the potential to be a parallel of Virmire if you saved the person you romanced. Ugh oww my heart.
Playing into an very early quote/theme in this game: "no matter how hard you try, you can't save them all"
I still think one of the saddest things in ME3 is if moridin died curing the genophage after the citidel dlc party (when you wake up) your find a terminal on the floor with recordings of moridin
Bioware out here trying to give people heart attacks with these wild scenarios 😂
I kinda wish they made the person who dies on Virmire the “Kai Leng” character. Like if Cerberus found either Ashley or Kaidan’s body like they did Shepard and turned him or her into a ninja assassin haha. That would have been a pretty cool reveal in my opinion
The only issue is that there wouldn't be much of them left, if anything. They're either directly on top of, or very near by, a nuclear bomb as it goes off. those things can incinerate people
@@bobjenko i mean thats true for going through orbit too
@@donb7519 It's certainly possible, yeah. But thankfully nobody has ever tried falling from orbit like that so we really don't know exactly what would happen to someone. Unfortunately, we do know what happens when someone is in very close proximity to a nuclear bomb.
The game, though, says that Shepard was just "meat and bones" and I believe it's also said the brain was mostly intact due to the helmet. Therefore, it's definitely the case that there is more of a person left after what Shepard went through than being hit by a nuclear bomb at close range.
@@bobjenko we have a pretty good idea what would happen to someone if they fell from orbit and there are no bones left and just charred splattered meat
The choosing one teammate over the other on Thessia could have still worked and would have actually been a pretty cool, albeit depressing, addition and would have fed well into the whole "can't save em all" theme. So basically the mission would remain the same as the one we got in the game but after Kai Leng beats you, you still have the scene where you crawl to save one of the two companions. Imagine having to choose between Garrus and Liara or something like that.
Choosing between Garrus and Liara was mi worst fear since I started playing ME1 for the first time.
Im glad I didn't have to make that decission but I also think that would have been so much painful, deep and not gonna lie, awesome.
I like the morally grey aspects of these leaks, having to murder a spectre, assassinating a councillor etc, plus the thane saving the hanar stuff is really cool
Ashley/Kaidan trusting Kai Leng does make some sense if he poses as Alliance staff. Shepard made the same mistake with Brooks in the Citadel DLC after all. Adding to that a recommendation straight from the human Councillor, whom the VS in the finished game might also end up defending until they're gunned down... not all planned stories from this video work for me, but that one checks out as far as I'm concerned.
But what if ash/kaiden is romancing Shepard?
@@blitzenproductions2846 They could use that to add points toward the possibility of trusting Shepard over Kai Leng, like with the Udina coup scenario.
I have a different idea as to how it could have worked. I personally would have loved it if it turned out that the Virmire survivor had turned out to be working for Cerberus since before ME2, and their disapproval of Shepard’s methods was all an act. Would’ve made them much more interesting
@@angrymidgetlord9447 that would have explained why the Illusive Man was so sure that the Collectors would attack Horizon and shed the light on that strange "arm the remote, out-of-Council and Alliance jurisdiction Terminus colonies with the newest GARDIAN lasers" project
@@angrymidgetlord9447 Could also give some nice choices. If Ashley survived, she could've joined Cerberus for different reasons depending on how you talked to her in ME1.If you convinced her to stop being racist towards aliens, she joined as an double agent or to protect Shepard from being controlled by them. If you never managed to convince her, then she joined Cerberus because of her bigotry. And it could be vice versa with Kaiden where you make him be more bigoted towards aliens. And that would affect how the standoff is played out in 3. If the survivor isn't into Cerberus ideology, you don't even have to convince them, they instantly double cross Kai Lang. If they do believe in it, then you need to try and convince them.
I really wish they kept the Thane and Kasumi mission that sounds so awesome! Kasumi is such a great character it sucks she got shafted so badly along with some of the other ME2 cast
Imagine her instead of boring ass Jacob in Mass effect 2 😔
What's your favorite boss fight in the Mass effect trilogy?
Meme Lords; easily Marauder Shields.
he died to protect us from the colors
Marauder Shields is the strongest final boss of all time. No matter the outcome of this fight, you lose.
Probably the tresher maw in mass effect 2, the whole mission behind it is awesome also.
Merodeador Escudos
Javik as the catalyst would have been a great alternative to the god-child as the catalyst. But damn EA had to ruin it. 😒
For reaaaaaal. And it would have given Javil -- AN ACTUAL PROTHEAN -- some significance. As it is, finding him feels like "oh look, it's a Prothean" and then he has zero bearing on the story.
@@avryantoinette Yeah, except for some unique dialogues in Thessia, he kinda feels more like any other squadmate and less like the last living Prothean.
Javik: "Commander, throw it out the airlock!"
Starchild: "No, you can't!"
[Cuts to scene where starchild is ejected while screaming]
I don’t think EA was ever involved in the writing process.
You look great in the N7 Jacket. Wish i had one.
I got one of the faux leather jackets from BioWare’s store directly years ago and I still wear it from time to time even tho it barely fits anymore lol as far as I’m aware you can’t really find that official faux leather one anymore
Bioware still has these on sale on Bioware gear , check their Instagram merch account for a link
The wildest one was that Kelly chambers was a "lady of the night" recruited by TIM so he can use her as part of the normandy sr2 crew.
?
@@N7_Bunny i know i was shocked when I read it. That was part of that xml document. Someone transcribed the leak in sequence way back before release and I found it on some defunct website but when I read it, it explained the suit and her knowledge of dancing. Apparently she told you this after the citadel coup when she gives you the photo of her for your cabin. It was a romance check (forgive her for lying continue relationship/ cut off the relationship and suicide)
Where are you guys getting all of this info
@@nic.skerry9910 from the early early mass effect 3 leaks that still had dark energy as the plot
That would have been... bad
The Thane and Kasumi citadel mission would've been awesome.
I'm glad the decision to save Virmire survivor or Liara didn't make it to final game. My heart was broken with loss of Legion, Thane and Mordin, I couldn't take another loss.
They should. If others can be killed Liara should be too.
The only difference IMO is that Legion, Thane, and Mordin aren’t squadmates anymore in ME3, and Liara’s death would’ve had an actual potential gameplay impact, like losing Ashley/Kaidan and Wrex on Virmire - either way you choose, you’re still losing a squadmate or two for the rest of the game and limiting your loadout options. As it is, I don’t think any of your squadmates can die in ME3.
@@Road_to_Dawn just Tali
@@silvy3047 Ah, yep that's true
@Swamp Expert Extraordinaire When you're the director's waifu, that tends to happen.
Lol so a treatment of the script had Ashley/Kaiden be even more dopey and easily manipulated than they already are.
yep
I still have dreams where I can bring any squad-mate from the trilogy with me on missions in Mass Effect 3. There are mods that do this but I still wish Mass Effect 2’s squadmates were more relevant in ME3.
13:20 There was no final boss fight in ME3.
Marauder Shields: "They ask you how you are and you have to say you're fine but you're NOT fine..."
I always liked the idea of fighting harbinger and having it be the last boss at the end during the final push. How easy the fight would have been could have been dependent on your war assets. Harbinger explodes and Sheppard gets wounded and limps into the beam of light.
How the hell would a ground army able to defeat a reaper dreadnought ?
@davidnavarro4821 Not easily and epicly, which is why it would've made a interesting and memorable boss fight. But just spit balling, probably piece by piece.
My favorite is the idea that Shepard was forced to kill a specter.
It makes Ashley’s distrust for him much stronger; but also brings things full circle (Eden prime is where Shepard’s journey began, after Saren killed a rouge spectre)
It really strengthens the theme that Saren wasn’t entirely wrong, he just went about it the wring way (Saren submitted, Shepard never did)
#6 Niftucalypse. The Biotic God tears Reapers apart with the strongest powers ever seen
*A GREAT WIND*
No his power would be uncontrollable. Niftu cal must not be awakened form his nap!
charge (annoyed face)
@@Bloodletter8 *A GREAT...BIOTIC WIND!* I think they were going to add him to the squadmate roster but he was way too OP. If he was a Squadmate he'd easily sweep whoever you were romancing off their feet and your Shepard would stop making decisions as he'd quickly assume leadership. He would'nt be your Shep's sidekick, your Shep would be HIS sidekick!
I like the scrapped mission where Admiral Xen would have been experimenting on Geth then moved on to the Citadel. She could either be arrested or killed and if she's arrested, she asks Tali what her father would have said about it and Tali just says "He would have said: Good, that Bosh'tet was crazy".
This isn't "cut content", it's just concept ideas that were discarded very early on.
Isn’t that cut content?
@@Cthulhuwarlord not quite, cut content is content that was being developed in-game but was later cut usually due to time constraints, concept is before they've even started developed the game and are figuring out ideas that they might use in-game
@@doomsday437 Exactly.
Ideas that were thrown around before any actual work was done and were never followed up on aren't "cut content", they're just brainstorming.
This is clickbait.
@@BigUriel you can argue it was cut content; at least some people know that BioWare was given about a year to make the game, the matter is, was that the original deadline or did EA pull part of the rug from underneath BioWare?
In other words, this may have been in the works, EA got greedy and cut the deadline, so BioWare had to cut stuff that would take too much time (the Thessia battle would've taken a lot of graphical and optimisation effort for instance, programming and overall level design probably too).
@@vulthurmir2478 But that's not cut content, because it was never content to begin with. It was just ideas.
Content is something real, 3D models, textures, scripts, recorded voice dialogue etc. Cut content are these sort of things that were made for the game, but ended up not being used.
Would have loved the bigger role Kasumi would play in the main plot!
Especially since I loved using both Kasumi and Thane together in ME2, I've always felt like the two of them would get along well!
Man, I don't think I could have handled having to choose between Ash and Liara on that alternate Thessia mission. Would have been a real gut puncher moment for sure.
So cool to finally hear the lost concepts from the leaked script. I remember trying to avoid any of that leaked info like the plague when it first happened pre-ME3 release then completely forgot about the leak entirely once the third title came out.
Pretty neat you dug this out and great job compiling it together into a video like this!
The scenario with Thane would have been nice. I also like the idea of a boss fight against IM.
Big Dan it might also be a detail that would identify the laker.
*Leaker.
Big Dan, In the Original Mass Effect 2. There was a Achievement/Trophy for surviving the horde in the Arrival dlc. I don't know why they didn't put that achievement back in the legendary edition.
I was upset after struggling through to get the achievement again and nothing popped up for it ;w;
There’s another one they left out from the same DLC. In the original, you get a trophy for being completely stealthy when you go to rescue Kenson from the batarians.
They trimmed a lot of achievements from all the games.
@@Road_to_Dawn A shame, i really loved firing high velocity incendiary round in the guards in a stealthy fashion ^^
Virmire survivor being fooled by Cerberus would have been ironic considering how they treated you in ME2
I'd briefly read about the concept of Shepard being forced to save one of his squadmates at the end of the Thessia mission years ago, but because the site I read it on was kind of vague about the wording and I didn't dig any further, I'd mistakenly just assumed it was supposed to be Liara and whichever other person you had brought along.
Knowing that it was apparently supposed to be a decision between her and the Virmire Survivor actually makes that concept a lot less interesting to me since, as you said, a fair amount of players would probably be pretty likely to favor Liara without too much debate. When I pictured the scenario in my head, I always thought how much of a gut punch it would be if you were playing it for the first time and had to decide whether to save Liara or Garrus. That probably would have required dealing with too many permutations, though, so I can see why it would been restricted to just Liara and Kaiden/Ashley. Also, after a first playthrough, I imagine a lot of players would have just brought their least-favorite squadmate to sacrifice on Thessia anyway.
I can see why they ditched Javik as the catalyst. Given he's also a squadmate that would either require you to bring him on the final mission OR you would have to lose him as a squadmate regardless of what you do.
I'm completely on board for the retooled Citadel Coup mission but my only issue is how Udina got indoctrinated? His turning to Cerberus to take power and get his way actually makes more sense for his character because he was more than willing to throw Sheppard and company off the bus then run them over with it in ME1 and ME 2 if you let him be councilor.
Great video! Some of these would have been cool to see in game, but I must agree that it was a good call to ditch the Illusive man boss fight. While I think the ending could have been better, the sequence with Anderson and the Illusive Man at the end was done right.
The last one explains why Shepard is somewhere else when he wakes up after getting blasted by Harbinger in your indoctrination theory Video.
Another "who do I save?" choice would have felt redundant, I already did this exact thing on Virmire. Hell, the person I saved on Virmire is right there. It could have been done well if there was an actual choice to be made besides "who dies, who lives" and no other factors
I agree. The Virmire choice was a gut punch (at least on first playthrough). Repetition would rob it of its emotional impact.
6:00 I can actually completely understand why Ashley would've been easily manipulated to side against Shepard. 1: she only served with him on that one mission against Saran. 2: After being declared dead for 2 years, Shepard suddenly shows up working for Cerberus, and possibly visibly augmented/scarred. Miranda admitted to wanting to implant Shepard with a control chip but TIM overruled her, so we do know that kind of thing is possible. It's not like Ashley was being paranoid without reason. And 3: Shepard kills her partner. Then Udina straight up tells her Shepard has gone rogue, she has literally no reason at that point to not believe it. And Kai Leng--a supposed Alliance intelligence officer--backing up the anti-Shepard version of events seals the deal. She doesn't need to know Kai Leng personally, there's enough other stuff in play to effectively paint Shepard as a turncoat.
Edit: As for a final boss fight, I'd have LOVED the chance to take down Harbinger. The whole final stage would've basically been one big boss fight. First you're racing through the streets trying to get close to the beam, then Harbinger lands and personally guards it. So you go from FOB to FOB helping them throw everything they have at the Reaper. Using his experience on Rannoch, Shepard knows to aim for the firing chamber as it's priming, and is able to direct ground troops to successfully damage the Reaper. But FOB's get hit one by one, and Shepard would get progressively more injured and damaged as he and his squad move on to the next one. Eventually the damaged Harbinger can no longer close the firing chamber, and turns away from the gunfire to protect his weak spot. Shepard's final Hail Mary is to head to a caravan carrying Thanix missiles that was overwhelmed by Reapers and never made it to camp. Reminiscent of the canal run on Ilos, you drive the missile carrier down the ruined streets of London, trying to stay in the shadows so Harbinger can't see you coming. You make it to Harbinger, and EDI starts to program the Thanix missiles, then you hold your position and fend off waves of ground troops just like the final scene against the unnamed Reaper Destroyer we have today. Finally the missiles are ready, POW right in the kisser, and Harbinger falls over dead, the ensuing shockwave knocking Shepard out and disabling all local Reaper forces. Then you get up, stagger to the beam, get barfed out onto the Citadel, and have the final chat with TIM.
Hey Dan, I recently watched Paragon Lost for the first time and absolutely loved it. I was bawling by the end of the movie, and it actually gave me a whole lot more appreciation for Vega. During the movie, a big theme of it was how his choices impacted how everything turned out over the course of the story, almost as if he was being controlled by a player who was making “A or B” decisions. I was thinking it’d be awesome to do a spoiler video analyzing different choices Vega made in the movie and imagining how things could’ve ended up differently.
You probably have a lot of video ideas already on your plate, but it’d be cool to see you do something like this!
Oh i really like the idea of rolling Kasumi's side mission into the coup quest.
I think The Ending with The Illusive Man was perfect. The Ultimate choice it lead to. Also if you Paragon It like Saren He Tries to brake free and admit he has done wrong then You kill him or he kills himself. Which Leads you to what Mass Effect was all about. Choices and as Sheppard. You Make that choice that will now decide everyones fate.
Picking between Liara and the Virmire survivor? If its your first playthrough how could you not pick Liara, especially since she is the shadow broker by that point and you have no idea how much value that kind of character could bring. Yeah I can see why that got cut.
Honestly, the story would’ve been so much better if Javik was the catalyst. It would have explained a lot why out of all of his comrades, he was the only one to survive, and it would’ve explained why he was the “Rage of the Protheans”. It also would have put way more importance to his character aside from “I’m just the Prothean POV of all of this.”
Javik being the Catalyst makes sense to me. the Avatar of Vengeance being the one thing needed for the Crucible to target the Reapers specifically, preserved to our times for that very purpose, pretty cool stuff. also I like the idea of letting Liara die, lol
Hmmmm am I going to save the human that has second guessed me the entire game while trying to stab me in the back... or the Blue alien babe that has always had my back, has neigh infinite resources to help with the war, and LITTERALY BROUGHT ME BACK TO LIFE. Yeah, not much of a choice there. I'd always go with Liara (and that's coming from someone who's never romanced her lmao)
That’s what makes her so goddamn boring there’s nothing wrong with her. At least with the human character there’s a redemption arc and and it’s interesting.
@@Arklay_98 I'm talking more from a character's standpoint, not a writer or player's standpoint.
I never even thought about those points but even then the virmire survivor or liara, hmm, lemme' think about thi- liara definitely
@Xavier The Great I killed kaiden and we were broskis (it was the first playthrough and I was to lazy to correct the mistakes before importing so i killed a lot of story arcs and now have to live with it) but even then, for the characters sake it would have to be liara. sorry kaiden
The alternate Udina cue was my favorite idea. That said I’m happy with ME3 as it is
Thanks for the information..I like the Javik concept and him being the catalyst idea..Maybe it would of been more of a clear cut ending of the game with Shepherd living or dying with Javik being more involved with the catalyst.
I’m glad to see your channel is growing man it’s always been rather underrated so I’m happy for ya so keep up the good work bro
Ha! Liara is my Shepard's soulmate. I would throw the Virmire survivor to the Reapers if it meant saving my blue bae.
if you meaning that Liara was your favorite love interest the I have no words my favorite is Tali and my broth kept trying to get me to try Liara's romance at the time never tried her romance before and was looking forward to trying all the romances I eventually got around to having a romance with Liara in one of my playthroughs and it turned out to be a joke I went full on into the romance talked to her almost all the time trying to get everything out of the romance and not only did I not get some scenes of the romance for some reason when it came to Mass Effect 3 I kept raging at Liara and how stupid she was because I was full on in a romance and told her at the beginning I wanted to be with her and throughout most of the game she talked about us being friends and I had to bring up being more than friends AGAIN at one point I'm like seriously you stupid idiot were in a relationship were not JUST FIRENDS her romance is SUCH and UTTER JOKE just WOW.
@@Chrisimplayer She kept saying that because she was protecting herself emotionally. She lost Shepard once, the interpretation is that she was taking it slow in ME3. Kaiden and Ashley are similar if you romance them through all three games. It takes a while to get the relationship back on track with the original three. The other romances don't go through that because they never went through the trauma of Shepard dying.
@@UchihaAlira I've romanced Ashely and have doe most of a romance with Kaiden and nothing seem odd like that with them from my experience.
Goddamn it if only this game wasn't so rushed.
I’m kinda glad that the Jarvik and illusive man writing was scrapped. Jarvik made me learn appreciate more about the protheans and he provided some of the best lines in the game. I love the illusive man because it was his presence and influence that felt intimidating and the reapers embodying him was an excellent experience. Having him as a boss would feel cheap because there haven’t been any reference indicating he would be an actual combat threat like Saren.
I think they cut the Thane/Kasumi mission because they have to survive the suicide mission for it make sense (and they would need to record at least 3 versions just for Shep's knowledge of Kolyat)
Would have love to see a version of Kasumi, Koliat and Thane in the Citadel.
I love the idea about the Citadel coup. Especially Thane and Kasumi, it would've been awesome. The other ideas though... I'd miss Javik, love his coments on everything. And choosing between Virmire survivor and Liara... yes, not much of a choice, really :D
I'm so glad I got recommendation for your channel. Keep up the great work!
Thank you for another great informative video! These Mass Effect videos shall live on forever, and I look forward to the next Mass Effect games to come for more of these videos too!
I wanted Kasumi's mission to be a lot bigger, tbh, she's a riot. And for Kolyat to take up his father's mantle as a warrior fighting for the redemption of those who have fallen to evil thoughts and deeds, including falling fighting the Reapers. Kolyat journeying to see what his father saw on the Normandy and against the collectors would have been a beautiful story, asking the goddess of the ocean to show him what he couldn't see due to the psychological pitfalls of being young. It's a better coming of age story to me, especially since Thane and Kolyat's story was compared to the song "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin. "And as I hung up the phone it occured to me, he'd grown up just like me, my boy was just like me." is the ending you're supposed to prevent. A good sequel would have been for Kolyat to see Thane's life and understand why he wanted that. There's even the perfect song to go with that medal "My Father's Eyes".
You really love the "big stupid jellyfish" don't ya? 🤣🤣
Superb, another excellent & fascinating video, I really enjoyed hearing the cut content about different versions of missions.
I really liked the different version of the Thessia mission
You are a natural and charismatic host. Hopefully your channel will continue growing in the future too!
I totally would have let James die if they made you choose between two squad members like that. Would make sure to bring him on the mission just to make sure I had an easy decision
I’d bring EDI. Sure she couldn’t be a squadmate anymore. But she still be alive
The reason Kasumi and others were relegated to side quests?
The mass effect DLC was actually pretty ahead of it’s time. The vast majority of players never even downloaded the free character at launch they got for buying/pre-ordering from GameStop.
It’s important to remember that the game came out in 2008 when online in single player narratives was pretty new. Throwing the player into a game with a character that none of them knew in a main mission? Would have been very weird.
Mass Effect 2 came out in 2010.
You come off as such a nice genuine guy. Love your videos, my favorite thing to do before diving into my own playthroughs. Happy gaming.
Could you do a video about the scrapped dark energy plot for mass effect 3, and where it may have gone?
The dark energy thing is mentioned in ME2 a couple of times setting something up but it was abandoned in ME3 due to changes in the writters staff. At least that is the explanation most fans believe.
Shepard's Henchmen... that's the perfect name of a metal band!
Like the jacket Dan! Really been enjoying your content these past few months that I discovered your channel
I actually would've prefered if Javik was the catalyst and no one knew, not even Javik until the last minute
I have to say, Thane's part is the only thing I actually prefer here, and not even the whole thing, just the reason for him dying.
Having to choose between Kaidan my Virmire survivor and Liara would be very tough. I romance Kaidan though so I would save him. Very interesting theories indeed.
Liara: "Shepard, I'm a Reaper doomsday device."
One day I accidentally stumbled upon one of your vids, now I'm addicted to them ^^ You always have really good vids, thank you!!
My two biggest complaints about ME3 were that there weren't enough companions and some of the weird exclusions on Priority Earth. I feel like the game would've benefited greatly if each previous companion would be temporarily apart of your squad for the time they're on your ship. Like Wrex, Mordin, and you could even throw in Kasumi, Grunt, Jack, and Samara for like a mission or 2 each.
Can you do a video covering the various ways to complete the Ellias Khelem internation during Thanes loyalty mission? It's kinda cool how many different variations there are to that mission
They could have made a boss battle with the illusive man, which you could bypass using persuasion checks. It would have made your paragon/renegade levels more useful at the end. It would have been a lot of work to do, but it would make dealing with the illusive man a little more interesting during other playthroughs.
Dude, I just randomly found you in my recommendations, awesome content! Subbed!
Javik as the catalyst should have been kept... As it turned out I felt he didn't really bring anything to the game.
To think I only got recommended this Channel because of how much of a mind-fuck it was to try to get the quarians and Geth to make peace
There’s official artwork of how The Illusive Man was gonna look like in boss form
First the snazzy suit and now this sweet jacket! Your charm skill has definitely been leveled up. Looking good my dude!!
If only BW wasn't rushed so much with this game.
Those endings.... Especially the shooting the catalyst ending? Thats the fourth option they added?
The had no Choice I believe EA you know (ELECTRONIC ANNIHALATION) but as I say it's still amazing what they did with such limited time imagine if the had more.
@@akhilsubbarao377 I didn't have much problems with the ending like most others wasn't the best but still good and I see it as things don't always turn out the way you want them to in life.
Big dan was the catalyst all along
This is why I both love and hate deleted scenes, I love them because they’re creative, but I hate them because we never see them. I think some of these would’ve been cool.
Hey Dan! Loving all the mass effect videos! You're a great presenter too! Oh and you're rocking that N7 jacket too brother!! 🤘🤘🤘
I feel "Saving the Virmire Survivor vs Saving Liara" would have quickly turned into another "Save Doug or Save Carley" from The Walking Dead situation, where like 90% would save Liara
I was thinking the exact same thing lol. It still sounds like a cool idea though. Kind of poetic, in a way, bookending it with the choice in ME1.
So, it would have been another Virmire choice, but it wouldn't have been that hard as Liara is a fan-favourite character.
Yeah liara isnt really a choice if i had to choose between her and someone else that person is a goner Liara is THE queen
Well i would have saved garrus over liara...
Worshippers...
@@mrserbia2769 same
@Karla yeah if we could just save legion in ME3 somehow, maybe a hidden quest or something like that for example you could get to save him by having a high war score by the time of priority rannoch but i guess you cant get 3 wins!
I definitely like the idea of Javik having a more pivotal role in the game, it also makes the Crucible a bit less of a Deus-Ex Machina in that the player at least does something critical top it's success. I suspect much of it was cut more because Thessia was reduced to a single mission near the end of the game instead of being a regular hub-world like Tuchanka and Rannoch. I imagine hub-worlds were initially intended to be played whenever the player wanted like other BioWare games, as opposed to sequentially like we got.
Mac Walters had a video recently where he showed us a document where they sketched the ME2 team ideas. Did you make a video on that already?
It is interesting to see how many other teammate ideas they had, and how they evolved, and merged into our final teammates.
I think instead of the virmire survivor or liara it should have been tali or garrus/liara