...assuming it is?
I think judging by that leak from earlier which already adds up in a lot of ways, the goal will be the usual Bioware thing where you're the hero who gathers allies which leads into an epic finale where unity and friendships beat the odds.
The problem is, that with both ME3 and DA:I, two games in a row and one of which had 3.5 years to get it right, simply didn't cut it. What went wrong? We can all speculate but I'd argue it's the size and scope of those stories that made Bioware realize too late that making that work with variables and mechanics in a consistent manner would burn their budget quicker than they could ponder about their next romance idea.
Where does this leave ME:A? Should its choice/consequence aspec at large be about gathering forces and then seeing those individually aquired be accounted for in the final mission, or should they take the safer route with smaller choices which implications are the consequences (and the same cutscenes play no matter what we choose aka DA2 yay) or something else entirely?
What do you think?
I think you failed to see the reason why the power fantasy failed to work fully in both DA:I and ME3, especially ME3. The power fantasy is the most common form of gaming so it is often the default position but it can't work in all situations. The power fantasy fails in a horror setting or survival setting because if you feel kick ass in a horror game you don't feel scared. If you feel kick ass in survival setting you don't feel like survival is at issue. You need to make sure your games mechanics and narrative work in concert not at cross purposes to your narrative.
ME3 failed so hugely in this, which is why I think the endings were more hated then they would be otherwise. In Me, ME2 and ME3 you are told this narrative of a great machine menace coming to destroy all advance life. Yet from the moment you wake up in the Cerberus medical facility in ME2 you go from victory to victory against the reapers. It is possible to not lose a single person post Normandy 1 destruction that isn't a scripted death. No Virmire choices, no casualties, just victory to victory. yet you are constantly told the reapers are unbeatable conventionally. By the time Priority: Earth happens in ME3 the hero fantasy has been so entrenched into the game mechanics that you think "I got this." Not "we could lose this," Even when operation hammer becomes a more desperate gamble then originally intended you don't bat an eye most player probably don't even remember this bit. Why?
Because Bioware nailed the hero fantasy. You feel unstoppable as shepard. The problem is that wasn't the story being told. The story being told is that the crucible is a "hail Mary" move. it is a gamble that is a long shot. You should be going into Priority: Earth thinking "i could lose." You should not have felt kick ass. You should have had defeat after defeat against the reapers during the series vs victory after victory with most being cost free victories with the "I win" dialogue button/option. For every two steps Shepard made against the reapers there should have been one taken back because of a lose. If you got to the catalyst thinking "holy crap i can't believe i made it" vs "yeah yeah come on reapers do your worse," then the choices really feel more desperate. But you don't feel that way at all so you think why am I letting this little AI Sh!t force me down these narrow defined paths? The reason you don't feel that way is because the hero fantasy was nailed by bioware. When they really should have been making the game more like a survival genre game where your goal is to survive the reaper invasion vs lets kick some reaper ass!!!!!
(Note I am not saying the endings are only bad because of the fact that the hero fantasy worked at cross purposes to the narrative only that this amplified the disconnect of the endings with the game.
DA:I had this same problem in that Cory is the big baddy from the past and at every turn you kick his ass, so when you get to the climax it feels anticlimactic because you get stronger and stronger with each step on the narrative and he gets weaker and weaker. There is no cost to victory along the way and no sense of danger. The attack of haven is so well received by players because it feels like you are in trouble and even that turns out to be the best thing to happen to the inquisition. You go from a indefensible position to one of the best possible defensible position in the world. It cost you a few losses but Cory loses his main military arm. After the warden quest plays out you eliminate his plan to create a new demon military arm. Going from victory to victory in service to the hero fantasy is the problem.
The problem isn't that bioware has failed to deliver the hero fantasy in their last two games they have in fact done it to perfection. The problem is that they have written two games where the player should NEVER have been able to indulge in the hero fantasy. In their last two games they cage the narrative as fighting against overwhelming odds, but in such a manner that you picking up .50 cal machine gun and shooting it Rambo style isn't the goal of the story being told. The power fantasy works in DA:O because it was telling the story of this heroic organisation that saves the world time and time again. The grey wardens are all about the hero fantasy. The blight as the reapers doesn't work when you are a grey warden because the Wardens are the answer to the blight so they are not caged as the unstoppable menace. In fact they are caged as the menace that wardens are specially trained to stop which is the perfect narrative for the hero fantasy. The reapers and cory were never stories were the hero fantasy could work without creating a disconnect with the game's mechanics and it's narrative.
ME:A could be a game perfectly set up for the hero fantasy however. You are exploring a new galaxy one presumes to create a new home for colonist from the milky way. So long as the threat isn't caged as this over whelming force the hero fantasy should work perfectly within the narrative. This is all 110% speculation as I have no idea what the story is.
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