Mass Effect Trilogy: 9 Crazy Facts You Never Knew

9. Miranda Was Inspired By Final Fantasy: Spirits Within

Sometimes, people need the obvious pointed out to them: that their comb-over isn't fooling anyone, that they're too old for that dress, and that Mass Effect's art style was heavily inspired by box-office bomb Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

Art director Derek Watts admitted as much in an interview with Xbox World 360 magazine back in 2011, (from Kotaku) and the revelation resulted in thousands of slightly-reddened foreheads across the land as gamers slapped their heads in disbelief that they'd missed out on something so obvious.

Case in point: The above screenshot shows Spirits Within protagonist Aki Ross, a white-jumpsuit wearing raven-haired beauty surrounded by bulkily-armoured space soldiers. It doesn't take a huge leap of imagination to go from there to Mass Effect's Miranda Lawson, a white-jumpsuit wearing raven-haired beauty who works for Cerberus, a terrorist organization that commands a large number of bulkily-armoured space soldiers.

Spirits Within didn't deserve the level of disdain it received upon its release - the Final Fantasy name hurt it way more than it helped in that regard - and its nice to see its "Spirit" (har har) live on through another sci-fi opus.