Mass Effect 5: 10 Perfect Ways Bioware Can Save The Franchise

6. Redesign The Conversation System

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say the Paragon/Renegade system wasn't all that flawed. Yes, there were obvious binary outcomes to many in-game events, but that allowed Bioware to track said events across multiple games. After all, "Is X still alive?" is a much easier question to answer than "Were you kind, angry, dismissive or sarcastic, and how did that make them feel?"

To that end, Andromeda's 'overhauled' conversation system was supposed to give the player a more 'emotion-based' set of responses to characters and scenarios, the assumption being that those branching narrative pathways would then be more plentiful. Ultimately, it resulted in five variations on the exact same sentiment, unless you explicitly declined to do something - and even then, depending on what it was, you'd still get a prompt in your quest log.

Basically, this is a "If it ain't broke..." scenario. Fans weren't actively complaining about Paragon/Renegade, and even if Bioware do want to add more nuance and personality to our responses, the amount of hidden meters and checkboxes Mass Effect is then keeping track of, has to amount to something.

Look to the likes of The Witcher 3, where the ultimate ending you're given is predicated on a number of specific interactions you had with Ciri over the whole game. THAT was how to do an ending that encapsulated a number of 'human' dialogue options, resulting in something all who finished will always remember.