Mass Effect Legendary Edition - 12 Overlooked Changes Fans Will LOVE

1. New Mandated Extended Cut Ending Is What The Majority Of Bioware Always Wanted

The biggie, and the thing that dominated Mass Effect's entire reputation for half a decade until Andromeda cautiously stepped back into the limelight: The original trilogy's ending.

Say what you like about how things go down in the closing 20 minutes, the real problem was segmenting essential story beats into optional DLC for the entire game, leaving a character like the Prothean Javik out the main campaign, and having necessary plot explanations about the Starchild, resigned to a paywall.

Interestingly though, as revealed in a brilliant interview with ex-Bioware staff over on The Gamer from February 2021, the majority of the team didn't want the original ending either, feeling it relied too much on "space magic".

Stating that the "lead writer, lead gameplay designer and executive producer" were all on board, "most of the team didn't know how Mass Effect 3 was going to end". This lead to a feeling from Mass Effect 2 and 3 writer Chris Hepler, that "a lot of the criticism [was] legitimate", and the wider team didn't feel satisfied until they could put together the more carefully considered Extended Cut.

In the Legendary Edition, this "Extended Cut" now replaces the original ending completely. Taken alongside all the DLC being included, the new Galactic Readiness system and the general notion from fans and ex-Bioware staff that all of Mass Effect 3 is the ending anyway, hopefully this ushers in a new level of appreciation for what has always been gaming's greatest achievement in the sci-fi genre.