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Mass Effect: Andromeda dev on why the game won’t acknowledge your Mass Effect 3 ending

The developer behind Mass Effect: Andromeda has shed light on why the title won’t acknowledge the player’s ending in Mass Effect 3.

Speaking with Eurogamer, BioWare’s Aaryon Flynn and Mac Walters said the studio wants to establish the hotly anticipated science-fiction RPG as a fresh start for the series, and as such won’t recall much of the previous trilogy.

"We acknowledged it in the endings of Mass Effect 3 and I think that’s where we want to leave it for now," Flynn said. "We want this to be a new story and it would be very hard to say it’s a new story but also that you need to understand how [the past trilogy] ended."

But will Andromeda at least acknowledge the game is set after the events of Shepard’s battle against the Reapers?

"We’ve done it in such a way that allows all of those decisions you made to remain intact in the canon of the universe, but also allows a new story to begin," explained Flynn.

That’s not to say that the game won’t feature any recognisable elements from previous games. 

"It’s important for us to have elements from the Trilogy for fans to have in the background," said Walters. "Ultimately this is intended to be a fresh story, but we want to have things for people to find and go ‘oh, I remember that character.’

"There’s a coalition [of Milky Way races]," he added. "We needed to find a way to make sure certain species you’re familiar with come along with you on your journey to meet new ones. As in the tradition of Mass Effect, there will be certain people working together happily, and certain people working together less happily."

Mass Effect: Andromeda E3 showing was less than expected, but here’s why

Finally, the pair touched on its reason for not showcasing more footage of the game at E3 2016, where it was expected we’d get our first proper look at Andromeda in action. We did, however, get our first look at the main protagonist—a woman named Ryder.

"There’s definitely more stuff we could have shown or talked about," admitted Flynn. "But now we’re shipping next spring, the time to really blast all that out there is after the other games come out. We’ll be there then to have a great big reveal and release all the details."

"[Development] is healthy. Dragon Age: Origins was six years. Star Wars: The Old Republic was six years. The original Mass Effect was four. Maybe we’re just not the fastest at this!"

New details on Mass Effect: Andromeda are expected to drop in November, specifically during the series’ annual N7 Day celebrations. The game will be released for PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox One between January and March 2017.