Mass Effect 1 coming to PS3 (ME Trilogy)

[Khuutra]

noname2200 said:

Khuutra said:

THe way that characters act to frame the cultures that produced them is a component of world-building. How interesting were the asari before we talked to Aria? How much did we really know about the way that the Alliance had changed human culture? Oh, I know, we can ask Parasini-san after she's done talking to Benezia-sama

How much more were the Turians ever fleshed out? The Salarians? The Krogan? Even the Alliance never got more interesting in concept. The sequels showed us all the stuff we had been told in the first game (especially its Codex), but that's not better worldbuidling, it's better writing and execution. The only race that got better was the Asari, who went from space lesbians in skintight suits to space lesbians in skintight suits who sweep shameful stuff under the rug. That sounds dismissive, but that's mostly because I'm matching the tone of your argument; honestly, the Asari do win the Most Improved award.

Also, I don't understand what point you're trying to make with that sarcastic last comment.

The krogan, primarily through Grunt and Wrex, evolved beyond the point of essentially being klingon with ennui problems; we saw them as deeply self-destructive, almost savagely so, and their cruelty to each other and to other races was made much more clear in the second game.

The salarians went from being the smart ones to being products of a culture of meddlers whose short lifespans are reflected in shortened perspectives, where consequences in the long-term are necessarily viewed through the lens of their own superiority. Their hubris becomes very real in ME2 and ME3, where we see that they are repeating the mistakes of the krogan rebellions over and over, where their involvement in any situation translates to tautological expertise on a given subject, which necessarily grants them authority. They evolved into the very embodiment of cultural colonialism, operating on the divine mandate of their ideas of progress.

The turians are essentially space-Spartans, but at least they aren't all space-Spartans, and even that's a site better than a race of space-Cops

Asari were definitely the most improved, though. God, the tone that they were treated with in the first game - I appreciate it, you know? I do. I like that they're a send-up to the sexy space babes of the 40s-70s. God bless Karpyshyn for that particular bit of cultural nostalgia. But when it translated into specific characters it kind of all fell apart, didn't it? When Benezia is the best-written character of a given species - and I like Benezia, don't get me wrong - you have a problem.

And I just hate that particular conversation, with the Japanese honorifics, on a lot of levels. It's awkwardly written and makes no sense in the context of a universe with universal translators