The Mass Effect series has always held a special, and often divisive spot in fans’ hearts. BioWare’s sci-fi RPG saga blew up with its first game back in 2007, and its sequel took the franchise to bigger, more mainstream heights. In the years since that game’s release, it’s cast a long shadow—not just over its own franchise and creator, but the larger RPG space, particularly those from western developers.
Mass Effect 2 first released on January 26, 2010, and it’s a sequel of two different types. Narratively, it continues Commander Shepard’s story—after they’re killed by aliens called the Collectors, Shepard’s revived by the human supremacist group Cerberus and told to build a team to investigate abductions of human colonies that may be connected to the growing Reaper threat. But the sequel’s also a soft gameplay reboot: the original Mass Effect was an RPG dinged for being an occasionally awkward third-person shooter, so BioWare strived to make the combat feel better. That meant streamlining and trimming down some of the first game’s fat, so no planet exploration in the Mako, and Shepard regenerates health and uses ammo for their guns rather than heatsinks.
Those changes didn’t stop Mass Effect 2 from becoming a critical and commercial darling, or from being considered one of the best games ever. But it did lead to fans of the first lamenting how BioWare had really made an action game that happened to feature RPG elements rather than an action-RPG. The studio’s shift to immediate, real-time fights had been coming for a while now, starting with Jade Empire, and has continued up to last year’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard; Mass Effect 3’s more action than RPG to the point Shepard has a dodge roll and melee finishers, and uses workbenches to mod out their guns. 2017’s Mass Effect: Andromeda tried to split the difference between its series’ gameplay contrasts by keeping and expanding upon the sequels’ action focus, while also bringing back the original’s stats and passive skills through its Profiles system. Whatever else one thinks about Andromeda, it might be the most RPG the franchise had felt in a decade.
What is an RPG anymore? It’s been asked about the genre over the past decade as several big names in the space have either faded, decreased in output, or pivoted. Look no further than Final Fantasy: mainline titles in Square Enix’s flagship franchise have gradually shifted from turn-based combat to full-on action, like 2024’s Final Fantasy VII Rebirth or 2023’s Final Fantasy XVI. While Final Fantasy VII’s remakes have pause-and-prep combat that allow for some tactics, Final Fantasy XVI is character action through and through, further helped by the pedigree behind it. Combat director Ryota Suzuki previously worked as a designer on Capcom’s Devil May Cry series, which is apparent almost immediately upon playing. You can also look at Stranger of Paradise, an AU prequel to the first Final Fantasy. The underrated 2022 game was made by Team Ninja, which previously made the Nioh and Ninja Gaiden franchises, a pedigree more than apparent in Stranger’s class-switching, melee-focused combat.
The line between action games and RPGs became greatly blurred in the past decade thanks to triple-A action games borrowing RPG elements that often feel tacked-on or unneeded. There’s also the matter of linearity: the Mass Effect sequels pulled back from full branching storytelling to provide players with outcomes that varied depending on choices they previously made, either earlier in the game or in prior installments. While it was more manageable for the developers, this method has its drawbacks. With Veilguard, BioWare brought over three specific events from Dragon Age: Inquisition for players to base the world state around, which reflected the decade-long gap between installments and didn’t fully sit well with players. Western-made RPGs like BioWare titles and Baldur’s Gate 3 are famously built around choices, a promise which can be a double-edged sword: players will always hold Mass Effect 3’s ending against BioWare, and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, that franchise’s second go at being an action-RPG, drew controversy for a DLC that funneled players toward starting a family, even when their character may not have wanted to or was romantically inclined toward their own gender.
Not all of this spawned directly from Mass Effect 2’s release, but that game helped set the foundation for how the genre’s transformation. For better or worse, publishers wanted to court mainstream western audiences however they saw fit, and chased any attention-grabbing trend. The west liked shooters, multiplayer, zombies, and crafting, so developers have spent years making games built around one or all of those ideas. It’s only been fairly recently that things are swinging back in favor of Japanese developers, particularly with RPGs. Atlus’ Persona franchise has been grown bigger and bigger thanks to various Persona 4 follow-ups and re-releases or remakes for the likes of Persona 3 and 4, not to mention the developer’s newest title, Metaphor: ReFantazio. Similarly, Sega’s Like a Dragon franchise pivoted to a turn-based RPG style with 2020’s soft reboot, which reflects new lead Ichiban Kasuga’s love for the Dragon Quest franchise. And despite its main franchise’s devotion to real-time brawls, Square Enix also hasn’t completely abandoned its turn-based roots; it’s still got the long-running Dragon Quest series, the very good Octopath Traveler games, re-releases of the original Final Fantasies, and various HD2D titles.
As for western developers? That’s a little harder to determine. Some, like CD Projekt Red or Larian, have leaned more toward immersive sims or tabletop games for their recent role-playing ventures. Meanwhile, others seem ready to play their hits in new ways (see Obsidian with Avowed and Outer Worlds 2) or try at being a successor to newer masterpieces, like the many studios spawning out of Disco Elysium creator ZA/UM. And then there are the anomalies, games we have some idea of, but nothing quite so concrete yet. What will Fable bring to the conversation under Playground Games’ direction opposed to Lionhead’s? What has Bethesda learned from the ultimately muted reactions to Starfield that makes Elder Scrolls VI and eventually (maybe) Fallout 5 feel like something different?
Or, as this relates to BioWare, how RPG will its next Mass Effect be after the series has moved away from, and then back to, its roots? This upcoming installment is led by several franchise veterans, but RPGs have evolved. For all the flak Andromeda took, it also made attempts at evolving parts of the original games that’d already been dated, like the conversation wheel and the binary Paragon/Renegade system. The team behind that game knew Mass Effect needed to grow, and that mindset is needed as the series attempts a genuine return. With the Legendary remasters out, the series can’t play its own hits and act like the last decade of RPGs, or its last game, didn’t happen.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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