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The Problem With Mass Effect Canon
The Mass Effect trilogy tells a fantastic story about found family and the hope that good leadership can instill in the hopeless. Conversely, it can also tell a story about how sometimes war brings out the worst in those fighting and how power can be used for personal gain. The way that those opposing ideologies can be told in a single series is due to Mass Effect’s branching story and choice system that allows the player to role-play as either a paragon Commander Shepard or a renegade rogue version of the character who’s only out for themselves. Those sorts of options are part of the major appeal of the series as a whole, but begin to be lost when thinking about a potential sequel or TV series that would canonize the events of the games.
There’s almost nothing known about what’s happening with the story of Mass Effect 4, but it seems like it’s going to be picking up where Mass Effect 3 left off. Given the branching nature of the Mass Effect trilogy’s story, a direct sequel means that BioWare will need to be choosing which ending was the canon one from Mass Effect 3, causing an issue where some fans’ playthroughs might be made completely irrelevant from a story standpoint. While there will still be plenty of merit in playing the original games even after Mass Effect 4 releases, it will lessen the impact of many of the choices if players know that, in the end, it doesn’t matter for the direction of the narrative.
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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