Thus the question is raised, how will BioWare continue the story of the Mass Effect Trilogy? Because, that's what their selling this as the Trailer for the game ends on the tagline of Mass Effect Will CONTINUE. This isn't a reboot this is a full on sequel to one of the most well known Trilogies all all time and even with the ending of ME3 this Trilogy is still loved to the point that a remaster of said Trilogy was released to HUGE critical and financial success with critics and fans more or less praising the remaster.
On top of that the Trilogy still has ME's unique design of carrying over choices from one game to another which will no doubt come in handy for the next game. So, how will that work?
As I understand it, (never tested it myself) in ME2 if Shepard dies the save file will not carry over into ME3. The only way to continue the story is if Shepard survives the Suicide Mission in ME2. I bring this up because of what we see in the trailer for the next game. Liara is alive and shows no signs that she has been is a techno... bio... thing... and is perfectly normal. We see dead Reapers, a destroyed Mass Relay and a possible hint that Shepard is alive.
All these point to one ending, the Destroy Ending or the Red Explosion ending as that is the only ending where the Reapers are destroyed and Shepard can survive while the other four have them go on because F player choices.
However, is this the only outcome, are we doomed to be forced to kill EDI and the Geth rending both their arcs pointless (assuming BioWare doesn't just retcon that and allow both to Survive (and this is the RARE case of me being okay with a massive retcon like that)) OR will BioWare try to make all 4 endings canon.
The endings of ME3 boil down to the following, Kill EDI and the Geth (thus meaning you agree with the Reapers and that A.I.'s can't be trusted despite all we see) merge with the Reapers hive mind and prove the Illusive Man and Saren right, force everyone to become Techno and Biologically fused and thus complete the Reapers plans or get everyone killed. No matter what, you are always proven wrong and the villains are always proven right... I Really HATE ME3's endings!
Back on topic, of these two I'd say that the first one, making only one ending canon, is the most likely given how it will actually cost less and of the 3 Destroy is the least controversial. Yes the one where you intentionally kill friends and allies is the one that annoys players the least THAT'S how bad the endings are.
Trying to make a story to each ending would be to complicated if BioWare has any plans to move the series forward after this and again, the idea is Mass Effect will continue and, at the time of this writing, BioWare is building this game up as a continuation of the story not the finally. A Sequel to 4 endings all of which are fairly different would be hard enough making this a possible jumping off point for a continuing story... No, it would be to complicated and more importantly, from a studios point of view anyway, to expressive.
Still, I could be wrong and it's possible that the current generation of gaming has gotten to the point that making a series going in 4 different directions on one game is something that is completely possible. However, nothing I've seen of any current games on the next gen has convinced me that such a game is possible. Even Returnal is fairly basic and it just resets the map every time you exit the game or die and overall game stays the same in the end with the story never really changing.
Regardless of what comes next or my own personal feelings for ME3's endings I do with BioWare the best of Luck and hope the next game is, at the very least, not another Mass Effect: Andromeda.
Thoughts?
