Mass Effect: Andromeda

What bosses?

No, in seriousness, I wouldn't call them particularly challenging at all. There's a couple Puzzle Bosses with only two or three attacks and really simple solutions for how they're resolved, repeated ad nauseum.

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

The architects can be quite hard on higher difficulties, especially if fought in hazardous areas, at least IMO.

Now, the last time I played a Mass Effect game was almost a decade ago so my memory is fuzzy but that sounds like a step down. Right?

edited 28th Apr '17 2:25:48 PM by fredhot16

Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.

Maybe from ME 1, the series has been stepping away from boss fights in general. In ME 2 there were only a few straight up boss fights. In ME 3 they were literally all Gimmick Bosses.

All the games abused the fight for a bit, wave of generic enemies, fight for a bit style of shooter boss fights. The less the better IMO.

edited 28th Apr '17 2:37:02 PM by Memers

^^ Yes. For the most part the only "bosses" here are amped up versions of normal mooks. The Architects are the exception.

—-

Honestly I didn't mind Liam, but it felt like the devs were trying to recapture what they did with Garrus. Unfortunately the magic that was Garrus is a once in a lifetime thing. Liam tried way too hard to be the "bro" of the team.

Cora was alright. Not much more to feel about her.

Peebee was a mess. She reminded a lot of Sera from Inquisition in how she just did not feel like they belonged on the ship, experience with the Remnant notwithstanding. She does give you a new ability early on in her quest, I'll give her that. But afterwords she annoys more than she pleases.

Jaal was great. It's nice to see him slowly open up and start to trust everyone, as well as indulge in the culture and history of the other races.

To the surprise of nobody your turian and krogan squadmates was the best. Drack was brilliant in how he's kind of a middle ground between Wrex and Grunt, a krogan who's proudly 'krogan' but realizes that's not exactly a good thing. Meanwhile Vetra probably had the most level head on her shoulders, and unlike most previous examples didn't end up looking bland for it. She had her issues, she just knew had to get her shit together and how to do it.

edited 28th Apr '17 2:35:29 PM by Spirit

#IceBearForPresident

That might be misleading. Combat in general has gotten a lot better, more tactical. There are a lot more different enemy types, and it's usually the mix of different enemy types that makes each encounter interesting, along with the layout of any given fight. So it's more like the combat has improved from the mooks on up, while moving away from big boss fights. There are some impressive minibosses (like Geth Primes and Armatures from the first game), though they eventually turn into Elite Mooks), so I don't usually count them as 'bosses',. But they are pretty satisfying climaxes to the missions where they appear, so it actually works, for the most part.

That said, ME's boss fights were always uniformly pretty bad— just shoot X until you trigger a cutscene. ME 2 has its final boss (who I don't like much visually or mechanically, but they put at least the work in in terms of animation), and two pretty good bosses from the DLC. ME 3 saves another one of its best boss fights for the DLC, but really only has a couple of puzzle bosses during the main game. So there's definitely been a tradeoff, but I wouldn't call it a step down, exactly.

Though I would say ME:A's combat is a step down from where the series was in ME 3.

edited 28th Apr '17 6:02:22 PM by Unsung

I didn't like Liam because I legit didn't understand what he meant half the time he was talking. I felt like the goals in what the character wanted to get out of a conversation were unclear or muddled at times. I'd probably have to rewatch the lead up, but I didn't quite catch how we got to the villain of his Loyalty Mission.

Aside from the Architects, all the "bosses" in this game are just normal enemies with another zero or two in front of their hit point value and literally no other differences in their behavior. And the Architect fight was better when it was in Crysis: Warhead.

The Colossus on Tali's recruitment mission was pretty much a mechanically perfect fight for ME-2.

edited 28th Apr '17 4:43:33 PM by MonsieurThenardier

"It is very easy to be kind; the difficulty lies in being just."

Liam is a bro, and I like him for it. Did not get the same vibe from him as with Garrus - Liam is all about "let's have a beer and do something fun" while Garrus is about ridiculous badassery and Undying Loyalty

Peebee - yes, I don't quite understand why is she there. But the same could be said about the other squadmates, even sometimes lampshaded by them - see "Wait, we get paid?" banter :) And the "Meeting adjourned" :)

Basically, it seems that whoever wants to hang out at the Tempest, does

RE: bosses The Architect on Voeld (the first one I have tried to fight so far) seems to have glitched on me. After the legs got taken out, the weak spot on the head never appeared. Then I reloaded, and the next time the spot on the legs did not appear either. So I'm leaving Architects alone for now

edited 28th Apr '17 4:39:03 PM by Beholderess

If we disagree, that much, at least, we have in common

Unrelated. Miracle Of Sound made a music video. That's fast, all things considered

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52ZGqJJTA7k

If we disagree, that much, at least, we have in common

If you romanced Vetra and brought her to the final battle, Ryder tries to use the stock "I couldn't have done this without you" line with her, and she basically sums up the whole squadmate situation by replying "sure you could have, I just shoot things".

"It is very easy to be kind; the difficulty lies in being just."

Note that even when bosses are just amped-up normal enemies, they can still be royal pains to fight.

Fucking Ascendants with Names and their god damn stupid ass DOOM BUBBLES

What, the big, slow-moving, easily dodged spheres that they spend like five seconds telegraphing?

edited 28th Apr '17 6:06:22 PM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

Ascendants are dangerous in multiplayer because they have an insta-kill melee attack. In SP they're just extremely boring. You shoot the orb, back away if they get closer, and lazily lean to the side if they throw their telegraphed extremely slow ball lightning. Wait for the orb to circle back around so you can shoot it again. Repeat.

"It is very easy to be kind; the difficulty lies in being just."

Okay. I haven't done the multiplayer so that might be why I'm confused.

Hardest trouble I had with those guys is their little weak spot ball. I got in the habit of sniping it until it's almost down, then switching to the Revenant for the last bit of damage. That way, during their brief window of vulnerability, I could Nova, Charge to detonate the primer, then unload the Revenant for a last bit of damage before their shield went up.

Generally took two shield disables, occasionally three, before they went down.

edited 28th Apr '17 6:06:53 PM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

They have that instakill attack in single-player as well, though they don't seem to use it much.

Forgot about the colossus in 2. That is a pretty great fight, actually. At least three different fights, thanks to the various angles of approach. A gimmick, but entirely fair in a cover shooter, of all places.

edited 28th Apr '17 8:10:53 PM by Unsung

Random thought - Drack is essentially acting as a krogan Pathfinder. As close as one can get without an Ark and SAM, that is. Not the leader of the expedition, but someone venturing forth, taking out major threats, coordinating reconnaissance, interacting with other species, and whose mission is to make Andromeda a safer place for krogan.

If we disagree, that much, at least, we have in common

Huh. Yeah, he is. He didn't mean to. He just wanted to shoot kett. But he kinda got shanghaied into it.

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

Which appears to be a running thread with the Pathfinders

If we disagree, that much, at least, we have in common

Everyone's a bigger pain in the ass in multiplayer. Their stats are the same, but the fact that there's like a billion enemies spawned compared to SP's 2 or 3 means you can't risk moving from cover as often. Sure it takes an Ascendant till the Aeon of Ma'at until he fires his doom ball, but since you have like 10 Anointed baring down on you there's nothing you can do but bend over and hope he at least calls you back after he's done.

Instakill attacks are much the same. You think you're just fine sniping Chosen over in that direction. But in reality you're being distracted until you notice too late that the ground around you is glowing. And Fiends have a far larger reach on their instakill because of lag issues. You think you got out of way until you find out that no, you didn't.

#IceBearForPresident

WMG time: Vederia (potential asari replacement Pathfinder) is a PC in another game. Specifically, an asari version of a similar game. The way Cora guided her through the mission as a Voice with an Internet Connection reminds me so much of a tutorial of every video game ever - down to when to enter stealth mode and so on. So, in case she is made Pathfinder, we have witnessed her getting through her tutorial and ending up with You Are in Command Now - again, like every video game character ever. The reason she turns out to be no worse fighter than Sarissa during the finale - when not chatting with Cora, she was out on her own adventures, getting some ridiculous amount of XP in process - the PC do level up fast, after all

edited 29th Apr '17 2:32:17 PM by Beholderess

If we disagree, that much, at least, we have in common

Wen Vederia DLC?

Oh God! Natural light!

That could actually be a good hook for the next game. If they go the Dragon Age route of having a new protagonist each game instead of the Mass Effect Trilogy route of staying with one character, the protagonist for the sequel could be Vederia with that sequence replayed from her perspective as the tutorial level.

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

There's a 95% chance they're sticking with the same character. The "and the adventure continues" ending and the sequel hooks specific to Ryder were just too blatant.

"It is very easy to be kind; the difficulty lies in being just."

I keep forgetting Andromeda doesn't have Mass Relays. I keep getting stuck on why it would be so hard and time-consuming for the kett to bring reinforcements to Heleus and then having to remind myself that jumping halfway across the galaxy in a short time frame was possible in the Milky Way because of the Relays.

No idea how or if the franchise is actually going to expand past the Cluster, given the circumstances. If they discover a Relay, I'm totally calling my "Remnant connected to Reapers" theory confirmed.

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.