Mass Effect Andromeda rant

So I've thought about this for quite awhile now and the way I see it is that Andromeda has permanently ruined the Mass Effect franchise. It has pathetic enemies (Kett Empire), and pathetic characters (mostly). The characters are largely uninteresting, and their voice actors truly suck. The good thing is that most of the characters could be replaced between 4 and 5. Unfortunately the worst offenders, the Pathfinder twins, can't really be replaced. Their backstory sucks, and they suck. They're a couple of worthless kids with minimal training and no experience and the only thing special about them is an unlikable AI in their heads. The AI isn't even quirky and funny like EDI, it's just boring and barely a step above a VI. The twins are also bound to god awful voice actors that can't convey emotion to save their lives. Even if you threw the writers of Andromeda out of the tallest building you could muster and put the original team back on the job, it would be a real fucking chore fixing the franchise at this point.

With a better more likable team it would help... like, let's say... a Turian more like Garrus than some criminal trash I'd like to airlock... keep Nakmor Drak, keep Peebee (but make her stop using that ridiculous nickname and go by Pelessaria), and pretty much replace the rest of the crew. Replace all of those retards that were in charge of the Nexus, cause fuck me were they bad... You're still limited by the derp twins though.

Forget about the Kett. They aren't even remotely an epic enemy. Instead, have the Remnant and/or the Remnant's enemy race that created the scourge weapon as an enemy. With a good enemy, a good crew, and good filler characters on Meridian... the franchise could maybe be saved. But that still leaves the Pathfinder twins, which need to go.

Therefore... Forget continuing their story with Mass Effect 5. Instead... Mass Effect 5: The Harvest.

The devs will take Reaper Control ending Reaper-God Shepard as cannon. Shepard sends a single Sovereign-class Reaper to Andromeda to check on the Milky Way explorers. Its mission is to act as a guardian and watch over the Milky Way explorers that live on. Reference:

Paragon Control Ending:
Eternal. Infinite. Immortal. The woman I was used these words. But only now do I truly understand them. And only now do I understand the full extent of her sacrifice. Through her death I was created. Through my birth her thoughts are freed. They guide me now. Give me reason. Direction. Just as she gave direction to those who followed her. The ones who helped her achieve her purpose - now my purpose.

To give the many hope for a future. To ensure that all have a voice in their future. The woman I was knew that she could only achieve this by becoming something greater. There is power in control. There is wisdom in harnessing the strengths of your enemy. I will rebuild what the many have lost. I will create a future with limitless possibilities. I will protect and sustain. I will act as guardian for the many. And throughout it all I will never forget. I will remember the ones who sacrificed themselves so that the many could survive. And I will watch over the ones that live on. Those that carry the memory of the woman I once was. The woman who gave up her life to become the one who could save the many.

Upon arriving to Andromeda it discovers the Kett and learns of what they have done to its charges. It also learns of its plan and purpose. How they basically act like the Reapers did previously, except without such a "good" reason. It determines that to protect the many the Kett must be destroyed. And so begins the Harvest.

The Kett Empire is vast and as such a single Sovereign-class Reaper can't harvest them all on its own, despite its considerable strength. So it goes to the galactic core near the black hole and sets up a processing facility there where no organic race can reach it. Then it begins to harvest small Kett worlds until it has enough for a new reaper. For the purposes of Mass Effect 5 we'll say that the smaller reapers like were on Rannoch can be created with the harvest of just 4 or 5 colonies with a few tens of thousands of population on each. So first smaller reapers are created.

Gameplay-wise it could be totally badass. In space you would control the reaper itself and physically fly where you want to go, even entering and exiting hyperspace via hotkeys. You could have space battles as the Sovereign-class reaper too. In fact, larger planets would likely involve Reaper vs Kett fleet space battles in orbit around the planets that you'd have to engage in first. And then you could land on the planet. From there (still as the Reaper) you could start using your pew pew beam to destroy priority targets and smash stuff with your tentacle legs until an appropriate amount of destruction has been made and certain objectives established. In effect it'd be sort of like that old video game called Rampage where you played as a giant ape/wolf/lizard and fucked a city up.

Once the objectives are completed you would then turn your attention to your ground forces and they'd be continuously attacking their targets but you could assume direct control of a unit (at your discretion) which would uber boost that unit and the type of unit would determine what abilities and gameplay you have during that segment. Then you complete some objective(s) for the ground forces. If your unit dies then you're like "Relinquishing control" right before it dies and you can choose a new unit to control to continue on.

You'd continue on harvesting worlds and building up your Reaper army until you can go for large Kett homeworlds which will allow you to construct additional Sovereign-class Reapers which will help with the more protected homeworlds further along in the campaign. I do realize that it's stated that a single reaper is created after harvesting an entire cycle but that will need to be retconned. In my opinion that doesn't make sense considering Shepard personally destroyed no less than 3 reapers before the ending, not to mention a few that were destroyed in space battles. Over the century or longer that Reapers take to harvest a cycle it's feasible they would lose a handful of reapers which means they would have negative growth and never increase in number. It makes no sense. Lose 5, gain 1. Can't do it. Has to be retconned.

The small colonies would be harvested pretty much instantly. But the larger worlds, like it's stated in previous games, could take quite a few years. So the harvest from those worlds would slowly trickle back to your processing facility. You could also construct mass relays between the worlds of your choice, which could greatly speed up your reaper forces travel times and the speed of which your harvested kett reach your processing facility. It would provide some element of risk as well because it would also make it easier for the Kett to travel between those systems and attack your Reaper worlds. So you'd have to be prepared to defend against that.

You could encounter certain Kett Archons and such that think they're badasses and have conversations with them in which you just completely insult them and tell them how superior you are. A lot like Sovereign and Harbinger do. Cause let's face it, you're basically the ultimate badass now.

It would be epic.

And then Mass Effect 6 could continue the Andromeda story. They could completely forget about the Kett at that point since the Reapers harvested them and constructed a sizeable Reaper armada in Mass Effect 5. There are a few possibilities for 6.

Option#1: Either Shepard creates a body to use similar to how EDI controls her body despite being physically aboard the Normandy and assume control of it. Shepard dies? Relinquish control, and control a new Shepard body. It'd make respawning make sense and more difficult levels could be added as a result.

Option#2: Shepard is cloned from her memories and genetic information, which the Reapers obviously now have. This one might be a bit more balanced.

Option#3: It's been enough years since Mass Effect Andromeda that the Pathfinder twins can be old (and new voice actors, yay), and replaced by new ones which are far more badass like Shepard was - and with actually good voice actors, and backstories. You could even be an N7 Spectre like Shepard since there would be a proper council by that point, and the Initiative would have had time to build proper warships and weapons on their fucking vehicles. Throw away that trash ship with the ladders and make it something better. Hell, maybe a Reaper as a ship. Or maybe a Remnant ship.

Options 2 & 3 would also have the possibility of bringing in some of Shepard's original crew like Garrus, so you wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel.

From there the story would continue as a new enemy is introduced... the Remnants and/or their enemy that created the scourge. To make it make sense we'll say the bulk of the Reaper fleet can't help until you can figure out a countermeasure for the Scourge because the Reapers are sufficiently advanced enough that it actively targets them. That way this game in the series can be largely human like the original 3 games.

At that point, just drag the original story writers in there and toss the new ones out the building, bring in some good voice actors, some good animators, and it shouldn't be too hard to come up with an epic new trilogy.

edit: Oh and the new AI-in-head voice could be either Shepard as a Reaper, or EDI. Either way, they could both crack jokes and have more personality than that (Microsoft) S.A.M.