One of the biggest surprises at Comic-Con 2012 was the reaction to the Mass Effect: Paragon Lost trailer. For the most part, people hated it. On paper, it seems like a “can’t miss” animated series. FUNimation has a strong track record. Mass Effect is a fantastic property. How could that go wrong? Check out the trailer above and see what caused the mass consumption of Haterade. Here’s the show’s official description:
Mass Effect: Paragon Lost is the prequel to the highly-anticipated Mass Effect 3 and follows the early career of Alliance Marine, James Vega. Vega leads an elite Special Forces squad into battle against a mysterious alien threat known as The Collectors. Stationed at a colony in a remote star system, Vega and his soldiers must protect the civilians from a ruthless invasion determined to capture the population for unknown purposes. Learn more about the Mass Effect universe with an unprecedented glimpse into the haunted past of Mass Effect’s newest hero!
When you have a chance, please share your feelings (like a Care Bear) on Mass Effect: Paragon Lost in the comments section.
I thought Vega was a douche and didn't talk to him.
I couldn't get past the name. Vega is the guy in Street Fighter…or the chick that sings "Luka".
I think part of the backlash is due to the fact that people are still ticked off about the ending. The Extended Cut improved it, but it still kinda sucks. I mean, it's just a badly thought out ending. It's really soiled the Bioware community.
I mean, the forums over there are where light and happiness goes to die these days. A lot of the community on the Bioware forums are very much "anti" anything Bioware right now due to that. It's kind of crazy honestly, how wound up some of these people appear to still be after getting a FREE adjustment to the ending, AND three free multplayer DLC packs.
According to the people who post the most there, Bioware hasn't done anything right since EA bought them out and they've got grievances with SWTOR and Dragon Age II as well. I really like both of those games, but apparently according to the community, they're crap. The SWTOR one in particular is really annoying because every 3rd post is about "why I'm unsubbing," and it's usually something ridiculous like "because blue is my favorite color, but you made the AoE logos green, so I'm outta here." Of course, the fleet is always packed these days, so I'm not sure where these people are actually going, or if they're just people who already unsubbed trolling the rest of us.
Anyways, I think that has a lot to so with the reaction. People are just reacting negatively to anything Bioware. It's insane, because they're a top notch developer, who seem to care A LOT about their community and what they want. But there's a stigma to EA that immediately makes some people crazy. Same can be said about Activision with other people.
That being said, the trailer did nothing for me, and I love Mass Effect. But there's a grittiness to the universe that gets lost in the translation to anime I think. Also, Vega was meh as a character. I mean, there was more to him than Jacob from ME2, but still, not a character most fans would care much about.
The most common complain I've heard is that the art is banal.
It's anime. Of course the art is banal. That's usually part of the appeal.
There's lots of anime with stylish art. What do you usually watch?
Admittedly, I used to be into it a lot more than I am now. I was drawn to this by the "Mass Effect" in the title more than the "anime." But I used to love Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Vampire Hunter D. Stuff like that. I more or less grew up on Voltron & the Macross Saga. I feel like I've grown out of a lot of it, but I've grown out of a lot of Japanese things over the last 10 years or so.