Co-creator of the Mass Effect universe - on Garrus' sudden popularity, initial ideas for the ending, and more
Writer Drew Karpishin known for his work on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the first two Mass Effect. He recently launched a Kickstarter fundraiser for his new book, and to celebrate, he held a Q&A session at Reddit.
We have collected the most interesting comments.
About Mass Effect
" — Did BioWare plan from the beginning that Garrus and Tali would return in Mass Effect 2 and be romance options?
- We always knew that they would return as partners. But I was a little surprised at what novels fans wanted to see. In general, I can understand the appeal of Tali: her face is never visible, it is easy to imagine something resembling a person. (Although she has such strange legs!) Garrus caught me off guard. But when the fans wanted it, we decided to do a romance with him!"
"- How would you end the Mass Effect series?
- We had very rough ideas. Roughly speaking, Zhentsiv was lured to the repeaters, and then the entire network was blown up to destroy Zhnetsov. But the relays were also collapsing, and all galactic communities were isolated from each other. But we had to find out many more details, and this option had its own problems. For example, what to do in the next part of the series?"
" — Can a child be born to a Turian and a Quarian?
— I do not know the "official" position on this issue, but I believe that it is impossible. The various races in Mass Effect are biologically too different to breed with each other. Except for the Azari, of course, because that's what made them unique.
But that's just my opinion. I'm no longer working on Mass Effect, so if BioWare wants to create turian-quarian children, that's their choice."
"- What do you think about Mass Effect: Andromeda?
— Haven't played Andromeda (as well as Mass Effect 3). When I left the Mass Effect team, I decided that I needed to break away from it for good, otherwise the franchise would eat me up and I wouldn't be able to focus on new projects."
About Knight of The Old Republic
" — Did BioWare have ideas for Knights of the Old Republic II before the game was handed over to Obsidian?
- We didn't have a chance to get that far. Various partners (publishers and so on) clearly communicated their position: the sequel should be released within a year. We felt this was an unrealistic term for the quality we were aiming for. So we haven't even started talking about what we could do next."
"- What do you think about KOTOR II as a sequel and about the upcoming remake of KOTOR I?
- In my opinion, KOTOR II has a good story, but it seems like something separate, not a direct continuation of the original. It must have been a smart move on Obsidian's part.
The remake is interesting to me because I know many people who are working on it. They are very talented people, so I wonder what they will do."
Your opinion on Knights of the Old Republic II was also asked in another question. There, Karpyshin expressed himself as follows:
“In my opinion, the story in KOTOR II is excellent. It's different from my style, but still beautiful. But there were a lot of little things - bugs and small design problems that overshadowed the impression. In my opinion, this is a great example of why it's important to have enough time to polish a game before release. And Obsidian did not have this time. (This is why we refused to do KOTOR II).”
Currently, Drew Karpyshyn is not only writing books, but also working on a story RPG as part of Archetype Entertainment. Publisher Wizards of the Coast is the home of Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering, but this game will be the start of a new sci-fi universe. It does not yet have a release date.
Photo: Mass Effect Universe