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Did anyone else find the alien romance in Mass Effect unappealing?

nullref

Member
My Shepard wasn't xenophobic -- but his dick was.

(On the subject of Ashley's "racism", I think being distrustful of advanced alien cultures you've only recently made contact with is far from unreasonable. Trying to draw a moral equivalence between that and human racism is pretty silly.)
 
I'd rather bump uglies with a Hanar than look at Miranda's gross face.

FornaxCover.jpg


Mmm, gimme that jelly.
 

Dylan

Member
Like two plastic dolls stiffly touching each other with awkward dialogue, yes.

Yeah this. The "romance" in Mass Effect was more embarrassing than anything else. You hit the nail on the head, it really does feel like some invisible pervert playing with dolls.
 
Nope, Janet Shepard's romance with Liara was fine and for me spanned all three games. The plastic, vacant, marionettes consumating the relationship later on was the unappealing part. That uncanny valley, eh?

They could have faded to black or cut to the morning and it would have been a wiser decision i think.
 

geordiemp

Member
Yeah this. The "romance" in Mass Effect was more embarrassing than anything else. You hit the nail on the head, it really does feel like some invisible pervert playing with dolls.

I think I tried every combination - hangs head in shame...
 

Sheroking

Member
Ashley's reason for hating all Aliens is about as legit as a white dude hating all Japanese people because his dad fought them in WWII. I gleefully send Ashley to her death every single playthrough.

Luckily, there's Miranda.

Yeah this. The "romance" in Mass Effect was more embarrassing than anything else. You hit the nail on the head, it really does feel like some invisible pervert playing with dolls.

Meh.

The sex scenes were fucking awkward, but I like the idea and hope they develop it further.
 

Effect

Member
Why no mention of Jack? Arguably the best romance in the Mass Effect series. One that is filled with genuine emotions and actually gives you the feels as opposed to "We'll bang okay?"

Getting the angry Jack to come out of her shell and getting her to a point where she lets her guard down around you is one of the most 'human' moments in the series. Bravo!

If you dislike Jack because of her shaved head or tattoos that just shows you are shallow
Much better than Miranda teeNay Lawson

The Jack "romance" is the one that seems to have the most depth to it I think. She grows the most as well believe. The only other one that comes close to actually playing out well it think is Liara.

I don't even get how the Tali one is suppose to work when she's in her suit constantly. If that was at least tackled, not sure if it is as I never went down that option, then that might be nice considering the interactions she has with Shepard just on a friendship level.

I like Ashley as a character but the romance options with her in the beginning were cringe worthy.
 
As Others have said the problem was more the fault of the game structure and the fact it had to be X number of conversation + positive responses = ROMANCE!

That said, Liara is the only acceptable response. Her character was one of the few romantic options that actually developed over the series. Ashley and Tali were one note. Jack actually got somewhere by 3.

But that's moot, when pressed about how Shepard was brought back, who was it that expended the time and resources to find his body and then hand it to a shady organization just on the POSSIBILITY that he could be saved? Not Tali, not the space racist, not even your space bro Garrus, it was Liara. Sounds like the a act of a lover, not just a comrad to me.
 

spekkeh

Banned
Find it pretty weird that everyone is so hung up over Ashleys specieism, when specieism is the standard in our lives.
 
My fem shep was a total hoe at first. I romanced all the characters I could until they would confront me and ask me to choose.

I decided to go with Kaiden all three games.
 

Neiteio

Member
Personally I am not into any of it. Then again, none of the romance options in the series were very appealing. Miranda was the one I picked for my main shep, but when the competition are all aliens, racists or C tier side characters, that's not saying much.
So you're racist against aliens but also won't date racists? :-\

Also, Tali all the way, e'eryday
 
unappealing? No. But goddamn creepy is what it was. It had a place in the first mass effect (and even that was pushing it), but in ME2 and 3..... holy shit is Shepard a creep. Like Otaku-level over 9000 creep.

Or the fact that Kaiden, despite my already selected preference of women, was coming on to shep as subtle as a sledgehammer. They handled Steve a little better, but still, that was unsubtle subtle HELL NO to the character. (I did like the character though. Seemed to make sense to some extend.)
And then there is roid-maxed super-gay..ya'll know who I'm talking about... who can't be creeped. Like, seriously?

To be honest, I played ME3 by doing the dialogues, but not pursuing anyone, because Shep is just too much of a creep.

ME2 dialogue:
"hey, wanna have sex"
"kay"

Which only made (some) sense with the broken Jack, but nobody else.

And as anyone would know: you cheat with the secretary. She got turned to goo. PERFECT.

1774873-1667981_creepy_smile_super.jpg
 

MartyStu

Member
Most of them were creepy; regardless of species.

And I would have had a LOT more respect for Bioware had the Tali and Garrus relationships not actually involved intercourse.

I think my femshep abstained from all relationships until the yeoman from the third game. She was nice.

If I were to replay the entire series all the way through, I would most likely pick Liara as she seems to have the least awkward of all the multi-game relationships.
 

Sober

Member
This is how I feel about "romance" options in all RPGs. Are people's standards really that low, or am I missing the obvious thing?
It's easy to fool nerds who don't know how to talk to girls to make them think getting sex is the reward to a person's quest line.
 

Annubis

Member
It's easy to fool nerds who don't know how to talk to girls to make them think getting sex is the reward to a person's quest line.

Ah, good old Baldur's Gate 2, where rushing a physical relationship with characters could end very very very badly.
 

Odrion

Banned
The Mass Effect series is really really dumb when you step back and think about it.

Really good, but really dumb.
 

angrygnat

Member
They kind of shoe horned that "romance" component in there. While I never liked it, (mostly because it felt weird watching clunky animations go at it) I do think it has its place in the series. It gave your Sheps death that much more weight at the end when you had a love interest mourning your loss.
 

Linkyn

Member
I always go with Liara. I mean, what's not to like? She's a scientist, she's really sweet in her naivety, she doesn't have a gender (so is basically bisexual by human standards), she knows telekinesis, she stays young forever (again, by human standards), and most importantly, she can give you an orgasm with her mind.



With. Her. Mind.


Edit: I do also have a soft spot for Miranda, though, which typically leads to the awkward situation of having to choose between her and Liara in ME3 :/ (although not so much since I've purchased the Shadow Broker DLC).
 

AlexBasch

Member
Didn't feel that attached with my Broshep to other crew members. Regretted going with Ashley on the first one because she was huge pain in the ass later down the trilogy.

Miranda made me forget her so quick. <3

Of course, that's Broshep we're talking about, my Femshep hates all human and non-human beings in the universe except Garrus.

Because nobody can resist his calibrations. Nobody.
 

Shadownet

Banned
I haven't played as FemShep (no desire really, but I do say I like her with Thane and Garrus), but the alien romances for MaleShep just don't do it for me at all. Something about it is just…blah.

Liara? Hate it.

Samara? Nope.

Morinth? She fucking kills me.

Tali? LOL

I'm on TeamAshley all the way. The haters can suck it. The girl had character development, and I wish you'd stop calling her a racist, especially when she has a LEGIT reason to not like them.

Ashley is provably the last female I wanted to be with while playing as MaleShep.

Oh wait I forgot Jack. *shudders*

Come on man, don't diss Liara. If Blue sexy alien dont turn you on, then well... More for the rest of us!

Oh and can't forget about that Cerberus chick, whose name escaped me at the moment.
 

MC Safety

Member
Yeah this. The "romance" in Mass Effect was more embarrassing than anything else. You hit the nail on the head, it really does feel like some invisible pervert playing with dolls.

I love the Jim Sterling quote applied to video game sex scenes: "awkward, cold, dead puppet show."
 
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