Mass Effect: Andromeda can be good without Shepard, director says

Even though Mass Effect‘s next game won’t feature its beloved Commander Shepard, its developers think fans have nothing to worry about.

Chris Wynn, Senior Development Director for the fourth title in the series, Mass Effect: Andromeda, took to Twitter recently to allay fears that the franchise won’t be as successful without the iconic main character. Responding to a Brazilian fan, he tweeted:

@lordbyro I am well versed in the caparinhia, delicious. Be open minded to a Mass Effect with no Shepard, it can be good.

— Chris Wynn (@The1Wynn) October 8, 2015

BioWare has maintained that the franchise would continue without Shepard since 2012, when BioWare Montreal producer Fabrice Condominas stated that “there will be no more Shepard.” Condominas also made a point that the next game in the Mass Effect series would have a “very, very different context”; developers felt comfortable not using past characters because “the Mass Effect universe is vast and very, very rich.”

This echoes tweets by Wynn we’ve reported on previously when he commented on the improbability of having familiar characters in future Mass Effect games. The upcoming game will be set in the Andromeda galaxy, physically and temporally distant from Commander Shepard’s story.

Mass Effect: Andromeda still has no exact release date, though publisher EA states it will come out in Q4 2016.

Check out GameSkinny’s earlier coverage of the EA announcement and launch trailer for more on Mass Effect: Andromeda.