Mass Effect 5 Lead Dev Comments on Original Trilogy’s Paragon / Renegade System, Teases Its Return

With Dragon Age: The Veilguard out the door, BioWare fans have turned their attention to Mass Effect 5 and are trying to piece together a picture of what sort of game it will be. One of the big questions about Mass Effect 5 is whether its famous Paragon / Renegade morality system will return. Now, the game’s lead developer has teased fans with a cryptic response.

For the uninitiated, Mass Effect games let you pick from various dialogue options, some of which are on the Paragon (good) side of its morality system, some on the Renegade (bad) side. Not only do your dialogue choices affect the outcome of quests, the main story, and your relationship with the various characters in the game, but the way your Commander Shepard looks. Go all in on Renegade, for example, and your Shepard starts to look evil in a Jedi, dark side of the Force, kind of way.

Mike Gamble, project director of Mass Effect 5 and executive producer at BioWare, took to X/Twitter to discuss the original trilogy’s Paragon / Renegade system following questions from fans about whether or not having all this Renegade content was worth it given most people played Paragon.

Gamble acknowledged most people played Paragon in Mass Effect, but pointed out, “it would have been meaningless if Renegade had not existed.”

He added: “The ability to choose is stronger than the number of people playing any option, in my opinion.”

This taps into one of the key appeals of role-playing games: that they react to your choices in meaningful ways whether those choices are good, bad, or ugly. This is something Baldur’s Gate 3 does tremendously well. Larian’s RPG contains a huge amount of content most players will never see because their choices take the game in a certain direction, but the experience is all the richer for it. It’s also something some BioWare fans critisized Dragon Age: The Veilguard for not doing.

Now we come to Mass Effect 5 itself, and one fan’s observation that it is likely to see the return of the Paragon / Renegade system because of hints hidden in a Mass Effect image BioWare released back in 2023.

Gamble’s response: “I was talking about the trilogy. You’ll just have to wait and see…”

I was talking about the trilogy. You’ll just have to wait and see…

— Michael Gamble (@GambleMike) January 3, 2025

It may be some time before we find out. Things have been quiet on Mass Effect ever since BioWare revealed a 30-second trailer for Mass Effect 5 on the occasion of N7 Day 2023, leading fans to once again hunt for fresh info.

The biggest revelation was that the long-awaited sequel would indeed tie into Mass Effect: Andromeda in some way. There had been questions about whether BioWare would quietly drop any references to its ill-fated spin-off, but it seems still fully part of the canon, with Mass Effect 5 potentially set long after the events of the original trilogy.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.