As all fans of Bioware’s most popular franchise Mass Effect are well aware, November 7th is a very important day for the franchise. Titled “N7 Day” by the fanbase, in honor of the armor that Commander Shepard wears throughout the series, it’s kind of been a day for both fans of the franchise and Bioware themselves to announce news and progress being made on whatever the latest installment of the series is. Last year, N7 Day brought us teaser for Mass Effect 4, this year didn’t have any direct news for the franchise, but it did bring us some fancy new armor from the future for the latest installment in Bioware’s other popular RPG series, Dragon Age: The Veilguard:
The armor set is the jacket that the mysterious character wears during the aforementioned N7 Day Mass Effect teaser they showed us last year. But there’s an interesting little factoid about this coat that the Bioware developers have slipped in to the notes, as discovered on Reddit.
There’s a high chance this is just the developers being cheeky with a cute reference for their little easter egg for a fun game, but that’s not going to stop fan speculation. Obviously eyes will be drawn to the word “shepherded”, which is almost a direct wink to Commander Shepard. Not to mention the coat talks about how it’s something an old friend would wear which is a reference to how Scout Harding’s voice actress, Ali Hillis, also voices Liara T’Soni one of Commander Shepard’s more prominent crew members.
So this all obviously points to Commander Shepard themselves being the mysterious trench coated figure in the N7 Day teaser, and thus the future main character of the yet to be titled future Mass Effect. On one hand, it would make sense, Mass Effect has always been Shepard’s franchise, the entire series has revolved around them and their legacy and decisions. On the other hand, it doesn’t make sense because Shepard died at the end of Mass Effect 3. But then again, Shepard died at the beginning of Mass Effect 2 so I guess this isn’t uncharted territory. Time will tell whether or not all of this is a just references for references sake, or an actual hint as to the future of the franchise.