Kasumi Was Written As A "Female ‘Best Friend’ For Shepard" In Mass Effect 2
Kasumi Goto is one in every of my favorite squadmates within the Mass Impact trilogy, which feels odd to say provided that she’s a DLC character with considerably much less dialogue than nearly all of the collection’ different companions. Whereas Garrus has loads of branching conversations to exhaust and Miranda has distinctive remarks after most missions, Kasumi typically says simply 4 sentences every time you go to her within the port observatory aboard the Normandy. It’s humorous - mockingly, this is only one of a number of causes as to why she’s so good, in addition to why it’s so necessary that she’s not a romance choice.
“Kasumi's persona got here from a need to have a feminine ‘greatest pal’ for Shepard,” Mass Impact 2 author Jay Turner tells me. “Somebody irreverent and quirky and assured who is not there for Shepard to this point.” Garrus fills this position for Male Shepard already - and was supposed to be non-romanceable for FemShep, too - whereas Wrex is greatest buds with Shepard no matter gender. Quite the opposite, a lot of the feminine characters in Mass Impact 2 could be romanced by Male Shepard - Turner wished to vary that, to make some extent you could be associates with folks with out having to sleep with them.
You actually do turn out to be associates with Kasumi, too, regardless of the entire constraints inherently connected to writing a post-launch character. If something, her gossipy one-liners really feel extra amicable in nature than a lot of the ostensibly deeper stuff you get with different squadmates. Kasumi talks about how Joker and EDI are like an outdated married couple lengthy earlier than Mass Impact 3, and wonders aloud about whether or not Jacob - who she describes as “mmm” - is into ladies with “a penchant for kleptomania.” She’s not saying this about you, the right paragon or rogue renegade - she’s saying it to you, a pal she will be able to speak in confidence to with out some type of misperceived romantic undertone.
That is in the end what permits her to shine. Kasumi’s witticisms on missions have all the time been a number of the cleverest and most crafty in all of Mass Impact, but it surely’s the distinction between a platonic, unpretentious, utterly clear relationship in which you'll be comfortable and one thing a lot much less secure or simply understood. Opposite to a number of the different companions, Kasumi is comfy round you to the purpose of playful cockiness, and can gladly slag you off in a manner that solely your Two Bros Chillin’ In A Sizzling Tub 5 Toes Aside As a result of They’re Not Homosexual associates will in any other case.
“She's the best thief within the galaxy (particularly now that her associate Keiji is gone), and she or he is aware of it,” Turner explains. “She's a bit of bit Batman: She has plans on high of plans, even when she appears flighty or flippant. She'll praise your Howdy Kitty pin whilst she takes a working begin to soar onto a helicopter and take it down solo.
“She was additionally a glimpse right into a wild underground the place there are artwork heists and Bond villains and respect amongst thieves. She was immensely satisfying to jot down, as a result of she was snarky and loveable and extremely competent, and hers is one in every of my favourite love tales (tragic as it might be) within the trilogy.”
That is the place Kasumi’s character goes past a lot of the different squadmates and actually comes collectively in a singular manner. As discussed by our own Andrea Shearon, Kasumi’s loyalty mission offers with grief and loss with outstanding rawness and tangibility. It’s the perfect, bravest, and most bittersweet love story in all of Mass Impact, primarily due to the truth that Shepard isn’t even concerned - as an alternative, they’re a proxy for us chatting with a grieving pal.
“Kasumi's large heist mission is one hundred pc based mostly on her need to attach together with her useless lover, though it looks as if you are there to steal know-how from a Bond villain,” Turner tells me. “To not say that these items weren't true for the opposite Loyalty missions, however for the remainder of the forged, Loyalty missions have been extra about fleshing the companions out and providing the participant an opportunity to affect them than about attending to know the companions themselves.”
Turner’s perspective right here is not only fascinating - it gives essential perception into why this loyalty mission particularly works so nicely. For anybody that’s been by one thing just like Kasumi, it’s a fragile manner of probing and articulating emotions which are often troublesome, if not inconceivable, to brazenly focus on in actual life. It might really feel low cost to finish this mission and for Kasumi to show round an hour later and say she’s into you - as an alternative, you study her ache and the way she will be able to reside with it with out ever actually recovering from it. It’s a piece in progress that may by no means be full, which sounds defeating at first, however is in the end uplifting when you think about that it'll proceed enhancing, slowly however certainly, eternally. Of all of the characters within the recreation, hers is the connection that feels most plausible, and it’s the one which I really feel an unlimited quantity of individuals will worth probably the most after taking part in by Legendary Version.
“I feel my favourite [character] is Kasumi,” Turner explains. “She is a tonal change from Mass Impact's typically critical and special-forces tone. As a grasp of a world Shepard barely will get to see, Kasumi can touch upon Shepard's world as an outsider of kinds, which allowed me to take a look at Mass Impact's tropes from a unique angle. The ending scene to her Loyalty mission by no means fails to get me all misty-eyed, though I wrote it... hats off to the superb cinematic design and animation crews for that one.”
For what it’s value, one other ex-BioWare developer I spoke to a few months in the past had the next to say:
“Jay Turner did an amazing quantity of unbelievable writing on Mass Impact, amongst different BioWare work, a lot of it by no means making it into the sport. He wrote the primary DLC missions for Mass Impact 2, together with Kasumi and Zaeed. He has a deep respect for the participant's sovereignty of alternative, an encyclopedic information of the universe, and I might love for him to have a crack at main the narrative of a Mass Impact title.”
After talking with Turner and revisiting Legendary Version, I can’t assist however agree.
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