There are more than 1,200 speaking characters in the upcoming Mass Effect: Andromeda. That’s an exceedingly large number, beating out the previous Mass Effect titles with a big margin.

Two separate Mass Effect developers talked about the scope of the dialogue with PC Gamer at PAX East 2017.

Mac Walters, creative director, told the outlet, “When you look at the dialogue options, we’re basically [at] the equivalent of Mass Effect 2 and 3 put together.”

Producer Michael Gamble expanded on this:

“So the number of characters is vaster, but the amount of stuff you and that character can talk about is also larger—especially the squad, we definitely focused in on the squad…

…We made sure the squad was beefy, and developed, and that you could do different things with them and then that information would basically carry through the conversations. That was a large focus. Yeah, in terms of the amount of writing, that was increased, and the number of characters was also increased.”

Hopefully what they’re saying is interesting…

Sure, beating 1,200 uniquely voiced characters is a compelling and potentially promising stat, but we’ve learned the hard way that big numbers don’t mean quality.

Consider the impossible planet count in No Man’s Sky. Right, quantity doesn’t necessarily dictate quality.

Mass Effect: Andromeda releases on March 21, 2017, for the PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One platforms.

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