San Diego Comic-Con 2012

Mass Effect: Paragon Lost panel

Funimation began a special presentation of their upcoming BioWare co-production Mass Effect: Paragon Lost began at San Diego Comic-con with an introduction Sarah "Sully" Sullivan and Justin Rojas, senior social manager in full N7 Armor from the game. Sully invited the audience to stop by the Funimation booth were attendees could get a personalized Mass Effect badge.

Rojas introduced the film and ran down the story, which involves the backstory of James Vega, played in the game by Freddie Prinze Jr. A clip showing some of the concept art for the film was played next, along with some character model sheets and costume designs. Sully then announced that a special announcement was coming next; a quick clip of Prinze Jr. was shown announcing that he'd be reprising his role as Vega (followed by a quick recitation of Funimation's slogan, 'you should be watching'). The film's composers were then brought up to talk about their role in the production.

Rojas lead a discussion with the composers, Joshua R. Mosley and David Kates, the latter of which worked on the scores for Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. Kates talked about how the "essence" of the games is heavily represented in the film, and that they tried really hard to bring a sense of emotional humanity to it; he also mentioned that many fans questioned the idea of centering a film around Vega, a character known for being a 'meathead', but the film brings a level of humanity to his character that helps you understnd him more.

Sully then ran a promotional reel of Funimation's recent anime releases, including Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos and Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker.

The panel then introduced an interview segment with Prinze Jr., who talked a little about his character and where the film's story comes from, which is a brief conversation with Shepard wherein Vega hints at his past. He also spoke a bit about how impressed he was with the level of detail in the film, and how much effort went in to getting all the little things just right. A debut trailer then premiered, which showed off a handful of finished action shots, featuring Production I.G's animation operating at a high-budget level. No further plot details were given. The film has a home video release date of November 13th, 2012.