User blog comment:Mexican215/So who was satisfied with the last battle against the Reapers?/@comment-5379655-20130206044838

I was completely satisfied and I agree with Legionwrex that comments about fighting Harbinger are entirely aggravating. There is absolutely no conceivable way for Shepard to fight Harbinger. How would he do it? It took an entire combined fleet, plus the lowering of Sovereign's shields in order to take him down. Yes, Shepard has killed Reapers, but the only Reapers he has killed personally (Other than Sovereign) are the destroyers, which are approximately 10 times smaller than an actual Reaper. The combined ground forces of the entire alliance can't take down a Reaper capital ship, as you could see from the majority of them getting wiped out by only 1 destroyer. The only Reaper capital ships destroyed by ground forces that we know of were the ones destroyed in the Miracle at Palaven, and that only happened because the insurgents carrying the nukes sacrificed themselves to do it. Even if you think that Shepard sacrificing himself to kill Harbinger would be a good boss battle, how would you get onboard? Climb up his legs? You would need a shuttle to fly up and board the Reaper. Shuttles of similar size and speed and armor protection as every single vehicle that got blasted into oblivion by Harbinger on the way to the beam. Even if you someone got past his weapons, it's not like there is a gaping hole with a sign next to it saying, "Boarding parties land here! -->." I don't understand how you can see it working out. The rest of the fleet is busy holding off the 200+ Reapers from destroying the Crucible, so no one would be able to direct a concerted assault against Harbinger if you wanted to go that route. Don't even get me started on personally flying the Normandy into battle. Also, in response to a comment further down in the thread, a Reaper capital ship could use Kalros as a tooth pick, so that's out.

As to comments that you should be able to fight the Illusive Man in a similar manner to Saren, I would like to point out that Sovereign was only able to gain control of Saren because of the Reaper tech that was implanted into Saren by Sovereign himself. Yes, the Illusive Man was also implanted with Reaper tech, but it was tech of his own design made to emulate Reaper abilities. The Reapers wouldn't be able to take control of him in the same way as Saren, simply because I doubt the Illusive Man would include a direct link to the Reapers with an attached note reading, "Please take control of me in case of boss battle." And the real reason why there was no final battle with the Illusive Man is clearly demonstrated in the scene we are given, because he can control Shepard's mind. If you really want to know how a boss battle with the Illusive Man would play out, just sit tight and wait for him to kill you at the end of the scene, because that's exactly what would happen.

As for this "Final, grand battle" you are demanding, you have to keep in mind that this game is all about Shepard and is told from Shepard's viewpoint. Shepard's mission in the end of the game is to get aboard the Citadel and to activate the Crucible. That's it. He's the tip of the spear, not some grunt in Kensington putting up a doomed last stand. The Alliance is not going to waste Shepard's life in holding a position to the death like the millions of other soldiers who died during the war. You have to remember, there was fighting going on all over London during the final mission, even if you weren't shown it. If you listened to the background chatter at the forward operating base, you would have heard reports of other bases struggling to survive, with one base being reported 100% KIA. It might be cheesy to say it, but the old cliched sayings such as, "There is no glory in battle. Only death," really ring true here. Even with the entire galaxy united behind Humanity, the Allied forces possess only a fraction of the strength that the Reapers do. The final mission is all but a suicide mission to get as many men inside the Citadel as possible. Everyone else dies. That's all there is to it. The only way for you to be satisfied that there actually was an epic battle is either for Shepard to waste time fighting in last stands around London, or for Bioware to show you through cutscenes, which would undoubtedly stretch to the length of Metal Gear Solid cutscenes, which no one wants. If you really want there to be an epic last battle, just use your imagination or something.

Finally, the war against the Reapers was happening all throughout the game, but once again, Shepard simply wasn't there to witness it. That's why the multiplayer was designed the way it was. Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer was designed to give players a taste of the rest of the galaxy's fight against the Reapers.

I, for one, think that Bioware handled it very well, and if I need to clarify my points, just let me know.