Quick quotes: BioWare admits Final Fantasy inspiration with Mass Effect

"Yeah, you know we actually reference a lot from Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. We used a lot of their GUIs and the way they did their ship - that was kind of like in some of the early designs for the Normandy. Our attack helicopters are loosely based off that movie. There's some great stuff, especially their glowing GUI screens; we used those a lot. I keep a folder of that stuff and I still actually tell the guys 'just go back and look at that. Change it like that!'" - Mass Effect 3 art director Derek Watts, speaking to X360W, on the inspiration CG movie The Spirits Within has given to the threequel.