The Mass Effect 3 development team considered her removal from the squad, but ultimately chose to include her due to staff interest.

Her true appearance was a common online discussion topic amongst fans, though her face, upon its reveal, was criticized for being based on a stock photo, and was later replaced in a remaster.

[1] As a quarian, Tali must wear a full-body environmental suit due to her race's weaker immune systems, which also has the effect of hiding her physical appearance and facial features.

Tali is first introduced on her Pilgrimage, a quarian rite where young adults leave to obtain a gift for a captain so as to be allowed to join their crew.

New York City actress Ash ("Liz") Sroka voices Tali throughout the Mass Effect trilogy,[13] her first role in a video game.

[14] Like Garrus Vakarian, Tali was not an option for player romantic pursuit in the first game as the developers were unsure whether the alien characters would be emotionally compelling.

Tali's romance event tree was added in Mass Effect 2 due to fan demand and her ability to express human emotion.

[23] An in-game photo of Tali's face is available as a gift to the player-character Commander Shepard upon pursuing her Mass Effect 3 romance event tree.

[25] Preston Watamaniuk, lead designer for the Mass Effect series, found Tali's death in 3 was the toughest for him to plan, though he felt it needed to be possible due to the option of wiping out the quarians.

Whilst on her Pilgrimage, Tali discovers that a rogue Spectre (elite agent of the galaxy's central government),[27][28] Saren, is working with the geth and has attacked Eden Prime, humanity's first space colony.

The colony has been attacked by the "Collectors," its human colonists abducted, and Tali agrees to work with Shepard in order to help search for Veetor, over the objections of her team.

She and a team of quarian soldiers were sent to investigate a star aging faster than usual and are under attack by a geth patrol that spotted their activity.

Tali admits to Shepard that she did send her father inert geth components to develop more effective weapons, but asserts that they could not spontaneously activate.

If the player sides with the geth and lets the quarians die, Tali commits suicide by jumping off a cliff; otherwise, she fully joins the squad and can be found interacting with other Normandy crew members.

The downloadable add-on Mass Effect 3: Citadel adds a number of character moments for Tali, including (depending on dialogue and event choices or whether Shepard is in a romance with her) revealing her love of romantic movies, her talent for singing and doing impressions of the Normandy, and the fact she cannot hold her liquor very well.

Tali extracts the memory core from one of the geth, and discovers a recording of a conversation between Saren and Matriarch Benezia discussing the attack on Eden Prime.

Once they arrive at Illium, the crew is attacked by a group of mercenaries including Commander Jacobus, hired by Saren, leaving Tali and Keenah the only survivors.

She is told to go to the bar Chora's Den by Barla Von, and put into contact with the Shadow Broker, setting the stage for her entry into the first Mass Effect game.

Writing for UGO, Evan Saathoff listed Tali as his fourth best video game companion, comparing her as the "innocent, girl next door experience" to the sexiness of Halo's Cortana.

[30] GamesRadar+'s Carolyn Gudmundson listed Tali as one of several video game characters she'd "go gay for", noting her "kind personality and air of mystery", as well as her technical genius and accent.

[25][34][35] Steven Hopper, writing for IGN, listed her as his second favorite Mass Effect teammate after Garrus Vakarian, praising her "endearing geekiness" and the story that follows her.

[36] Similarly, UGO's Sal Basile listed her as the fourth best squadmate in Mass Effect 3, giving credit to her in-game abilities.

[39] A reader's poll published by IGN in December 2014 for their top ultimate RPG party choices placed Tali at #20 under the reserves section.

Video game developer for BioWare Casey Hudson, in an interview, acknowledged depictions of Tali's face as the most common fan art.

[35] Early concept art depicted Tali as being hairless, with pale skin and cat-like eyes, described as "a little too alien" and potentially repellent to players, challenging their expectations.

[21] GamesRadar+ writers Mikel Reparaz and Tyler Nagata echoed this sentiment, feeling that her face should look unusual or unsettling, citing the game's other races.

[21] The use of a Photoshopped stock photo (of Miss England model Hammasa Kohistani) met with wide criticism from fans, who believed it to be rushed.

[49][50] Kotaku's Luke Plunkett, describing it as a "crushing disappointment", highlighted an artwork by deviantArt artist "K4ll0" that depicted a more alien face.

[52] Later acknowledging the backlash, the 2021 Mass Effect Legendary Edition compilation removed the modified stock photo of Kohistani and replacing it with a unique computer-generated humanoid face with all-white eyes, while retaining her human-like appearance.

DC Direct included Tali their first line of Mass Effect 2 squadmate figures, first revealed in January 2010 and then released in April 2011.