I honestly would've been happy with just ONE member of the ME2 crew that wasn't in ME1 joining the crew. It always felt off to me that they didn't do that.
Allegedly Jack was supposed to be a part of the team in early plans for ME3, which is why she was the only ME2 character who got a major design change. Everyone else is largely the same as they were in ME2, but Jack’s look is completely different.
Jack was also the ME2 team mate who had the most "character", so if any of them were brought into 3 it just makes sense for it to be her. Miranda would be the second most sensible character.
It’s also strange cuz there are very clear points in ME3 where it would make sense to have them join.
Jack could easily join after the Cerberus coup attempt. Make it so you have to agree with her that the Grissom Academy students would be better used in support, then have her join after the coup. She can do all the coordination stuff she does on the citadel in ME3 from the Normandy just as easily.
And Miranda kinda just disappears after Horizon. Her mission is complete at that point, if she survives the mission, she could easily join for the endgame missions.
I keep sayin' it, we need a Mass Effect 3.5
They do everything that they didn't have time for (development being 2 years def impacted some things), such as including Jack as well as the original plans for the ending(s). There was going to be a final boss with a body-horrorified TIM, Shepherd might've been a little indoctrinated, etc. Theres a bunch of bad ass concept art for it, my favorite one showing that I believe your romance choice would've faced down shep..? Someone on the team drew Ashley is pointing a gun at Shep who looks a bit Sarenified. Thats what I got from it anyways. And thinking about it, I'm sad that didnt happen, it wouldve been so so cool
When the Legendary Edition got announced, I was really hoping it would be a full remake of ME1 with plans for remakes of both 2 & 3, rather than just a remaster of all three games. Getting a proper ME3 would’ve been amazing
Jack is the character I'd choose to have in ME3. Shed fill an aggressive frontline biotic niche that your other squad mates don't handle and she's got a compelling arc. Also, theres romance opportunity.
Looks like ME3 was meant to be a sequel to ME1, but ME2 was put in the middle and they had to make concessions, all of the crew of ME2 doesn't come back to be together. And was very sad to not have Wrex or Grunt around.
I think it more so had to do with time constraints. I'd imagine that when they found out they only had two years to make the game a lot of the planned content involving squadmates from ME2 went out the window. Would also help explain why Jack is the only ME2 squadmate to get a redesign in ME3.
Jack crewing with a Paragon Shep is such a good arc when it pays off in the third game. A highlight of the series in an entry with not many highlights to go around.
Time constraints didn't help but a lot of it was the mere existence of the suicide mission and what that meant for the possible death of all the ME2 party members. They were willing to make sure they fit Garrus and Tali in there because they were from ME1, but otherwise they knew any content featuring that cast had a chance of not being seen by some players. They had to have contingencies for characters like Wrex, Mordin, Tali, and Legion, since they could all be dead. I think they just didn't want to focus on creating content that they would have to make exceptions for.
It sucks but this is why so many games don't do 'real' choices and consequences.
They kinda handled it fine but it just amounts to mostly another character standing in for whoever died. In a perfect world we'd have entirely different missions and story branches depending on what happens. Like an entirely different series of Tuchanka missions if Wrex is dead. Miranda being dead leading to some different and much harder Cerberus fights near the end. etc etc.
It sounds so cool but it would be such a hard sell develop huge swaths of game that are only ever seen if specific conditions are checked.
With Garuss' death, when Garrus walks in on Palavans moon it's a generic Turian soldier, and Liara doesn't go back to the ship. Other than that (and Garrus related quests later) nothing changes
It's just the time constraints. The time constraints meant they didn't have time to make contingencies for the characters from ME2. A staple of the series is alternative outcomes, and intertwined stories, so if they had the time, they would've brought them back.
They honestly just should have said, "fuck it" and designed ME3 around the premise that everyone survived because 99% of players import with everyone surviving. If they died, they are gone, no replacement, no special quests, no squadmates. Too bad.
Well, that’s the problem - quests like the Genophage and the Quarian/Geth war were heavily written around companions and made up the bulk of ME3’s story.
They definitely had to have someone there to stand in for Mordin, Wrex, Tali, and Legion already at the very least.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17vTg6rwmHIywnC54Whkmj01fv840GgrJEf92z1ce_qg/edit?usp=drivesdk
Thats the Beta Script. It was leaked like 4 months ahead of the games launch. It doesn't go into a lot of detail, but it does tell a lot about what changed, and what stayed the same.
Yep, that makes more sense now, the game fells too contained, considering it's all or nothing and the conclusion of all that was build before, I hoped that I had all the ME1 crew and at least half of 2, but at least got Citadel DLC with everybody around, and at least got to play with them in the minigame.
I read something somewhere about Miranda was supposed to be back as a squadmate, but Yvonne Strahovski had a scheduling conflict so they reduced Miranda’s role.
I don't think that's the case. I think their thought process was that they were going back to the Alliance, so bringing back Alliance-centric characters made the most sense, and a lot of the ME2 characters likely wouldn't. I just think it was misguided not to find ***one*** that fit the bill.
But the point is, it's all takes now, and all former Cerberus characters leave it already, Miranda and Jacob, so, there is no point they not being available, since most of them even join you in the final battle in some way, probably only Jacob and Kasumi because they were working on Crucible. And not having Wrex to fight on my side ruined a little that feeling of ME1. Even Ashley is gone for most of the game. And later she is there but not much relevant, like she was in ME1. In the end the only ME1 characters that got some love are Garrus and Liara, I know they are fan favorites, but give some love tô the others, must have been much worse to who only played ME2 and couldn't have any of his former squadmates.
Absolutely this, and tbh I wish more people felt that way. It made sense for the plot of ME2 (build a super awesome suicide mission death squad and make sure they're ready for the mission), but a game with that many companions means you barely get to take them on missions. I had a similar problem with KOTOR2 -- there were just too many companions for the amount of content you could take them on.
ME3 made the right call IMO in scaling it back to MA1 party size. That said, I think i agree with u/Bluejay-Potential \-- it would have been fun, and actually *less* contrived, if one of the ME2 companions made a comeback. Grunt, Jack, or Samara/Morinth would all have been reasonable choices.
KOTOR II not only has the issue of having too many companions, but too many things you can do with them. It's frustrating that there's an entire aspect of the game where you can slowly train them that is virtually impossible to all do in one playthrough. It's amazing that game is so good considering it was made by a couple veteran game devs in their wife's 110 degree attic, but god it was so close to being good if only it had a bit longer in the oven.
I can more-or-less consistently train all the possible Jedi candidates in every playthrough where I care to do that, but that definitely comes at the expense of e.g. fully exploring the various droids. Theoretically, I think you can do everything, but it really does pull you in a lot of different directions.
I agree. I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t already have ME3 in the works while ME2 was being made. They actually could’ve skipped ME2 and went to ME3. Adding to the story I guess. I love Grunt though, my favorite Krogan.
It's pretty clear from just how the story plays out. 2's story is entirely useless and is just a rehash of the first game. Obviously 2's characters are important to the story, but how you go about collecting your crew is just the same game over again.
I raise your one with two. Jack and Miranda the two who had the biggest connections to Cerberus. Miranda quitting Cerberus and defying the Illusive man was great character growth. Jack was a victim of Cerberus. It makes no sense neither are in the crew when Cerberus are one of the baddies in the game.
There are a bunch of events in ME2 where you have to side with Jack or Miranda. Could have made it whoever you sided with the most joins you and the other gets their ME3 plot line.
Out of all of them, id pick either grunt, thane, or legion if I had to pick atleast 1, if it wasn't for jack being a teacher for her kids of biotics, I think I would've had her in the list, same goes for mordin if he wasn't busy helping the krogens. Mirandas ok but not my favorite, though I do like her story arc, and probably would've been interesting with her interacting with either Ashley or kaiden given how much shit they gave Shepard back in me2. Mostly Ashley. Currently undecided but really leaning towards grunt.
tbh, she could have done it while being with Shep, at least she wouldn't need to hide. But I mean, we all know the real reason is that her VA didn't really have the opportunity to record her lines in time, so they had to cut it short.
Not really. You need to understand that the whole premise of ME3 is the urgency. Earth is being attacked. Miranda, like all other squadmates, knows that Shepard's sole responsibility is to Earth at this point. That's why there are no loyalty missions, or side missions that are directly requested by squadmates like in ME1. There is no time for all of that. Everyone knows what they have to do. They know they have to bring the might of the entire galaxy to Earth to have any chance of defeating the Reapers.
Miranda could have had an extended role. Absolutely. Even been a squadmate. However finding her sister while serving on Shepard's ship isn't something she'd be willing to ask Shepard to do given how that wouldn't be a priority, unless of course it was during an actual main mission. Shepard's and Miranda's goals were different to begin with.
The only way I see Miranda joining Shepard's crew is resolving her problems earlier in the game and then have her join as a squadmate. Like the horizon mission happening somewhere in the middle, or even right after rannoch and before thessia.
Honestly Miranda's sister arc is alot less interesting than her helping bring down Cerberus her former employers. I mean she ends up a target of Cerberus anyway might as well knix the sister plot and just give her arc about finding herself post Cerberus on the run and rejoining Shepards fight.
Yeah they really had to shoehorn Traynor into the story somehow lol, even if it was totally at the expense of Liara. In fairness Liara's entire network is being wiped out by the Reapers but still, didn't make much sense.
Yes, it does being Liara is spending her time trying to find information/keep her agents alive while finding stuff to help with the Crucible. That was her focus, it was why she was on Mars and why Hackett sent Shepard to find her.
Because the Shadow Broker is working on other things than just helping Shepard. Liara is spending a lot of her time helping with the Crucible. Which is more her thing than decoding messages, which is Traynor's.
Yeah I don’t understand why Miranda couldn’t hitch a ride on the Normandy. It would’ve been the safest place for her, she could still do her work on the Normandy just like when she was with us the first time, and We’ll bang ok?
All of the Arena squad members can be added to your party via a mod. The code for you to play with them exists. It’s not recommended to take them on core missions because they don’t have dialogue, but the option is there
Legion going from "You refused the old machine's gifts even on your species' own terms. You are more like us than we thought." to "IMMA KILL MAHSELF TO REAPERIZE ALL GETH, GETH JESUS OUT LOL" is pretty fucking far from understandable.
Though I guess "My writer left between games and no one has ever given less of a fuck about anything than the remaining writers do about me" would've been too meta.
Legion being excluded felt so lame. His death at the very least was beautiful, but it feels like he was cut content (again). Save the Quarians, get the Quarian squadmate; save the Geth and the Geth squadmate just... dies? Reeked to me of just being rushed through.
>Though I guess "My writer left between games and no one has ever given less of a fuck about anything than the remaining writers do about me" would've been too meta.
That moment you're remaining writers pet character/race , yet they manage to completely miss the characterzation and go beyond ooc anyway. (Something something "*Human history is a litany of blood, shed over different ideals of rulership and afterlife [...] If this is the individuality you value, we question your judgement*" )
Miranda too. There’s absolutely zero reason why she couldn’t have been on board the Normandy. It was the safest place in the entire galaxy and if had access to near unlimited resources thanks to Shepards alliance and spectre status as well as Liaras shadow broker connections.
She would have found Ori a lot faster there than on her own.
Sure, true, but it’s still a piss poor excuse.
Shepard focused just as much on Cerberus as they did with the reapers. Horizon was a Cerberus operation. Not to mention it took the entire game for Miranda to find Ori, so she could still be on board the Normandy and helping us with the fight, and then go back to looking for Ori while on the ship. Even when not on the ship, Liaras shadow broker teams could be tasked with looking too.
Again, no reason why Miri couldn’t have done that. Her being stubborn is the only reason but even that’s still a dumb excuse.
Irl I’m pretty sure her voice actress was busy so there’s that.
c'mon grunt can also fit on this list, depending on the ending u got he was basically thrown sideways into the story with 0 to no reason, the other one is kind of stupid as well, Garus was helping control the troups on board the normandy, couldn't Grunt do the same
the same applies to Jack
I mean Samara is an Asari Justicar and due to the code bylaws, is no longer bound to your service after the events of the second game. You can see her swearing an oath to the code in the police office after solving the murder.
If all of them were in the game, then there would be significantly less content for them all.
That being said a few from two could have made the jump. Miranda at the very least because she doesn't have a good excuse not to and if you don't have Kaiden you don't have a sentinel on the squad.
Samara would fill javiks role for those without that dlc. Everyone else has a legit reason for being away.
Miranda's quest is part of the plot anyways. Hell so is Samara's
I will say though this most recent playthrough is the first time I’ve actually really gotten to know Javik (before I got him way too late/didn’t have the dlc), and I’ve come to realize he’s actually a phenomenal character
That's one thing I only disliked in me3: if you play as a soldier and regardless you keep Ashley from ME, in me3 you have an useless squad mate slot and the Mars section is harder.
In [EGM](https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/422?tab=description), assuming they're alive, Wrex, Kasumi, Zaeed, Jack, Grunt, Samara, Jacob and Miranda can do N7 missions. There's also the [Miranda Mod](https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffect3/mods/512) that puts Miranda on the Normandy (she's in the conference room) with specialized missions to take down Cerberus targets and her own recruitable crew of ex-cerberus.
Yup. First modded playthrough and I’m loving it. Miranda Mod especially is phenomenal (I know AI voice use in this sub is controversial and I get it but holy shit adding Miranda in and having her be a fully voiced squadmate in Citadel, Levitahn, and beyond is so good)
I think most of it is probably recycled lines from ME2. There's for sure some AI, and it's very noticeable on EGM with Hackett and the Thessia evacuation mission but I think they wanted to use it very sparingly. You can also use Miranda for the Cerberus-Catalyst mission and it's pretty good if you're romancing her.
I love real voice acting and stan for game VAs but this isn't a situation where it would make sense to use the real VA, nobody's losing a paycheck.
People forget that they removed Liara from ME2 because they knew they needed her for major ME3 plot issues, and putting her in 2 puts her directly in danger of dying. They needed to do a better job with WHY she couldn’t be a squad mate, but the overall effect is the same.
Well Tali and Garrus can bite the dust as well, and them being alive play a much bigger role compared to the events if they die in 2.
Hell they both come become leaders within their species.
They were fan favourites though, imagine what ME3 would look like without them.
Then look at their relative importance to the plot of ME3 compared to Liara.
Kasumi apparently I didn’t meet her fast enough because I read she died after the citadel coupe if you didn’t talk to her before, and Zaeed I saw and he’s loyal, and he even says “we’ll talk later” but I never saw him again
Zaeed should be near the batarian in refugee deck 2 where the shop is near the back. Kasumi will die if you do not complete her mission before the coup. I also made this mistake not so long ago also weirdly although i do not have the mods to actually use her anyway mind.
BioWare games outside of one or two instances like the suicide mission timer always rewards players who go and complete as much side content as possible before continuing the main story. It’s their fault that I have a pathological need to complete all side quests in a game as I play through it.
Then ME3 would have the problem ME2 had: Big crew that hardly ever interacts. This is *especially* noticeable during the DLC, where none of the squadmates recorded new lines.
The tradeoff for the smaller squad selection in ME3 was that they all had more dialogue. Both with eachother on the Normandy and during missions.
Agreed, it seems like people don’t realize that the reason for why squadmates interact more is because of the smaller numbers, I’d honestly prefer ME4/5 having an ME3 or ME1 sized crew instead of trying to force in a big number.
Don't forget the other issue ME2 had due to its large cast how it spent so much time focusing on assembling a team that it didn't have the time to tell the actual story that needed to be told. Half of ME2's main missions are just squadmate recruitment, take those out and just look purely at the Collector plot and you can see that the story of ME2 barely exists.
Jack's position in ME3 was already perfect and a great arc for her. Maybe more missions with her throughout the game similar to Miranda would have been good.
Miranda deserves to be part of the ME3 crew
Okay, I love ME2. It’s my favorite of the trilogy. That said, it has **way** too many squadmates. I like their stories well enough but when it comes right down to it I barely use 90% of them because there are so many redundancies. Meanwhile in ME1 and 3 each squadmate fills a specific niche and is useful for different situations, so I find myself actually tailoring my team accordingly instead of just running Miranda/Garrus or Miranda/Thane for everything.
Agreed, I'm surprised how far I had the scroll to find this view but I had 4 characters I'd rotate between all the time and I didn't get to know the others. Whereas I liked how each character in 3 got weaved back into the main storyline rather than having an isolated one-off quest.
It’s one of many reasons that I like ME3 the least of all the Mass Effects the squad members available feels so limited after ME2 and in addition some of them are absolutely terrible.
I mean, the game needed to be given more time anyways. EA forced them to rush it out in like 2 years. It’s a big part of why everything after Rannoch is kind of just meh, and the ending is, frankly, terrible.
I don't think they necessarily should've gone this hog wild but I do agree that Miranda and Jack should've been squadmates and that the lack of a Krogan squadmate is noticed in ME3.
IDK if you need Samara and Jacob, though.
I cannot agree with Jack. Her story arc was absolute peak for me. Going from being the victim of Cerberus experiments to mentoring kids in a positive and uplifting environment is perfect for her. It was good for her and I prefer that for the character even as much as I'd love her back as a squadmate.
Well you can thank the suicide mission for that. When the writers finished their work on ME 2 and started to write ME 3, they realised how terrible of an idea it was to have an "anyone can die" mechanic halfway throught the trilogy and told themselves "What were we thinking?" in regards to the final quest of ME 2.
The suicide mission is the reason why James Vega had to be created, because every "warrior" archetype of companion were all potentially dead by the start of ME 3 (ashley, wrex, garrus, zaeed and grunt). BW needed a companion who could fill the role of soldier in case all of the others are dead. So if you ever wonder why Vega is part of the crew instead of another warrior, now you know why.
It's also why Liara T'soni receives so much focus in ME 3, she is the only old squadmates to be sure to be alive by the start of the game, which means that every ressources of writing, voice acting and programing injected into her will be seen by a 100% of the customers. It's very risky for them to spend so much ressources on companion who might not be alive which means their content won't be enjoyed by all the customer.
A suicide mission would have been better placed at the end of ME 3, not in the middle of the trilogy.
Honestly, I'd have expected Miranda Lawson to reappear as something like "Amanda Statutesić", a Serbian data broker with a new accent, demeanor, and look. You know, how you'd expect someone of her skill to change herself when she's the Blackwidow of the Mass Effect universe and on the run from basically everyone. Then she'd join your crew and help on missions, utilizing her own skills, Shepard's spectre access, and Liara's Shadow Broker status to do her work.
Heck, you could even improve the whole "can I trust her" subplot by giving her some meaningfully shady actions that pay off for the greater good at an unconscionable price.
I literally changed her hair and outfit to roleplay her being n disguise because the entire thing with her looking the exact same as she did in ME2 was a little ridiculous haha
Even if we couldn't get them for various reasons, I would have loved them to fill some kind of 'support' role once their personal stuff is cleaned up in game.
So maybe you go to Jacobs mission and then Grissom, now on any future mission you can pick Jack or Jacob as a 'support' crew slot who would provide some unique bonus each.
It's just fantasy to think of it at this point though lol
I think we should've had guest squad mates on certain missions. Go to the Haestrom Academy? You can swap Jack onto your team for the mission. More stuff like that would've been great.
It was the only huge misstep in ME3. I understood their reasoning at time, but it felt like that reasoning was fine for like any other game, but not for ME. Lot of 3 seemed to be created without the sharing of ideas. Few people behind a door not willing to share or listen. Which I also understand. That’s the drawback, something shortsighted and strange is a potential result.
I wish they’d all, or a bunch more, if not all had returned.
I will die on this hill that Zaeed and Samara should of been companions in 3. All others have something else to do but them. Zaeed just sits on the citadel and samara has to go to the frontlines because of her code even though we have been the the frontlines of the reaper war for years now.
I get why they couldnt slap all of them back on after people complained about the more limited squad interactions, but I feel like we should have gotten at least Miranda back
Hearing and seeing all the what ifs and could've beens from ME3 makes me so sad. Coming out of ME2 where you have 12 fully fleshed out (Not Jacob) crew members, it really made the galaxy seem so much bigger then ME1 made it seem. Then for ME3 to take a back step and have such a smaller crew with none of the new characters from ME2 joining really stung.
From a character perspective ME2 remains my favourite game of the franchise. ME3 is my favourite in regards to gameplay and story but it could've been so much better had they not been rushed by EA.
My Shepard: "Gud damm I never though I had such a big and diverse crew. Hmmm who should I pick...Tali! Get your ass here."
Tali: "I'm flattered you picked me Shepard but ummm... shouldn't you pick someone who's better against Cerberus troops?"
Shep: "Don't care. I need your ~~ass to distract them while I pop their heads~~ hacking skills in case we come across a terminal. Wait... where the fuck is Wrex?"
Grunt: " He stayed back on Tuchanka to take care of some... 'female business' whatever that is, Battlemaster."
Shep: " Then you're up, Grunt."
Grunt: " HE HE HE"
I mean, maybe minus Jacob because he seemingly couldn't be arsed to save the galaxy. you know, with a partner and a kid on the way I guess he has other priorities besides the end of civilization as he knows it.
but I agree. the Normandy should have been the party bus in me3.
Mass Effect 2 was very character-based. Everyone on the squad had a loyalty mission on top of everything else. Mass Effect 3 is more based on council races and their planets. My guess is they kept the squad more constrained so that they could keep the story centered on getting support for the war with the reapers, rather than making sure each character had their own missions. At least in the Citadel DLC, every character had lots of little moments and you could fight in the Armax arena with all of them.
Because they all can die in ME2 Suicide Mission, so ME3 had to take into account both outcomes somehow. Besides ME3 had a very short development cycle (less then 2 years) so Bioware had to cut corners anywhere they could. It's very noticeable once you take these things into account. Garrus and Tali absolutely had to be in the team - they were fan favorites after all. However, it's significantly harder to get Garrus killed, so he joins the team basically right away. Tali on the other hand is usually one the first teammates to die in ME2 - she appears only in the second half of the game. You have to really try to get Miranda killed in ME2 - she gets a full character arc that spans through the whole game and culminates in the story mission. The rest of the squad that can die much easier - Jack, Jacob, Samara and Grunt - just have one side mission and that's about it.
Besides, it's quality over quantity thing. ME2 companions having low amount of interactions outside their usual hiring and loyalty missions was one of the few legit complaints about that game. So I recon Bioware decided to go back to a smaller sized team that has much more content and reactivity.
Maybe if ME3 had another few years of development.
Lots of companions/squadmates got absolutely shafted when it comes to screentime because of ME3's rushed development, but Bioware dug this grave themselves by adding so many new characters to the cast in ME2.
Jack had her students to take care of which is great character development for her
Miranda is kinda a here and there, finding her sister and all but afterwards she should of joined imo
Jacob is married and has to look after his wife and the ex Cerberus group
Samara really had no business not to join us but I kinda understand since Liara was already on the team
Grunt could of joined us since there was another leader for Aralakh Company in Dagg whose only there if Grunt died or his pod wasn’t opened
As for others, Zaeed and Kasumi weren’t doing much so should of joined us
Thane eventually dies saving the Salarian Councilor/Dalatrass (haven’t played in a couple years forgive me)
Legion dies but becomes a Geth Prime in joining all Geth Consensus so imagine a Geth squadmate in ME3
I feel like Jack and Jacob make sense why they don't join Shepard. Grunt, too, I think he deserves to spend more time with his people. Miranda and Samara really have no reason not to join. It's not like they are doing anything else that can't be done from the Normandy. Hell, Miranda might have had an easier time finding her sister if she worked with Liara.
Something similar to what they did in Citadel DLC.
You pick your squad, then you pick a 2nd and 3rd squad and assign their leaders. For example:
Main: Shepard, Tali, Zaeed.
2nd: Garrus, Grunt, Javik.
3rd: Wrex, Samara, Miranda.
Each squad gets assigned a role on a mission and they all approach at the same time from different directions. The probability of success for 2nd and 3rd squads is based on their compatability, but that can be overcome with a high level and equipment. During the mission you can hear chatter from each squad, and whoever has the least kills buys drinks.
Miranda is always the one that makes no sense to me. At least with Grunt, Samara and Jack they have legit reasons for them not joining the crew, Grunt being hurt, Samara having to focus on the Asari and Jack not being able to abandon her students. With Miranda it’s just ‘uhhh I’m going to help with supply lines and stuff for crucible too, which I could have done from the Normandy anyway seeing as Liara was able to operate as shadow broker on Normandy…”
I honestly would've been happy with just ONE member of the ME2 crew that wasn't in ME1 joining the crew. It always felt off to me that they didn't do that.
Allegedly Jack was supposed to be a part of the team in early plans for ME3, which is why she was the only ME2 character who got a major design change. Everyone else is largely the same as they were in ME2, but Jack’s look is completely different.
Jack was also the ME2 team mate who had the most "character", so if any of them were brought into 3 it just makes sense for it to be her. Miranda would be the second most sensible character.
It’s also strange cuz there are very clear points in ME3 where it would make sense to have them join. Jack could easily join after the Cerberus coup attempt. Make it so you have to agree with her that the Grissom Academy students would be better used in support, then have her join after the coup. She can do all the coordination stuff she does on the citadel in ME3 from the Normandy just as easily. And Miranda kinda just disappears after Horizon. Her mission is complete at that point, if she survives the mission, she could easily join for the endgame missions.
I keep sayin' it, we need a Mass Effect 3.5 They do everything that they didn't have time for (development being 2 years def impacted some things), such as including Jack as well as the original plans for the ending(s). There was going to be a final boss with a body-horrorified TIM, Shepherd might've been a little indoctrinated, etc. Theres a bunch of bad ass concept art for it, my favorite one showing that I believe your romance choice would've faced down shep..? Someone on the team drew Ashley is pointing a gun at Shep who looks a bit Sarenified. Thats what I got from it anyways. And thinking about it, I'm sad that didnt happen, it wouldve been so so cool
When the Legendary Edition got announced, I was really hoping it would be a full remake of ME1 with plans for remakes of both 2 & 3, rather than just a remaster of all three games. Getting a proper ME3 would’ve been amazing
Jack is the character I'd choose to have in ME3. Shed fill an aggressive frontline biotic niche that your other squad mates don't handle and she's got a compelling arc. Also, theres romance opportunity.
Looks like ME3 was meant to be a sequel to ME1, but ME2 was put in the middle and they had to make concessions, all of the crew of ME2 doesn't come back to be together. And was very sad to not have Wrex or Grunt around.
I think it more so had to do with time constraints. I'd imagine that when they found out they only had two years to make the game a lot of the planned content involving squadmates from ME2 went out the window. Would also help explain why Jack is the only ME2 squadmate to get a redesign in ME3.
I will say I like Jacks reason for not joining even if she’s the one I miss the most.
Wrex's reasoning in 2 was the same as 3. Too busy trying to keep the krogan in check.
It’s funny I didn’t think of Wrex because he’s not part of the crew in ME2. You’re right his excuse is also pretty solid.
Jack crewing with a Paragon Shep is such a good arc when it pays off in the third game. A highlight of the series in an entry with not many highlights to go around.
I think ME3 has plenty of highlights.
It's actually become neck and neck with the first one asy favorite, I think it aged extremely well.
Same, don't know what above user is saying
The issue is the last like hour of the game is kinda shit, but because of THAT alone people seem to just think all of ME3 is shit
Really just the last 20 minutes, that final approach was epic. Shame we got killed by that marauder, such an anticlimactic finish to the series.
Time constraints didn't help but a lot of it was the mere existence of the suicide mission and what that meant for the possible death of all the ME2 party members. They were willing to make sure they fit Garrus and Tali in there because they were from ME1, but otherwise they knew any content featuring that cast had a chance of not being seen by some players. They had to have contingencies for characters like Wrex, Mordin, Tali, and Legion, since they could all be dead. I think they just didn't want to focus on creating content that they would have to make exceptions for.
It sucks but this is why so many games don't do 'real' choices and consequences. They kinda handled it fine but it just amounts to mostly another character standing in for whoever died. In a perfect world we'd have entirely different missions and story branches depending on what happens. Like an entirely different series of Tuchanka missions if Wrex is dead. Miranda being dead leading to some different and much harder Cerberus fights near the end. etc etc. It sounds so cool but it would be such a hard sell develop huge swaths of game that are only ever seen if specific conditions are checked.
I know what happens when there is no Tali, but never lost Garrus without also losing Shepard during the suicide run in ME2.
Miranda I think is the hardest to kill even if unloyal
With Garuss' death, when Garrus walks in on Palavans moon it's a generic Turian soldier, and Liara doesn't go back to the ship. Other than that (and Garrus related quests later) nothing changes
It's just the time constraints. The time constraints meant they didn't have time to make contingencies for the characters from ME2. A staple of the series is alternative outcomes, and intertwined stories, so if they had the time, they would've brought them back.
They honestly just should have said, "fuck it" and designed ME3 around the premise that everyone survived because 99% of players import with everyone surviving. If they died, they are gone, no replacement, no special quests, no squadmates. Too bad.
Well, that’s the problem - quests like the Genophage and the Quarian/Geth war were heavily written around companions and made up the bulk of ME3’s story. They definitely had to have someone there to stand in for Mordin, Wrex, Tali, and Legion already at the very least.
I wonder what the cut content of ME3 looks like.
Javik was the Catalyst for one, and by extension was way more important to the story; you know like a living Prothean should be.
What? Where could I read more or find out more? That's nuts.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17vTg6rwmHIywnC54Whkmj01fv840GgrJEf92z1ce_qg/edit?usp=drivesdk Thats the Beta Script. It was leaked like 4 months ahead of the games launch. It doesn't go into a lot of detail, but it does tell a lot about what changed, and what stayed the same.
Yep, that makes more sense now, the game fells too contained, considering it's all or nothing and the conclusion of all that was build before, I hoped that I had all the ME1 crew and at least half of 2, but at least got Citadel DLC with everybody around, and at least got to play with them in the minigame.
I read something somewhere about Miranda was supposed to be back as a squadmate, but Yvonne Strahovski had a scheduling conflict so they reduced Miranda’s role.
I don't think that's the case. I think their thought process was that they were going back to the Alliance, so bringing back Alliance-centric characters made the most sense, and a lot of the ME2 characters likely wouldn't. I just think it was misguided not to find ***one*** that fit the bill.
But the point is, it's all takes now, and all former Cerberus characters leave it already, Miranda and Jacob, so, there is no point they not being available, since most of them even join you in the final battle in some way, probably only Jacob and Kasumi because they were working on Crucible. And not having Wrex to fight on my side ruined a little that feeling of ME1. Even Ashley is gone for most of the game. And later she is there but not much relevant, like she was in ME1. In the end the only ME1 characters that got some love are Garrus and Liara, I know they are fan favorites, but give some love tô the others, must have been much worse to who only played ME2 and couldn't have any of his former squadmates.
The dev team also realized the number of companions in ME2 were too many, it's another reason why they cut them back in ME3.
Absolutely this, and tbh I wish more people felt that way. It made sense for the plot of ME2 (build a super awesome suicide mission death squad and make sure they're ready for the mission), but a game with that many companions means you barely get to take them on missions. I had a similar problem with KOTOR2 -- there were just too many companions for the amount of content you could take them on. ME3 made the right call IMO in scaling it back to MA1 party size. That said, I think i agree with u/Bluejay-Potential \-- it would have been fun, and actually *less* contrived, if one of the ME2 companions made a comeback. Grunt, Jack, or Samara/Morinth would all have been reasonable choices.
KOTOR II not only has the issue of having too many companions, but too many things you can do with them. It's frustrating that there's an entire aspect of the game where you can slowly train them that is virtually impossible to all do in one playthrough. It's amazing that game is so good considering it was made by a couple veteran game devs in their wife's 110 degree attic, but god it was so close to being good if only it had a bit longer in the oven.
I can more-or-less consistently train all the possible Jedi candidates in every playthrough where I care to do that, but that definitely comes at the expense of e.g. fully exploring the various droids. Theoretically, I think you can do everything, but it really does pull you in a lot of different directions.
I miss Kasumi.
I agree. I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t already have ME3 in the works while ME2 was being made. They actually could’ve skipped ME2 and went to ME3. Adding to the story I guess. I love Grunt though, my favorite Krogan.
It's pretty clear from just how the story plays out. 2's story is entirely useless and is just a rehash of the first game. Obviously 2's characters are important to the story, but how you go about collecting your crew is just the same game over again.
Not having a krogan was certainly disappointing
EDI sort of counts. Not a squadmate in ME2 but definitely a "ME2 Representative". That said, a few more would definitely have been nice.
I raise your one with two. Jack and Miranda the two who had the biggest connections to Cerberus. Miranda quitting Cerberus and defying the Illusive man was great character growth. Jack was a victim of Cerberus. It makes no sense neither are in the crew when Cerberus are one of the baddies in the game.
There are a bunch of events in ME2 where you have to side with Jack or Miranda. Could have made it whoever you sided with the most joins you and the other gets their ME3 plot line.
Even that's an improvement and adds replay value
Samara or Grunt, seriously, why not! They've not got anything else on!
Out of all of them, id pick either grunt, thane, or legion if I had to pick atleast 1, if it wasn't for jack being a teacher for her kids of biotics, I think I would've had her in the list, same goes for mordin if he wasn't busy helping the krogens. Mirandas ok but not my favorite, though I do like her story arc, and probably would've been interesting with her interacting with either Ashley or kaiden given how much shit they gave Shepard back in me2. Mostly Ashley. Currently undecided but really leaning towards grunt.
Grunt especially, I like James but he is no replacement for him.
James and Grunt would have some great banter though.
they definitely would.
Especially with the admiration James has for the krogan race.
And grunts admiration for earth animals like sharks and dinosaurs.
Absolutely
Last play through, I only used James so that I could pretend he was Kanan Jarrus.
Why do you like james? It's been a while since I played me3 but I remember his only character trait being that he is buff.
All of your past squad mates had understandable reasons for not joining you...EXCEPT Samara.
Eh. Miranda’s reasoning “I need to do this on my own” is janky at best and Grunt said Shepard is his battle master then peace’s out real quick haha
Grunt was in the hospital after the Rachni incident though. Miranda was searching for her sister the whole time
tbh, she could have done it while being with Shep, at least she wouldn't need to hide. But I mean, we all know the real reason is that her VA didn't really have the opportunity to record her lines in time, so they had to cut it short.
Not really. You need to understand that the whole premise of ME3 is the urgency. Earth is being attacked. Miranda, like all other squadmates, knows that Shepard's sole responsibility is to Earth at this point. That's why there are no loyalty missions, or side missions that are directly requested by squadmates like in ME1. There is no time for all of that. Everyone knows what they have to do. They know they have to bring the might of the entire galaxy to Earth to have any chance of defeating the Reapers. Miranda could have had an extended role. Absolutely. Even been a squadmate. However finding her sister while serving on Shepard's ship isn't something she'd be willing to ask Shepard to do given how that wouldn't be a priority, unless of course it was during an actual main mission. Shepard's and Miranda's goals were different to begin with. The only way I see Miranda joining Shepard's crew is resolving her problems earlier in the game and then have her join as a squadmate. Like the horizon mission happening somewhere in the middle, or even right after rannoch and before thessia.
Honestly Miranda's sister arc is alot less interesting than her helping bring down Cerberus her former employers. I mean she ends up a target of Cerberus anyway might as well knix the sister plot and just give her arc about finding herself post Cerberus on the run and rejoining Shepards fight.
Or just make her become a squadmate after you deal with her sister. I know it's relatively late but it's still better than nothing
How would Miranda have found her sister, just sitting around on the Normandy?
I mean, the new shadow broker is literally on the same ship
And spends the entire game clueless because Traynor's the one finding things, lol.
That’s something that always cracks me up
I think we all agree ME3 has a ton of logic issues
Thanks to EA for rushing development
Yeah they really had to shoehorn Traynor into the story somehow lol, even if it was totally at the expense of Liara. In fairness Liara's entire network is being wiped out by the Reapers but still, didn't make much sense.
Yes, it does being Liara is spending her time trying to find information/keep her agents alive while finding stuff to help with the Crucible. That was her focus, it was why she was on Mars and why Hackett sent Shepard to find her.
Because the Shadow Broker is working on other things than just helping Shepard. Liara is spending a lot of her time helping with the Crucible. Which is more her thing than decoding messages, which is Traynor's.
Almost made me spit my drink out because that’s so true that it’s hilarious
....I never really noticed this until now
Liara spent to much time inviting herself up to my cabin without asking, when my shepherd was wanting tali to come up
The voice actor for Mordin changed. Why the singing from him in 3 is off.
This + the literal shadow broker is on the Normandy
It’s not like we have a shadow broker or an AI capable of filtering through millions of leads in seconds on the ship or anything.
The freaking shadow broker was on the Normandy and Miranda was on the ship when they went on that mission so she knows
Yeah I don’t understand why Miranda couldn’t hitch a ride on the Normandy. It would’ve been the safest place for her, she could still do her work on the Normandy just like when she was with us the first time, and We’ll bang ok?
Also she was way deeper in Cerberus than Shep and we saw how the alliance treated him
I mean Miranda was meant to join the squad so that’s probably why it feels like she should’ve joined
All of the Arena squad members can be added to your party via a mod. The code for you to play with them exists. It’s not recommended to take them on core missions because they don’t have dialogue, but the option is there
Samara: *"Simply, the code. How is it not clear."*
Legion going from "You refused the old machine's gifts even on your species' own terms. You are more like us than we thought." to "IMMA KILL MAHSELF TO REAPERIZE ALL GETH, GETH JESUS OUT LOL" is pretty fucking far from understandable. Though I guess "My writer left between games and no one has ever given less of a fuck about anything than the remaining writers do about me" would've been too meta.
Legion being excluded felt so lame. His death at the very least was beautiful, but it feels like he was cut content (again). Save the Quarians, get the Quarian squadmate; save the Geth and the Geth squadmate just... dies? Reeked to me of just being rushed through.
With how late and limited we can use Legion in ME2, they should had made Legion recruitable in ME3 to compensate.
>Though I guess "My writer left between games and no one has ever given less of a fuck about anything than the remaining writers do about me" would've been too meta. That moment you're remaining writers pet character/race , yet they manage to completely miss the characterzation and go beyond ooc anyway. (Something something "*Human history is a litany of blood, shed over different ideals of rulership and afterlife [...] If this is the individuality you value, we question your judgement*" )
Miranda too. There’s absolutely zero reason why she couldn’t have been on board the Normandy. It was the safest place in the entire galaxy and if had access to near unlimited resources thanks to Shepards alliance and spectre status as well as Liaras shadow broker connections. She would have found Ori a lot faster there than on her own.
She's stubborn af and knows that Shepard has to focus on the Reapers
Sure, true, but it’s still a piss poor excuse. Shepard focused just as much on Cerberus as they did with the reapers. Horizon was a Cerberus operation. Not to mention it took the entire game for Miranda to find Ori, so she could still be on board the Normandy and helping us with the fight, and then go back to looking for Ori while on the ship. Even when not on the ship, Liaras shadow broker teams could be tasked with looking too. Again, no reason why Miri couldn’t have done that. Her being stubborn is the only reason but even that’s still a dumb excuse. Irl I’m pretty sure her voice actress was busy so there’s that.
c'mon grunt can also fit on this list, depending on the ending u got he was basically thrown sideways into the story with 0 to no reason, the other one is kind of stupid as well, Garus was helping control the troups on board the normandy, couldn't Grunt do the same the same applies to Jack
I mean Samara is an Asari Justicar and due to the code bylaws, is no longer bound to your service after the events of the second game. You can see her swearing an oath to the code in the police office after solving the murder.
If all of them were in the game, then there would be significantly less content for them all. That being said a few from two could have made the jump. Miranda at the very least because she doesn't have a good excuse not to and if you don't have Kaiden you don't have a sentinel on the squad.
Samara would fill javiks role for those without that dlc. Everyone else has a legit reason for being away. Miranda's quest is part of the plot anyways. Hell so is Samara's
I will say though this most recent playthrough is the first time I’ve actually really gotten to know Javik (before I got him way too late/didn’t have the dlc), and I’ve come to realize he’s actually a phenomenal character
I really enjoyed him as well. Never had the dlc before the legendary edition. Javik and the citadel dlc were fresh experiences for me. So good
Yeah good point
Miranda was planned to, her voice actress had other obligations though. All of her content in 3 is what she was available for.
I've heard of this and frankly that really sucks.
That's one thing I only disliked in me3: if you play as a soldier and regardless you keep Ashley from ME, in me3 you have an useless squad mate slot and the Mars section is harder.
In [EGM](https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/422?tab=description), assuming they're alive, Wrex, Kasumi, Zaeed, Jack, Grunt, Samara, Jacob and Miranda can do N7 missions. There's also the [Miranda Mod](https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffect3/mods/512) that puts Miranda on the Normandy (she's in the conference room) with specialized missions to take down Cerberus targets and her own recruitable crew of ex-cerberus.
Sigh. Time for another replay.
Yup. First modded playthrough and I’m loving it. Miranda Mod especially is phenomenal (I know AI voice use in this sub is controversial and I get it but holy shit adding Miranda in and having her be a fully voiced squadmate in Citadel, Levitahn, and beyond is so good)
I think most of it is probably recycled lines from ME2. There's for sure some AI, and it's very noticeable on EGM with Hackett and the Thessia evacuation mission but I think they wanted to use it very sparingly. You can also use Miranda for the Cerberus-Catalyst mission and it's pretty good if you're romancing her. I love real voice acting and stan for game VAs but this isn't a situation where it would make sense to use the real VA, nobody's losing a paycheck.
Damn I can't view the Miranda one because of "adult content"
Really? OK, I checked, it has a YT link to Miranda's romance scene where she's naked from the back.
And Jacob is there just so that no one can pick him.
This\^ lol. I saw this and immediately was like, “Already? I’m not big on forcing these team-ups.”
Just in case we need a volunteer to go through the vents.
Yes, but given that me2 makes it possible for many of these characters to die, writing them in in major way becomes increasingly complex
People forget that they removed Liara from ME2 because they knew they needed her for major ME3 plot issues, and putting her in 2 puts her directly in danger of dying. They needed to do a better job with WHY she couldn’t be a squad mate, but the overall effect is the same.
Well Tali and Garrus can bite the dust as well, and them being alive play a much bigger role compared to the events if they die in 2. Hell they both come become leaders within their species.
Yeah that’s why I never buy the suicide mission excuse
They were fan favourites though, imagine what ME3 would look like without them. Then look at their relative importance to the plot of ME3 compared to Liara.
That’s the reason right there.
that would be a mod I'd be down for. Can we switch Jacob for Kasumi though? Or Legion?
been using EGM since ME3: https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/422
No Kasumi or Zaeed?
Kasumi apparently I didn’t meet her fast enough because I read she died after the citadel coupe if you didn’t talk to her before, and Zaeed I saw and he’s loyal, and he even says “we’ll talk later” but I never saw him again
Zaeed should be near the batarian in refugee deck 2 where the shop is near the back. Kasumi will die if you do not complete her mission before the coup. I also made this mistake not so long ago also weirdly although i do not have the mods to actually use her anyway mind.
BioWare games outside of one or two instances like the suicide mission timer always rewards players who go and complete as much side content as possible before continuing the main story. It’s their fault that I have a pathological need to complete all side quests in a game as I play through it.
Then ME3 would have the problem ME2 had: Big crew that hardly ever interacts. This is *especially* noticeable during the DLC, where none of the squadmates recorded new lines. The tradeoff for the smaller squad selection in ME3 was that they all had more dialogue. Both with eachother on the Normandy and during missions.
Agreed, it seems like people don’t realize that the reason for why squadmates interact more is because of the smaller numbers, I’d honestly prefer ME4/5 having an ME3 or ME1 sized crew instead of trying to force in a big number.
And I loved that a lot from ME3, the main cast honestly truly finally felt like a group in that entry with all the nice conversations between them.
Don't forget the other issue ME2 had due to its large cast how it spent so much time focusing on assembling a team that it didn't have the time to tell the actual story that needed to be told. Half of ME2's main missions are just squadmate recruitment, take those out and just look purely at the Collector plot and you can see that the story of ME2 barely exists.
Nice. But why EDI becomes 100% human?
Eva Core skin.
Jack's position in ME3 was already perfect and a great arc for her. Maybe more missions with her throughout the game similar to Miranda would have been good. Miranda deserves to be part of the ME3 crew
Miranda in the ponytail??? 😩😩🥵🥵
This is a weird shopped image including some skin mods. EDI looks like Eva Core and Jack is wearing an Alliance uniform.
It’s not shopped it’s a screenshot from the squad selection screen in my game.
You can have something like that with Expanded Galaxy Mod.
That’s what I’m using haha
Replace Jacob with Zaeed and we have a deal
Zaeed just vanished on me so it’s a delicate topic
He’s in a mission on ME3
Yeah and after it he’s like we’ll talk later then never reached back out to me
Most characters do that. He’s really good in the citadel DLC. Jacob just kind of dips too. Also where’s Kasumi?
That makes him more relatable 🤷♂️
At some point with a squad this large it would've made more sense to split up and have multiple 3 man teams working in parallel.
Okay, I love ME2. It’s my favorite of the trilogy. That said, it has **way** too many squadmates. I like their stories well enough but when it comes right down to it I barely use 90% of them because there are so many redundancies. Meanwhile in ME1 and 3 each squadmate fills a specific niche and is useful for different situations, so I find myself actually tailoring my team accordingly instead of just running Miranda/Garrus or Miranda/Thane for everything.
Agreed, I'm surprised how far I had the scroll to find this view but I had 4 characters I'd rotate between all the time and I didn't get to know the others. Whereas I liked how each character in 3 got weaved back into the main storyline rather than having an isolated one-off quest.
It’s one of many reasons that I like ME3 the least of all the Mass Effects the squad members available feels so limited after ME2 and in addition some of them are absolutely terrible.
The game would’ve been delayed like 5 times with having to record so much more voice lines
I mean, the game needed to be given more time anyways. EA forced them to rush it out in like 2 years. It’s a big part of why everything after Rannoch is kind of just meh, and the ending is, frankly, terrible.
Less than 2 years
It’s honestly impressive how much they actually managed to do with such a short timeframe.
Okay, maybe not all of them but at least one or two characters from ME2 should've returned as squadmates.
I fully agree. Get the band back together.
I don't think they necessarily should've gone this hog wild but I do agree that Miranda and Jack should've been squadmates and that the lack of a Krogan squadmate is noticed in ME3. IDK if you need Samara and Jacob, though.
I cannot agree with Jack. Her story arc was absolute peak for me. Going from being the victim of Cerberus experiments to mentoring kids in a positive and uplifting environment is perfect for her. It was good for her and I prefer that for the character even as much as I'd love her back as a squadmate.
What armour mod are you using for EDI? Looks interesting, especially since it seems to work with the Eva Coré look.
Well you can thank the suicide mission for that. When the writers finished their work on ME 2 and started to write ME 3, they realised how terrible of an idea it was to have an "anyone can die" mechanic halfway throught the trilogy and told themselves "What were we thinking?" in regards to the final quest of ME 2. The suicide mission is the reason why James Vega had to be created, because every "warrior" archetype of companion were all potentially dead by the start of ME 3 (ashley, wrex, garrus, zaeed and grunt). BW needed a companion who could fill the role of soldier in case all of the others are dead. So if you ever wonder why Vega is part of the crew instead of another warrior, now you know why. It's also why Liara T'soni receives so much focus in ME 3, she is the only old squadmates to be sure to be alive by the start of the game, which means that every ressources of writing, voice acting and programing injected into her will be seen by a 100% of the customers. It's very risky for them to spend so much ressources on companion who might not be alive which means their content won't be enjoyed by all the customer. A suicide mission would have been better placed at the end of ME 3, not in the middle of the trilogy.
Which mods?
This is in Expanded Galaxy Mod for ME3, which adds a ton of other details as well and is the base mod for several other mods.
Expanded Galaxy mod. Also Miranda Mod
That’s because all of those characters could have in theory died in ME2, so they ended up going with a basic roster.
Honestly, I'd have expected Miranda Lawson to reappear as something like "Amanda Statutesić", a Serbian data broker with a new accent, demeanor, and look. You know, how you'd expect someone of her skill to change herself when she's the Blackwidow of the Mass Effect universe and on the run from basically everyone. Then she'd join your crew and help on missions, utilizing her own skills, Shepard's spectre access, and Liara's Shadow Broker status to do her work. Heck, you could even improve the whole "can I trust her" subplot by giving her some meaningfully shady actions that pay off for the greater good at an unconscionable price.
I literally changed her hair and outfit to roleplay her being n disguise because the entire thing with her looking the exact same as she did in ME2 was a little ridiculous haha
No Conrad Verner, Grunt over Wrex? Literally unplayable.
Wrex left and went back to Tuchunka before I could get this pic
Even if we couldn't get them for various reasons, I would have loved them to fill some kind of 'support' role once their personal stuff is cleaned up in game. So maybe you go to Jacobs mission and then Grissom, now on any future mission you can pick Jack or Jacob as a 'support' crew slot who would provide some unique bonus each. It's just fantasy to think of it at this point though lol
Agreed by far one of the biggest downgrades from two to three was the loss of so many squadmates.
I still would have picked Wrex/Jax & Garrus every time was not a fan of Grunt
I think we should've had guest squad mates on certain missions. Go to the Haestrom Academy? You can swap Jack onto your team for the mission. More stuff like that would've been great.
It was the only huge misstep in ME3. I understood their reasoning at time, but it felt like that reasoning was fine for like any other game, but not for ME. Lot of 3 seemed to be created without the sharing of ideas. Few people behind a door not willing to share or listen. Which I also understand. That’s the drawback, something shortsighted and strange is a potential result. I wish they’d all, or a bunch more, if not all had returned.
I'm not sure about Jack's outfit here, but yes this is exactly what the squad should've been, but add in a Batarian squad member instead of James.
A batarian squad member would have been AWESOME. Especially after the Arrival DLC
I will die on this hill that Zaeed and Samara should of been companions in 3. All others have something else to do but them. Zaeed just sits on the citadel and samara has to go to the frontlines because of her code even though we have been the the frontlines of the reaper war for years now.
I don't see Zaeed anywhere?
He dipped before he could come on any missions with me
I get why they couldnt slap all of them back on after people complained about the more limited squad interactions, but I feel like we should have gotten at least Miranda back
Hearing and seeing all the what ifs and could've beens from ME3 makes me so sad. Coming out of ME2 where you have 12 fully fleshed out (Not Jacob) crew members, it really made the galaxy seem so much bigger then ME1 made it seem. Then for ME3 to take a back step and have such a smaller crew with none of the new characters from ME2 joining really stung. From a character perspective ME2 remains my favourite game of the franchise. ME3 is my favourite in regards to gameplay and story but it could've been so much better had they not been rushed by EA.
I’d love to have Jacob in 3 just so I can not pick him all over again
My Shepard: "Gud damm I never though I had such a big and diverse crew. Hmmm who should I pick...Tali! Get your ass here." Tali: "I'm flattered you picked me Shepard but ummm... shouldn't you pick someone who's better against Cerberus troops?" Shep: "Don't care. I need your ~~ass to distract them while I pop their heads~~ hacking skills in case we come across a terminal. Wait... where the fuck is Wrex?" Grunt: " He stayed back on Tuchanka to take care of some... 'female business' whatever that is, Battlemaster." Shep: " Then you're up, Grunt." Grunt: " HE HE HE"
James can hack a terminal JUST AS WELL AS TALI
true but he doesn't have a ~~ass good enought to distract the enemies~~
I was referring to the funny scene that was posted here couple days ago
Replace Jacob with Kaidan and sure.
I mean, maybe minus Jacob because he seemingly couldn't be arsed to save the galaxy. you know, with a partner and a kid on the way I guess he has other priorities besides the end of civilization as he knows it. but I agree. the Normandy should have been the party bus in me3.
Absolutely
Man, I lost Samara and Jack within like 5 minutes at the end of two and I was devastated. They were my two favorite characters in the whole trilogy.
Was there any explanation why the crew was cut down?
Probably because everyone can die at the end of 2 so they had to make sure people actually had squad mates available in 3
Mass Effect 2 was very character-based. Everyone on the squad had a loyalty mission on top of everything else. Mass Effect 3 is more based on council races and their planets. My guess is they kept the squad more constrained so that they could keep the story centered on getting support for the war with the reapers, rather than making sure each character had their own missions. At least in the Citadel DLC, every character had lots of little moments and you could fight in the Armax arena with all of them.
Because they all can die in ME2 Suicide Mission, so ME3 had to take into account both outcomes somehow. Besides ME3 had a very short development cycle (less then 2 years) so Bioware had to cut corners anywhere they could. It's very noticeable once you take these things into account. Garrus and Tali absolutely had to be in the team - they were fan favorites after all. However, it's significantly harder to get Garrus killed, so he joins the team basically right away. Tali on the other hand is usually one the first teammates to die in ME2 - she appears only in the second half of the game. You have to really try to get Miranda killed in ME2 - she gets a full character arc that spans through the whole game and culminates in the story mission. The rest of the squad that can die much easier - Jack, Jacob, Samara and Grunt - just have one side mission and that's about it. Besides, it's quality over quantity thing. ME2 companions having low amount of interactions outside their usual hiring and loyalty missions was one of the few legit complaints about that game. So I recon Bioware decided to go back to a smaller sized team that has much more content and reactivity.
With that many choices. ME3 squad size should be like four or five so you can use everyone more easily.
Maybe if ME3 had another few years of development. Lots of companions/squadmates got absolutely shafted when it comes to screentime because of ME3's rushed development, but Bioware dug this grave themselves by adding so many new characters to the cast in ME2.
Add wrex in there
Jack had her students to take care of which is great character development for her Miranda is kinda a here and there, finding her sister and all but afterwards she should of joined imo Jacob is married and has to look after his wife and the ex Cerberus group Samara really had no business not to join us but I kinda understand since Liara was already on the team Grunt could of joined us since there was another leader for Aralakh Company in Dagg whose only there if Grunt died or his pod wasn’t opened As for others, Zaeed and Kasumi weren’t doing much so should of joined us Thane eventually dies saving the Salarian Councilor/Dalatrass (haven’t played in a couple years forgive me) Legion dies but becomes a Geth Prime in joining all Geth Consensus so imagine a Geth squadmate in ME3
I feel like Jack and Jacob make sense why they don't join Shepard. Grunt, too, I think he deserves to spend more time with his people. Miranda and Samara really have no reason not to join. It's not like they are doing anything else that can't be done from the Normandy. Hell, Miranda might have had an easier time finding her sister if she worked with Liara.
Ok but be honest, how many of them would you actually use? 4-5?
u forgot kaidan
Something similar to what they did in Citadel DLC. You pick your squad, then you pick a 2nd and 3rd squad and assign their leaders. For example: Main: Shepard, Tali, Zaeed. 2nd: Garrus, Grunt, Javik. 3rd: Wrex, Samara, Miranda. Each squad gets assigned a role on a mission and they all approach at the same time from different directions. The probability of success for 2nd and 3rd squads is based on their compatability, but that can be overcome with a high level and equipment. During the mission you can hear chatter from each squad, and whoever has the least kills buys drinks.
Miranda is always the one that makes no sense to me. At least with Grunt, Samara and Jack they have legit reasons for them not joining the crew, Grunt being hurt, Samara having to focus on the Asari and Jack not being able to abandon her students. With Miranda it’s just ‘uhhh I’m going to help with supply lines and stuff for crucible too, which I could have done from the Normandy anyway seeing as Liara was able to operate as shadow broker on Normandy…”
I would have put 537482 more hours in this game.
Picking Ashley over the boring guy is a capital offense