If You Had To Cut 3 Squadmates from ME2...

But what if the army of aliens could be bought off with the Mona Lisa?  

What I mean is that we basically need to leave the Lazarus base with 2 squad mates for Freedom's Progress to serve as the combat tutorial that it is and to go into the first recruitment mission with 2 squad mates.  They could perhaps pull a Wilson and kill Jacob off in that first bit and then immediately put Tali on the team; but that would mess up probably the best recruitment level in the entire game.  Cerberus is not going to staff the security of one of its bases with non-humans or an hardened con who hates Cerberus or a master thief; and a loner bounty hunter like Zaeed probably wouldn't take a base security job.

 You know what? I'm going to add another: Garrus could get axed from ME2 and I would really not miss a beat.

>"But the Bromance!!"

I'm only talking about myself here, and personally, I did not see Garrus as much of a pal in ME2. All he does is parrot "Just like old times!" off the ship, and back on it, you can only converse with him twice before "muh calibraishuns." It's not like he and Shep were close in ME1, for that matter. Back then, Garrus was some hothead whose relationship with Shepard was largely professional. Kaidan and Wrex were my buddies, not Garrus.

Also, I like playing up a narrative in my head of Shepard being lonely for a while after awakening and working with Cerberus. That kinda plays to my Jackmance, lol. Not having him or Tali around, in addition to Kaidan turning away on Horizon, would play to my headcanon. As it is, I imagine Shep appreciates having Garrus and Tali (lol Garrison Talley) back for trust reasons, but the buddy-buddy stuff is not a thing until later.

So yeah, he can go too.

And since I've also eliminated Jacob and Thane... no romance for you, FemShep! 

**edit** Also, my "sweet-spot" for companions in a game like this is 5-7, so this now brings down the total squad to the right number for me.

I see what you mean (about Shep feeling isolated with Cerberus at first), but I kinda see all 4 of them as buddies, personally. I like that image of them all dancing in Citadel DLC. It fits well with how I play.

Garrus, in fact, became sort of a bro because of the unintended comedy of ME2. Having nothing to say but "calibrations".. shouting "Impressive!" at his own shots.

Oh, I do too, in fact. That part just comes later for Garrus and Tali, though.

You know, after Jack softened up his outer exterior and all that.

In order to keep Jacob, I'd need something more than a disgruntled Alliance soldier joining a terrorist organization because "at least they're getting things done".  Yeah, like killing admirals and turning people into thorian creepers and husks.  I would rather he be on the flip side - a guy who believed in the Cerberus ideals who has come to see them for what they are.  He'd be a soldier wannabe rather than an ex-soldier.

Some more for the bannu I see.

But instead of (or at least before) doling out the harshness, let's put this to rest.

Kasumi is absolutely a needed specialist for the mission, lore-wise. Because her speciality is infiltration and you're going on an infiltration mission. Let's be real, before Mordin figured out it was a space station in the middle of the galaxy, everyone thought you were attacking a homeworld. Even for the former, what you're building isn't exactly an assault force, but for the latter it's downright pitiful, unless you're expecting to just sneak in and out for something. Phrasing the question as you do is a misconception, because you're thinking of an art thief stereotype perhaps, the guy who probably has some gay French nickname (no offense to either group) and a pencil thin moustache. Or maybe an Oceans 11 heist group member at best. But though Kasumi does often pull those kinds of jobs off, she is clearly much more than that. She's a literal ninja*, she can more than hold her own in a fight, and she has the requisite technical skills as well.


*the stuff she pulled in the Hock fight would indicate previous training of a different sort. Being DLC, her backstory was sadly never flushed out. I imagine her training was more assassin focused but she got out because that's not her jam. If you bring her on Thane's recruitment, her "That's rich, an assassin with a heart" line is spoken pretty derisively compared to her usual, more upbeat tone. That could suggest she doesn't approve of that line of work. Anyway that's speculation. She does what she does for the love of it but she's certainly overqualified for it.


Come to think of it, I may have to recant my earlier objections of redundancy for other squadmates as well. While from a gameplay standpoint, twelve squadmates may be more than is needed, lore wise it's actually a perfectly balanced group. Losing any of them could negatively impact the mission and given the odds, you need redundancy in every role. The unorthodoxy of some members is also accounted for with the irregular nature of both the mission and who you're working for

The following is a breakdown of how the team should logically function. I'm ignoring gameplay and questionable suggestions like having Shepard on the ground every damn mission. Roles have redundancy both for disaster prevention and to have two teams, whether they be primary/backup or meant to run simultaneously.

The leadership team: Shepard (CO), Miranda (XO), Jacob, Garrus

Shepard is in overall command of the ship and the mission. So logically he should be in command of the ship by default, coordinating with the ground teams. If Shepard needs to leave the ship for any reason, Miranda assumes command. If Shepard and Miranda are out, Jacob assumes command (since it is a Cerberus ship). Jacob and Garrus then would lead the ground teams and assume the duties of Armory Officer and Weapons Officer aboard ship.

Biotics- Samara and Jack provide heavy biotics needed for assault or defense of their respective teams. Jack's unsuitablity based on her instability/obvious hatred of Cerberus is still an issue but a clever commander could keep her in line and in the absence of another justicar or matriarch like Samara, she'll do.

Infiltration- Kasumi and Thane. Again two are needed, one for each team or to cover worst cases. They even have complementing flavors, Thane has biotics, Kasumi has tech. And no, Garrus, is not an infiltrator despite fitting the description of his group of powers in ME1. He was C-Sec, thus by nature highly visible and wasn't particularly stealthy as Archangel either.

Bioresearch/medical- Mordin and Okeer. Okeer was who you initially wanted to recruit, for his knowledge and experience with Collector tech. He died, Mordin carried on and provided the breakthroughs you needed. Perfect example of redundancy. As far as pure medical goes, you also have Mordin and Chakwas as ship's doctors.

Tech experts: Tali and Legion. Self explanatory. Again, Legion's designation as "Infiltrator" is gameplay only. "Geth do not infiltrate". Lorewise geth are known for hacking anything in range and being an AI his response times would be above any organic's.

Soldiers: Grunt, Zaeed. Nothing flashy, just brute force and overwhelming firepower.

Now the mission was poorly defined at the start- stop the Collectors, when you assume the Collectors are a race like the others with a homeworld of their own, yet you're recruiting individual specialists instead of PMCs. My guess is they knew the endpoint but didn't bother making sure it made sense at the beginning. But for what the mission ends up being (infiltrate the enemy base and sabotage it) a twelve man team of experts (fourteen, including Okeer and Shepard) is actually a pretty perfect configuration. More and you risk the team being too unwieldly, less and you may not have what it takes to get the job done, or at the most optimistic, no margin for error. And of those selected it helps that a number of them have secondary skills which could assist with things outside their primary roles

Miranda, Jacob, Thane- biotics
Kasumi- tech
Mordin, Legion, Garrus- guerilla tactics, somewhat relating to infiltration

So if you actually think about it, more thought went into the ME2 squad than the rest of the games, where most squadmates boil down to "eh, they were there and not doing anything".

Again, in terms of the story, she is needed. They all are.

As for the rest, I'm not sure. I've heard rumors she was on the disc all along (like Javik) and that Kasumi and Zaeed were bumped to make way for the dextros. Can't confirm the validity of either of them.

Zaeed, Jacob, and Legion. Legion's voice bugged me. It's like a robot drowning. *braces for incoming tomato throwing*

All are not needed. If only 8 is needed to get through the relay and have all survive, why would I waste time recruiting 12?

And from my Shepard's perspsective, wasting more time can possibly lead to more colonists being taken. If my Shepard is comfortable about the one's she has, then why would more be needed?