What Happens If Shepard DOESN’T INVITE ANYONE to the Party? (Mass Effect 3 Citadel DLC)

The Citadel DLC is a phenomenal final sendoff to the Mass Effect Trilogy where Shepard can invite pretty much every squadmate and major crew member (provided they are still alive) to a party at The Commander’s swanky apartment on the Citadel.

But what happens if you throw the party without sending any invitations? We’ll be exploring this exact scenario in today’s video. Keep watching to see it all.

0:00 Introduction
0:53 Mandatory Party Guests
1:47 Noticeable Differences
2:48 Cortez and James "Party" Vega (Energetic)
3:32 James is Bored (Quiet Party)
4:40 Joker Roasts Cerberus
6:01 Shepard Dances with (Almost) No One
7:00 Biotics vs Physical (Full Party)
8:05 James Does Pushups for Liara Alone
8:40 EDI and Traynor Discuss Curry
9:15 EDI Compares Party Prep to Omega-4 Relay
10:15 Normandy SR-1 vs Normandy SR-2 (Full Party)
11:32 Liara and James Debate the Better Normandy
12:32 The GROUP PHOTO is DEPRESSING
13:19 Aftermath and Return to the Normandy
13:39 Ashley Wasn't Invited and She's FURIOUS (Skit)
14:20 Conclusion
14:37 PS Joker Laughs at Shepard's Dance Moves

Right after defeating your evil clone and recapturing the Normandy, Joker will suggest that Shepard throw a party. Right off the bat, he will invite Cortez, Traynor and EDI. Glyph will invite Liara and Cortez pings James. So immediately we have six people on our guest list… and this is technically all we’ll need to throw the party.

With the exception of Liara and Joker, this is hardly a cast of fan favorites. So why of all people are these the default characters who must be invited to the party? Well I’m glad you asked. Excluding the DLC character Javik, these are the only six characters who are guaranteed to be alive in Mass Effect 3. Every other potential party guest could possibly die in Mass Effect 1 or 2, depending on the player’s decisions. So Bioware built a baseline of scenes and conversations around characters who were guaranteed to be alive in Mass Effect 3; and then made those characters mandatory for the party to guarantee a bare minimum of content.

Well my friends, let’s take a look at the bare minimum of content because I’m not sending out any invitations. Some of the interactions are relatively unchanged. For instance this kitchen conversation between Traynor and Liara is roughly the same, minus all the extra characters standing around and occasionally chiming in. For this video, I’ll be focusing on the conversations that are the most different from the full sized parties. Ya know the ones that are entirely unique or that just feel like there’s a major piece missing from the interaction.

There are also two different types of parties we can throw - energetic or quiet. And we’ll take a look at examples from both.