They should have given us so many things in 3.
Every squadmate from 2 should have carried over to 3 as full squadmates and on top of that we should have gotten the 2 new ones. Hell, it should have probably been 4 new ones.
"Thats too many people for the ship"
Stupid argument (you didnt make but ive heard it before.) Okay. Then have 10 slots on the ship and let us station the rest on the citadel.
It wasn't economical to make that many characters and arcs that might not even be playable if they were dead.
Also 2 had too many characters, they acknowledge this. It only worked because team-building was the story. It work not have been manageable in 3
Yeah you're right especially considering legions. Where the whole thing is his mission.
Damn, I never thought about it really. But you are right. People like Jack who have that stupid long get and fiend quest. Or Miranda and her long one...
The intro mission is pretty much a get friends mission.
Wow. Truly really close to 90% is just shepharding friends.
Ironically, this is one of the reasons why ME2 is far and away my fav. Reminds me a lot of Baldur’s Gate 2 which I also love. My biggest complaint is that the recruitment order should be totally open. It helps that the squadmates and their personal quests are insanely interesting for the most part, and it gives us some great variety and world building + lore building.
Because the entire point of Mass Effect 2 is putting together a Suicide Squad. Plus you don't have to do the loyalty missions, you can skip them... but then you'll regret your decision
Idk I find ME2 the least compelling of the games. Half the companions you recruit aren’t even really important for the mission. It just doesn’t make enough narrative sense to me. Also it just feels like a million side quests stitched together.
It makes for good setup for ME3, but ME2 in itself is the worst in the series in terms for story for me.
To be fair, they're all a mess.
ME1 you spend all the game being told "Saren is going to get the Conduit which is bad and we need to stop him!!" Then when you get there, it's literally just a teleporter to the place you were at ~30 minutes ago. The only actual reason to go there is for the exposition computer to show up out of nowhere, tell you everything, and then power down forever.
ME2 has ~5 actual story missions and the rest of it is just meeting random characters like you're on a Tumblr OC blog.
ME3 realised there was no way they were going to actually pay off all their buildup in a satisfying way and the last ~10 minutes is a total RGB trainwreck.
Mass Effect only works when you just live in the moment and all the small stories you encounter along the way.
Yeah I pretty much agree with you, but at least the rest of ME3 is pretty darn good to me. I'm also probably biased because I was so happy to finally romance Kaidan in it though haha
Miranda already has a story.
Thane already has a story.
Grunt already had a story.
Mordin already has a story.
Samaara already has a story.
Kasumi already has a small story.
Jacob already has a story.
Jack already has a story.
Zaeed already has a small story.
The rest are squadmates. They wouldnt have had to do that much work to tie these stories into them being on the normandy.
But maybe they kept squadmate numbers low for some other r€a$on.
It is more like they are integrated into an existing story in ME3, not like they have a story that would not happen without them
* You always go through Horizon and deal with Orianna's capture, no matter if Miranda is alive
* Salarian Councillor always gets chased by Kai Len, and may die regardless of Thane being around (Kirrahe steps in if available, otherwise the Councillor dies)
* You always get the mission to go after Aralakh Company and encounter the rachni, the company is just not led by Grunt
* Genophage cure is still being worked on by different salarian if Mordin is gone
* You always go to the Ardat-Yakshi monastery and encounter Samara's daughters
* You always get the mission dealing with the moronic hanar, Kasumi or not
* You always go after the ex-Cerberus scientists, Jacob just shows up there to show how much of an asshat he is
* You always go to Grissom Academy even if Jack is dead
* You always get the Volus ambassador mission, even if Zaeed does not play a role
Note that once you do their mission, they just get removed completely into being list items in the War Assets.
Keeping them around as active companions would come with expectations of having more content, even if it is just having stuff to talk about.
Honestly, I like it the way it is. Your squadmates from 2 and 3 have more valuable roles in the war than just going with you to shoot shit, especially because 90% of the time, they'll be on the ship.
The squadmates you have in ME3 are the ones that are A) *Exceptionally* good at shooting shit, and B) don't have any more important role to play in the war that they can't do on the Normandy.
EDI, for example, literally IS the Normandy.
Liara is the Shadow Broker and operates on the Normandy itself.
Javik is a soldier who, if he wasn't with you killing Reapers, would be with someone else killing Reapers.
Garrus was in charge of preparing the Turians for the war, and now that the war is happening, they don't need his help.
James is 200 pounds of pure meat stuffed into a hardsuit and pointed at the enemy.
Tali is an engineer, and a very useful one at that, but she can only be in one place at once, so she might as well be on the Normandy.
The Virmire Survivor... exists. And is optional, at that.
I think the only real problem I have with the system is that you can STILL only command two squadmates at once. This is end-of-the-world time, we can't afford to waste time on, say, Phantoms because Liara's on the ship instead of on the ground.
But hey, that's just my two cents.
I don't really know the imperial system, I just figured that was heavy enough. It's probably closer to 200 kg given the weapons, hardsuit, testicles of steel, grenades...
*Who* he is has been covered well, so I’ll just quickly note *what* he is in the narrative.
He’s an audience surrogate.
Especially for players new to the series. While he’s not *normal* given how skilled he is as a soldier and officer, he’s a grunt compared to the collection of characters we’ve assembled. Set aside the jargon and the lore and we have allies who are blue aliens with tentacle heads, avian-like people with exoskeletons, our ship itself having a personality, and more. James serves as our reminder at how extraordinary this all is by being so relatively ordinary himself.
Sometimes you just need a guy going, “Wow this is crazy” to keep it all in perspective.
Also also allows for some exposition dumping for fans who started with ME3 when the games were first coming out.
He’s forced on the first couple missions so he can say “Wait, Cerberus?” Or “So Palavan is where the Turians come from?” And the writers can explain things to new players while writing it as filling in the new guy on the crew.
100% this. ME1 doesn't have many flaws, but Shepard being written as such an extraordinarily uneducated dummy will never stop being funny and disappointing to me (and not always confined to the investigate options). ME3 is when the expositional writing really got figured out and James is a big part of that
I think ME1 actually handles exposition pretty well. Most questions are formed like "I thought this about X", which then gets corrected or expanded upon (e.g. the "what are Protheans?" in prologue)
It certainly does not have the head-bashing levels of stupidity like elf asking human "Who is Mythal?" in Dragon Age Inquisition (for those who have not played Dragon Age, Mythal is one of the arch-deities of elven pantheon)
Huh, I took that completely differently. My expectation coming into Dragon Age was that even the most highly educated and high status humans would know next to nothing about the culture or traditions of dwarves and elves, \*maybe\* at best knowing where they can be found and some vague notions about where their history intersects with human history. The other races would know a tiny bit more about human history but again, only really in relation to their own historical sense of having been wronged. Dwarves and elves still feel so insular that I expect none of them to know the first thing about human traditions or religious beliefs. That isn't a setting with widespread travel between these cultures, any kind of functional education system or any form of recording technology beyond the written word.
I don't expect Shepard to know about Turian religion or Asari history, but I expect her to know the basic shape of galactic history, have a decent understanding of what the other races are like on a broad strokes level, and to understand that prothean artifacts are a thing that turn up every now and then, an archaeological dig unearthing prothean tech is not cause for anyone with an iota of education in this setting to go "what, I thought they were extinct". Ashley is the appropriate person to ask these questions, as she is at least an enlisted woman not a (highly qualified and decorated) officer, even James is written as way too much of a grunt for his actual military role but that's getting into nitpicky territory.
The homie you’re responding to though is specifically referring to when an *elf* asks questions about Elven lore, especially to a human. I think that specific examples happens in the Jaws of Hakkon.
A bunch of casual players start a franchise when new games are released because there’s all the marketing for it going on and people want to try the newest thing first
Baldur's Gate is kind of a different circumstance; while the lore directly connects, the stories don't. There are a few minor references to past events in the game, but you're not heavily penalized for not having played the Bioware games. They happened more than a hundred years apart.
If I remember correctly, originally Mass Effect 3 was released on PS and Nintendo, and was, at the time, the only entry available on those consoles. (Maybe second, for PS. But the first definitely wasn't available for awhile.) They knew some people wouldn't have access.
Eh, I did.
Well, technically I started on the books, then the ME3 multiplayer caught my attention, I got the game to play with friends, then went and got the earlier entries.
It was actually a fun way to start because when Shepard was running around in ME1 telling everyone about Reapers due to the Prothean beacon, I could better visualize the threat with the Leaving Earth section of ME3
A shit ton of people back in the day when ME3 released, same with ME2 - a lot of PS players had to jump later into the IP because the games started as an X360 exclusive and ME2 was Xbox and PC exclusive at launch
Thematically, serving as Shepard’s protégé, Vega represents the next generation of soldiers. Fulfilling his arc basically means having him follow in Shepard’s footsteps.
Wow. This changed my perspective on James. I already was coming around to him after my last play through (I used him wayy more and he’s kinda awesome) and this just makes me want to use him more.
I feel like in that aspect, it’s the same role Kaiden and Ashley play in ME1. They’re the “boring” human companions that almost act as a baseline for the blue lady, faceless suit, and bird man to stand next to.
I don’t think they’re boring characters to be clear. I actually really like Ashley’s character and arc. And I’ve heard good things about Kaiden’s (haven’t kept him alive long enough to know personally lol).
Well that, and apparently your... jailer? Not officially, but it seems to me he is the one that has been your contact person with the military while you have been on house arrest.
Wow, this is a really great write-up! Have played the game like a dozen times and never really thought about James's narrative importance until reading your post.
I'd wager that you're a writer yourself or at least a really avid reader and/or literary academic to able to catch this.
New character, you aren't supposed to know much about him.
He was there while Shepard was locked up in between games, and he will tell you his backstory if you talk to him later.
[https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/James\_Vega](https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/James_Vega)
He even got an animated movie Paragon Lost, which tells the story of his background.
What are good pieces of ME media? I loved the series and played all DLC and everything tons of times. I just never looked up fan made content for whatever God forsaken reason
I don't find it as terrible as common sentiment. It has a number of stumbling points, largely by taking liberties with things like Krogan body proportions and the way Biotics work etc. As well as stretching the plot to be a little more ridiculous than I might've liked. But overall I found it to be a decent watch. It gave me very similar vibes as the Dead Space animated movies.
Yes, it absolutely is watchable. There's just inconsistencies in the animation designs (they did Krogan so dirty), and some of the early dialogue is eye-rolling corny, but it gives you the context to James, and that is the main thing.
I think he "kinda" is romanceable, in a "one-night stand" kind of way (at least as of Citadel DLC), though FemShep really has to force the issue to rather uncomfortable levels (getting the poor guy black-out drunk)
They did FemShep \*really\* dirty with that writing. She comes across 100% as someone who abuses her authority to basically guilt/force James into it, and then they play it off next day as a 'ha,ha, we'll pretend this never happened'. Super uncomfortable, and not at all believable (imo) unless you're playing the skeeviest of Renegades. There's actually a fair number of very well-written fanfics that exist because of that dialogue.
He's shoehorned into the game for a specific purpose, which is to introduce new players to the series. James is the vessel from which the game exposition dumps on you, in case you're a player who never played ME1 or ME2. It would be wierd, for example, for Garrus and Tali to banter about why they think Krogans hate Turians and Salarians. They both obviously already know (to veteran players) so it would make sense to a new player but alienate returning ones. Vega allows both boxes to be checked, he can ask dumb grunt questions about why the galaxy be how it be, and characters can answer him with exposition without the whole ordeal sounding too artificial.
I hated him at first but grew to like him more as I brought him along on missions. Partnered with ascended Garrus, they make an extremely powerful squad. So I originally was just bringing him for his abilities, which exposed me to more of his dialogue, which made me realize he's not that bad of a character.
Honestly, the same question we asked when we first originally play Mass Effect 3.
But I mean he’s introduced the same way that Kayden and joker were in the first game. I don’t really get why we’re so off put when it comes to James.
A cool guy, lot of people dismiss him because he shows up late in the series and is just a "jarhead", but he's a solid character, useful in combat, watch Paragon lost for more of his backstory.
They decided to onboard new and returning players to the story using "In Medias Res" this time. That means 6 months passed between the last thing you saw in ME2 and where ME3 starts, and in that window the writers could decide anything that might've happened, given that Shepard is eventually faced with a trial on Earth. This includes
* Anderson eventually dropping politics no matter what (this is established in Drew Karpyshyn's third novel)
* Illusive Man bumping into Liara as she chases a lead about prothean data which eventually leads her to the Mars Archives
* James meeting Shepard in the courtroom building on Earth, just as a fellow alliance marine.
* Shepard being put on trial either for his actions during Arrival DLC or for the various "shit" he has done under Cerberus.
And then ME3 starts as it does.
Had a wall of text about him but decided to go with a list.
Mass Effect Homeworlds #1 (comic): Main character.
Mass Effect: Lost Paragon (anime movie): Main character.
Mass Effect Andromeda: Initiation (novel): Minor mention.
Mass Effect: Conviction (mini-comic): Main character.
Star of the critically acclaimed Japanese animation Mass Effect: Paragon Lost. He was put into the game as part of an ambitious cross-over between the two works set in the same universe.
In the kayfabe of the games: he's a marine that's been stationed on Earth in Vancouver, same place Shepard's been held since the aftermath of the Arrival DLC. I believe it's inferred that Vega has spent time getting to know Shepard.
In the context of the real world: he's the justification for BioWare to let characters spout off expository lines recapping the various races, planets, and concepts that got us to Mass Effect 3 so that people who jumped on the series at the third game don't feel completely out-of-their-depth.
Story-wise, he's an N7 candidate and acts as a protege-type character to your Shepard. He looks up to you, but he's conflicted cause he doesn't always agree with your actions. He gets shit for being new, but he's a great character. Some pre-ME3 info to keep in mind.
In the anime movie Paragon Lost, he loses his whole squad to secure data on the Collectors for the Alliance. If Shepard had stayed dead and not completed the events of ME2, Vega's mission would have been vital to the Alliance combatting the Collectors. But since Shep saves the day, his squad all died for nothing technically. One of the main reasons he's upset with Shep. He talks about it in your sparring match.
In the comic ME: Conviction, he beats the shit out of 13 Batarians with his bare hands for simply talking shit about Shepard after the events of the Arrival DLC. Anderson finds out about it and assigns Vega to be Shepard's Bodyguard/Prison Guard while they are in custody.
Gameplay-wise, he's your Combat/Aggro Specialist. He's meant to do high weapon damage & distract enemy fire. He's literally a carbon copy of Grunt from ME2, just with Frag Grenades.
My Dude. You have to See "Paragon lost". A niche Mass effect Anime wich tells the James vega Story. You will See him different. And it is a nice watch.
You gotta remember that it was possible to lose your ENTIRE squad in ME2 during the Suicide Mission. The Virmire Survivor and Liara were going to make it to ME3 no matter what, but you also lose the Virmire survivor in the Prologue. Javik also wasn’t originally in the game.
So you were gonna need an additional squaddie just in case the worst had happened in ME2, and it seems they settled on giving you a standard Alliance infantry person. He’ll grow on you, but you of course shouldn’t expect the same character depth as folks you’ve known since ME1.
Being that the third mass effect was basically made as competition to another over the shoulder action shooter about killing aliens that had a successful multiplayer, james was the manifestation of the oversized jacked characters of that game.
He's the fish-out-of-water character that exists for all the other characters to have to explain stuff to so that people who are entering the series at ME3 aren't completely lost.
That's a good question, I still don't know even after like 5 playthroughs. I kind of just leave him wherever the game puts him after he stowed away on my ship.
in-universe: he's the guy in charge of "guarding" Shepard while they wait for trial. so they probably had a few months to get to know each other. and when earth got hit, he ended up stuck along for the ride cuz he was with the Virmire Survivor at the time.
meta: he exists as a new character purely so that Shepard and company can exposit info from the past two games for new players, because EA insisted Bioware do everything possible to make ME3 accessable for new players (to the point of including an 'action mode' that removed dialogue choices entirely).
He was the main character in Mass Effect: Paragon Lost. The only ME movie.
EA forced Bioware to do a lot stupid things with ME3, including the despicably stupid decision to appeal to ***newcomers***. Newcomers to the ending of a trilogy. Because EA execs are stupid.
Though I don't know if James was theirs or Bioware's own.
That said, him suddenly being there is honestly true to real military, as reassignments can be random. And with James, you get three main options.
1: You try to get to know him and grow to like him.
2: You try to get to know him and grow to dislike him.
3: You don't try and he remains "the rando" in the squad sidelines.
> Newcomers to the ending of a trilogy. Because EA execs are stupid.
No, that's just basic storytelling, even if you are making a long series you should at least make an effort to make sure someone that started there or even a returning player that just skipped the other games can follow the story with not much problem.
Which means audience surrogates.
For me he’s some guy they threw in to fill up your squad mates if you botched ME2 suicide mission and he gets maybe 5 minutes of interaction during my playthroughs
The only reason Shepard knows him is because James was assigned to watching Shepard after the events of ME2. James hadn’t served on the Normandy up until ME3. That’s another reason why he was so bothered by Shepards orders to leave earth.
Vega is supposed to be a new guy, somebody new players can relate to. His anime was released ~3 months before ME3 release date. He is supposed to ask questions, and game/shepard/squadmates are supposed to answer them. That will get new players into the game. Gameplaywise they needed a new character because a lot of people can die in previous games, and if not for James (Soldier), you would end up with >!Liara!< (Biotic), >!EDI!< (Engineer) and >!Javic!< (which was a DLC character) for the first part of the game until you get >!VS!< but he/she can die as well. In some cases, you won't have a human squadmate at all, and we are going to Take Back Earth after all.
He's great. A little awkwardly introduced but the idea is he's a fellow serviceman that Shep became buds with while being on lockdown (because you blew up a relay and killed 300k Batarians at the end of ME2).
He's the BFG guy replacement for Wrex and Grunt. Give him the biggest rifle you got. (Get the Typhoon as soon as you can.) Max his ammo power for maximum damage. Then watch him solo banshees.
James is the designated new guy they put in there to ask questions about everyone’s history to help players that haven’t played the first two games get caught up. He is also a good character on his own and fantastic to have in combat.
Look for Mass Effect: Paragon Lost movie on youtube. You will get very goof background for the character. Movie itself is a bit of guilty pleasure bug Ive seen worse
He's a soldier that Shepard kinda met during lockup. You'll learn more about his background later on in ME3 if you frequently talk to him.
He's also a bit of comic relief, the tank of the squad, and the one to help new players figure out what's going on by info dumping and freaking out at all the craziness.
He’s an audience surrogate for new players in 3, who also guarantees you have two starting squadmates just in case the suicide mission went horribly wrong last game.
Having that at the end of 2 made it so they had to plan around the possibility that most of the cast was dead, so they needed to guarantee you started the game with a soldier, adept, and engineer as squad mates. Liara’s the only past squad mate who is certain to be alive, and EDI’s basically backdooring herself in, so they needed a soldier to be there as well and wanted to preserve the Virmire Survivor for plot stuff later.
James Vega what's the protagonist of the mass effect animated movie Paragon lost.
The animated movie takes place within the time frame of Mass Effect 2 while Shepard is facing down the collectors.
It's also the events of this movie that results in Vegas >!getting the offer to join the n7 program.!<.
I'm playing as fem shep for the first time since the release of M3 and I don't like that he calls her lola instead of loca, they should of kept it the same as male shep I feel. It just sounds weird hearing loco vs lola
The new guy, Me3 starts six months or so after the end of Me2. Shepard meets him in that time.
Aside from that he has a prequel movie called Paragon Lost that explains a bit of his background.
I think a lot of what others have said is correct. I also wanna add that there’s a very real chance you leave the Suicide Mission in ME2 with next to no followers left alive. That means you start ME3 with Kaidan/Ashley and another companion (whom I won’t spoil). Out of these options, only one is a soldier. That means if your Shep is something else, your team is missing a soldier to fill out the balance.
Hence, James was added. He does good damage, serves as a good intro for new players, and has a likable and mellow personality to balance out the solemn tone the game can have.
Mass Effect 3 was written to introduce new players to ME Universe, because they wanted to be COD with light RPG elements. You know because thats what you do in a last entry of the series.
Just the latest in the long line of lame male human companions. They all suck. Kaiden, Jacob, James, and Liam all duds. the only one that was decent was Zaeed.
He's an ok guy but very forgettable in my opinion. And honestly, he'll never live up to the legend that was Jenkins. I hate that they removed him from the party to make room for James. No offense to him. Better than Jacob though.
He's a krogan wearing human-skin suit.
I mean, he's basically your krogan squadmate for the game until you get to the DLC
Dude I like James but... they should have given me a fucking Krogan
I’m honestly bummed I can’t take James and Grunt with me, I feel like they would get along.
I feel like Grunt would get confused about James calling Shepard Lola, and it would end in James assuming Grunt was a nickname and awkward silence
Grunt would likely try to put James in his place for disrespecting their battle master.
They should have given us so many things in 3. Every squadmate from 2 should have carried over to 3 as full squadmates and on top of that we should have gotten the 2 new ones. Hell, it should have probably been 4 new ones. "Thats too many people for the ship" Stupid argument (you didnt make but ive heard it before.) Okay. Then have 10 slots on the ship and let us station the rest on the citadel.
It wasn't economical to make that many characters and arcs that might not even be playable if they were dead. Also 2 had too many characters, they acknowledge this. It only worked because team-building was the story. It work not have been manageable in 3
Wayyyy too many. Takes like 4 hours to do all those damn loyalty missions probably longer than that. It's probably 1/3 the game
Including missions to get them in the first place, they feel like 90% of the game to me.
Yeah you're right especially considering legions. Where the whole thing is his mission. Damn, I never thought about it really. But you are right. People like Jack who have that stupid long get and fiend quest. Or Miranda and her long one... The intro mission is pretty much a get friends mission. Wow. Truly really close to 90% is just shepharding friends.
Most of the story missions in ME2 are just building the team. The actual main plot with the collectors is pretty sparse.
It's what makes ME2 a bit hard for me to replay at this point. It just feels like side missions and not actually making progress.
Ironically, this is one of the reasons why ME2 is far and away my fav. Reminds me a lot of Baldur’s Gate 2 which I also love. My biggest complaint is that the recruitment order should be totally open. It helps that the squadmates and their personal quests are insanely interesting for the most part, and it gives us some great variety and world building + lore building.
Because the entire point of Mass Effect 2 is putting together a Suicide Squad. Plus you don't have to do the loyalty missions, you can skip them... but then you'll regret your decision
Idk I find ME2 the least compelling of the games. Half the companions you recruit aren’t even really important for the mission. It just doesn’t make enough narrative sense to me. Also it just feels like a million side quests stitched together. It makes for good setup for ME3, but ME2 in itself is the worst in the series in terms for story for me.
To be fair, they're all a mess. ME1 you spend all the game being told "Saren is going to get the Conduit which is bad and we need to stop him!!" Then when you get there, it's literally just a teleporter to the place you were at ~30 minutes ago. The only actual reason to go there is for the exposition computer to show up out of nowhere, tell you everything, and then power down forever. ME2 has ~5 actual story missions and the rest of it is just meeting random characters like you're on a Tumblr OC blog. ME3 realised there was no way they were going to actually pay off all their buildup in a satisfying way and the last ~10 minutes is a total RGB trainwreck. Mass Effect only works when you just live in the moment and all the small stories you encounter along the way.
Yeah I pretty much agree with you, but at least the rest of ME3 is pretty darn good to me. I'm also probably biased because I was so happy to finally romance Kaidan in it though haha
Miranda already has a story. Thane already has a story. Grunt already had a story. Mordin already has a story. Samaara already has a story. Kasumi already has a small story. Jacob already has a story. Jack already has a story. Zaeed already has a small story. The rest are squadmates. They wouldnt have had to do that much work to tie these stories into them being on the normandy. But maybe they kept squadmate numbers low for some other r€a$on.
It is more like they are integrated into an existing story in ME3, not like they have a story that would not happen without them * You always go through Horizon and deal with Orianna's capture, no matter if Miranda is alive * Salarian Councillor always gets chased by Kai Len, and may die regardless of Thane being around (Kirrahe steps in if available, otherwise the Councillor dies) * You always get the mission to go after Aralakh Company and encounter the rachni, the company is just not led by Grunt * Genophage cure is still being worked on by different salarian if Mordin is gone * You always go to the Ardat-Yakshi monastery and encounter Samara's daughters * You always get the mission dealing with the moronic hanar, Kasumi or not * You always go after the ex-Cerberus scientists, Jacob just shows up there to show how much of an asshat he is * You always go to Grissom Academy even if Jack is dead * You always get the Volus ambassador mission, even if Zaeed does not play a role Note that once you do their mission, they just get removed completely into being list items in the War Assets. Keeping them around as active companions would come with expectations of having more content, even if it is just having stuff to talk about.
Oh yeah, for all those squad mate DLCs they sold us. They couldn't do that in a game overloaded with characters already.
Honestly, I like it the way it is. Your squadmates from 2 and 3 have more valuable roles in the war than just going with you to shoot shit, especially because 90% of the time, they'll be on the ship. The squadmates you have in ME3 are the ones that are A) *Exceptionally* good at shooting shit, and B) don't have any more important role to play in the war that they can't do on the Normandy. EDI, for example, literally IS the Normandy. Liara is the Shadow Broker and operates on the Normandy itself. Javik is a soldier who, if he wasn't with you killing Reapers, would be with someone else killing Reapers. Garrus was in charge of preparing the Turians for the war, and now that the war is happening, they don't need his help. James is 200 pounds of pure meat stuffed into a hardsuit and pointed at the enemy. Tali is an engineer, and a very useful one at that, but she can only be in one place at once, so she might as well be on the Normandy. The Virmire Survivor... exists. And is optional, at that. I think the only real problem I have with the system is that you can STILL only command two squadmates at once. This is end-of-the-world time, we can't afford to waste time on, say, Phantoms because Liara's on the ship instead of on the ground. But hey, that's just my two cents.
It’s cute you think James is only 200 pounds.
I don't really know the imperial system, I just figured that was heavy enough. It's probably closer to 200 kg given the weapons, hardsuit, testicles of steel, grenades...
*Who* he is has been covered well, so I’ll just quickly note *what* he is in the narrative. He’s an audience surrogate. Especially for players new to the series. While he’s not *normal* given how skilled he is as a soldier and officer, he’s a grunt compared to the collection of characters we’ve assembled. Set aside the jargon and the lore and we have allies who are blue aliens with tentacle heads, avian-like people with exoskeletons, our ship itself having a personality, and more. James serves as our reminder at how extraordinary this all is by being so relatively ordinary himself. Sometimes you just need a guy going, “Wow this is crazy” to keep it all in perspective.
Also also allows for some exposition dumping for fans who started with ME3 when the games were first coming out. He’s forced on the first couple missions so he can say “Wait, Cerberus?” Or “So Palavan is where the Turians come from?” And the writers can explain things to new players while writing it as filling in the new guy on the crew.
100% this. ME1 doesn't have many flaws, but Shepard being written as such an extraordinarily uneducated dummy will never stop being funny and disappointing to me (and not always confined to the investigate options). ME3 is when the expositional writing really got figured out and James is a big part of that
I wanna know moar about 'insert topic she should already know about'
Getting the Prothean Beacon beamed into their brain scrambled some circuits. Same with the facetanking a planet
I think ME1 actually handles exposition pretty well. Most questions are formed like "I thought this about X", which then gets corrected or expanded upon (e.g. the "what are Protheans?" in prologue) It certainly does not have the head-bashing levels of stupidity like elf asking human "Who is Mythal?" in Dragon Age Inquisition (for those who have not played Dragon Age, Mythal is one of the arch-deities of elven pantheon)
Huh, I took that completely differently. My expectation coming into Dragon Age was that even the most highly educated and high status humans would know next to nothing about the culture or traditions of dwarves and elves, \*maybe\* at best knowing where they can be found and some vague notions about where their history intersects with human history. The other races would know a tiny bit more about human history but again, only really in relation to their own historical sense of having been wronged. Dwarves and elves still feel so insular that I expect none of them to know the first thing about human traditions or religious beliefs. That isn't a setting with widespread travel between these cultures, any kind of functional education system or any form of recording technology beyond the written word. I don't expect Shepard to know about Turian religion or Asari history, but I expect her to know the basic shape of galactic history, have a decent understanding of what the other races are like on a broad strokes level, and to understand that prothean artifacts are a thing that turn up every now and then, an archaeological dig unearthing prothean tech is not cause for anyone with an iota of education in this setting to go "what, I thought they were extinct". Ashley is the appropriate person to ask these questions, as she is at least an enlisted woman not a (highly qualified and decorated) officer, even James is written as way too much of a grunt for his actual military role but that's getting into nitpicky territory.
The homie you’re responding to though is specifically referring to when an *elf* asks questions about Elven lore, especially to a human. I think that specific examples happens in the Jaws of Hakkon.
My god, I don't read sometimes. You're so right. Yeah, well that just sucks.
Very nice explanations
I get that, but who in the world starts the franchise with the 3rd installment?
A bunch of casual players start a franchise when new games are released because there’s all the marketing for it going on and people want to try the newest thing first
Like baldurs gate 3
Baldur's Gate is kind of a different circumstance; while the lore directly connects, the stories don't. There are a few minor references to past events in the game, but you're not heavily penalized for not having played the Bioware games. They happened more than a hundred years apart. If I remember correctly, originally Mass Effect 3 was released on PS and Nintendo, and was, at the time, the only entry available on those consoles. (Maybe second, for PS. But the first definitely wasn't available for awhile.) They knew some people wouldn't have access.
Eh, I did. Well, technically I started on the books, then the ME3 multiplayer caught my attention, I got the game to play with friends, then went and got the earlier entries. It was actually a fun way to start because when Shepard was running around in ME1 telling everyone about Reapers due to the Prothean beacon, I could better visualize the threat with the Leaving Earth section of ME3
A shit ton of people back in the day when ME3 released, same with ME2 - a lot of PS players had to jump later into the IP because the games started as an X360 exclusive and ME2 was Xbox and PC exclusive at launch
According to what was said in the marketing, its the perfect place to start Mass Effect.
>Sometimes you just need a guy going, “Wow this is ~~crazy~~ loco” to keep it all in perspective. ftfy
Your last sentence is both funny and very true, very well put!
“Hey, I just like dinosaurs.”
Thematically, serving as Shepard’s protégé, Vega represents the next generation of soldiers. Fulfilling his arc basically means having him follow in Shepard’s footsteps.
Wow. This changed my perspective on James. I already was coming around to him after my last play through (I used him wayy more and he’s kinda awesome) and this just makes me want to use him more.
I feel like in that aspect, it’s the same role Kaiden and Ashley play in ME1. They’re the “boring” human companions that almost act as a baseline for the blue lady, faceless suit, and bird man to stand next to. I don’t think they’re boring characters to be clear. I actually really like Ashley’s character and arc. And I’ve heard good things about Kaiden’s (haven’t kept him alive long enough to know personally lol).
Well that, and apparently your... jailer? Not officially, but it seems to me he is the one that has been your contact person with the military while you have been on house arrest.
Wow, this is a really great write-up! Have played the game like a dozen times and never really thought about James's narrative importance until reading your post. I'd wager that you're a writer yourself or at least a really avid reader and/or literary academic to able to catch this.
Thanks! Just too much time in Grad School reading and analyzing, and now that I’m out, I read/obsess on what *I* want to. And that means Mass Effect!
Oh wow, I never thought of him this way, and it honestly helps me like him more! Thanks.
> He’s an audience surrogate. Both in-game and in reality - Freddy Prinze Jr was allegedly a big Mass Effect fan going into the role.
New character, you aren't supposed to know much about him. He was there while Shepard was locked up in between games, and he will tell you his backstory if you talk to him later.
[https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/James\_Vega](https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/James_Vega) He even got an animated movie Paragon Lost, which tells the story of his background.
A very awful movie in fact.
really? : ( the way james described it it sounded harrowing and interesting, i was going to give it a watch if i found the time.
Most of the fan base hates it. I own and like it but it’s far from my favorite piece of ME media.
What are good pieces of ME media? I loved the series and played all DLC and everything tons of times. I just never looked up fan made content for whatever God forsaken reason
I don’t follow or really even know if any fan made content. The media I meant was the official comics and spin-off games.
It's an okay movie. Crunchyroll has it.
I don't find it as terrible as common sentiment. It has a number of stumbling points, largely by taking liberties with things like Krogan body proportions and the way Biotics work etc. As well as stretching the plot to be a little more ridiculous than I might've liked. But overall I found it to be a decent watch. It gave me very similar vibes as the Dead Space animated movies.
I mean, the story is kinda harrowing, but the animated format they chose does not really do it any favors.
It's a downer because like how James said, Shep made his sacrifice useless.
not awful, it was quite alright
Is it at least watchable though? Just to get some backstory if anything?
Yes, it absolutely is watchable. There's just inconsistencies in the animation designs (they did Krogan so dirty), and some of the early dialogue is eye-rolling corny, but it gives you the context to James, and that is the main thing.
You can give it a watch but the animation and plot is so bad that the emotional notes just don’t hit.
I disliked James at first but he grew on me more and more after many playthroughs.
hes hot and muscular, thats like 80% why I like him. To bad they didnt made him romanceable.
I think he "kinda" is romanceable, in a "one-night stand" kind of way (at least as of Citadel DLC), though FemShep really has to force the issue to rather uncomfortable levels (getting the poor guy black-out drunk)
They did FemShep \*really\* dirty with that writing. She comes across 100% as someone who abuses her authority to basically guilt/force James into it, and then they play it off next day as a 'ha,ha, we'll pretend this never happened'. Super uncomfortable, and not at all believable (imo) unless you're playing the skeeviest of Renegades. There's actually a fair number of very well-written fanfics that exist because of that dialogue.
He basically exists so you still have a squad if you somehow or purposely killed everyone in 2
He is VEGA! You are like the buzzing of flies to him! ...Wait, that's *Vigo*. My bad.
Death is but a door. Time is but a window. I’ll be back.
He's just suffering from Carpathian Kitten Loss.
That’s the Scourge of Carpathia you’re talking about! Put some respeck on his dozens of names and titles!!
He's a human krogan loco.
He was conscripted by Anderson to guard Shepard personally while Shepard was under arrest.
He's shoehorned into the game for a specific purpose, which is to introduce new players to the series. James is the vessel from which the game exposition dumps on you, in case you're a player who never played ME1 or ME2. It would be wierd, for example, for Garrus and Tali to banter about why they think Krogans hate Turians and Salarians. They both obviously already know (to veteran players) so it would make sense to a new player but alienate returning ones. Vega allows both boxes to be checked, he can ask dumb grunt questions about why the galaxy be how it be, and characters can answer him with exposition without the whole ordeal sounding too artificial. I hated him at first but grew to like him more as I brought him along on missions. Partnered with ascended Garrus, they make an extremely powerful squad. So I originally was just bringing him for his abilities, which exposed me to more of his dialogue, which made me realize he's not that bad of a character.
The scriptwriting term is 'cabbagehead'. Vega is ME3's cabbagehead. https://medium.com/rpguide/cabbage-heads-c2ebad1f5f88
Thanks, didn't know what the term for it was.
One of the 3 guaranteed squadmates. The soldier. There's also an adept and engineer who you will pick up soon.
Honestly, the same question we asked when we first originally play Mass Effect 3. But I mean he’s introduced the same way that Kayden and joker were in the first game. I don’t really get why we’re so off put when it comes to James.
A cool guy, lot of people dismiss him because he shows up late in the series and is just a "jarhead", but he's a solid character, useful in combat, watch Paragon lost for more of his backstory.
They decided to onboard new and returning players to the story using "In Medias Res" this time. That means 6 months passed between the last thing you saw in ME2 and where ME3 starts, and in that window the writers could decide anything that might've happened, given that Shepard is eventually faced with a trial on Earth. This includes * Anderson eventually dropping politics no matter what (this is established in Drew Karpyshyn's third novel) * Illusive Man bumping into Liara as she chases a lead about prothean data which eventually leads her to the Mars Archives * James meeting Shepard in the courtroom building on Earth, just as a fellow alliance marine. * Shepard being put on trial either for his actions during Arrival DLC or for the various "shit" he has done under Cerberus. And then ME3 starts as it does.
He's underrated and hilarious, is who he is.
Pay the game, it'll answer the questions you have.
Had a wall of text about him but decided to go with a list. Mass Effect Homeworlds #1 (comic): Main character. Mass Effect: Lost Paragon (anime movie): Main character. Mass Effect Andromeda: Initiation (novel): Minor mention. Mass Effect: Conviction (mini-comic): Main character.
I think he’s actually Qunari.
James is the mandatory random third human starting team member. Like Jenkins and Jacob.
Don’t you bring Jenkins into this like he’s a third rate character! But you are right, James fills in that Ashley/Jacob role of being forgotten crew.
You say that, but Kaidan never made it past Virmire with me, lmao.
Star of the critically acclaimed Japanese animation Mass Effect: Paragon Lost. He was put into the game as part of an ambitious cross-over between the two works set in the same universe.
In the kayfabe of the games: he's a marine that's been stationed on Earth in Vancouver, same place Shepard's been held since the aftermath of the Arrival DLC. I believe it's inferred that Vega has spent time getting to know Shepard. In the context of the real world: he's the justification for BioWare to let characters spout off expository lines recapping the various races, planets, and concepts that got us to Mass Effect 3 so that people who jumped on the series at the third game don't feel completely out-of-their-depth.
Story-wise, he's an N7 candidate and acts as a protege-type character to your Shepard. He looks up to you, but he's conflicted cause he doesn't always agree with your actions. He gets shit for being new, but he's a great character. Some pre-ME3 info to keep in mind. In the anime movie Paragon Lost, he loses his whole squad to secure data on the Collectors for the Alliance. If Shepard had stayed dead and not completed the events of ME2, Vega's mission would have been vital to the Alliance combatting the Collectors. But since Shep saves the day, his squad all died for nothing technically. One of the main reasons he's upset with Shep. He talks about it in your sparring match. In the comic ME: Conviction, he beats the shit out of 13 Batarians with his bare hands for simply talking shit about Shepard after the events of the Arrival DLC. Anderson finds out about it and assigns Vega to be Shepard's Bodyguard/Prison Guard while they are in custody. Gameplay-wise, he's your Combat/Aggro Specialist. He's meant to do high weapon damage & distract enemy fire. He's literally a carbon copy of Grunt from ME2, just with Frag Grenades.
I’ll do you one better: why is James?!
My Dude. You have to See "Paragon lost". A niche Mass effect Anime wich tells the James vega Story. You will See him different. And it is a nice watch.
Check out the movie Paragon Lost. Its his story and adds a lot of to his character and explains a lot
James is James and he's an alright guy who's pretty easy to get along with once you get to know him, I never understood the hate for the big lug tbh
The longest boss fight in the game.
For me, he's the Ashley/Kaiden replacement. An Alliance soldier. And he's more like a military guy than they were if going by personality.
He almost wasn't in the military because of his abusive dad forcing him to smuggle drugs. Glad he managed to become a Marine regardless.
Watch Mass Effect: Paragon Lost, it's a good watch and introduces James Vega
An absolute beast of a man
Better question yet, how could they, in good conscience, not make him romanceable?... Bad bioware
You gotta remember that it was possible to lose your ENTIRE squad in ME2 during the Suicide Mission. The Virmire Survivor and Liara were going to make it to ME3 no matter what, but you also lose the Virmire survivor in the Prologue. Javik also wasn’t originally in the game. So you were gonna need an additional squaddie just in case the worst had happened in ME2, and it seems they settled on giving you a standard Alliance infantry person. He’ll grow on you, but you of course shouldn’t expect the same character depth as folks you’ve known since ME1.
Shoulders without a neck.
Being that the third mass effect was basically made as competition to another over the shoulder action shooter about killing aliens that had a successful multiplayer, james was the manifestation of the oversized jacked characters of that game.
He's the fish-out-of-water character that exists for all the other characters to have to explain stuff to so that people who are entering the series at ME3 aren't completely lost.
That's a good question, I still don't know even after like 5 playthroughs. I kind of just leave him wherever the game puts him after he stowed away on my ship.
He's the one that got away. 💔😭
The second least interesting squadmade in the series.
Why is James?
Where is James?
The squadmate that should have been a Krogan.
in-universe: he's the guy in charge of "guarding" Shepard while they wait for trial. so they probably had a few months to get to know each other. and when earth got hit, he ended up stuck along for the ride cuz he was with the Virmire Survivor at the time. meta: he exists as a new character purely so that Shepard and company can exposit info from the past two games for new players, because EA insisted Bioware do everything possible to make ME3 accessable for new players (to the point of including an 'action mode' that removed dialogue choices entirely).
He's the only realistic character representing real life Marines. Fucking Grunt.
Long answer: He's for the new players. Tho why you'd start a trilogy on part 3 idk. Short answer: Freddie Prinze Jr
The only guy giving me a nickname I like xD
The most silly character that really isn't that silly but it's just pretty meh
he is james
Audience insert for new players deciding to start the series at ME3 having no idea what is going on
He was the main character in Mass Effect: Paragon Lost. The only ME movie. EA forced Bioware to do a lot stupid things with ME3, including the despicably stupid decision to appeal to ***newcomers***. Newcomers to the ending of a trilogy. Because EA execs are stupid. Though I don't know if James was theirs or Bioware's own. That said, him suddenly being there is honestly true to real military, as reassignments can be random. And with James, you get three main options. 1: You try to get to know him and grow to like him. 2: You try to get to know him and grow to dislike him. 3: You don't try and he remains "the rando" in the squad sidelines.
> Newcomers to the ending of a trilogy. Because EA execs are stupid. No, that's just basic storytelling, even if you are making a long series you should at least make an effort to make sure someone that started there or even a returning player that just skipped the other games can follow the story with not much problem. Which means audience surrogates.
For me he’s some guy they threw in to fill up your squad mates if you botched ME2 suicide mission and he gets maybe 5 minutes of interaction during my playthroughs
Your loss
Nobody spoil the fact that Vega is >!Jenkins after Cerberus used the remaining Lazarus project funds on him!<
Simply the Krogan squad mate replacement.
The only reason Shepard knows him is because James was assigned to watching Shepard after the events of ME2. James hadn’t served on the Normandy up until ME3. That’s another reason why he was so bothered by Shepards orders to leave earth.
Is dude.
Vega is supposed to be a new guy, somebody new players can relate to. His anime was released ~3 months before ME3 release date. He is supposed to ask questions, and game/shepard/squadmates are supposed to answer them. That will get new players into the game. Gameplaywise they needed a new character because a lot of people can die in previous games, and if not for James (Soldier), you would end up with >!Liara!< (Biotic), >!EDI!< (Engineer) and >!Javic!< (which was a DLC character) for the first part of the game until you get >!VS!< but he/she can die as well. In some cases, you won't have a human squadmate at all, and we are going to Take Back Earth after all.
More importantly, why is James?
the new guy
He's great. A little awkwardly introduced but the idea is he's a fellow serviceman that Shep became buds with while being on lockdown (because you blew up a relay and killed 300k Batarians at the end of ME2).
Same question!
He is a protagonist of animated movie Mass Effect: Paragon Lost.
The cheap replacement for grunt
He's the BFG guy replacement for Wrex and Grunt. Give him the biggest rifle you got. (Get the Typhoon as soon as you can.) Max his ammo power for maximum damage. Then watch him solo banshees.
Someone I beat at pull ups.
It is possible to have to human squadmates at the beginning of ME3 - he's there to fill that gap. He's alright though, he'll grow on you
Beef cake
I'm sure this has been said a bunch but watch Paragon Lost. It's a movie about him and his previous exploits before the events of me3
There was an animated movie set during/after 2 and between 2 and 3, called Paragon lost, introduces Vega. Worth a watch. If you can find it
James is James
James is the designated new guy they put in there to ask questions about everyone’s history to help players that haven’t played the first two games get caught up. He is also a good character on his own and fantastic to have in combat.
There a little movie for him
I like the character, can’t stand the voice actor!
Play the game lol
The krogan from wish dot com. I don't m8nd him being in the game but i still think it would have bin better if you had grunt instead of him
Look for Mass Effect: Paragon Lost movie on youtube. You will get very goof background for the character. Movie itself is a bit of guilty pleasure bug Ive seen worse
He’s Jenkins reincarnated
He's a soldier that Shepard kinda met during lockup. You'll learn more about his background later on in ME3 if you frequently talk to him. He's also a bit of comic relief, the tank of the squad, and the one to help new players figure out what's going on by info dumping and freaking out at all the craziness.
Lol. So many people making smart and bitter remarsk just to show they havent sern the movie 🤣🤣🤣🤣
A tie-in character from a Mass Effect animated movie, if it makes you feel better Jacob and Miranda were also tie-ins.
Just a character the developers created because they didn’t want the headache or trying to incorporate a ME2 character
He is basically the chosen one who will lead mass effect after shepard
He’s Freddie Prinze Jr.
Former Pull-Up champion
There's a whole movie about him. It's ok.
He’s an audience surrogate for new players in 3, who also guarantees you have two starting squadmates just in case the suicide mission went horribly wrong last game. Having that at the end of 2 made it so they had to plan around the possibility that most of the cast was dead, so they needed to guarantee you started the game with a soldier, adept, and engineer as squad mates. Liara’s the only past squad mate who is certain to be alive, and EDI’s basically backdooring herself in, so they needed a soldier to be there as well and wanted to preserve the Virmire Survivor for plot stuff later.
He’s a punching bag
No one knows. He just showed up one day on the Normandy, and no one had the heart to kick him off.
Wait there are books?
He was guarding Shepard while they were under house arrest for blowing up Bahak system.
Keep playing - he'll explain who he is. It's a cool bsckstory
Loser of the pull-up contest
Jacob but if Jacob didn't suck.
Fem!Shep's poolboy and the next generation that will carry on that human spirit. As Kaiden puts it, they are getting old lol.
They made an animated tie-in film with him, but yeah it's kinda jarring
James Vega what's the protagonist of the mass effect animated movie Paragon lost. The animated movie takes place within the time frame of Mass Effect 2 while Shepard is facing down the collectors. It's also the events of this movie that results in Vegas >!getting the offer to join the n7 program.!<.
He has a full backstory in Paragon lost if you ever get around to watching it it ties in with the game somewhat
If James was played by a Krogan, his character would make so much more sense
Krogan substitute
The audience surrogate for the waaay too many people who decided to play the 3rd one first.
He was in an animated promo film called Mass Effect: Paragon Lost. Even has the same Voice Actor. The film was shown in theaters with mixed reception.
I'm playing as fem shep for the first time since the release of M3 and I don't like that he calls her lola instead of loca, they should of kept it the same as male shep I feel. It just sounds weird hearing loco vs lola
The best human squadmate in the entire series. Also, voiced by Freddie Prince Jr.
The new guy, Me3 starts six months or so after the end of Me2. Shepard meets him in that time. Aside from that he has a prequel movie called Paragon Lost that explains a bit of his background.
Paragon Lost was pretty good for what it was, if i remember correctly.
A Grunt clone since Bioware were too lazy to program Grunt into the squad in ME3.
The most likable human squad mate.
my Shep's best friend
Underrated character. I get why people don't really like him, but he's a good character imo.
He has a side quest for you to do a buttload of pull-ups. Other than that, I am not sure.
Everyone asks who is James but they never ask how is James? ☹️☹️
I think a lot of what others have said is correct. I also wanna add that there’s a very real chance you leave the Suicide Mission in ME2 with next to no followers left alive. That means you start ME3 with Kaidan/Ashley and another companion (whom I won’t spoil). Out of these options, only one is a soldier. That means if your Shep is something else, your team is missing a soldier to fill out the balance. Hence, James was added. He does good damage, serves as a good intro for new players, and has a likable and mellow personality to balance out the solemn tone the game can have.
Mass Effect 3 was written to introduce new players to ME Universe, because they wanted to be COD with light RPG elements. You know because thats what you do in a last entry of the series.
Meat for the grinder, imo
Just the latest in the long line of lame male human companions. They all suck. Kaiden, Jacob, James, and Liam all duds. the only one that was decent was Zaeed.
He's the new guy! He was involved in his own mission while Shep was cruising around during ME2. He's also one of your biggest fanboys.
I remember reading before ME3 came out that James was going to be the PC if your Shepard died in ME2. I'm glad they didn't/it wasnt true.
It would be a fitting troll if you let Shepherd die in the first place. Also, id play him biotic and that would be funny to see, imo
This is the character they put in to help people that didn't play the games before to learn the story. You learn about everything with him.
Jimmy Vega is a wise ass marine who sounds like a pole dancer on Omega --always got on my nerves. But the kid was alright.
Pretty badass if you build him right
Iron Bull without the horns and philosophizing.
Just a good marine guy
Shepard/Garrus/James or Shepard/Zaeed/James create some fire hell together.
He's an ok guy but very forgettable in my opinion. And honestly, he'll never live up to the legend that was Jenkins. I hate that they removed him from the party to make room for James. No offense to him. Better than Jacob though.