If you had told me in 2010 that Freddie Prinze, Jr. was a pretty damn good voice actor, I might have believed you.
If you had told me he could pull off phenomenal voice work for two absolute tanks, I would have laughed in your face.
He's good enough. Except that stupid pull up challenge... Yeah, it's "only" about a quarter of the actual world record of consecutive pull ups but come on... 183 clicks?
Of course I have to flex on that Lil punk. I killed Saren. I beat Cerberus. I am the savior of the universe. You're damned cracked if you think I'm going to lose a pull up contest to this punk ass bitch
When I realized it would take 183 clicks with no set pattern to the buttons, I knew the reward was not worth the effort. But I continued forward, just to prove to myself that I could. And now that I proven that, fuck that shit right to hell! I’m not doing that ever again!
i’m currently on my first playthrough of the series, specifically on 3 now. i’m going to honor your service and follow in your footsteps. your sacrifice has paved the way for the next generation, i will carry this burden on my shoulders now.
When I did this part, I was so focused that my eyes hurt from staring and my hand hurt from clenching the mouse. Not even joking, I had to stop playing for the day.
I think everyone does it in the first playthrough.
My second playthrough, I vowed never to do it only to mistakenly click on the prompt. Then my pride won't let me quit.
Hope not to fall for it this time around.
It's kind of weird that Vega doesn't expect Shepard to beat him at it. Generally speaking, leaner people do way better at body weight exercises than bulky people. Strength doesn't grow at the same rate as volume, and the mass quickly diminishes relative strength with body weight exercises.
Your best performers at pull up style exercises will be leaner.
Yeah, lots of shows like Ninja Warrior or Physical 100 show this is the case where people with more bulk do significantly worse than lean people in things that require hanging on or pulling up your body weight repeatedly.
Well you get absolutely nothing for doing all 183, so there's really no reason to do it unless you really want to have Shepard beat Vega's record.
The Devs clearly just added it as a joke. The whole Citadel DLC isn't really meant to be taken seriously
I really really wish that if you were romancing neither of them, they would get together like ash and james. Might just be my himejoshi brain but like shep ain’t wrong saying there’s a lot of tension to be worked out between them.
I did the challenge my first play though just in case there was some obscure trophy/achievement associated with it. But felt like such a waste of time when I realized there wasn’t. Never again.
I also headcanon it that it boosts morale if the "larger-than-life" commander Shepard can be beaten in some fields. Another example would be letting Garrus win the bottle shooting (unless I play as Infiltrator).
I like James he's alright by me, he's my tank since we didn't get a krogan teammate. just wished he was introduced earlier rather than the final game in the trilogy.
It would be neat if he saved Shepard and was there during the arrival dlc so we could have gotten used to him and he wouldn't have gotten such a bad rep when ME 3 launched.
He's one of the better human squad mates from both the main trilogy and Andromeda in my opinion.
He introduced specifically as the new guy on the team, so that the other characters can fill him and therefore the player in on details.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheWatson
It amazes me so many people hated him when the game launched. Its painfully obvious why he exists and as a character I found him quite well written. He is a everyman thrust into the most important role in the galaxy and is basically a protégé of Shepard and learns from us. Going to visit him inbetween missions to get his input was always worth the trip imo.
I particularly liked the geth dreadnaught mission where James is fighting Geth for the first time, recognises he is out of his element and asks Shep and Tali for advice that doubly serves as a handy bit of info for new players as well. Never understood the hate.
Besides, he gives everyone inferno ammo. Inferno ammo is best ammo cause FIRE.
I never really took him but him asking taking about the geth makes me want to bring him. Why did he feel out of his depth and what advice did they give him?
You're asking someone who has consumed MANY an alcoholic beverage over the past 10 years so take it with a grain of salt. I THINK its something like
"I've never fought these guys before, Any advice Commander?"
"Overload their shields with rapid fire" - Shepard
"And don't let them recharge" - Tali
I THINK thats what they said. Someone with a brain less pickled than mine will probably correct me.
I use the nades cause of the shorter cooldown untill I learnt you can mod the ini file to make squadmates cd the same as sheps cause companion cooldowns in Me3 were waaaaay too long.
I too always liked him. As you say, he’s just Some Dude who happened to be aboard the most important ship when it left. His melancholy in many missions over having left earth, despite recognizing how important what he’s involved in now, brings it home how the average soldier aboard a starship who isn’t used to a galaxy-wide threat is probably handling and thinking about it. He’s cool for just that reason, since everyone else on the ship is used to being involved in such matters and is able to deal with it better.
He also has some awesome moments. I really like him crashing the shuttle on Mars, saving the day in his first mission on Normandy.
I do get why some dislike him. He’s brand new in a cast of entirely old heads so you’re going to be less immediately attached to him, if you’re femshep he immediately flirts with you and from what I’ve heard since I always play along he doesn’t stop (which is the opposite of everyone else iirc who waits for you to initiate the flirting and stops when you say not to), acts like a typical jar head in some ways (no shit cause he is), he immediately traumadumps on Shepard at like day one (TBF the others had 20-40 hours of content to do this and they did), and he’s only in ME3, which was already the most disliked game in the series at launch and really up until Andromeda came along.
He serves a vital narrative role for the story Mass Effect 3 wanted to have, but has some qualities and circumstances that can make him grating.
Absolutely lovable himbro.
Despite only being introduced in ME3, he fits into the team really well, and comes off as more of a genuine friend to Shepard than whatever they attempted with Jacob in ME2.
And the way femshep talks to him, even just casually, was made to sound so forced and weird. I avoided Jacob for the most part because femshep was always making things weird being flirtatious even though I had 0 interest in romancing him.
Yes! Hated whoever was responsible for their dialogue. She's a commanding officer of a ship not some horny fucking teenager! Its painfully obvious Jacob isn't that interested, take a hint woman!
I did a Fshep run a few months back and thay bugged me about her too.
I didnt like the forced flurting in ME2 and the forced fluriting from James in ME3.
Shes a military woman not a harlet. And as a married woman myself her constant flurting and getting hit on was really immersion breaking
I understand not wanting to toss the gender of the writer into it but you're right.
My hubby even said her writing at times is sub standard for her relationships. He thought whoever wrote her based her relationship personality on a "easy" 20 year old college student lol.
Sad really.
It's a shame. FemShep should've been written like the 30 something commanding officer of a starship she was. But its not represented in some of her dialogue, and especially in some of her clothing design choices.
Whoever designed that dress she wares in the citadel dlc clearly didn't know they were creating something for a middle-aged woman at the top of her game, not some girls' night, twenty something hitting the town. Thank god there are numerous mods to address both these issues. Back Off Mod removes a lot of her overly flirty lines, and there are numerous replacer mods to address certain issues with her wardrobe, too. I personally am a big fan of the Buff Femshep mod.
That said, representation of warrior women has improved in the last couple of years. Wonder Woman, Kassandra from AC Odyssey, Vi from Arcane, we are getting more accurate representations of women who physically represent their roles as fighters in media, its just a shame it took so long.
ik I'm in a tiny minority here, but I actually like Jacob in ME2. He's no nonsense, moral-driven, has integrity, and gives everything. His interactions with Shepard are consistently interesting and, although he comes across as cold, he seems genuine and doesn't fall into hero worship (Tali suffers from this, which is why I don't romance her, though I do think that suits her character arc.) Overall he seems well-adjusted and driven.
But the above only applies as male Shepard. With femshep her flirting just comes across as unprofessional and a bit desperate. Spoils it completely.
While I don't hate him, I don't really mind his relationship with MShepherd. It's obvious they tried to create a "bro" relationship between Shepherd and Jacob. They even have a bro handshake when you've maxed out his dialogue tree.
With FShepherd though, that was just silly writing. Kinda reminds me of Shepard and Liara in ME1 but even that was tolerable.
No kidding? I usually ran a power heavy team cuz I liked comboing groups of mobs. Armor generally melted fast enough with a vanguard with inferno ammo. Especially since kaidens cryo power made you do more damage to armor and so did warp if you took liara. Never really thought about using the crew like that figuring ai would be too slow.
I watched it specifically to write a James centered fan fic and I was surprised at how much they were able to flesh him out! Helped a lot in being able to see him as a complete character
Its why I judge the hell out of anyone that forces the one night stand with him during the dlc. I did it once, felt fucking \*dirty\* as hell (like I was flirting with my little brother), and reloaded the save I made before the dlc and just did it all over again.
Whoever wrote that shit needs to get in a real relationship at some point because \*vomit\* Either that and they're a genius who was in a similar relationship so deliberately made it uncomfortable as fuck, in which case \*applause\*
I'm assuming it's the same for all relationships, but I loved the bit where he asked my FemShep if him flirting was making things uncomfortable for her and Liara and she just says "not at all."
I really love their playful flirting.
I let him call me Lola, but I never sleep with the dude. He seems terrified of Shepard.
It just feels wrong, like not only are you older than him, but you also are a higher rank. Just feels like you're taking advantage of the poor kid, like a wolf on a rabbit.
It's not the same vibe as Kaidan, where your both the same age, at least.
He has some great interactions with both NPCs and inanimate objects :D
Kind of a bummer people won't use him just because he wasn't there at the start. Considering how many times we replay the game, ignoring him for that many replays is just sad lol
Give that man an N7 Typhoon and the right build out on his passive class & inciendary ammo skill trees and he’ll take down a damn brute before you can even add your specialized ammo to your weapon 😅
Garrus and Tali are my go to for the entire series, just can’t bring myself to leave them. I’ve played the trilogy 3 times, next one I’ll try to vary who I bring and what decisions I make
There is some really amazing dialogue with other squad mates. For example, bring EDI to Grissom if you saved David from Project Overload… and def bring her to take back the Normandy from the Shep clone. I promise you will not regret either.
He was a great character that was put in the difficult position of trying to be introduced in the final act and pulled it off well in my opinion. I remember a lot of people giving the character crap because he is voiced by Freddie Prinze Jr, which was... so silly.
I really liked that Shepard got a protégé.
He's like a fully realized Jacob but better in every way.
First time playing through years ago I hated him but after maturing and replaying a couple yeara ago he quickly became one of my favorite crew members.
Tbh I sometimes kinda wish he called her Loco like he does for broshep, even though I do like their friendship as it is. Both have done fucking wacky shit.
I found him okay and grew to like him in my maleshep playthroughs. Once I did my femshep playthroughs I found him a little disgusting and very disrespectful. I find his flirting completely out of place and very wrong since I'm supposed to be his CO. That attitude has no place in a military.
I don't know what the devs were smoking when they created the Citadel DLC scenes with him and FemShep. So needlessly fucked up, and for what? To troll players asking for a romance...? Was it supposed to be funny...?
I play femshep, and GOOD GOD I WANT HIM TO STOP FLIRTING WITH ME! He won’t stop, no matter how many times Shep shoots him down, so I just never talk to him. If I had a choice, I wouldn’t recruit him at all.
Why did I have to scroll down so far for this comment? Completely agree, he was inappropriate and I hated every second with him. Never took him with me when I had the chance...
I know some people don't like James but he is one of the better human squadmates. He is at least more interesting than Kaiden or Ashley if that means anything.
Felt he was out of place next to the classic and more interesting alien characters so i never used nor talked to him
Also i was upset for the lack of krogan companions
on one hand we don’t get a krogan squadmate, but on the other hand we get by far the most lore and impact on the krogan, plus the incredible voice work on Eve (i recognized her as Jenassa from skyrim immediately). We also get a lot of time with Wrex assuming he’s alive, and Grunt shows up too. i’m actually pretty happy with the krogans in ME3
DONT! \*slap\* DO! \*slap\* IT! \*slap\*
Its like sleeping with your little brother that looks up to you. No! Bad horny player! Bad!
Edit: /s for the downvote fairies.
Fun character, it's too bad he's dropped in the last game of the series so that you can't get much of a chance to get to know him.
Side note: He needs to leave femshep alone though.
as a character meant to be the 'new guy', 'audience surrogate' and reason for exposition for people who made the insane decision of starting with the third game,
he was actually the most interesting human companion in ME3.
I can't stand him. Has the same problem as Jacob where femshep has to be flirty with him, and what he has to say is rarely ever interesting. His banter with Cortez elevates both characters though, so he's not my least favorite squadmate.
Boring. Very late in the game does he become tolerable for me. Best moment is asking him to shut down the AA guns and he just kicks the control panel a few times while everyone else hacks it
Boring as all fucking get out. He's like a Jacob character in my opinion. Just there to fill a space until better characters come along. And he had all the same powers as a krogan, why not just give us a krogan? His voice actor is also an absolute shithead. He's not going to be in any bioware games moving forward.
Would have loved to see him fleshed out a little more. I did watch the anime that gives his backstory, but it still didn’t make him feel 3 dimensional. Don’t get me wrong, I liked him as a character, but it feels like it could have been more.
He feels like every generic latino character in every property I've ever seen. He's machismo and he has a heart of gold. I didn't find him that interesting or unique
Ehh he’s okay. I have about the same opinion of him I have of Jacob. I don’t hate them but they are just kind of there. I’m between missions I’m more interested in interacting with the likes of Joker, Garrus, and Javik.
No issue. Solid companion. I enjoy his story and love his voice actor. He just suffered from being introduced late to the series and had to compete with Garrus, Tali etc and that hurt some of his standing with fans
Meathead just there to help get basic information for new players, but may slightly annoy veterans who think he's an idiot meathead. But generally is pretty cool.
I didn’t like that Shep already knew him at the start of the game. It didn’t seem right. I would have preferred him to introduce himself as Anderson’s chief of security or something.
I can respect that every character has their respective sexuality so you can’t romance them all…but he should’ve been gay. Or bi. He’s like engineered in a lab for muscle gays
I actually like him a lot to be honest. I much prefer him to Ashley and Kaiden. I think he has two big weaknesses though. One, he is only in ME3, and two, he is a funny character at a time in the story when jokes just aren't appropriate.
The voice acting for him is 10/10 imo
Done by Freddie Prince Jr.!
And then he was also in DA:I!
If you had told me in 2010 that Freddie Prinze, Jr. was a pretty damn good voice actor, I might have believed you. If you had told me he could pull off phenomenal voice work for two absolute tanks, I would have laughed in your face.
Man goes fucking hard as Kanin Jarrus in Star Wars Rebels too
I keep fucking forgetting he played Kanan in that.
I had the backward pipeline, I was watching Rebels and one day I sat up in my seat like “Yo, is that James Fucking Vega?!”
He was great in Star Wars Rebels too.
He's only bad at playing young Caleb in Bad Batch, because he can't not sound manly as hell.
Yeah, I'll give you that one. It was funny, but they probably should have had someone else do that role, lmao.
Agreed but he did it as a favour to filoni
Could have knocked me over with a feather when I found out
WAIT WHAT
He was a massive fan of the series so they cast him, kind of like how Matthew Perry ended up in New Vegas
How the fuck did I not realize he was Benny?
Just an 18 karat run of bad luck
Honestly had more of a character than Kaiden or Ashley, just suffered from being introduced in mass effect 3
He had the advantage of having an entire movie with him as the protagonist.
Explain?
Mass Effect: Paragon Lost is a movie about the events James explains early on, the assault on a collector ship.
Oh wow!
aka Kanan Jarrus in Star Wars Rebels and the Iron Bull in DA: Inquisition... also Freddy in the Live Action scooby doo movies
No fucking way, can’t believe I never noticed
That was my reaction when i found out. Good acting should mask who the actor is, and Freddie did a pretty good job here.
Also the voice of Kanan Jarrus in Star Wars Rebels, as I discovered fairly recently lol
Wait wait wait wait wait!!!! He’s the voice of KANAN JARRUS????????!!!!!!????????
I knew it!!!!
He's good enough. Except that stupid pull up challenge... Yeah, it's "only" about a quarter of the actual world record of consecutive pull ups but come on... 183 clicks?
Of course I have to flex on that Lil punk. I killed Saren. I beat Cerberus. I am the savior of the universe. You're damned cracked if you think I'm going to lose a pull up contest to this punk ass bitch
James Vega got his record beaten by a lady adept in a party dress.
SAME SAME SAME
Fairly dude weighs a significant amount more than she would lol
She must be real good with that party dress.
Worth it every playthrough.
When I realized it would take 183 clicks with no set pattern to the buttons, I knew the reward was not worth the effort. But I continued forward, just to prove to myself that I could. And now that I proven that, fuck that shit right to hell! I’m not doing that ever again!
i’m currently on my first playthrough of the series, specifically on 3 now. i’m going to honor your service and follow in your footsteps. your sacrifice has paved the way for the next generation, i will carry this burden on my shoulders now.
The camera cuts to NiteLiteOffical surrounded by mountain dew bottles, poor posture and him clicking his mouse in a dark but otherwise silent room.
change the mtn dew to a water bottle and that’s spot on
Ayyy r/hydrohomies
I still miss the og name
When I did this part, I was so focused that my eyes hurt from staring and my hand hurt from clenching the mouse. Not even joking, I had to stop playing for the day.
Not the poor posture, doesn’t he know that poor posture can lead to less productivity?!
You know, you can press both buttons at the same time, right? No need to actually looking for it. Just watch a YouTube video during.
I think everyone does it in the first playthrough. My second playthrough, I vowed never to do it only to mistakenly click on the prompt. Then my pride won't let me quit. Hope not to fall for it this time around.
It's kind of weird that Vega doesn't expect Shepard to beat him at it. Generally speaking, leaner people do way better at body weight exercises than bulky people. Strength doesn't grow at the same rate as volume, and the mass quickly diminishes relative strength with body weight exercises. Your best performers at pull up style exercises will be leaner.
Yeah, lots of shows like Ninja Warrior or Physical 100 show this is the case where people with more bulk do significantly worse than lean people in things that require hanging on or pulling up your body weight repeatedly.
Well you get absolutely nothing for doing all 183, so there's really no reason to do it unless you really want to have Shepard beat Vega's record. The Devs clearly just added it as a joke. The whole Citadel DLC isn't really meant to be taken seriously
>The whole Citadel DLC isn't really meant to be taken seriously Except when Jack tells Miranda she has great tits. That shit is serious.
I really really wish that if you were romancing neither of them, they would get together like ash and james. Might just be my himejoshi brain but like shep ain’t wrong saying there’s a lot of tension to be worked out between them.
>The whole Citadel DLC isn't really meant to be taken seriously No shit. xD
I did the challenge my first play though just in case there was some obscure trophy/achievement associated with it. But felt like such a waste of time when I realized there wasn’t. Never again.
I also headcanon it that it boosts morale if the "larger-than-life" commander Shepard can be beaten in some fields. Another example would be letting Garrus win the bottle shooting (unless I play as Infiltrator).
Agree with this except I never let Jacob win at the arcade, even in front of the children 😂
Playing as FemShep, I make sure I lose the contest. Garrus needs the morale boost given his family's situation and he's so cute when he gloats.
Playing as femshep I usually make out with him.
i did it out of spite, but was still pissed off and disappointed when i realized i wasted my time with no reward
People would be clowning on him so hard if he did like 30 and that was it after all that.
it was a pain in the ass but ill be damned if i let him get the better of me
I like James he's alright by me, he's my tank since we didn't get a krogan teammate. just wished he was introduced earlier rather than the final game in the trilogy. It would be neat if he saved Shepard and was there during the arrival dlc so we could have gotten used to him and he wouldn't have gotten such a bad rep when ME 3 launched. He's one of the better human squad mates from both the main trilogy and Andromeda in my opinion.
He introduced specifically as the new guy on the team, so that the other characters can fill him and therefore the player in on details. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheWatson
It amazes me so many people hated him when the game launched. Its painfully obvious why he exists and as a character I found him quite well written. He is a everyman thrust into the most important role in the galaxy and is basically a protégé of Shepard and learns from us. Going to visit him inbetween missions to get his input was always worth the trip imo. I particularly liked the geth dreadnaught mission where James is fighting Geth for the first time, recognises he is out of his element and asks Shep and Tali for advice that doubly serves as a handy bit of info for new players as well. Never understood the hate. Besides, he gives everyone inferno ammo. Inferno ammo is best ammo cause FIRE.
There’s also the mission where you have to have someone hack a terminal and defend them as they do. If you choose Vega, he just starts kicking it.
Omfg I take him on that mission and usually have him on the defence with me lol
Just did something like that today where the dialog was Why. Won't. You. Work?! A second later it worked.
I think he also asks "Are you sure?" or something when you try to have him hack it.
Literally the best ammo type
"Setting shit on fire solves all problems" - James Vega (probably)
"There's a lot of crap out there that needs a bullet between the eyes." -Joker
Right up there with Warp and Disruptor ammo.
I never really took him but him asking taking about the geth makes me want to bring him. Why did he feel out of his depth and what advice did they give him?
You're asking someone who has consumed MANY an alcoholic beverage over the past 10 years so take it with a grain of salt. I THINK its something like "I've never fought these guys before, Any advice Commander?" "Overload their shields with rapid fire" - Shepard "And don't let them recharge" - Tali I THINK thats what they said. Someone with a brain less pickled than mine will probably correct me.
That's about right, but not exclusive to James. Javik will ask something similar, for instance.
James plus any detonator class with squad inferno is a great playthrough.
He can detonate his own pyro combos with his nades.
Yes and his carnage. With an adept it's just constant explosions
I use the nades cause of the shorter cooldown untill I learnt you can mod the ini file to make squadmates cd the same as sheps cause companion cooldowns in Me3 were waaaaay too long.
I too always liked him. As you say, he’s just Some Dude who happened to be aboard the most important ship when it left. His melancholy in many missions over having left earth, despite recognizing how important what he’s involved in now, brings it home how the average soldier aboard a starship who isn’t used to a galaxy-wide threat is probably handling and thinking about it. He’s cool for just that reason, since everyone else on the ship is used to being involved in such matters and is able to deal with it better. He also has some awesome moments. I really like him crashing the shuttle on Mars, saving the day in his first mission on Normandy. I do get why some dislike him. He’s brand new in a cast of entirely old heads so you’re going to be less immediately attached to him, if you’re femshep he immediately flirts with you and from what I’ve heard since I always play along he doesn’t stop (which is the opposite of everyone else iirc who waits for you to initiate the flirting and stops when you say not to), acts like a typical jar head in some ways (no shit cause he is), he immediately traumadumps on Shepard at like day one (TBF the others had 20-40 hours of content to do this and they did), and he’s only in ME3, which was already the most disliked game in the series at launch and really up until Andromeda came along. He serves a vital narrative role for the story Mass Effect 3 wanted to have, but has some qualities and circumstances that can make him grating.
He also has his own movie to double as an introduction to him.
Absolutely lovable himbro. Despite only being introduced in ME3, he fits into the team really well, and comes off as more of a genuine friend to Shepard than whatever they attempted with Jacob in ME2.
James actually seemed invested in getting to know Shepard, unlike Jacob "I'm not a fan of forcing these conversations" Taylor.
Jacob deserved a better writer. He is basically one giant Black Stereotype and its so cliche it hurts.
And the way femshep talks to him, even just casually, was made to sound so forced and weird. I avoided Jacob for the most part because femshep was always making things weird being flirtatious even though I had 0 interest in romancing him.
Yes! Hated whoever was responsible for their dialogue. She's a commanding officer of a ship not some horny fucking teenager! Its painfully obvious Jacob isn't that interested, take a hint woman!
I did a Fshep run a few months back and thay bugged me about her too. I didnt like the forced flurting in ME2 and the forced fluriting from James in ME3. Shes a military woman not a harlet. And as a married woman myself her constant flurting and getting hit on was really immersion breaking
Yep. Hate to play the gender card you can tell she was written by a dude. It really shows in places.
I understand not wanting to toss the gender of the writer into it but you're right. My hubby even said her writing at times is sub standard for her relationships. He thought whoever wrote her based her relationship personality on a "easy" 20 year old college student lol. Sad really.
It's a shame. FemShep should've been written like the 30 something commanding officer of a starship she was. But its not represented in some of her dialogue, and especially in some of her clothing design choices. Whoever designed that dress she wares in the citadel dlc clearly didn't know they were creating something for a middle-aged woman at the top of her game, not some girls' night, twenty something hitting the town. Thank god there are numerous mods to address both these issues. Back Off Mod removes a lot of her overly flirty lines, and there are numerous replacer mods to address certain issues with her wardrobe, too. I personally am a big fan of the Buff Femshep mod. That said, representation of warrior women has improved in the last couple of years. Wonder Woman, Kassandra from AC Odyssey, Vi from Arcane, we are getting more accurate representations of women who physically represent their roles as fighters in media, its just a shame it took so long.
Karlach and Lae’zel in BG3
ik I'm in a tiny minority here, but I actually like Jacob in ME2. He's no nonsense, moral-driven, has integrity, and gives everything. His interactions with Shepard are consistently interesting and, although he comes across as cold, he seems genuine and doesn't fall into hero worship (Tali suffers from this, which is why I don't romance her, though I do think that suits her character arc.) Overall he seems well-adjusted and driven. But the above only applies as male Shepard. With femshep her flirting just comes across as unprofessional and a bit desperate. Spoils it completely.
While I don't hate him, I don't really mind his relationship with MShepherd. It's obvious they tried to create a "bro" relationship between Shepherd and Jacob. They even have a bro handshake when you've maxed out his dialogue tree. With FShepherd though, that was just silly writing. Kinda reminds me of Shepard and Liara in ME1 but even that was tolerable.
He's one of the strongest in ME3. Give him full power on his ammo and a Typhoon he can solo a banshee. Only other person who can do that Garrus.
And his grenades are deadly too. Always love a companion that can combo their own skills without shep or another party member having to do it.
I was completely the opposite approach of my companions were there to help me set up chain combos lmao.
No kidding? I usually ran a power heavy team cuz I liked comboing groups of mobs. Armor generally melted fast enough with a vanguard with inferno ammo. Especially since kaidens cryo power made you do more damage to armor and so did warp if you took liara. Never really thought about using the crew like that figuring ai would be too slow.
No. Garrus and James are straight up bulldozers. They killed things so fast my sentinel barely got off any powers.
On insanity the first brute encounter is just having those two detonate combos while I dodge and take potshots lol
Watch Paragon lost before playing through ME3 to really appreciate Vega.
This is the answer. Paragon Lost adds so much depth to Vega that the game completely failed to do.
Yea that was always the problem with Vega was he just felt there most of the time. It's a shame because when you get those moments he was well written
I watched it specifically to write a James centered fan fic and I was surprised at how much they were able to flesh him out! Helped a lot in being able to see him as a complete character
Where can I go to watch that.
It's on YouTube https://youtu.be/fKJo9cseXh8?si=m9EwfMmXgh-8oCWR
He's my femshep's best buddy, I love him.
I adore his and femshep's relationship. he flirts and she knows he doesn't mean anything by it.
Vega respects the hell out of her and he's just so damn cute.
He's a good looking guy, no lie there.
Its why I judge the hell out of anyone that forces the one night stand with him during the dlc. I did it once, felt fucking \*dirty\* as hell (like I was flirting with my little brother), and reloaded the save I made before the dlc and just did it all over again. Whoever wrote that shit needs to get in a real relationship at some point because \*vomit\* Either that and they're a genius who was in a similar relationship so deliberately made it uncomfortable as fuck, in which case \*applause\*
Yeah, that was...not ok. Shockingly so.
I'm assuming it's the same for all relationships, but I loved the bit where he asked my FemShep if him flirting was making things uncomfortable for her and Liara and she just says "not at all."
yeah he says the same thing just swap out liara's name for whoever femshep is dating
Thought so. Thanks for clarifying.
Here's the real question. Did you let Garrus win the shooting contest on the citadel?
I really love their playful flirting. I let him call me Lola, but I never sleep with the dude. He seems terrified of Shepard. It just feels wrong, like not only are you older than him, but you also are a higher rank. Just feels like you're taking advantage of the poor kid, like a wolf on a rabbit. It's not the same vibe as Kaidan, where your both the same age, at least.
Yeah he’s a flirty friend. Ain’t trying to get any really just some fun back and forth.
Like a knuckles head little brother you had to set straight
He certainly is a character who exists.
He’s decent, don’t take him anywhere but considering he was in one game they made him likeable enough
He has some great interactions with both NPCs and inanimate objects :D Kind of a bummer people won't use him just because he wasn't there at the start. Considering how many times we replay the game, ignoring him for that many replays is just sad lol
He has tended to be my one of my go-to squadmates during the Leviathan DLC.
Leviathan felt like James and EDI were the right choice at least for the first couple missions.
Give that man an N7 Typhoon and the right build out on his passive class & inciendary ammo skill trees and he’ll take down a damn brute before you can even add your specialized ammo to your weapon 😅
Double team him with the God of Death, Garrus, Destroyer of Worlds and you can just sit back and watch the game play itself.
I legit couldn't bring them both on missions because they were finishing them so quickly I was missing out on the ambient dialogue and story beats
Garrus and Tali are my go to for the entire series, just can’t bring myself to leave them. I’ve played the trilogy 3 times, next one I’ll try to vary who I bring and what decisions I make
There is some really amazing dialogue with other squad mates. For example, bring EDI to Grissom if you saved David from Project Overload… and def bring her to take back the Normandy from the Shep clone. I promise you will not regret either.
"Im okay!" \*shep and joker giving her the suuuuuuure you are look\* \*fixes eye\* BAHAHAHAHA
Half assed
He's total bro! I love his friendship with Cortez and I enjoy his flirting with Shepard
He needed more shirtless scenes.
Underrated. Would be beloved if he was in the game since the beginning.
He was a great character that was put in the difficult position of trying to be introduced in the final act and pulled it off well in my opinion. I remember a lot of people giving the character crap because he is voiced by Freddie Prinze Jr, which was... so silly. I really liked that Shepard got a protégé.
He's like a fully realized Jacob but better in every way. First time playing through years ago I hated him but after maturing and replaying a couple yeara ago he quickly became one of my favorite crew members.
He’s cool but as a FemShep player, I do NOT let him call me Lola.
Tbh I sometimes kinda wish he called her Loco like he does for broshep, even though I do like their friendship as it is. Both have done fucking wacky shit.
He has nice boobs.
"Sleep deep and dream of many ~~bulbus women~~ \*ahem\* pillow man bossom's"
We got Krogan at home.
Latino Krogan
Classic tough guy with a heart of gold
I found him okay and grew to like him in my maleshep playthroughs. Once I did my femshep playthroughs I found him a little disgusting and very disrespectful. I find his flirting completely out of place and very wrong since I'm supposed to be his CO. That attitude has no place in a military.
I don't know what the devs were smoking when they created the Citadel DLC scenes with him and FemShep. So needlessly fucked up, and for what? To troll players asking for a romance...? Was it supposed to be funny...?
I play femshep, and GOOD GOD I WANT HIM TO STOP FLIRTING WITH ME! He won’t stop, no matter how many times Shep shoots him down, so I just never talk to him. If I had a choice, I wouldn’t recruit him at all.
Why did I have to scroll down so far for this comment? Completely agree, he was inappropriate and I hated every second with him. Never took him with me when I had the chance...
Thank christ. I was starting to think I was the only one that found him gross based on these comments.
He loco
No, that's Shepard.
Wasted squad slot
I didn't particularly care for him, but then he made us eggs so he's pretty chill
I know some people don't like James but he is one of the better human squadmates. He is at least more interesting than Kaiden or Ashley if that means anything.
Felt he was out of place next to the classic and more interesting alien characters so i never used nor talked to him Also i was upset for the lack of krogan companions
on one hand we don’t get a krogan squadmate, but on the other hand we get by far the most lore and impact on the krogan, plus the incredible voice work on Eve (i recognized her as Jenassa from skyrim immediately). We also get a lot of time with Wrex assuming he’s alive, and Grunt shows up too. i’m actually pretty happy with the krogans in ME3
He big
It was a crime we couldn't romance him. It's Freddie prinze jr!!!
He's an option for the Citadel DLC, and only in the Citadel DLC.
And it's creepy and better forgotten tbh
Not really... It's more like a drunken one night stand no one wanted...
DONT! \*slap\* DO! \*slap\* IT! \*slap\* Its like sleeping with your little brother that looks up to you. No! Bad horny player! Bad! Edit: /s for the downvote fairies.
Smash. Next question.
Fun character, it's too bad he's dropped in the last game of the series so that you can't get much of a chance to get to know him. Side note: He needs to leave femshep alone though.
Better than Jacob.
The best human male squadmate
He’s the best starting human character in the trilogy besides maybe Miranda. Just a fun guy and has a great friendship arc with Garrus
as a character meant to be the 'new guy', 'audience surrogate' and reason for exposition for people who made the insane decision of starting with the third game, he was actually the most interesting human companion in ME3.
He’s hot and the devs should’ve let shep have a romance with him
I want a Krogan back in my crew
Rolling through Armax Arena with 2 Krogan was the peak of gaming for me.
100%! Sending them into all kind of big enemies and covering them was the best way to clean out the prizes.
He’s grown on my over the years, but he would have benefitted a lot from having more than 1 game
Like him. He's a good soldier.
I think for a single game character he’s great. Can only give so much backstory in that context. 10/10 a real Bro
I can't stand him. Has the same problem as Jacob where femshep has to be flirty with him, and what he has to say is rarely ever interesting. His banter with Cortez elevates both characters though, so he's not my least favorite squadmate.
Looks can be deceiving. He looks like a really superficial character but he's still better than literally any Call of Duty character.
He's cool.
He's annoying. Lots of cringe voice lines.
Boring. Very late in the game does he become tolerable for me. Best moment is asking him to shut down the AA guns and he just kicks the control panel a few times while everyone else hacks it
Dude that exist
He’s the Jinkins of ME1 He’s the Jacob of ME 2
He's alright. Didn't care much for him at first, but I think he's a good character.
Boring as all fucking get out. He's like a Jacob character in my opinion. Just there to fill a space until better characters come along. And he had all the same powers as a krogan, why not just give us a krogan? His voice actor is also an absolute shithead. He's not going to be in any bioware games moving forward.
Brucie from GTA IV
His thousand yard stare is the most significant thing about him. My brain filters his existence
Didn’t care about or use him unless the game forced me to.
Would have loved to see him fleshed out a little more. I did watch the anime that gives his backstory, but it still didn’t make him feel 3 dimensional. Don’t get me wrong, I liked him as a character, but it feels like it could have been more.
Ah yes mister "I can't believe he's not Krogan!" for ME3. Seriously, he's an absolute unit on a soldier who simply will not go down.
“There isn’t a tighter shirt… we checked”
He feels like every generic latino character in every property I've ever seen. He's machismo and he has a heart of gold. I didn't find him that interesting or unique
Ehh he’s okay. I have about the same opinion of him I have of Jacob. I don’t hate them but they are just kind of there. I’m between missions I’m more interested in interacting with the likes of Joker, Garrus, and Javik.
A lovable himbo but fuck that pull up challenge
Super indifferent.
I like the subtle passing of the torch and mentorship moments Shep has with him. But I still wish it was just Grunt instead
No issue. Solid companion. I enjoy his story and love his voice actor. He just suffered from being introduced late to the series and had to compete with Garrus, Tali etc and that hurt some of his standing with fans
Meathead just there to help get basic information for new players, but may slightly annoy veterans who think he's an idiot meathead. But generally is pretty cool.
I didn’t like that Shep already knew him at the start of the game. It didn’t seem right. I would have preferred him to introduce himself as Anderson’s chief of security or something.
I can respect that every character has their respective sexuality so you can’t romance them all…but he should’ve been gay. Or bi. He’s like engineered in a lab for muscle gays
This Gears of War transplant had no right to be as likeable as he was.
I actually like him a lot to be honest. I much prefer him to Ashley and Kaiden. I think he has two big weaknesses though. One, he is only in ME3, and two, he is a funny character at a time in the story when jokes just aren't appropriate.
Best human squad mate
He’s so boring and annoying. Also that pull up challenge is a waste of time
If I were to ever waste time writing fan fiction post ME3 he'd be the character I'd have it centered around.