Companions interaction and what bugs me about it

[AeonsLegend]

Most of us have played this game many times and have tried many different compositions of party members unless of course you play solo. Now the thing that bothered me wasn't that I didn't like some of them or that some of them just aren't as good in terms of stats (well all of them). What bothered me is that a lot of them don't really mix together which makes creating unique playthroughs almost impossible. Now there are of course side kicks that you can bring along, but they're not part of the main story and they don't banter so they're just tag alongs.

Let's analyse the main companions and why Obsidian made a mistake:

Non faction companions:

1. Edér
2. Aloth
3. Xoti

Faction companions

1. Maia
2. Pallegina
3. Serafen
4. Tekēhu

Party size is 5 so excluding the PC you have 4 slots. There's only 3 party members that are not linked to a faction. So from role playing perspective you will always play with the first 3 and then one of the ones from the faction list.

Of course this isn't necessary because some of the faction companions can in fact be used to be part of the other faction, but let's analyse this:

• Tekēhu: going with the Valian route requires you to kill leaders of the Wakahi tribe. Killing them basically makes it impossible to have Tekēhu in the party. I'm not sure what happens if you leave him in the tavern, but seriously strange if you still have him tag along when you're killing part of his tribe. From an RP perspective with more freedom than strict faction loyalty you can't really join the Valians. You also cannot join the Rautaians as this involves killing the queen or the prince. Tekēhu will leave if you go this route. The only faction that allows Tekēhu to stay other than the Huana are the Príncipi.
• Maia: You cannot select the Valians or the Huana as this will force her to leave. She will stay if you select the Príncipi.
• Serafen: doesn't really matter to him. You can have him on board for any of the other factions as none of them will do anything harmful to the Príncipi.
• Pallegina: You cannot join the RDC as this will force her to leave. I think with her you can definitely pick the Príncipi or the Huana aside from the Valians of course.

But this isn't it. There's more to it than factions because some characters are also not really attuned to eachother. Depending on your POE1 choices Edér and Aloth will not get along. In terms of reputation they are also not aligned. Having them in the same group is possible of course, but can be a bit strange.

Edér is fine with most people aside from Aloth although he does get awkward with Xoti depending on your choices in POE1. Gets along well with Xoti, Serafen and Maia in terms of reputation.

Aloth does not get along with Serafen, Pallegina and Tekēhu. He gets along really well with Maia.

Xoti doesn't really care who she's with although she doesn't like Aloth. She gets along with Tekēhu and Edér.

Serafen is fine with most people except with Pallegina and Aloth.

Tekēhu doesn't like Aloth and will have issues with Maia as well.

Pallegina basically hates everyone including herself. I don't think she gets along with anyone.

 

With all said and done technically you could combine some of the people above even though your choices won't match them or the personalities in the group don't mix, but you'll always feel like they don't belong together. For me this limits the flexibility and amount of actual choices you have when you want to focus on companions and not side kicks. I think this is a massive mistake and it makes setting up a party that role plays well extremely difficult as there is no way to change their minds or "harden" them as some other games do.

[Crucis]

@AeonsLegend  Don't overlook using sidekicks.  Yes, they're not as good as full blown companions, but they're better than nothing if you don't want to be stuck playing with faction limited companions.

Regarding faction-limited companions (FLC), it's a double edged sword.  On one hand, yes they limit your choices when certain companions will quit if you choose a path that they don't like.  On the other hand, there's a certain realism to the idea that you have NPCs that have their own factional alignments and would refuse to work with factions that are diametrically opposed to their own.  And another part of the problem is that the presence of FLC's wouldn't be so bad if the number of non faction limited companions was greater.  But that may be intentional, since it forces you to make some tough choices.

 

[Boeroer]

6 hours ago, AeonsLegend said:

 Now there are of course side kicks that you can bring along, but they're not part of the main story and they don't banter so they're just tag alongs.

That is not correct. Sidekicks don't have personal quests but they do have banter. Some of them even can have rather deep interaction like for example Konstanten & Fassina whom you can watch engage in a relationship. 

In the DLCs you can't even tell the difference between official companion and sidekick if you bring certain ones -  e.g. Fassina to FS, Konstanten to SSS or Ydwin to BoW.

Serafen can basically be seen as non-faction if you treat him well.

 

 

[AeonsLegend]

2 hours ago, Boeroer said:

That is not correct. Sidekicks don't have personal quests but they do have banter. Some of them even can have rather deep interaction like for example Konstanten & Fassina whom you can watch engage in a relationship. 

In the DLCs you can't even tell the difference between official companion and sidekick if you bring certain ones -  e.g. Fassina to FS, Konstanten to SSS or Ydwin to BoW.

Serafen can basically be seen as non-faction if you treat him well.

 

 

Interesting, I never had Konstanten in the party, but they do not talk to the other actual companions and they do not comment on the story itself. They may comment on certain sidequests but it's very limited. Yes I know they're in the DLC. This is why I usually play with Fassina and Ydwin, but the fact that they don't comment on Eothas and such makes them lackluster from RP perspective.

Yea I mentioned Serafen as faction related, but also that he can be used in any faction.

7 hours ago, Crucis said:

@AeonsLegend  Don't overlook using sidekicks.  Yes, they're not as good as full blown companions, but they're better than nothing if you don't want to be stuck playing with faction limited companions.

Regarding faction-limited companions (FLC), it's a double edged sword.  On one hand, yes they limit your choices when certain companions will quit if you choose a path that they don't like.  On the other hand, there's a certain realism to the idea that you have NPCs that have their own factional alignments and would refuse to work with factions that are diametrically opposed to their own.  And another part of the problem is that the presence of FLC's wouldn't be so bad if the number of non faction limited companions was greater.  But that may be intentional, since it forces you to make some tough choices.

 

I do use sidekicks, my gripe is that they don't comment or are a part of the main story. This is why I mention only actual companions. The fact that I have to make "hard" choices doesn't bother me if I only play this game once or perhaps twice. But since this game, like DND games has many options for you to discover and many classes to try out there's a lot of replay value. And this means that the companion selection is incredibly poor when it comes to the main story. Like I said before. That is definitely a mistake on Obsidian's part.

[Juris]

On 3/27/2020 at 1:42 AM, AeonsLegend said:

II do use sidekicks, my gripe is that they don't comment or are a part of the main story. This is why I mention only actual companions. The fact that I have to make "hard" choices doesn't bother me if I only play this game once or perhaps twice. But since this game, like DND games has many options for you to discover and many classes to try out there's a lot of replay value. And this means that the companion selection is incredibly poor when it comes to the main story. Like I said before. That is definitely a mistake on Obsidian's part.

Sidekicks do have comments on Ukaizo but they don't talk to the big guy.  They also have comments in the DLC even if they aren't a recommended companion.  I was pleased to see even Mirke had a few comments in SSS, and the arena guards have barks depending on what sidekicks you have.  Ydwin has a lot of say in FS.  I recommend Vatnir for SSS as well, he has a lot of funny lines.

[Crucis]

On 3/27/2020 at 4:42 AM, AeonsLegend said:

I do use sidekicks, my gripe is that they don't comment or are a part of the main story. This is why I mention only actual companions. The fact that I have to make "hard" choices doesn't bother me if I only play this game once or perhaps twice. But since this game, like DND games has many options for you to discover and many classes to try out there's a lot of replay value. And this means that the companion selection is incredibly poor when it comes to the main story. Like I said before. That is definitely a mistake on Obsidian's part.

For what it's worth, Aeons, is that if sidekicks did comment and were part of the main story, then they wouldn't BE sidekicks.  They'd be companions.

I imagine that Obsidian didn't have enough money in the budget to pay for more companions.  Heck, as I remember reading, the sidekick Ydwin was supposed to be a companion but the kickstarter campaign fell short of the goal that would have provided the funds to pay for the work. 

Also, I think that part of the problem from my perspective is that they spent too much money on voice acting.  I prefer more content over voice acting as much of a game as possible.  Oh, sure, if it's a game company with a giant wallet, fine.  But if the game company is operating on a limited budget, I'd prefer content over excessive amounts of voice acting every damn time.

[Boeroer]

It was a decision that wasn't done by the designers or even the game director.