Which games have the best companions. What makes them good?

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

MotB had the best companions with PST being a close second. I'd rate BG1 as some of the worst TBH, they just didn't say much after they were recruited.

[aluminiumtrioxid]

KotOR 2 because of G0T0 and Kreia.

[Lephys]

And if truth be told, I've found that it's important, as a male, to be at least somewhat attracted to them (female NPCs) on a primitive level.  Most of the female NPCs of the ME series struck that attraction chord quite well without being overbearing.

I do think it's actually pretty clever/interesting how they worked Miranda's (ME2 and 3) attractiveness into her lore. Was she fanservice? Maybe. But it fit the lore, first and foremost. Her father created her, and he's the type of person who wanted to create the perfect specimen. He's not going to create an ugly, physically un-fit daughter-clone.

 

Basically, her being "hawt" was part of the game world, and not part of the regular world stuffed into the game (i.e. "Hey, players... check out this hottie while you play!").

 

I'm also a big fan of the ME characters, in general. I think they did a pretty good job with all of them, even if some were still more intriguing than others, and even if the games weren't perfect (and were a little more action and less RPG than is relevant to something like P:E, etc.).

 

-- EDIT --

 

Your talk of the effects of voicing versus text-only made me think of something slightly crazy: What if, even in a non-voiced (or little-voiced) game, you used the dialogue interface's visuals to signify how things were being spoken? I mean, real-time. Obviously that's already done with bolding, parentheses, italics, etc. But, what if, in main dialogues, the words were actually displayed sort of in-rhythm, as if being visually spoken onto the dialogue frame?

 

Bah... this is probably a job for a separate, unpopular thread.

Edited July 31, 2013 by Lephys

[Ignatius]

Icewind Dale because I created them.

 

Out of that list I'd only say Baldur's Gate 2 for Minsc. And Jaheira I guess. Just too bad she was forced to romance the main character. FO for how good it was, really didn't have much in the way of character development, not that it hurt the game at all. lol Neverwinter Nights.

Edited July 31, 2013 by Ignatius

[Tuckey]

Favourite companion characters from different games in no particular order;

 

Kreia, Minsc & Boo, Jaheira, Keldorn, HK-47, Bastila, Monte, Garrus, Cassidy, Dogmeat, Boone, Yoshimo, Iolo, Dupre.

 

Basically these characters made an impression by having one or more of

~a larger than life persona,

~an air of mystery,

~sense of purpose,

~some hidden agenda

 

I don't go for the emo type characters unless very well written as I find them to be just attention seekers.

[bonarbill]

I honestly found Torment's characters to be overrated.  Even after playing the game multiple times, other than Dak'kon mini quest, none of them talked as much as I wanted them to.  Some characters seemed like mere after thoughts (Nordom, Ignus, and Vhailor).  FFG just joins you just because you.... asked ask her to join.  I'll never get that one.

 

But getting on topic, I think most games do companions well, so I can't pick one game.  However, my favorite companion in a video games has to be Virgil from Arcanum.  He's a character that not only has a mind of his own, but he can be greatly influenced by the main character.  Kreia is pretty nice as well.

Edited July 31, 2013 by bonarbill

[Kjaamor]

I voted Final Fantasy in a public poll so I have to point out that since jRPGs tend to sit closer to interactive fiction than western rpgs you would have to be fairly surprised if their characters didn't have more depth to them.

 

Obviously this isn't always the case, as in FFXII, but then that was a horror show imho.

 

Also, 'depth' isn't always a good thing, as in the one that came between FFVII and FFIX.

 

And now back to hiding under a rock.

[Nixl]

My vote goes for Planscape, Baldur's Gate, and Mask of the Betrayer.  Kotor 2 would come close as well.

 

For Planscape, I enjoyed the backstories, but most importantly I enjoyed what you could do for the characters.  The same goes for Kotor 2.

 

As for Baldur's Gate, truth be told, I disliked or just did not care about a lot of characters beyond their function, (still voted for it lol).  For instance, after a while I just could not take Aerie anymore.   One exception is Viconia.  She was fun to have in a party and I was genuinely interested in her backstory. 

 

Finally, I have not finished Mask the Betrayer because of graphical glitches as the text disappears or the text box goes black.  The characters are wonderfully woven into the story so far. 

[Aoyagi]

Any companion that is mostly autonomous, has good dialogues / interactions and isn't vital is good... I liked them most in Fallout (2).... then again, I imagine it's much easier to make one that just shooting than one using various abilities.

[Chaos Theory]

 

And if truth be told, I've found that it's important, as a male, to be at least somewhat attracted to them (female NPCs) on a primitive level.  Most of the female NPCs of the ME series struck that attraction chord quite well without being overbearing.

I do think it's actually pretty clever/interesting how they worked Miranda's (ME2 and 3) attractiveness into her lore. Was she fanservice? Maybe. But it fit the lore, first and foremost. Her father created her, and he's the type of person who wanted to create the perfect specimen. He's not going to create an ugly, physically un-fit daughter-clone.

 

Basically, her being "hawt" was part of the game world, and not part of the regular world stuffed into the game (i.e. "Hey, players... check out this hottie while you play!").

 

I'm also a big fan of the ME characters, in general. I think they did a pretty good job with all of them, even if some were still more intriguing than others, and even if the games weren't perfect (and were a little more action and less RPG than is relevant to something like P:E, etc.).

 

-- EDIT --

 

Your talk of the effects of voicing versus text-only made me think of something slightly crazy: What if, even in a non-voiced (or little-voiced) game, you used the dialogue interface's visuals to signify how things were being spoken? I mean, real-time. Obviously that's already done with bolding, parentheses, italics, etc. But, what if, in main dialogues, the words were actually displayed sort of in-rhythm, as if being visually spoken onto the dialogue frame?

 

Bah... this is probably a job for a separate, unpopular thread.

 

 

You know, I was always an Ashley fan-- tough but feminine (the jock type).  She had the right amount of military bearing vs emotion so as to be believable in both roles, which I think would be a very difficult thing to do as a writer trying to legitimize a female soldier/love interest.  Too often they make them either like Vasquez in Aliens (way too manly) or emotional wrecks that no one would want with them during missions.

 

Jack (the rebel type) was more like Vasquez, but...  She had a great story behind her, and a kickin' bod.  She also later showed her sensitive side, which kept her an interesting character whereas normally I would have given up and moved on to others.   

 

Miranda (the cheerleader type) was sort of force-fed to male PCs in ME2 as the primary companion/LI which didn't sit well with me, at least initially.  While she was nice to look at, she was written too much into the "I'm hot but I have my own agenda" role that's a cliché in nearly every James Bond film.

 

Liara (innocent, brainy type then later underground assassin or something) was the perfect example of the change in direction the post-EA BioWare games seemed to make after ME1/DAO, and I don't think even the writers knew who she was supposed to be until about halfway through the 2nd game.  I never liked her, really, at all.  Normally I'd go for the smart, fragile type, but Liara just never did it for me-- and it's not because she was blue.  I just didn't care for her voice, her looks or really her story, which was pretty manic.  She had a couple awesome scenes in ME3 though, so I give props to the writers for finally making me care about her in the end.

 

Tali (perfect "best friend" type) was my all-time favorite character in any gaming experience.  By the end of ME3 it felt as if I was losing a good friend, which is part crazy because it was a game, and part genius...  because it was a game.  I never had any desire to romance her, but she was attractive to me.  More importantly, her story/character was just so well done and evolved much more coherently than Liara through the tri-game arc.  But honestly, I probably would not have gotten to that point had she not been really the only capable engineer in ME1, which fit my party perfectly.  So here's an example of a companion that became special to me solely based on their usefulness/skill set in the early stages, instead of being a possible LI or having some other personality trigger. 

 

Anyway, I like your idea regarding "rhythmic text" (trademarked!) but the difficulties would lie in cross-translations.  Pauses, emphasis, etc are translated differently cross-culture.  I supposed it could be done, but the liberal use of punctuation would probably make more sense. 

Edited July 31, 2013 by Chaos Theory

[Nonek]

I always preferred the deep and conflicted characters Obsidian and Black Isle before them created, so as the zenith of that i'd have to place my vote with Torment. Though obviously Kreia stands out in the Sith Lords, her characterisation quite frankly embarassing any other females written by other companies. Cass and Boone from New Vegas also stand out as being excellent examples, along with many characters from the New Vegas dlc's.

 

My one gripe would be the simplistic and rather cliche'd characters of the original campaign of NWN2, but they totally redeemed themselves in MOTB so i'll not waste any words over them.

[lolaldanee]

I voted Final Fantasy in a public poll so I have to point out that since jRPGs tend to sit closer to interactive fiction than western rpgs you would have to be fairly surprised if their characters didn't have more depth to them.

 

Obviously this isn't always the case, as in FFXII, but then that was a horror show imho.

 

Also, 'depth' isn't always a good thing, as in the one that came between FFVII and FFIX.

 

And now back to hiding under a rock.

speaking of them games from japan

ever played grandia 2?

that one too has got some amazing characters: a robot created soley for war slowly learning what free will and responsibility mean as the game progresses, and by doing so demonstrating what's the meaning of being a human, that's some cool **** that i want to see in more games, it could be right out of some Isaac Asimov novel (that being one of the greatest compliments i can give to any writer)

 

@Chaos Theory:

You are making some very fine points here

But seriously, the best companion in Mass Effect is Garrus, and maybe Mordin as a second

i think mass effect may be the only series where liked the male characters more than the female, of which miranda was my favorite;

interestingly enough i don't think she is all that much attractive, but i really like her character (and voice actor)

[Larkaloke]

Ultimately I prefer creating the entire party, but when I either cannot do that or feel like doing something else for a change, then what I want is interesting and deep NPCs who at least give the impression they have their own agenda and aren't just automatically glued to the PC.

 

I admit I haven't actually ever played Ultima, so I can't comment on that one. It's still on my list of games to try out some day.

 

Mostly when I've played Baldur's Gate I've done so creating my own party, as the option is there, but I like the large amount of variety in NPCs -- though there are a rather small number of them I actually would want to take around.

 

Fallout doesn't rank very high on the scale for me, having in my opinion fairly bland NPCs on average (which some rather annoying AI tendencies to boot). I haven't played the more recent games yet, so the NPCs might be better in those.

 

Planescape: Torment has some of the best, possibly the best, NPCs I've encountered. They're all interesting enough that I wanted to take them, have lots of interesting dialogue, and make great sense within the whole story. Even the ones I didn't like so much, still felt interesting to have along.

 

Knights of the Old Republic was spotty. There were a few I liked and thought were interesting, and most I could've done without. Knights of the Old Republic II was better, but then it was a balance between a few that were quite interesting and a few that I would rather have not had anywhere around at all.

 

I couldn't get past Jade Empire's almost complete lack of character creation and wasn't fond of its system, so I never played it long enough to get any impression of it. Not my cup of tea as a game.

 

Dragon Age actually did pretty well on NPCs, in my opinion, though significantly better in the first game than the second, especially in terms of interactions. I didn't like all of them, but they all felt like there was something to them at least, and had enough variety that most of my characters could find a couple to take with them that made sense. Probably the second best, though not a close second.

 

Mass Effect had a character or two who I liked, but I admit I had enough trouble getting past some of its obnoxious quirks as a game that I didn't spend terribly much time with it, giving up halfway through the second game. They seemed like they were pretty decent, though. I recall I liked more of them in the first game than I did in the second. I dislike it when the NPCs can't be controlled at all; it makes combat more annoying, and so for that reason I rate the series fairly low.

 

Neverwinter Nights I really will only play multiplayer and dislike the companion mechanics intensely, so I can't really comment as to the quality of the companions themselves. They might be okay. Neverwinter Nights 2 had only a couple I could stand. I haven't got around to playing Mask of the Betrayer yet, although I do want to -- I just need to get past the camera controls somehow.

 

I have only ever played Final Fantasy a time or two, and from what I could tell the NPCs weren't much to write home about. This was one of the earliest ones, though. They might've got better. I don't know. The series in general is not my cup of tea at all, so my judgement of them is not without bias.

[Kjaamor]

speaking of them games from japan

ever played grandia 2?

that one too has got some amazing characters: a robot created soley for war slowly learning what free will and responsibility mean as the game progresses, and by doing so demonstrating what's the meaning of being a human, that's some cool **** that i want to see in more games, it could be right out of some Isaac Asimov novel (that being one of the greatest compliments i can give to any writer)

 

I played the first Grandia, but not the second one. The first one had a lot of good ideas, and for a long time I thought it might've been up there with the better jRPGs. Unfortunately at the point in the game that good jRPGs up the ante, Grandia fizzled somewhat spectacularly, and joined the long list of disappointing jRPGs I've played. Had potential, but meh. I trust the second one was better, then?

 

I have only ever played Final Fantasy a time or two, and from what I could tell the NPCs weren't much to write home about. This was one of the earliest ones, though. They might've got better. I don't know. The series in general is not my cup of tea at all, so my judgement of them is not without bias.

 

When people talk about Final Fantasy in terms of characters, they're generally talking about the ps1 and ps2 final fantasies. In terms of lines of dialogue and being multi-dimensional they really put all the western RPGs to shame, in my opinion. The caveat, of course, is that depth and dialogue is within the context of modern Japanese melodrama, and if you're uncomfortable with 'Skinny fifteen year-olds dressed up in outfits that look like they were designed with an Etch-a-Sketch, Endless gaudy cinematics and retarded angsty drama' then you would be well advised to remain clear of them.

Edited July 31, 2013 by Kjaamor

[Micamo]

Personally, if you want to make me attracted to an NPC (male or female) you need to make sure their actions are, at every point, natural: If I ever detect pandering I stop viewing them as a person and start viewing them as a lifeless puppet with the GM's hand up their ass, if only for a brief moment. Alistair (and also Garrus) worked partially because they never broke character to act "sexy", never wore ridiculous outfits to show off their skin, and the camera never suspiciously panned downward to put their ass in full view for no reason. All the mass effect females pandered and thus all of them lost my respect.

 

By the way, my favorite ME companions are Garrus, Mordin, and Legion.

[Sarex]

By the way, my favorite ME companions are Garrus, Mordin, and Legion.

 

Can't believe I forgot legion, those ****ing bastards killed everyone.

[lolaldanee]

 

I played the first Grandia, but not the second one. The first one had a lot of good ideas, and for a long time I thought it might've been up there with the better jRPGs. Unfortunately at the point in the game that good jRPGs up the ante, Grandia fizzled somewhat spectacularly, and joined the long list of disappointing jRPGs I've played. Had potential, but meh. I trust the second one was better, then?

i can't compare as i have never played the first one

only played the 2nd because i played FF10 (awesome game, with awesome characters too) at a friends home, and since i've never owned any console but wanted to play something like it anyway, i've got grandia2 since it had been like the only jrpg out there for PC back then

What i can say about the game is that different from what you say about the first one it had a slow start, but improved enormously as the game progressed and the story and characters became more and more interesting, to finally culminate in what has to be the weirdest ending and boss fights i have ever experianced in a game

mind you, not a bad ending, just weird

the game is too easy though, but i didn't mind when i played it, as i liked the story so much

[Osvir]

Okay, let's see here.

I picked...

Ultima (though I want to admit only VII). I have hardly played it at all (like... only the very beginning. Don't kill me), but Iolo gives a very good first impression and I felt engaged right away. I don't know why but I think it's a bit of the lore I've read on the game on some big Ultima Bible Wiki. So... the meta-knowledge of what I know of Iolo really colors me, and the history of how he was presented throughout the entirety of the series.

Baldur's Gate, I found Khalid, Jaheira, Minsc, Dynaheir and Imoen (I guess... cannon?) really enjoyable in the 30GB modded experience I played. Not asking Obsidian to make a cross-reference in any way but yeah, I just enjoyed it through and through and they really grew on me a lot. I wish that Khalid could man up eventually though, and in my own "imaginarium" I feel he did. Khalid is, in fact, one of my most favorite characters... due to his struggle with his "cowardice" and the dominatrix relationship he has with Jaheira. Both of them, I love them. Specially that Jaheira is a Fighter/Druid is something I liked a lot. Minsc is comic relief and brilliantly written, I had a many laughs with him and Boo
 

Fallout. Wow Fallout. I was keeping everyone alive through and through. They were like my babies in a sense. I saved and loaded many times and managed to keep Dog meat alive for the longest time, actually, I kept him alive throughout the whole game. I was on a mission to keep them alive, it was as if that was my mission. Keep your friends alive. I had like 6-7 companions at the end. It was a great experience, even if I had to save and load a lot.

Planescape: Torment. They are just written amazingly well, now I haven't finished PST nor have I gotten too far. In most recent memory I believe Morte was taken from me (I haven't played this game in months, I feel a spiritualistic thing about this game. I play this game when it's the right time, I don't spend time to play it, that's how good this game is). The companions themselves isn't what makes this game great, it is the writing of the game in its ENTIRETY. I can't simply pluck one piece out of it and compare with the rest.

KotoR. I invested a lot of time and energy into this game, rushed through it twice to feel both the Light of the Force, but also the Dark. The companions did not matter too much, but I enjoyed their reactions to the choices I made as a main character. In other words, I didn't feel the companions had much of an impact as they were simply followers who did MY bidding and followed my character REGARDLESS of what I did.

Dragon Age: Origins. Shale. SHale shale shale. Female Dwarf!?!? :D :D That was amazing. I loved Shale through and through. Shale is one of my favorite characters. Oh, and Sten. I didn't like how I built Sten, but I really liked his dialogue tree and his curious friendship and culture clash with Ferelden. Morrigan captured my heart, I'm a sucker for dangerous chicks (dangerous to my heart ) but I liked her own romance with the dark arts. Oh, and I also REALLY liked Alistair, he was a brother... well... until he wanted to get in mah pants. That was very off-putting, but up until that point I thought he was great. Wynne, experienced woman who I thought was a great mentor to the Grey Warden main character, thought me much sincerity and kindness in many ways. Zevran I really liked due to his openness with his sexuality and his cool and kind of carefree attitude. There was a lot of depth to Zevran in the game, and there was an interesting philosophy to his attitude that I brought with me a little bit out of the game. Go with the flow bro!

Mass Effect, I invested a lot of time throughout the 3 installments and yet I have little to say about the companions really. Ashley was cool and she wanted into mah pants, but when I shrugged her off she was bitchy, then she got bro-mode, then she died. Kaiden was bitchy through and through. In many ways I did not like how many of the companions treated Shepard, sorry, COMMANDER Shepard. But that was just my play. Jack, obviously an inspiration of Jack from Chronicles of Riddick but she was badass on many levels. When she got out of prison and you are chasing her down, that was epic on so many levels. I think I found the presentation of the companions in Mass Effect most enjoyable really, but when they were on my team I didn't pay too much attention. I hardly remember their names~

Neverwinter Nights...... why did I vote for that? I didn't invest too much time into that after all. Hmm... oh well, I'll let it stand.

Final Fantasy, now you might think this is weird, but I am a huge Final Fantasy fan. I've played all of them and finished all of them. Final Fantasy 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12... okay not all of them but I've invested a lot of time into this series since my childhood. The companions of Final Fantasy VI is by far some of the best companions I've ever dealt with and played with in any game (Apart of Tales of Destiny, which I classify on my own personal list as the best game I have ever played. I love Tales of Destiny's story, characters, lore, history, world-catastrophe, gameplay, but that's not what I intended to write here).

Final Fantasy 4: Kain, Edward, Tellas
Final Fantasy 5: Faris
Final Fantasy 6: Mog, Umaro, Celes, Edgar, Terra, Locke, Cyan, Shadow, Sabin, Gau, SETZER(!), Strago, Relm, Gogo, honestly, so many great companions... no one is really a main character although (I think) we could say Celes and Terra are two strong female protagonists.
Final Fantasy 7: Barret, Vincent
Final Fantasy 8: ..... can I just skip this Highschool story plx? Okay thanks bye... though... I did like Laguna, Ward and Kiros a lot. They should make Final Fantasy X-2 with that team ONLY.
Final Fantasy 9: All of them. I loved all of them. Though Adelbert Steiner was kind of kindergarten in many ways, I did find him enjoyable and loveable. The game wouldn't have been the same with him. A lot of Final Fantasy 9 feels like a sort of blend between a romantic western and a romantic japanese love-story I suppose. We have Amarant who is the mysterious japanese emo, we have the sisterhood of the Garnet/Dagger and Eiko (I love Eiko!!! She reminds me of Pino from Ergo Proxy). And of course, I can't forget the amazing Master Vivi
Final Fantasy 10: Wakka and Lulu. These two. Auron is a badass too, but Wakka and Lulu is such a nice blend.
Final Fantasy 12: Balthier. That's it really. One of the best written companions I know of.

But the point is, the Final Fantasy series as a whole has so many memorable characters in my heart. Which is why I voted for Final Fantasy on the second one, because of the large roster of companions partially, but also because they have a lot of their own unique flair, innovation and depth. I often say that "Quantity is not Quality", but in case of Final Fantasy as a whole and companions, I do think it is. I've also been around Final Fantasy for a very long time and been colored by it a lot.

I was weighing this against Planescape: Torment, but the reason why I didn't pick Planescape: Torment should be evident in my explanation above. Planescape: Torment is that good that I can't pick out the companions being "better" than the rest of any of the games. Planescape: Torment is a good game, good story, good characters, good interaction, great experience, great writing through and through. But what really sticks out in Final Fantasy, in my opinion, is many of its brilliant, funny and many memorable, companions. I'm a fanboi, sue me

TL;DR:

Vote 1:
* Ultima
* Baldur's Gate
* Fallout
* Planescape: Torment
* Knights of the Old Republic
* Dragon Age: Origins (Only Origins)
* Mass Effect
* Neverwinter Nights (For some reason)
* Final Fantasy

Vote 2:
* Final Fantasy

Edited July 31, 2013 by Osvir

[Faerunner]

A) I haven't played all these games, so I don't know who's the "best."

 

B) "Best" is a subjective term as this is all opinion-based.

 

C) I personally like companions with deep, varied, nuanced, and fun personalities. Characters whose personalities subvert or avert stereotypes so you don't just feel like you're walking around with a textbook example of the character archetype, characters that are memorable and likable on their own merits, characters that contribute positively to the party in both combat and dialogue or story. I'd rather the strong, interesting, funny personalities that are memorable over the better-for-combat characters that are very forgettable.

[AW8]

I won't vote because I haven't played nearly enough of those games to meet the requirements for voting.

 

Garrus in Mass Effect really felt like a friend to me. Perhaps it's because the PC and Garrus both are law enforcers, but for some reason he just fits perfectly at Shepard's side. He's one of those party members I gladly play the companion quest for, and not just for the rewards. I just want to help my loyal, badass and somewhat humorous friend. The bottle-shooting scene is pure brilliance.

I missed the shot.

 

 

Kreia in KotOR 2 is the best mentor there is. She's a larger-than-life character. It's like having Yoda or Darth Sidious on the ship. I just love all her lessons and the amount of time you can spend talking with her on the Ebon Hawk. Best of all, she helps you out by reaching out telepathically and teaching you new Force Powers as part of the story. She's always present that way and gets a lot of focus. And if you can't stand her, there's almost always a dialogue option to tell her to go space herself. "I have no need for a master... but a servant, yes."

 

Boone in Fallout: New Vegas is great. Jason Marsden surprisingly makes his best role when he barely says a word. I don't think a good companion necessarily have to have a distingushing attribute, but it certainly helps. The other companions give you long sentences, while Boone is low-key and brief. Boone is similar to Garrus in his "job", but with a completely different personality. He's a sad, troubled man with a vengeance. He is interesting and badass. And that is enough to make me want him to tag along.

 

HK-47 from KotOR and KotOR 2 is just irresistable. His ego is larger than the Outer Rim. I just love how he talks about the inferiority of meatbags like the PC, without being insulting and annoying. (Perhaps he's easier to tolerate because he isn't human, and is probably right in what he says.) I just love how he hastily apologizes with obvious insincerity. And the way he talks... "Mockery: 'Am I alright!?'", "Tired answer: Master, I've told you I know nothing about them.", "Speculation: What if whoever creates these droids..." Again with the distinguishing attribute. Perhaps it is the key after all. Anyway, back to the assassin droid in rusty red. The way he makes it clear in KotOR 2, although he doesn't say it out right, that you have no control over him and that him calling you "Master" is just an illusion of control and safety he creates for you so he could kill you easier if the need arises in the future... is simply amazing.

 

All these companions have good voice actors as well. But then, I don't think I've met a single companion character with a noticably bad voice actor.

Edited July 31, 2013 by AW8

[Lephys]

B) "Best" is a subjective term as this is all opinion-based.

1) It's actually partially subjective, and partially objective.

2) Since the subjective desires of the players are part of the aim of a game's design, even the subjective aspect is relevant to the objectivity of the design.

 

Just for what it's worth... 8P

[lobotomy42]

What, no Fire Emblem?

 

Someone already mentioned the Tales games, which tend to be hit or miss.  But personally I thought the characters in Tales of the Abyss were pretty distinct and manged to not be total JRPG stereotypes.  They're not exactly "companions" since there is no PC avatar, but they are characters who interact with some (minor) input from the player.

 

The companions in Mass Effect the First were not super-detailed, but good.  (This was very much less the case with the later games in that series, though.)

 

KotOR: Jolee Bindo was fantastic.  As were Kreia, and the droids.  And Visas Marr, and Atton Rand.  Most of the rest were a bit forgettable.

 

Dragon Age Origins had some great companions.  I had strong reactions to just about every one of them, except Shale who for some reason was just slightly too ridiculous a concept for me.  Oh, and that dwarf, he was awful.  The expansion's characters...I don't even remember who they were, except for Justice and Anders, and only because they ended up in DA2.  Dragon Age 2's characters were better in theory than in practice. I hated Sebastian at first, but I probably liked the most him by the end.  Isabela was a bridge too far.

 

Neverwinter had mostly terrible companions, they were better in NWN2, and *amazing* in MotB.  Mask of the Betrayer is probably the gold standard for companion dialogue for me.

 

Planescape, obviously, is excellent also, although I find that my memory of the companions has faded with time.

[bonarbill]

What, no Fire Emblem?

 

 

 

Neverwinter had mostly terrible companions, they were better in NWN2, and *amazing* in MotB.  Mask of the Betrayer is probably the gold standard for companion dialogue for me.

 

 

I've been a fan of Fire Emblem since Mystery of the Emblemon the SNES.  My biggest peeve with the series is that FE has a bunch of Anime stereotypes as characters.  Characters like Roy or Celice really have no depth besides the "knight in shining armor personality"

 

 

Neverwinter had mostly terrible companions

 

 

I thought NWN OC companions were ok at best.  I don't see how they are "terrible" they pretty much work the same way as KOTOR companions.  Hordes of the Underdark was a huge improvement; it pretty laid down the foundation for companions in the first KOTOR games, not to mention giving us one of the most memorable companions in an RPG (Deekin).

Edited August 1, 2013 by bonarbill

[centurionofprix]

Voted NWN for the best companions because of MOTB.

PST for second best.

Then Fallout.

I like many of the NWN2 OC characters as well.

 

Then the BG series. For me, BG1 has better NPCs than BG2 or any other Bio game simply because there isn't enough dialogue to turn them into insufferable morons and brats; instead, there is only the (often very interesting) sketch of the character's basic personality, all the stronger for not being bungled with bad writing of the details. Likewise, my favourite characters from BG2 are ones not in the centre of the story and not so infused with latter-day Gaiderian sensibility; Nalia and Mazzy for example.

Edited August 2, 2013 by centurionofprix

[JFSOCC]

I haven't played some of the listed games, but the companions which have stood out for me the most in a positive sense were the KOTOR:TSL companions. Especially the voice acting was spot on.