So Ydwin (and by lesser extend Rekke) is wasted as sidekick

[BrokenMask]

I've realized after playing game to 100% completion that Fig stretch goals were less of bonus content and more of things developers wanted to do but not sure weren't able to <_< I mean, Ydwin's whole experiment on seperating herself from the wheel is really relevant to the ending of the game plus her status as animancer would make Pallegina's animancy bias more relevant than it currently it is. Its not just that she is cool pseudo vampire mad scientist sort of character, it really feels like she was originally written as companion then demoted to sidekick in order to save budget. Her recruiting dialog is most involved out of all sidekicks.

 

Konstantine and Fassina are respectively massage parlor bored with his job and wizard apprentice/shopkeeper frustrated with his boss so on first impression they don't seem too special. Rekke on other hand has unique culture(Yuzuha) unique background(Missionary. Apparently Yuzuha folk are monotheistic) unique subrace(Stormfolk) unlike all other companions you can actually talk to him on ship(he can even translate that stone tablet you can find in shop in first town, turns out its sales pitch for a horse. Apparently people from Yuzuha really love horses) and even ask his opinion on all other companions. Like, I'm not sure what is up with him being only one to have ship dialog, maybe he exists just for sake of world building, but it does really seem like waste as well he is only a sidekick since it would be interesting to see outsiders' perspective on everything happening in the game.

 

(to lesser extend, its also sad sea monsters stretch goal was never reached since it does feel odd that there is never ship vs sea monster combat in game heavily featuring ships and piracy and such. Makes the loading screen image with all companions and kraken attacking ship kind of weird)

 

Anywaaaaaaay, so yeah, I wouldn't actually mind if there was DLC that made Ydwin full companion(and maybe added sea monsters ) but really I'm hoping if there is Pillars 3 Ydwin gets new chance to shine(and maybe Rekke too because I'm now curious about what is up with Yuzuha related stuff)

[CAlmond]

at the end of the day, for any project gaming or otherwise there are always nice things the people working on it want to have, but there's just no budget/time for it. These are some examples of that.

[Beyond The Sea]

Companions respresent the factions and cultures of the Archipelago, they are much more involved with the story than Ydwin or Rekke.

[Hazmy]

I overall felt almost every companion is shallow or at least not developed enough for me to care about them too much. ( Okay maybe Eder and Maia, but the stories are overall really short )

- At this point I rather have them created more side-kicks with no stories, but with more distinct personalities, like evil companions with reactions here and there to spice things up.

[jakl201]

Aye, it's a shame that Ydwin wasn't able to become a full party member. Budget issues.

 

Same thing happened with Ulysses in Fallout: New Vegas. He was slated to be your only Legion friendly companion but was axed. In fact if it wasn't for the DLC for that game he wouldn't have appeared at all.

[Thinvesil]

Is there any opportunity to make Ydwin a full companion? She's great and her potential arc is quite intriguing!

I'd like to invest my money for DLC with her content. I assume I'm not the only one! 

 

Dear devs! What do we have to do? Is there any chances to make it possible?

[Juodas Varnas]

Honestly, the biggest issue for me is that all of the companions are way too nice.

 

Where are all the arseholes?!

Now that the game has mentioned Skaen Godlikes, i totally want one in my party.

[Starwars]

I want arseholes as well.

 

About the sidekicks, for those of you who have played the game with them, how much is there to them? Can you talk to them? Do they have interjections in dialogues like the other characters do?

[Tarlonniel]

Ydwin has a few comments and you can have a very interesting conversation with Rekke, once he learns the language.

[Tamyn]

Is there any way to get Rekke to talk/be translated after his recruitment? On the ship, the only recognizable thing he says is the name of one of the islands. I never learned about Yuzuha or his monotheism or anything.

[Tarlonniel]

Yes, there is. I'm not sure what triggers it, though. I just turned around and clicked on him at one point and he started speaking Aedyran.

[Tamyn]

Maybe it's just time.

[BrokenMask]

Well it might be matter of main questline progression. I on purpose waited until level 20 to recruit him to see example of how you are supposed to build multiclass characters and he was instantly talking aedyran when I talked to him at the ship <_<

[Jazhara7]

Honestly, the biggest issue for me is that all of the companions are way too nice.

 

Where are all the arseholes?!

Now that the game has mentioned Skaen Godlikes, i totally want one in my party.

I like that the companions are more motivated by their own personality and morals, and not by a constructed alignment. Pallegina was a nice example in the setting when her morals conflicted her commitment to the Republic. With that system was a good thing at the start of roleplaying and suitable for certain (like gods being bound to a certain alignment instead of a portfolio of concepts, and their followers losing powers if their alignment differs too much).

 

Same goes for the watcher's characteristics being possibly not liked by your companions, but they confront you and you can explain to an extent. I was so annoyed in Baldur's Gate when Jaheira and Khalid squabbled with Xzar and Montaron and we were barely in Nashkel when one of them wanted to leave if the other didn't. And oh god, Skie and Eldoth with their vastly different alignments. I dumped Eldoth in that little Pavillion iBaldur's Gate West by leaving the rest of the party outside and telling Eldoth to leave while inside there. That way he can't walk up to Skie and tell her to come along. I love the Baldurs Gate series, but even it wasn't perfect (though with help of certain mods it pretty much is).

 

 

Buuuut, I fully agree we could have used someone going against the general direction of the group, that rubs the world the wrong way. Someone who might at least be more selfish and ruthless, maybe even actively against something. A donkey's posterior.

 

 

I'm not saying we need a full on Bishop from NWN 2 (though who knows), but we at least need a Durance.

 

And I like your idea of a Skaenite or even Skaen godlike. The Skaenite idea of giving the establishment a kick from down below in order to aid the masses would have fit really well with the whole "big parties vying for control, with the common people easily being left behind". We've got slavers, we've got a social system of taking care of the lower classes no longer working, we've got the Royal Deadfire Company claiming land without caring for losses. There's several chances for an easy main motivation quest and several side interests if I ever saw one. An at least two general backgrounds (pirates, gullet, even that amauna lady in Sakuya fighting with her brother about how the Rauataians demolish their culture [where the social system still works, even if others don't complain about now getting more contact with the other castes, and they not being *that* bad off]) to place them.

Edited May 25, 2018 by Jazhara7

[evilcat]

They needed to work somehow with limited time/resources.

Ydwin is potencially very interesting character, with signifcant to the whole story, and chance for RP input.

It would be great if Ydwin was more fleshed out at some point.

 

However this dont need to be full companion with everything. It could be enought:

10 min of text

Discussion on ship about past and everything

Some banters with full companions but not other sidekicks

Some input in quest, especially related to animancy or tailoring.

Sismance with Palllegine, since all gods deserve to die

Maybe sidequest, but this could be either as sidekick or as questiver if we dont recruit her.

 

And that is it.

No relations could be a bonus, since we have enought companions judging our actions, and dropping our party if we blew it up.

[Ildun]

Honestly, the biggest issue for me is that all of the companions are way too nice.

 

Where are all the arseholes?!

Now that the game has mentioned Skaen Godlikes, i totally want one in my party.

 

Well, Pallegina become kind of arsehole. I don't recall she was annoying during POE1, but now if I bring Tekenu, Xoti and her together...

 

Not only those two, she insulting almost everyone...

[flamesium]

It is strange that after two games where animancy is a Big Deal in both we haven’t had a full companion who is actively involved in the field and understands it.

 

Pallegina vaguely fangirls for it because the Republics are pro-Animancy, but doesn’t really have a clue what she’s talking about.

[Crucis]

Honestly, the biggest issue for me is that all of the companions are way too nice.

 

Where are all the arseholes?!

Now that the game has mentioned Skaen Godlikes, i totally want one in my party.

 

I have to disagree.  I want companions that I'd *want* to have traveling with me.  Not some arseholes.  I also don't want some bleeping vithrak companion either (as I recall at lesat one person asking for). 

 

That said, I happen to think that Tekehu is a total arsehole, at least the small amount that I've seen of him.  And I have little desire to have him in my party with his totally conceited personality.  Maybe he gets better, but I'm not really interested in putting him with him until them, particularly because I'm not at all interested in dragging along a chanter or a druid (or a combo of both) in a party of 5.  If the party size was 6, I might consider it.  But at 5, I want companions of classes I can depend on, not characters in a support class that I generally see as a luxury, not a necessity.

[Crucis]

They needed to work somehow with limited time/resources.

Ydwin is potentially very interesting character, with significant to the whole story, and chance for RP input.

It would be great if Ydwin was more fleshed out at some point.

 

However this don't need to be full companion with everything. It could be enough:

10 min of text

Discussion on ship about past and everything

Some banters with full companions but not other sidekicks

Some input in quest, especially related to animancy or tailoring.

Sismance with Palllegine, since all gods deserve to die

Maybe side quest, but this could be either as sidekick or as quest giver if we don't recruit her.

 

And that is it.

No relations could be a bonus, since we have enought companions judging our actions, and dropping our party if we blew it up.

 

It would be nice if the sidekicks were a little bit more than pre-rolled adventurers you can get at any inn.  They don't need to be as in-depth as true Companions.  And definitely not hard-linked to the factions. 

 

A little bit of banter would be nice.  A side quest would be nice, but if I had to choose between banter or side quest, I'd probably choose the banter.  Banter is a nice reminder that the others in your party aren't just little robots.  They're (pixel) "people" too.

 

I'm sure that some would like to see Ydwin become a full fledged companion.  I'd probably be one of those.  But at the same time, I can realize that different people can have different sidekicks they'd prefer to see as companions.  And personally, I'd probably prefer more sidekicks (with banter included) than converting existing sidekicks to companion status.

 

I think that having more sidekicks would, or should, mean more joinable party members with wider variety of races, classes, subclasses, and multi-classes options.  I will say though that I have zero interest in things like having sidekicks that are imps or vithracks or whatever.  I'd prefer that the devs stick to the normal player races choices.  I suppose that unique subraces or subclasses are OK, but in all honesty, it does kind of annoy me to see unique subraces or subclasses used when players can't have access to them.

[Slotharingia]

In case it's not obvious, I absolutely adore Rekke. He's such a great character, and they made the effort to invent his gibberish language. He even says something that sounds like he's making a pass at the Watcher at one point. Ydwin also seems more interesting than several of the characters that are proper companions and both of their stories are loose ends. I'm sadly starting to think it would have been better to ditch Eder and Aloth and give us those 2 as proper companions instead.

[Crucis]

In case it's not obvious, I absolutely adore Rekke. He's such a great character, and they made the effort to invent his gibberish language. He even says something that sounds like he's making a pass at the Watcher at one point. Ydwin also seems more interesting than several of the characters that are proper companions and both of their stories are loose ends. I'm sadly starting to think it would have been better to ditch Eder and Aloth and give us those 2 as proper companions instead.

 

Ditching Aloth?  maybe.  Ditching Eder?  Heaven forbid!  You can't ditch the Watcher's best buddy!  After all, you'll always know that he has your bat.   Ummm, I meant "back".    

[MaximilianXimenez]

It is strange that after two games where animancy is a Big Deal in both we haven’t had a full companion who is actively involved in the field and understands it.

 

Pallegina vaguely fangirls for it because the Republics are pro-Animancy, but doesn’t really have a clue what she’s talking about.

 

TBH I'd rather they have cut either Aloth, Xoti or Eder and made Ydwin a full companion.

 

We need Tekehu, Pallegena, Maia and Serafen to represent one of the four factions in the world. Eder and Xoti are kind of redundant with eachother; both were included in part because of the influence of Eothas in the plot, but beyond being Eothasian they're kind of redundant with each other. Aloth also doensn't really have much to do with the game; his touchstones are Aedyr, the Leaden Key and Awakening, none of which factor much into the plot and the Leaden Key's involvement in this game are a footnote.

 

In a perfect world, I'd have cut Aloth and had him make a cameo, since they already had Matt Mercer in the studio for Eder and could just have him record a few extra lines.

[Aramintai]

I'd actually prefer the other way around - ditch all useless sidekicks and make more content for existing characters, especially old ones. It's always cool to explore growing bonds and attachment feelings between companions and protagonist in sequels. Good ideas for new companions can be endless, knowing when to make a cut is paramount for maintaining focused narrative.

[Crucis]

 

It is strange that after two games where animancy is a Big Deal in both we haven’t had a full companion who is actively involved in the field and understands it.

 

Pallegina vaguely fangirls for it because the Republics are pro-Animancy, but doesn’t really have a clue what she’s talking about.

 

TBH I'd rather they have cut either Aloth, Xoti or Eder and made Ydwin a full companion.

 

We need Tekehu, Pallegena, Maia and Serafen to represent one of the four factions in the world. Eder and Xoti are kind of redundant with each other; both were included in part because of the influence of Eothas in the plot, but beyond being Eothasian they're kind of redundant with each other. Aloth also doensn't really have much to do with the game; his touchstones are Aedyr, the Leaden Key and Awakening, none of which factor much into the plot and the Leaden Key's involvement in this game are a footnote.

 

In a perfect world, I'd have cut Aloth and had him make a cameo, since they already had Matt Mercer in the studio for Eder and could just have him record a few extra lines.

 

 

There's nothing wrong with Xoti or Eder.  Aloth seems a bit boring though, and your points about Aloth's involvement in the game are probably on the money.  I haven't had him in my party much, and haven't gotten to any of the local Leaden Key stuff yet.  And frankly, I could do without any Leaden Key stuff after spending all of PoE1 chasing them. 

 

I will say that I wouldn't have minded seeing Ydwin as a full companion though (with no faction ties).  She seems like an interesting character.  OTOH, while I like that Mirke was added as a sidekick, she's a sidekick I'd rather stayed that way.  She seems inherently very shallow, which should make her a perfect sidekick.

 

 

I'd actually prefer the other way around - ditch all useless sidekicks and make more content for existing characters, especially old ones. It's always cool to explore growing bonds and attachment feelings between companions and protagonist in sequels. Good ideas for new companions can be endless, knowing when to make a cut is paramount for maintaining focused narrative.

 

Gotta disagree.  I'd rather have as many sidekicks as possible.  To me, sidekicks are essentially pre-rolled adventurers who have more flavor than the ones you make.  And I don't feel any crushing need to grow bonds with companions.  Give me more sidekicks (though with some banter)!!!

 

 

As for Tekehu, personally, I can't stand him, at least for the short time I've had him in my party.  And on top of his very unlikable personality (at least for me), I have no room in my party for a Chanter or a Druid when party size is limited to 5.

[Aramintai]

Gotta disagree.  I'd rather have as many sidekicks as possible.  To me, sidekicks are essentially pre-rolled adventurers who have more flavor than the ones you make.  And I don't feel any crushing need to grow bonds with companions.  Give me more sidekicks (though with some banter)!!!

Well, if you like playing all custom party with mindless drones I can see why you'd want that. But many people value rpgs not simply for gameplay mechanics but for lively interactions with companions as well.