Thoughts on the companions?

[🍀]

Anyone else not care much for Arushulae, character wise? I know a lot of people like her but shes, meh for me. Furthermore, she just gets you in to trouble (the old hag quest) which doesnt help her case.

Best character for me is Woljif. Always trying to make jokes, gets HIMself in to mischief, and has a cool backstory with his grandparents and the necklace.

Nenio is cool too, she acts like a know it all and just is a science nerd that gets on peoples nerves too in game.

It's too bad some characters don't get that amount of depth in to their stories like Woljif though (Maybe they will later on.)

[sam_502]

WOLJIF: liked that he redeems himself. cool guy

GRAYBOR: boring boring boring boring yawn

ARUE: Coolest succubus i met, i could succubi her all night

NENIO: Would like to throw her out of a window

EMBER : Most boring stupid character ever.

DAERAN: Meh meh meh super duper meh but healing

SEELAH :I wish she had stayed in her kitchen. Honestly. Nice writing though

WENDUAG :Axed her. Wish i could rez her and kill her again

SHAMAN: Forgot her name but i wish i could do the same to herx2(nice plot tho kudos devs)

LANN :Pretty cool monk guy who looks like monkey

GRENDIL: Or whats his name. Gnome hellknight? Really? Whats next, elf barbarian?

[Ashtrails]

I like them all, basically. They all grow to some extend and come into their own over the course of the game, though some suffer from unfortunate first impressions.

Aru... well, Ilike her on paper, but her conflict just doesn't work for me.
She's too whiny and her writing depends too much on the empty husk of your MC spouting meaningless plattitudes at her to drive her story.

Favorites: Regill, Daeran and Seelah

Least Favorite: Nenio and Camellia

[ExcaliburV]

I like everyone more or less. Some more than others, obviously. My favorite is probably Daeran, which surprises me a little because when he was introduced I was sure I would hate him. But he's arguably one of the most charming and likable characters in my main party.

Wenduag is probably my least favorite, and it's not even because she's poorly-written. She's very well-written for what she is. She's just betrayed me like, four times now, so...

[Fluff]

Originally posted by Kobuks:

Arushulae - gets you in to trouble (the old hag)

Best character for me is Woljif

Woljif - runs away, then gets you in to trouble (the great demon)

Hm...

[revan1229]

Similar to you, I dislike a companion that seems to be on the popular side: Lann. He feels like an attempt at an Eder/Alistair-type (wry, wisecracking, slightly-jaded optimist with a heart of gold), but his comments just end up irritating me (maybe it's the delivery idk). He also kind of feels like he was written a little too flawless (his build/stats reflect that, especially in comparison to a lot of the other companions).

I like Regill, Seelah, Greybor, and Ember. Skew positive on Daeran, Sosiel, Camellia, and Woljif. Skew negative on Nenio.

[Naked Granny]

Sosiel is a fairly unique character in gaming history. He's an emotionally sensitive and compassionate unambiguously masculine gay man of color. He's literally a landmark in the history of the medium. And furthermore, it's astounding that a Russian studio created him (to be fair, he was a character in the original Paizo AP, but Owlcat wrote his dialogue and deeper character development for this game). His story doesn't start out with the kind of woe-is-me-poor-little-mysterious-orphan melodrama that Ember occupies. He isn't sassy comedic relief like Lann or Woljif. He isn't sinister or verbally abusive like Camellia or Daeran. And he isn't a hopelessly oblivious mess like Seelah or the weeaboo fodder Nenio. He is instead a courageous, mature, competent and reliable adult.

And in a genre saturated by dysfunctional losers, emotionally unstable idiots, homicidal sociopaths and drama queen divas, I think that he stands head and shoulders above them all just for daring to exist and be a good person.

[Wraith]

Regill for me.
He probably the most competent companion.

Ember come in 2nd.
She pretty straight forward about how she feels about things and wasn't as blind as I thought she was when you first encounter her.

[Sima Marlin]

I like Nenio and Greybor, I always laugh at the idea of full neutral team that just honestly doesn't give a damn just does stuff out of professionalism :D

[thrythlind]

Let's see:

Wenduag - seemed cool at first. I thought she was going to be a good example of the mild end of the evil alignment. Still cares deeply about people, but takes care of them in rather sinister way... but then we get to the end of the Shield Maze and she revealed she was definitely Evil with a capital E and made a very convincing argument for me not to take her.

Lann - Entertaining, well-executed, kind of bland on surface, seems to have a bit more going on. He doesn't take anything from people looking down on him, but sometimes sees condescension where there is none (Seelah and Sosiel).

Camellia - She's a serial killer. No I don't have proof of that yet, but seriously. That said, I'm hoping she'll be a bit more moderate than Wenduag or she gets a potential redemption/softening arc. That said, I kinda expect to have to kill her. She was in my party because lock-picks and traps. She's got useful buff and debuff spells.

Ember - Ember is precious. Ember is great. Ember must be protected. I do hope that there's a way to soften her approach to gods. "They're just like us. They make mistakes." yes, yes, go on. "They've abandoned us." Hold it, wait, go back a bit there. But yeah, Ember is such a unique approach and combination of "the gods are worthless" and "hates exactly no one" tropes.

Wojif - Well done reckless and careless rogue. Cares about people, feels guilt, has some depth to him. I must admit that he suffers from reminding me of a different tiefling rogue in a different CRPG who I absolutely adore, but all CRPG rogues live in Neeshka's shadow, so that's a thing.

Sosiel - Interesting twist of the loving cleric become a warrior trope. Refreshing in many ways. He has some holes in his love that you see fairly early, but that's realistic and in general he approaches with a sense of love and care for those around them. He and Ember have very similar stances on people just disagreeing on the matter of the gods.

Seelah - Very refreshing paladin, really good and reasonable approach to the idea of law and order. Excellent sense of humor, worryingly self-deprecating, has some confidence issues. Builds up the people around her but undermines herself a fair bit. Relatable imposter syndrome is relatable. Very down to earth.

Nenio - Oh god. Nenio. Nenio is amazing. I'm really regretting not taking her with me into Drezen. I assume she's somewhere on the edge of the battle dropping stones on people's heads and opening pits under them. Great character. Amazing introduction. Wonderful first companion mission.

Daeran - Actually Nero. Or Dio. Self-absorbed. Crude. Has never matured or analyzed his past experiences. Doesn't really consider himself or anybody else important. Shallow and poorly thought out attitudes and philosophies. Irritating.

Regil - I told him no. Thank you game for not forcing me to take him.

Arueshalae - I kinda want to hug her and say it will be fine. I do love a good redemption/recovery arc and she's well on her way to completing one. The eagerness to please in her exploration snippets is very endearing. "I'm glad I could be useful." I know such things could easily be a put on, but I also know that corrupting her to be actually evil is apparently not the easiest path to take, so I have objective out of context information confirming she's honest... something I don't benefit from with people in real life.

That's about as far as I've gotten.

As a note, I find Camellia, Daeran, Wenduag, and everybody else well-written as characters... they're just types of characters I don't want to have to deal with for an extended period of time. So I don't. Admittedly, I didn't give Regil a chance... but my dhampir is an NG currently on the Azata path (but probably looking toward Legend) and it didn't make sense for me to work with the hell knights.

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In comparison to other games?

They definitely are more personable and enjoyable than the NPCs in Kingmaker so far. Most of the Neverwinter Nights companions. I haven't played much of Baldur's Gate 1-2 but what I remember of the companions there I definitely prefer these.

I'd say my favorite ten companions in games to date are probably here:

Linu La'neral (NWN), Neeshka (NWN2), Shadowheart (BG3), Deekin Scalesinger (NWN:SOU), Ember (WotR), Grieving Mother (PoE), Eder (PoE), Octavia (Kingmaker), Arueshalae (WotR), Nenio (WotR)

[🍀]

Originally posted by Tusk_Luv:

Originally posted by Kobuks:

Arushulae - gets you in to trouble (the old hag)

Best character for me is Woljif

Woljif - runs away, then gets you in to trouble (the great demon)

Hm...

Yea they both get you in to trouble for sure, but Woljif is just always getting in to mischief. What happened with the demon was also not really his fault since they wanted his necklace. Not much he could do about that.

Aru on the other hand lies to you about the whole hag story and ivory keep.

[🍀]

Originally posted by Aunt Tony:

Sosiel is a fairly unique character in gaming history. He's an emotionally sensitive and compassionate unambiguously masculine gay man of color. He's literally a landmark in the history of the medium. And furthermore, it's astounding that a Russian studio created him (to be fair, he was a character in the original Paizo AP, but Owlcat wrote his dialogue and deeper character development for this game). His story doesn't start out with the kind of woe-is-me-poor-little-mysterious-orphan melodrama that Ember occupies. He isn't sassy comedic relief like Lann or Woljif. He isn't sinister or verbally abusive like Camellia or Daeran. And he isn't a hopelessly oblivious mess like Seelah or the weeaboo fodder Nenio. He is instead a courageous, mature, competent and reliable adult.

And in a genre saturated by dysfunctional losers, emotionally unstable idiots, homicidal sociopaths and drama queen divas, I think that he stands head and shoulders above them all just for daring to exist and be a good person.

Very true, its pretty cool to see that sort of diversity in a character video game medium or not. Also his story is intriguing with his brother. It makes you want to know what actually happened.

[revan1229]

Originally posted by Aunt Tony:

Sosiel is a fairly unique character in gaming history. He's an emotionally sensitive and compassionate unambiguously masculine gay man of color. He's literally a landmark in the history of the medium. And furthermore, it's astounding that a Russian studio created him (to be fair, he was a character in the original Paizo AP, but Owlcat wrote his dialogue and deeper character development for this game). His story doesn't start out with the kind of woe-is-me-poor-little-mysterious-orphan melodrama that Ember occupies. He isn't sassy comedic relief like Lann or Woljif. He isn't sinister or verbally abusive like Camellia or Daeran. And he isn't a hopelessly oblivious mess like Seelah or the weeaboo fodder Nenio. He is instead a courageous, mature, competent and reliable adult.

And in a genre saturated by dysfunctional losers, emotionally unstable idiots, homicidal sociopaths and drama queen divas, I think that he stands head and shoulders above them all just for daring to exist and be a good person.

Well said. He is well-written so far, and I am genuinely looking forward to continuing his questline. He and Regill made the best first impressions on me.

[That Dodogama]

I like all of them, so far, except Nenio. She started out okay, but basically every time I come across someone committing horrible atrocities her response is "Wow, nice atrocities, I wish I could also commit atrocities, but with note taking!" or "I see you're committing atrocities, I could commit better attrocities, you should follow my advice."

Ember suddenly, and apparently randomly, screaming out "The gods have abandoned us! The gods have... What was I saying?" was pretty disturbing.

[thrythlind]

Originally posted by Aunt Tony:

Sosiel is a fairly unique character in gaming history. He's an emotionally sensitive and compassionate unambiguously masculine gay man of color. He's literally a landmark in the history of the medium. And furthermore, it's astounding that a Russian studio created him (to be fair, he was a character in the original Paizo AP, but Owlcat wrote his dialogue and deeper character development for this game). His story doesn't start out with the kind of woe-is-me-poor-little-mysterious-orphan melodrama that Ember occupies. He isn't sassy comedic relief like Lann or Woljif. He isn't sinister or verbally abusive like Camellia or Daeran. And he isn't a hopelessly oblivious mess like Seelah or the weeaboo fodder Nenio. He is instead a courageous, mature, competent and reliable adult.

And in a genre saturated by dysfunctional losers, emotionally unstable idiots, homicidal sociopaths and drama queen divas, I think that he stands head and shoulders above them all just for daring to exist and be a good person.

Yeah, the role that Sosiel plays would usually be a woman and where most of the time I find female characters are more interesting than male ones, it's expressly because in a lot of cases starting a character as female upsets certain expectations that drive formulaic writing.

Sosiel is an example of the reverse of that. You expect this character type to be female, so starting him as male upsets expectations from the start and immediate starts being at least slightly outside of the box, encouraging the writer to be more creative.

[DarthMyrten]

Camellia, Regill and the Undead are quite good