Characters that might make sense if they were recruitable

[dq_177]

Just a fun random ideas thread for characters can encounter in the game you think might be neat if you could add them to the team/homestead.

To start it off-
*Er Mazi, the Dirty Street thief-turned-servant the old monster sends you to get out of jail. The sidequest is all about recruiting Jiang Nanguai himself but it wouldn't hurt if you could possibly also recruit the underling as a side-benefit depending on what dialogue choice you made.
As a thief seems he'd make sense as a frail low-combat but speedy fist fighter, some sort of bonuses towards buffing your stealing skills or getting extra money/rarer drops from enemies as a utility bonus.

*Ming Bufan could be a Sect Leader recruit at some point.
This is mainly thinking about how the Tomb Robber Sect has a 'Join' option in dialogue but if you select it he just says they aren't admitting new members at the moment, might be something they add down the line.

*This isn't as serious but imagine if the nameless Fisherman in the Nameless Village could be recruited as a martial arts master after you mastered fishing and brought him the rarest fish
Not sure what weapon type he'd be but beating people with a fishing pole would make him stand out, presumably he'd be good at striking from afar, and for out-of-combat benefit he'd improve the success of your fishing activities/amount of fish caught while in the party.
For some reason he just sticks out in my mind since he looks kind of cool (is his sprite unique?) despite not even having a name or much interaction in the game at all to the point you could easily ignore him entirely.
[Along those lines I suppose the nameless Quarryman and Woodcutter of Nameless Village could also be potentially recruitable, serving more as utility individuals than capable fighters, but they don't look as cool so Eh...]

*Another jokey idea, that weird merchant/scammer who comes up to you asking for money to fund his moneymaking venture in Lin'an which causes you to lose Wisdom if you do it (is it possible to get a return on the investment by random chance? Only tried it a couple of times), the method to recruit him would involve donating a massive amount of money to him.
Would give you a random chance of getting a discount when purchasing things while he's in the team and In-addition would also have a unique Ultimate move where he throws money at enemies (Is stronger the more coins you have but whenever its used you lose some money as a downside).

[dq_177]

Can't believe I overlooked them but it really seems like Little Lame and Old Hunchback should be recruitable after you bring the Innkeeper with you, especially Little Lame after what he tells you when helping him train his skills.
Maybe you actually can get them to join you and I'm just not aware of it yet, since its new content.

[dq_177]

Was inspired by browsing the relations screen and seeing that the 'Peddler' seen in Nameless Village is under the 'Wandering Martial Artist' section-
*Make said Peddler someone you can recruit after fully befriending him and buying his legendary tools.
Would obviously use the Staff weapon type and would be helpful as being another party member you can bring around with that also serves as a merchant on the go like the innkeeper girl does.
Make him a decent fighter in addition to being a pocket-shop.

[dq_177]

Hmm... how do people feel about the idea of getting any recruits from Dragonfly?

They are cool unique character designs, and there's even a cute girl there for the obligatory Bonding opportunity, but it would come so late in the playthrough there wouldn't be much of a chance to make use of them...

Apart from that faction the ninja assassin generic character model that is often affiliated with them could be used as the basis for a new party member, the sprite looks really cool and would be neat having a dude like that fighting by your side.

[dq_177]

Seeing as I mentioned Er Mazi in the opening post is worth imagining what if Miss Ding was a full recruit after marrying her? Its weird she is the only woman you can Bond and thus even gets kidnapped in the special event that can't join your team.
-Obviously you couldn't have both in your team at the same time, much like Nameless Village's Hua Siniang and Bao Dating.

It would make most sense if she used a musical instrument for her weapon (since you can find a pretty decent one in her room). Her physical attributes Con/Str/Dex would be pretty poor, her Int rather good and her Luk sky-high (as befitting a pampered girl from a rich family)
Seeing as she isn't a fighter much like Yu Wei'er she'd have a trait that cripples her damage output but to balance it out she might have another one called something like "Harmless" which increases her evasion and makes enemies less likely to target her (honestly you could probably combine them into a single trait with both the negative and positive effect).
She also doesn't like it when you bring other girls in your team when you speak to her, so perhaps might have a trait like "Jealousy" (or "Loyalty") that gives penalties for having other girls in the team at the same time but gives her and the main character small buffs when she's the only one.
Would also have a weaker version of the money-accumulating passive the princess has where she gets you additional income while in the party each day from her pocket money (Things like this and the Jealousy/Loyalty trait potential-buff contrasted with her damage penalty making her more of a helpful support-based teammate).

[dq_177]

Originally posted by dq_177:

Hmm... how do people feel about the idea of getting any recruits from Dragonfly?

They are cool unique character designs, and there's even a cute girl there for the obligatory Bonding opportunity, but it would come so late in the playthrough there wouldn't be much of a chance to make use of them...

So I guess they skipped around the issues involved by only making Sakura bondable? Anyone far enough to know if romancing her seriously alters previous game events?

[Mid-Boss]

I kind of would like to see Hatori Hyoe. Mostly because of what a pain he was on my first few playthroughs. I think some added dragonfly or giant city would be interesting. We just got Sakuraha as a bond mate so maybe a bit more with him or new character or two is in the works. Some of the conflicts with dragonfly actually gave me IP man vibes.

[dq_177]

So Dragonfly/Great Ant 'City' is in the game, and Sakura now certainly has an extensive storyline for herself... but overall it seems a bit lacking?

Sakura is the only one you get from it, and even when you get the option to go back there after the storyline there's absolutely no reason to do so.
There's something a bit 'off' about the writing of the whole place/faction now that its been focused on honestly.

[dq_177]

This is stretching things a bit for the topic, but after playing the new Nine Factions Sect content of the DLC I've become interested in the 'minor sects' leaders which are featured more in different events seen in it (think I'd seen them in one scene previous to the DLC).

Asking for them to be recruitable is impractical, since the whole point of these nameless leaders of minor sects is to fill slots in scenes and thus can't be in a position where they might be killed off.
Still it would neat to learn a bit more about their groups, or get party members that were affiliated with them and their martial arts...

[dq_177]

It was Christmas, happy holiday period everyone.

Since the game has a season-locked holiday village that only appears on certain dates then OBVIOUSLY you should also be able to recruit Santa from there, he should stick out from the setting as much as possible and as one of his unique traits he would give you gifts when you are at high morality but only coal when you are at low morality!

What should be his starting martial art techniques/ultimate?
Fist style and holiday mittens for starting weapon? Or maybe staff style and wielding a giant candycane!

[dq_177]

So there was no new teammates added in the FLC, kind of a shame but makes sense I guess being that its all very much 'endgame' content-
A couple might actually be plausible if they were to join you even though they have regularly used generic portraits/sprites; Wang Bushu if you make the right choice and save him from dying (which at the moment doesn't seem to do anything after he retreats, didn't see him around anywhere) and Shen Chenxuan who the player actually gets to befriend a bit if you help him out in the fights and seems cool enough would be kind of funny that right at the very end of the game to get given a party member that has the most generic red-clad conehat-wearing sabre-wielder sprite/portrait that has thus far only been used for various nameless minor enemy individuals in events.

Of course there's another couple of minor characters the player interacts with over the course of the storyline but they aren't as relevant to this topic; like the old man who annoyingly uses the same sprite/portrait as the old doctor, in most cases probably the very first party member to join you and while his use of poison fist techniques is at least slightly notable his fate is very much sealed as far as I'm aware.
There's also the lawman who gets some spotlight aiding the hero and like all the other characters mentioned here is very much a graphically generic NPC with a unique name, but he's a loyal thieftaker who is too dedicated to his job in the Crime Investigation Bureau to go prancing about what's left of the Rivers and Lakes by this late point. Still very much a bro it has to be said.

[dq_177]

There was talk about how its kind of messed up you recruit so many important figures in Nameless Village and take them away from it, how the place will probably wither without them, made me think about things there again.

Still think it would be cool if the Fisherman turned out to be a secret martial arts master that whipped people with his rod in combat and improved your fishing hauls as a benefit, but as for-

Originally posted by dq_177:

Along those lines I suppose the nameless Quarryman and Woodcutter of Nameless Village could also be potentially recruitable, serving more as utility individuals than capable fighters, but they don't look as cool so Eh...

*Woodcutter would improve your gathering capabilities/amount received when it came to woodcutting as his primary gimmick (maybe the way to recruit him would involve bringing him some of the rarer more valuable wood types so he can see the worth of travelling with you and being able to provide a better life for his kid by selling such things) and not really start with any skills in combat, using a 'woodcutter axe' that counts as a blade/saber weapon (much like how the butcher's knives count as one, or how there's a legendary axe weapon in the game that counts as that type)
*Quarryman would similarly improve your capabilities/output when mining (Maybe as a more original alternative to recruit him you'd have to recruit the Blacksmith of Nameless Village first then talk to him after increasing reputation between you and seeing his best customer going wandering inspires him to work closer with you to make up the economic shortfall), could just have him be a common fist fighter with minimal starting skills since he seems pretty beefy but if you wanted to make him a bit more unique then could give him a low-ranking Ultimate attack called "Rocksplitter Strike" where he pulls out his pickaxe and hits a single enemy at close range with it (would have a chance to either disable or debuff the targets armor/defences) much like how the Blacksmith has a unique Ultimate these days.

+ + + + +
Something else that popped into my mind while thinking about this; surprised there isn't any "child prodigy" characters amongst the recruits who despite their young age and small size can compete with older fighters though their innate talent with martial arts.
(Obviously there is prodigies in the form of the protagonist and sick sleepy genius Ling Mengdie who gets ridiculous gains after you cure her but those aren't quite what I'm talking about)
Would use a short Child-sized sprite and thus stand out a bit that way. Could be a relative of an existing character that you've befriended who gets recommended to follow you and gain some greater experience in the wider world, could be a thieving troublemaking brat you encounter on the road who shows surprising abilities and after you track them down would have the option to take them with you to help them out [the first example would be more earnest/courteous and learned while the latter more of a rascally imp and bookdumb, though the former would ironically be more ignorant of the world while the latter would at least have seen some stuff].