What RPG had the best companions?

[NecroLord]

What RPG's had the best companions? Not only in terms of stats and abilities, but also story, voice acting(if applicable) and character development?

Arcanum had great companions(Virgil, Magnus, Franklin Payne - the nutty adventurer extraordinaire, Loghaire - if you convince him to return to the throne and lead the Wheel Clan again).
Fallout 2 had Sulik, Cassidy and Marcus.
Kotor and Kotor 2 had Canderous(Mandalore in the second game), Jolee Bindo(great character and a black Jedi who is not a Mary Sue or a token whose only character trait is "Hey! Did you notice I am black?"), Atton Rand(awesome character, scoundrel turned Jedi Sentinel allows him to wreck faces with ease, also has that dark and shady past...).

Anyway, what do you guys think? What RPG's had the best companions?

 

[Butter]

New Vegas had the best companions of any Fallout game. There's probably an argument for the Mass Effect companions, but I haven't played any of those games.

 

[Wunderbar]

PS:T, duh.

Also, Eder from PoE was pretty good.

 

[Sòren]

Mask of the Betrayer

 

[Dadd]

Chrono Trigger

 

[d1r]

Planescape Torment and Baldur's Gate 1.

 

[MasPingon]

P:T, MoTB, New Vegas, Chrono Trigger, FF7, Persona 4, KOTOR 2.

 

[Gargaune]

Didn't we already have a best companion thread somewhere recently?

Anyway, Mask of the Betrayer has One of Many, who's hands down the winner of the Best RPG Bro award. And it's got Kaelyn the Dove, winner of the Best Avellone Trolling the Player award.

Baldur's Gate 2 has Korgan Bloodaxe, the runner-up for Best RPG Bro.

Technically, KotOR 2 has Visas Marr, who's probably the runner-up for Best Avellone Trolling the Player. That seems to be a thing with Chris.

 

[Justicar]

Companions are for subhuman faggots.

 

[NecroLord]

Technically, KotOR 2 has Visas Marr, who's probably the runner-up for Best Avellone Trolling the Player. That seems to be a thing with Chris.

In what way?
Visas truly loves the (Male)Exile, it makes sense, seeing as they experienced firsthand the destruction of entire planets(Malachor V and Katarr, respectively).
You tend to sympathise with others who went through the same hardships as you.

 

[luj1]

PST Arcanum KotOR

 

[mondblut]

Any one where you create them yourself.

 

[Shadowfang]

Any one where you create them yourself.

As soon as i saw your name under this thread title i rushed to make sure this was your reply.
Never change mondblut

 

[Falksi]

Baldurs Gate 1 & 2 - What a delicious of plethora of personalities and styles. Easily some of the most distinctive characters ever.

Dragon Age: Origins - Even though Bioware were in decline here, they still nailed some great characters. Claudia Black as Morrigan was perfect, Oghren a top lad, Leliana very sweet, and Alistair's banter with Morrigan spot on.

Phantasy Star 4 - What a cast. A sexy badass-bitch mentor who takes no shit, a complete asshole cross of Han Solo & Ben Kenobi as a mate, a 1-year-old who is experiencing everything about life for the first time, an old man who can't stop making bad jokes etc. Just mint.

Shadow Hearts Covenant - Not only did this have some great characters in terms of personality (even the dog was a badass), but some were also tied into "real" life such as Anastasia and Geppetto.

Tales of Berseria - There's some forgettable ones, but Eizen is cool AF and Velvet + Magilou are both superb. Velvet for her hatred and pure focus on revenge, Magilou for her complete daftness.

 

[blessedCoffee]

What RPG's had the best companions? Not only in terms of stats and abilities, but also story, voice acting(if applicable) and character development?

Arcanum had great companions(Virgil, Magnus, Franklin Payne - the nutty adventurer extraordinaire, Loghaire - if you convince him to return to the throne and lead the Wheel Clan again).
Fallout 2 had Sulik, Cassidy and Marcus.

Fallout 2 is in a weird spot, if you ask me.

If you place it over the majority of RPGs in a list, people will point that you're forgetting about Myron, the optional follower who killed hundreds of guinea pigs and who raped your character if you were a dumb female Chosen One, and who knows who else.

If you place it too low in a list, you'll be accused of being a casual gamer or some shit, by Fallout vets.

Oh, and I'll just leave this honorable mention here: Fallout 1.5.
It's a fangame, available in english and czech languages, that took +8 years to be completed.
It has some good companions.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

KotOR/ KotOR II, Baldur's Gate II, Aidyn Chronicles.

Haven't put enough time into PST to say yet, and will be getting to MotB in the New Year sometime.

 

[VHS9000]

Icewind Dale.

 

[Fargus]

BG 1-2 and expansion.
Kotor 2. Most of them are good.
Arcanum and Fallout 2 - not much for content, but fun personalities. Arcanum especially.
Dead State. Every character you recruit is a companion and many of them have events at base and interesting personalities.
Mass Effect trilogy

Icewind Dale.

Companion mod is pretty good, without it the game is boring as hell

 

[Gargaune]

Technically, KotOR 2 has Visas Marr, who's probably the runner-up for Best Avellone Trolling the Player. That seems to be a thing with Chris.

In what way?
Visas truly loves the (Male)Exile, it makes sense, seeing as they experienced firsthand the destruction of entire planets(Malachor V and Katarr, respectively).
You tend to sympathise with others who went through the same hardships as you.

Oh, it's been a long time now. I just remember the way Kreia challenges the Exile on sniffing around Visas and "wanting to see what's under those robes" or something like that. Makes perfect sense in-character, even hints at a more intimately bitter side to the old hag, but even as a teenager I could read between those lines for Avellone's "got you, fucker!"

 

[Desiderius]

Diablo

 

[Jack Of Owls]

I personally got a kick out of those cRPGs where you'd have incompatible party members with bitchy, petulant little queens rattling their gauntlets and saying, "Either he goes or I go!!!" though it was a bit of shock first time I encountered them in a cRPG. Never expected my underlings/servants in arms to have actual alignments and personalities.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

Eder

He was shit-boring as fuck, although he was useful in the party. Durance and Grieving Mother were way more interesting and Pallegina deserved more

 

[0sacred]

Pallegina deserved more

 

[Justinian]

Baldur's gate 2. They were entertaining and interesting without being overly pretentious like Pillars. The fake accents were kinda grating tho. Maybe Planescape Torment were better but I didn't play it long enough to compare. Wiz 7's personality based custom companions were also pretty cool and it's too bad the concept didn't take off.
Pillars and Icewind Dale get honorable mentions for letting you make companions that just shut the fuck up.
Pillars written companions were extremely disappointing. They were either overwritten (Avellone) or "I'm a real human bro" boring (Sawyer).

 

[Krivol]

Jagged alliance 2