My Favorite Companions in Gaming

[00:08] This time bringing you some of my favorite companions in gaming for an amazing reason. No, not quite. Or at least, you know, an average one, I suppose. You see, while I do in fact just enjoy the odd list video every so

[00:21] often, I'm actually making this one for a very specific reason. You see, uh, over the past couple of days, the YouTube algorithm decided to, uh, show off a video I made almost four years ago, slightly less than that, all the

[00:34] ago, slightly less than that, all the way back towards the end of 2022 talking about the exact same subject. It's very unusual, and I'll actually throw the metrics up on screen here. In total, that video got about an extra 30 or so

[00:47] thousand views over about 3 days, which is very unusual that far after the fact, unless something is spurring those views on. Sometimes that happens via like game seems like in this case, the YouTube algorithm decided everybody needed to

[01:02] watch that video. But that video is quite old, so I figured and was asked by quite a few people commenting on that video to give it the old update. So, I figured why not? as I have played many an RPG since then, though I will admit

[01:15] because they have still stuck with me over the years. But there are a handful of new ones from our more recent adventures. But before we dive fully in, I do want to clarify that I personally was trying to keep this to one companion

[01:30] per franchise just for the sake of keeping this semi-interesting. pretty to talk about here, there are great companions that I like beyond these, but don't find that to make for a particularly interesting video. And then

[01:45] the other part is that again, for me personally, uh they do have to actually be companions. Like for instance, uh Tris and Yennefer in The Witcher 3, I more so than just characters in the story. I would consider Roach a

[02:01] companion more than those two, as Roach is actually with you for most of the game. And you can of course feel however you want about that specific scenario. companions, so be it. I just don't really think about it that way on my

[02:13] end. With that said, we've got a lot of these guys to get through. So, let's go ahead and do just that. Starting off with what I would hope would be the most obvious one, and this is actually Mortz from Plscape Torment. Now, Mortz is a

[02:26] floating skull, and I feel like the fact that I go by Mortem online, and the fact that my logo is in fact a skull is perhaps a little bit on the nose, but I like Mort for a variety of reasons. Uh, in many ways, he's actually responsible

[02:40] for the crux of the story itself because he lied to the Nameless One in one of his previous incarnations, which led to the current predicament that that story takes place around. And he's also a pretty funny character to interact with.

[02:54] Very sort of over-the-top, but also just comical even outside of his dialogue in to attack everybody cuz he's just a floating skull, but he's also your tank, which is really funny. But without going into, I would say, major spoilers for

[03:07] Plscape Torment, he's just a great character and obviously I like the guy. Keeping it moving. Next up, we've got Craya. Craya is an interesting character from Cotor 2 who serves as not only a companion but also and spoilers for

[03:22] Cotor 2 here by the way the primary antagonist in her role as Darth Treya. But I think what really makes Craya such a compelling character is really that she just has a ton of nuance to bring to Star Wars as a franchise which is

[03:37] usually a much more black and white scenario. whereas I think Craya in particular just really thrives in the nuance that could be at the heart of that entire thing. And while she is certainly the antagonist, I think uh

[03:51] describing her as just blatantly evil is perhaps a little bit of a reduction of her own character, especially since she sees the force as just that, a force that is incredibly unfair at the very least. But honestly, I don't want to

[04:05] spend 20 minutes describing all of that, so we shall move on. She's a tremendous character, though. I would say one of the primary reasons to play Cotor 2 if you haven't. But otherwise, let's keep it rolling. Next up, we've got Jhon from

[04:19] Divinity Original Sin 1 and two. Though technically he is a companion only in the first game and joins you only briefly in the second. Jhon is by far my favorite character in the Divinity series. He is a demon hunter and his

[04:33] story is awesome. Importantly to me, however, he brings a very sort of occult vibe to the world of Divinity that you don't see from basically any other source there. But first things first, Jhon is extremely old. Even when you

[04:47] first meet him, he's about a thousand years old. This is because a long, long time ago, he made a pact with a demon to extend his life so he could in fact track down another demon who had cursed him and was actually slowly sapping his

[05:00] life away. But he's used that extended life to then research how to get out of this deal. And his companion quest in the first game is exactly that, figuring out how to get out of it, which he does successfully, which effectively makes

[05:13] him immortal, seemingly with some amount of limits on it, but for the most part, functionally, he's going to live forever. This is why he shows up 1,200 years after that in Divinity: Original Sin 2, where he is well over 2,000 years

[05:27] old. And here he has taken to hunting down demons and plays a pretty big part in the origin story of Losa there. And in fact, I liked this guy so much that if you're unaware, my sign off, May you wander in wisdom, is in fact from Jhon

[05:41] back when the channel was purely a Divinity lore channel, but it just kind of stuck around anyway. And I sincerely hope he shows up in the next Divinity game that they are working on, since theoretically he should be able to. And

[05:53] going to revolve around hunting some demons down, I think it would make a lot of thematic sense for him to be there as well. But mostly he's just a really cool and yet mysterious character that helps you peel back some of the mysteries

[06:07] surrounding demons and again just gives a very occult vibe that I always really enjoyed. Next up, however, in a bit of a change of pace, we've got Glory from Shadowrun Dragonfall. So, I don't have much of a reason to talk about

[06:21] Dragonfall these days. There were those rumors that Obsidian was working on a who knows if that was true. Either way, Shadow Run, if you don't know, is a TTRPG. They also made a few CRPGs about it, Dragonfall being one of them. Now,

[06:35] what makes the setting particularly interesting is that it is science fantasy and it combines elements of sci-fi and fantasy into a single setting that is in fact, technically speaking, near future, actually. And while those

[06:47] games have largely been overshadowed by other bigger CRPGs, one of my favorite things about them was always Glory. But to be clear, Glory was a pretty terrible person. A sort of a goth woman using incredibly bulky cyber wear and clearly

[07:03] her. And as you dig into that mystery, you find out that she used to be quite literally a Satan worshipper in partnership with a guy named Harrow. Harrow and her used to basically uh entice street orphans and get them to

[07:18] help with worshiping the devil actually. And when they stepped out of line, she would torture and potentially even kill these kids. And it went pretty far up until the point uh she eventually winds up killing her own mother, which breaks

[07:31] the sort of spell Harrow had over her. And she suddenly became aware of the many terrible, terrible things that she's been up to in their entirety. And so she ran away. But the thing is, she made a deal with the devil, which is not

[07:43] so easily undone. And in Shadow Run, that magic uh sort of comes from your organic being, if you will. And so, what she chose to do to escape that deal was to cover herself in cyberwear, which blocks her ability to use magic, which

[07:59] she was a bit of a prodigy with. But in taking on all this cyberware, she prevented the devil from attacking her directly for the time being. And in the meantime, she hopes to make up for all of her many, many terrible deeds. And in

[08:12] fact, the cyberware that she's got is incredibly old and clunky. And it is intentional that she is using that as that in and of itself is also a sort of form of penance for the things she has done. And while she is a great

[08:25] character, I admit her story is perhaps a little bit heavy. And so to lighten it up, we will next talk about Deacon from Neverwinter Nights. Deacon Scales singinger is a cobalt who also happens to be a bard and loves to write. In

[08:39] particular, he is writing a story of all of his experiences, but mostly he's just a fun character that is of course meant to show that you aren't necessarily beholden to the things you are born into. As cobalts typically uh serve a

[08:53] dragon of some description, his previous dragon master was pretty terrible. And Deacon himself, being a little less aggressive than his brethren, eventually managed to leave as a free cobalt, which is where he winds up joining your party,

[09:09] particularly in H Shadows of the Unrin Tide and Hordes of the Underdark. He's a another appearance in Neverwinter Nights, too. But let's move it back to the slightly more serious stuff. I of course love Pillars of Eternity, have

[09:23] done a lot of stuff with that series, and it's got many great companions. And while most people's favorite companion is usually somebody like Durance or a deer, mine is actually Palagena, the aven godlike or partial godlike perhaps,

[09:38] which is interesting because I would also tell you that I don't find Palagena's personality particularly uh let's say palatable. She is honestly a bit grading, but the reason I enjoy her character so much is actually about her

[09:53] backstory and the things she goes through, especially in Deadfire if you pick her up. And so, while I'm not all that fond of her as a person, I do find again just her story really cool because as a godlike, they typically take on the

[10:07] features of the god that made them a godlike, essentially somebody in the image of that deity. In particular, uh she as an aven godlike was a godlike of Hilia, the goddess of life, who is typically represented as a bird. And so,

[10:20] Palagena was born with all of these feathers all over her. And this earned her pretty much nothing but scorn from birth. Uh birthing her actually almost killed her mother, her father resented her for this. And while they chose not

[10:33] to kill her at birth, as is honestly not that uncommon with godlike in the series. And this eventually culminated for her being uh traded into a paladin order for the sake of back taxes. Basically, uh the paladin order thought

[10:48] having a godlike of Halia would be this great honor. That's why they accepted and then her father hated her. So he essentially sold her for taxes and she was only even allowed in because godlike cannot actually have children of their

[11:00] own if you didn't know. And so despite being an allmale order of paladins, that was why the exception was made. though it certainly didn't make her life any easier when she was going through her training. And this means that her one

[11:12] and only friend who features in Deadfire actually discovered the way that a sort of chime like a bell is often described as what causes someone to be godlike intertwined with their soul. He discovered it uh through his research

[11:27] and everything as he was an anammancer and eventually he agreed with Palagena to sever that chime which is why she has that reduced uh sort of aven appearance completely covered in feathers as she was because once this happened some of

[11:42] that appearance of her godlike nature started to fade. They initially thought she wasn't going to survive it at all, but she did eventually come out of it and with uh you know starting to look more like a normal human on top of

[11:54] everything else, she was able to finally push through training and finish that up and everything else before the actual games start when she joins your party. Palagina is a character that fundamentally hates herself a little

[12:08] less so these days since she severed uh the chime that made her look like much more like a bird than she does now. But I think because of the way Palagena was born, the grief that it caused her family, what is normally seen as a

[12:22] blessing for many godlikes, especially with someone like Halia in particular, Palagina just because of all those experience, she hated being a godlike, the isolation that came from it and resulted from it. Uh the fact that it's

[12:34] all people focus on about her, things like that. And overall, that story just makes for an incredibly interesting character to dive into the story of, even if her personality is a little wanting at times. Next up, let's talk

[12:47] about Dragon Age Inquisition a little bit. So, the Dragon Age series is a game with plenty of companions to enjoy across the entire series, and there's usually some fan favorites in there. Morgan's usually at the top of the list.

[13:02] Kohl's another great one. Uh, many others as well. And yet, my personal favorite companion across all of the Dragon Age series is one that gets comparatively, and that is actually Black Wall, the supposed grey warden

[13:18] from Inquisition. But of course, the interesting thing about Black Wall is that Black Wall is in fact not Black Wall. So, the guy's name is actually Tom Reneer, who has been uh masquerading as a Grey Warden he met named Black Wall,

[13:33] trying to sort of mantle into what that guy actually was. You see, Tom Reineer led a, I would say, rough life, little more than abandoned, holding some official positions in the Orleian military on occasion, which is what

[13:48] eventually led him to uh massacre uh civilians, in particular a woman and her children during what was supposed to be children during what was supposed to be an attack on a lord of the area. But

[14:00] this ultimately led to him uh fleeing that only to eventually have a run-in with the actual warden Blackwall. Blackwall took in Tom Reineer as a potential recruit into the Grey Wardens. But this went sideways when Black Wall

[14:15] himself ultimately died protecting Tom Reneer. And having met an actual Grey Warden, seeing his own sacrifice and the nobility of uh the the warden's actual given purpose, Tom Reineer decides he's going to take up the mantle of Black

[14:31] Wall and truly become him even though he is not technically a Grey Warden because joining that has to happen. And eventually in Inquisition, you learn all of this that the guy is in effect a fraud. He meant well, but he's not

[14:45] actually a grave warden. and you have to step in to either save his life or let him die. And if you choose to save his life, you can actually push him on the road of actually becoming a warden. But ultimately, I like Black Wall simply

[14:58] ultimately, I like Black Wall simply because he is trying, albeit not exactly successfully all the time, to be the better person, to live up to the ideals of a society, if you will, like the Grey Wardens. and in so doing may well

[15:13] actually earn some of the redemption he is clearly after. A complicated character that I think deserves more recognition than he got in my opinion at least. But just to keep it moving, we do have our one exception this time with

[15:26] another character of the Divinity franchise. So this one being Sabil from Divinity Original Sin 2, of course, one of the potential origin characters there. Sabil is a fascinating character because she has been a slave in some

[15:41] form or another her entire life. A slave in a gilded cage at the beginning, an actual slave a little later on only to discover that she is in fact Godwoken as part of the story of Original Sin 2, of course. But that's only part of the

[15:56] story because really Sabil is the prime scion, the elven scion who is meant to take the place of the mother tree. the mother tree being the dominant force within Elven society. But even that, if she chooses to do it as part of her

[16:11] story, taking over for the mother tree herself would really just be another form of slavery to her race, the elves. And so in that way, I think what I really like about Sabil and her storyline is that it is really all about

[16:24] freedom and control in a game that itself has tones of freedom and control versus domination and power, of course. So you can either choose to uphold this duty and accept the fact that she has been bound in some way since the day she

[16:40] was born or embrace the freedom and the ability to choose all of those things that comes inherently with being godwoken. But to me really I think Sabil is sort of the embodiment of hope. And while that one may have been a little

[16:54] bit heavy, this next one is mostly just fun. And this is of course Garis from Mass Effect. Garris is a bro. There's just no other way to put it. Also, I think Garris himself could have easily been the actual protagonist from Mass

[17:08] Shepherd. I think he would have fit in that role very nicely. A member of the Alien Turan race. He's also a sort of hard-boiled investigator before, of course, joining your team on the Normandy. And while he's great in Mass

[17:23] Effect 1, my favorite bit with Garis is actually in Mass Effect 2 when you find him playing out the role of Archangel. basically a vigilante causing no criminal elements there. And it's just a really cool introduction. And all along

[17:39] the way of the space opera that is ultimately Mass Effect, Garis is a steadfast companion. He's a really cool guy to talk to if you're playing Fim Shep, maybe even a romantic interest. But personally, I think he is at his

[17:52] best when he's just your best friend as part of that entire series, which I think if you've got the entire uh sort of known galaxy resting on your shoulders the way Shepherd does, having somebody to share a little bit of that

[18:05] somebody to share a little bit of that weight in a non-romantic way, even can go a really long way. So, in that way, I think Garris is just a great character, which I'm hardly alone on. Very popular choice, that one. Next up, before we

[18:17] start getting to some of the truly new ones as far as this list is concerned, we have Balthar from Final Fantasy 12. Balfur is in fact the leading man, you may be saying to yourself, as he says it himself all the time throughout the

[18:30] game, and he's certainly the most interesting character in Final Fantasy 12, I think. And yet, I am afraid that in actuality, he is in fact just a companion character, a member of your party as it were. But I honestly love

[18:43] this guy. So, as many people may be aware, I played Final Fantasy X with my adoptive father. It was something we definitely kind of bonded over. And I because the time at which I initially played Final Fantasy 12, I was in fact

[18:59] not the guy making YouTube videos. I was uh much more introverted and reserved than I am even now. Though to be clear, that is still kind of my nonyou personality. I'm not a big talker otherwise. But at that age in

[19:12] particular, uh what really sort of grabbed me about Balthier is he was kind really wished I could be. Smooth, competent, charismatic, uh any other number of adjectives to describe it. Somebody who was willing to leave his

[19:27] cushy life in the empire behind when he realized he just fundamentally disagreed with it. And all of that is before you even start talking about the complicated relationship he had with his father. And in all of those ways, and I'm sure a few

[19:40] more, mostly Balthier just represented to me all of the things that again were things I wanted to be at that age. And that made it pretty easy to connect with the guy. As you would imagine, everything in this list up until this

[19:53] point are characters I have already spoken about in various places. Now, I'd like to talk about a few new ones from various games I've played over the last couple years, starting with Lazelle from Balders's Gate 3. Lazelle is a

[20:07] tremendous character. As far as I'm concerned, she starts off incredibly Though, to be fair, you did just have mind flare tadpoles inserted into your brains, which for a Githani is less than ideal, as you would probably imagine.

[20:22] Nonetheless, though, uh an integral part of her story in that she is someone who was brought up in the culture of the Gith Yankee, as you would expect, and that is a brutal one to say the very least. and she's had to fight tooth and

[20:36] nail just to survive all this way only for this to happen. And that inadvertently puts her in the path of the player character. And depending on your choices, you might wildly change the trajectory of her life. Because if

[20:49] you take the time to actually get to know Lazelle, she has, I think, the best character arc of all of the companions in that game. And it's not even close. I like Aarian if you play him as an origin character, but not so much otherwise. I

[21:02] know he's a fan favorite, but for me, Lazelle is really the way to go because I think a lot of her story is about trying to take control over her circumstances, which is what she's kind of been taught to do. Not to be idle,

[21:16] but rather, you know, step in and take charge of these things, only to realize that the people that she needs to take control of these things from are begin with, who don't have her best interests in mind, to say the very

[21:29] least. Although depending on how you play it, of course, you may well wind up not doing that. But all of that is before you eventually get involved with the Gith Zerai and everything. But without going into like a full breakdown

[21:41] of her entire story, I think if you really dig into the heart of it, Lazelle really dig into the heart of it, Lazelle is a character that wants to again feel control over the things that she can because the idea of opening up and being

[21:53] vulnerable to people and just accepting the fact that you do not in fact have control over these things is uh terrifying, especially when you're that type of person. And I think at least in some way that was something I could

[22:06] relate to, which is why Lazelle's story moved me so much. There are a lot of great characters in Balders's Gate 3, but Lazelle really, really resonated going to do something a little bit different because I'm going to introduce

[22:20] around for once because next up, we've got Abalard from Rogue Trader. Abalard is your sin, your right-hand man, if you will, throughout that entire game. and

[22:32] he is incredibly supportive and also does a fantastic job of announcing your situations which makes for a really great laugh pretty much all the time. But I think uh Abalard is such a great character for a variety of reasons, not

[22:47] least of which because there is a little bit of friction via his personal quests about you two kind of getting on the same page after uh Theodora passes. But once you get through that little spat, he's pretty much always got your back in

[23:00] every situation. He lives to serve the rogue trader dynasty and is incredibly loyal even with your much less than I would say good ideas at many opportunities. But no, Avalard's a tremendous character just again because

[23:14] of the way he is written. And that's before you even start talking about how great he is in combat, but just an enjoyable guy to have around for sure. Next up, we've got a character from Wrath of the Righteous, which I could

[23:27] original video. I'm not sure how I missed that one. But as many people are aware, my favorite companion from Wrath of the Righteous is in fact Ember, as I find her story very, very interesting, if maybe a little on the silly side at

[23:41] times. Ember is simply a character that uh sees the good in everybody in the most ridiculous situations, even somebody like Noctticula, which inadvertently leads to the canon ending for Noctticula. It also helps that she

[23:56] is incredibly useful in combat, being a bit of a blaster caster and also more than capable of doing a fair bit of healing for you. And I think in many ways she uh sort of represents the unbridled hope of carrying what should

[24:10] be that sort of ideal good into something like the crusades that are the Righteous. And while it definitely gets very silly at times, she's nonetheless a really fun character, especially when you realize she's

[24:23] definitely hiding something and how much she knows about her uh sort of relationship with her patron, if you will, that she gets through her class and everything is interesting all around. But people have heard me talk

[24:35] about Wrath of the Righteous a million times over, I'm sure. So, let's keep it rolling. Next up, we've got Parvati from The Outer Worlds. Parvati was, I would say, a highlight of that game overall. People really took a shine to her and as

[24:48] did I. Mostly because Parvati provides you the very interesting opportunity to play the wingman in another character's romance, which isn't a super common Usually, you're the one doing the romancing. And yet, seeing a romance

[25:02] play out from again the point of view of somebody trying to set two people up was fun in and of itself. And then Parvati is a very uh genuine soul, let's say. characterization, I guess you could just call it cute, to be honest. And seeing

[25:17] somebody potentially find happiness in a corporate hellscape is unfortunately something a lot of us can in fact relate to wanting to see, I guess. So, there's that at least. Keeping it with Obsidian, the last one on our list, and these have

[25:30] been in no particular order if I didn't mention that, by the way. Next up, we've got Kai. Kai is of course I would say like the main companion from Avoued in fact which is probably no surprise then that he is certainly the most fleshed

[25:43] out as a character. And while there is not technically speaking romance in Avowed itself if you play your cards right and choose a bunch of options it's possible to start a romance with Kai after the game ends. Like that would be

[25:55] like the epilog slide so to speak along that journey regardless of whether or not you want to do that. I think one of the cool things you learn about Kai is that what he's doing in the living lands is basically running from his problems.

[26:07] His desertion from the rowatayian campaign in the deadfire actually and as part of uh pillars 2 though we don't actually meet him there but everything he sees there leads to him deserting and coming to the living lands and he has a

[26:20] of that played out and the people he feels he let down over the years and how he might overcome that and look forward which is really what he's doing in the living lands looking for a purpose that he can't seem to find until he of course

[26:34] meets up with you the envoy and it's easy to I think overlook a lot of that because his writing there is a bit of a slow burn and comparatively I think the other companions don't have quite as much to offer in that regard but I think

[26:47] if you're willing to dig into it Kai has this really kind of meaningful story miss if you don't want to bother actually talking to him and having those conversations but while I appreciate a vowed wasn't for everybody and people

[27:00] didn't like this that or the other about it Kai I think was a real highlight in that game overall and obviously what he's doing on this list. But I do think that is just about going to wrap it up for this particular video long as it has

[27:12] some level or another. So, if you were there it has been for you. But I'd love to know your favorite companions or comment section below, which of course means like, comment, subscribe, all the

[27:26] YouTube jazz. But regardless of any of that, truly just thank you so much for watching. I really do appreciate it. May you wander in wisdom and have an amazing you wander in wisdom and have an amazing day.