The Best RPG Companions and Squad Members

Table of Contents

• The Best RPG Companions and Squad Members
• Dandelion – The Witcher
• Morrigan – Dragon Age
• Fall-from-Grace – Planescape: Torment
• 9S – NieR: Automata

Fall-from-Grace – Planescape: Torment

In fact, I should write her name down as "Grace" because in one of the endings it is given to her by Nameless himself. Forgive me for the spoiler, but the game is probably more years old than some of the readers, and in the context of this character, you can't help but wonder about the final resolution. Or at least one of them, because really, this heroine may not even join the party of immortal protagonist of Torment.

The designers, writers, programmers and the composer at Black Isle did an amazingly good job. I hope that my lecturers from m,y studies avoid reading this, because they would probably exile me to Siberia or other Radom, but the plot of Planescape: Tormentis on a par with Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. In fact (please, if you're reading this, think there's more than one Marek Jura in the world) it even surpasses this novel. For it is not only a literary feast, but also an audiovisual one. And the ending knocks you off your feet and gives you food for thought for not days, but weeks and months.

Matkin – Torment: Tides of Numenera

A dozen years after the success of Planescape: Torment (primarily artistic, while the financial was, unfortunately, worse) the creators decided to raise funds on Kickstarter to create a sequel to this cult-classic RPG. Unfortunately, only a spiritual one – over the years, acquiring the rights to the Planescape's setting got very complicated, so they used a much newer world created by Monte Cook – Numenera. In some ways, it resembled the reality known in Sigil. Well, maybe there was a little more science than magic here, but the ratio between the two still leaves players with a lot of room for their own interpretation.

The fund-raising campaign was a success. Unfortunately, Brian Fargo and co. went out on a limb, promising players things that they failed to implement in the final version. And I guess that's what made Tides of Numenera not sell as well as expected. To make matters worse, although it got high grades, most critics felt it was inferior to the legendary original. Personally, I don't fully agree with it – the game probably would have been received much better if the developers hadn't announced something they couldn't deliver. However, that doesn't change the fact that inXile is largely at fault for this predicament.

Nevertheless, Matkina is still one of the most well-conceived player companion characters in the entire history of digital entertainment. The Albino is one of the castoffs, the bodies used and then abandoned by the Changing God – an immortal and rather egotistical type whose story runs throughout the game. Almost always regarded by people as a freak and an outcast, she took up what she did best – murder. Decades spent this way caused her to slowly sink into the depths of madness, all the while remaining a cool and never-missing killer. The player can try to answer the question of why she has become like this and whether it is still possible to redeem her by learning to listen to her (although I honestly warn you – this is not an easy task!).

Johnny Silverhand – Cyberpunk 2077

Johnny Silverhand lighted the imagination of gamers long before Cyberpunk was released. The information that almost throughout the entire game we will be accompanied by no one else but Keanu Reeves, gave us an uncontrollable attack of euphoria of not only fans, but also investors. Thanks to this, the "Reds" weren't accounted for the game's delay that much (although the criticism for numerous bugs could not be mitigated by anyone). Although Keanu is definitely a better film actor than a voice actor, he showed that he can improve any game with his presence alone, which should be evident to every V out there.

In combat, Silverhand is, unfortunately, completely useless. This is mainly due to the fact that he has been dead for a good few decades. What we see on the screen is merely a projection inside the protagonist's mind. We once saw something similar in the culmination of the Arkham Knight series. The Joker, however, is a completely different tale. With all due respect to the mad clown – Silverhand turns out to be a far more ethically ambiguous character. And that's his greatest asset.

In fact, until the very end of the game, it is impossible to judge whether he is "the good one" or "the bad one". Pretty much, if we don't get all that information about him, we might interpret what he did in the past very differently. Other than that, he's just an unusual, laid-back character that breaks one social convention after another. Okay, since he's sitting in V's head, it's a little easier, but he was, after all, exactly the same when he was alive.