The Greatest RPG Companion Poll Nominations

[Bertram_Tung]

Justice for Erik

Yeah I considered saying him instead because he was really badass.

► Show Spoiler

Sadly, he didn't last as long. It was a shame you couldn't save him.

If you want to include him instead of Wilhem that's fine. I would like to see at least one of them represented.

This post can act as his nomination and the other one is for Wilhem. Maybe they'll both get enough agrees to make the cut

[methoxetamine]

If I had to narrow it down to just one... really tough. Probably between Olivier and Rufus. Can I nominate both?

Very based choices and yes a very tough decision between them. Two gigachads of the highest order

I'm not sure on my answer yet

[methoxetamine]

Vivi

[Maxlofla-32]

Donald From Kingdom Hearts

[Bhaalspawn Jr]

From recent memory, my favourite character from Xenosaga, Jr.

jr-really-had-that-****-on-v0-kkdo90zpzx7d1.png

His personal story and antagonist are arguably better than the main one.

Also, his final battle against said antagonist in the 3rd game is also the best fight in the entire trilogy. Pure cinema.


Now, from like a decade ago...

Frog from Chrono Trigger

Frog.webp

Your family from Dragon Quest V

be3wzb01asa61.jpg

Sazh from Final Fantasy XIII

FFXIII-Sazh.webp

► Show Spoiler

Yeah, I kid with that last one.

[rusty_shackleford]

Wolgraff

[TKVNC]

Jeremus, oh, and Bunduk

[rusty_shackleford]

Abelard, Rogue Trader

[rusty_shackleford]

Keldorn

[Kolgrim]

Easy. It's got to be the one guy who loves you unconditionally no matter what.

[J1M]

HK-47, you could not ask for a better companion

The obvious and objectively correct answer.

[Manny V]

Disciple of Naralex

absolute chad

[Valter]

Long list with images

► Show Spoiler

FF10: Yuna. The dedicated healer and summoner of FF10. Unlike prior FF games, here her summons are not a different flavor of a one off spell attack, but instead are playable units that come onto the battlefield with an HP bar and such. While an Aeon is summoned, the other two party members fall back, allowing the Aeon to effectively tank incoming damage for the party. Yuna can also summon Aeons of different elements against whatever matchup is favorable.




FF14: Urianger and Estinien. Urianger is a unique male healer, being muscular and in his 30s while also having a nonstandard healer job of Astrologian, where he has a lot of star magics instead of traditional holy angel themed magicks. Estinien is your cool high flying dragoon comrade. Good English dub voices.






Suikoden 3: Futch returns as a grown man, with his dragon Bright having grown into a big dragon that Futch can ride during battle. Futch has also inherited Humphrey's sword. It just feels so satisfying if you have played the first two games and the Suikogaidens.




Trails in the Sky: Olivier and Zin. Unlike the rest of the cast, they have no hangups. They are just your solid, reliable friends, and very lively too. Unfortunately, in the original game, their crafts are rather useless, so you are incentivized to only use Olivier as a mage, and Zin you are just incentivized to not use at all. The remake uses the Kuro arc's combat system and balance, so crafts are a lot better, so Zin is a lot better to pilot now (though for Olivier you are still incentivized to only have him stand in the back and cast arts). Olivier is the only Trails party member who gets married and has children. Zin gets a cool outfit in the Kuro games, and becomes a good leader to the Bracer guild branch in Edith.











Trails of Cold Steel: I quite liked Jusis and Gaius. Both were your reliable bros.

Jusis Albarea is a noble and is a supporter character, who can cast crafts to buff the party's speed and damage, and also cast Platinum Shield to give the other party members a 1x shield that will negate any incoming attack. Very useful to keep people from being one shotted on higher difficulties if for some reason they didn't evade an attack. When people are buffed up and have shields up, Jusis can then begin casting, and can be made into an extremely potent arts damage dealer.






Gaius Worzel is a spearman from your neighboring not-Mongolia. As a spear wielder, he has elongated reach, which makes him more synergestic as a counterattack evasion tank. Trails has a weird setup where if you evade, you will automatically counterattack, but this system favors characters with the longest reach... which means that counterintuitively, fragile people who wield guns are actually the best "tanks" mechanically because they can shoot back at almost any enemy at any distance. You are strongly discouraged from using most martialists as your tank because they have short reach and will often not be able to counterattack even if they evade. Gaius can also be built as a very strong damage dealer, using a combination of the Chevalier master quartz which causes him to do more damage the less max HP he has, and his wild rage craft which consumes HP to give him CP to spam on his S-crafts.






Rufus Albarea: a villain turned hero. He is an elegant swordsman, and can also fill a supporter role like his younger brother Jusis. Rufus has a craft that allows him to stab the enemy AND heal the party based off damage dealt AND fuel the party's CP intake, in just one action. With this one craft, you can have Rufus fill the healer slot while appearing as a martialist (so you don't have to put up with needing a traditional healer looking character who wields a staff or casts arts), and his CP generation means your other martialists can keep spamming their hardest hitting crafts. He is also a little mischievous and fun. Also pilots a cool golden Helmord. Now he's poor with not a cent to his name after the CID confiscated all of his assets, but still acts like a prince.






Shizuna: not much to right about mechanically since she's just a strong damage dealer, but she is very likeable. Very upbeat and energetic.




Granblue Fantasy Relink: Vaseraga. Huge broad shouldered dark knight who wields a scythe, and is voiced by Fumihiko Tachiki aka Kenpachi from Bleach. He has an XXYY charged quadruple scythe swing attack which feels AWESOME when you are BIS geared and hit the true final boss Lucilius with it. You can very visibly see the HP bar get chunked four times. And for any other boss in the game, it just feels great to four shot them in that one combo. Cool backstory about him having been a boisterous party leader who led his party into a cave where he got poisoned by a monster and the rest of the party died carrying him out. Now he has become just a humble soldier and advisor to the captain.




Granblue Fantasy: Percival, the younger prince of Wales, now appointed by the crown prince as a duke of a territory to fix it up. I like how he is very passionate and fierce. He is a little uncouth, but still clever and smart, and very loyal.




I have not found any WRPG party members to be particularly likeable, except for Ludin and Iver from The Banner Saga. Ludin was a hotshot prince but skilled enough to back his claims up, and Iver is unusual for RPGs in being an old guy protagonist. He wants to do whatever he can to make sure that his adoptive children will live and prosper. I also liked how in the third game, he gets grouped up with a band of cold blooded killers, and there is a segment where a rapist is mouthing off to Iver his deeds and, but Iver just stoicly keeps his mouth shut for now for the sake of the greater mission.

If I had to narrow it down to just one... really tough. Probably between Olivier and Rufus. Can I nominate both?

Nominate as many as you want, but do it in different posts so people can updoot or downdoot specific characters

[Valter]

Hexogen - ATOM RPG
Man was a riot to travel with, completely unhinged but also composed and interesting when the situation called for it.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Yuna from FF10, the dedicated healer and summoner. Unlike prior FF games, here her summons are not a different flavor of a one off spell attack, but instead are playable units that come onto the battlefield with an HP bar and such. While an Aeon is summoned, the other two party members fall back, allowing the Aeon to effectively tank incoming damage for the party. Yuna can also summon Aeons of different elements against whatever matchup is favorable.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Urianger from FF14. A unique male healer, being muscular and in his 30s while also having a nonstandard healer job of Astrologian, where he has a lot of star magics instead of traditional holy angel themed magicks. He speaks Shakespearean, and is voiced by Timothy Watson. Is a bro with Thancred.

[Valter]

Maelle - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Fun character with strong convictions. You either love her or hate her.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Estinien from FF14. Your cool high flying dragoon comrade. Good English dub voice. Contrasts with the other party members in that he doesn't waste his breath trying to reason with the antagonists, and instead jumps them the first chance he gets. Also, unlike the other party members, he won't politely wait for you to use the party's limit break gauge. If you're not using it, then he will.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Futch from Suikoden 1 through 3. In Suikoden 1, he is a young novice dragonrider who risks his life transporting your party, only for his dragon Black to be shot down and killed. In the second game, he is travelling around on foot with the veteran soldier Humphrey when they stumble upon a dragon egg, which hatches. Futch adopts the dragon and calls it Bright. In Suikoden 3, taking place many years later, Futch returns as a grown man, with his dragon Bright having grown into a big dragon that Futch can ride during battle. Futch has also inherited Humphrey's sword. It just feels so satisfying if you have played the first two games and the Suikogaidens.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Olivier Lenheim from the Trails series. Your lively imperial friend, hitchiking across the border, touring hostile lands on foot without any money, playing piano, and dine and dashing without a care in the world. Can be built into a powerful arts caster. Olivier is the only Trails party member who gets married and has children.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Zin Vaythek from the Trails series. A Rank bracer and an apprentice of Cassius Bright. He has both feet on the ground and has no emotional hangerups or skeletons in his closet unlike most of the cast. He is your cheerful and reliable bro, also besties with Olivier. In the Calvard arc, he becomes a leader to the Calvardian bracers. Sadly, in the original Trails in the Sky games, he might be the worst of the main party members to use due to the CP economy being so bad and crafts being mediocre, but fortunately by the time he reappears in the Calvard games and in the Sky remakes, crafts have been rebalanced to be fantastic. Also gets a cool new white/blue outfit in the Calvard games.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Jusis Albarea from the Trails of Cold Steel arc. He is a noble, a little uncouth but fierce and pure of spirit, and is a supporter character. He can cast crafts to buff the party's speed and damage, and also cast Platinum Shield to give the other party members a 1x shield that will negate any incoming attack. Very useful to keep people from being one shotted on higher difficulties if for some reason they didn't evade an attack. When people are buffed up and have shields up, Jusis can then begin casting, and can be made into an extremely potent arts damage dealer. Also has good English dub voice acting by Benjamin Diskin.

[GhostCow]

Mazzie. I liked that she was a halfling trying to be a class that a halfling couldn't be

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Gaius Worzel from Trails of Cold Steel arc. He is a spearman from your neighboring not-Mongolia, and an ever reliable comrade with no issues. Is also one of the few characters in the series who can keep a secret too as opposed to all of these blabbers.

As a spear wielder, he has elongated reach, which makes him more synergestic as a counterattack evasion tank. Trails has a weird setup where if you evade, you will automatically counterattack, but this system favors characters with the longest reach... which means that counterintuitively, fragile people who wield guns are actually the best "tanks" mechanically because they can shoot back at almost any enemy at any distance. You are strongly discouraged from using most martialists as your tank because they have short reach and will often not be able to counterattack even if they evade. Gaius can also be built as a very strong damage dealer, using a combination of the Chevalier master quartz which causes him to do more damage the less max HP he has, and his wild rage craft which consumes HP to give him CP to spam on his S-crafts.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Rufus Albarea from recent Trails games. A villain turned hero. He is a little mischievous and fun. Also pilots a cool golden Helmord. Now he's poor with not a cent to his name after the CID confiscated all of his assets, but still acts like a prince. Has great English voice acting by D.C. Douglas.

He is an elegant swordsman, and can also fill a supporter role like his younger brother Jusis. Rufus has a craft that allows him to stab the enemy AND heal the party based off damage dealt AND fuel the party's CP intake, in just one action. With this one craft, you can have Rufus fill the healer slot while appearing as a martialist (so you don't have to put up with needing a traditional healer looking character who wields a staff or casts arts), and his CP generation means your other martialists can keep spamming their hardest hitting crafts.

[Valter]

Aveline Vallen - Dragon Age 2
Despite being a brick-faced he-woman, she is still positively memorable with a strong intro, as well as being a level-headed and insightful companion admirably trying to uphold the law in a city fetid with vice and corruption.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Shizuna: not much to write home about mechanically since she's just a strong damage dealer, but she is very likeable. Very upbeat and energetic. Also has a lot of funny scenes.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Vaseraga from Granblue Fantasy and GBF Relink. Huge broad shouldered dark knight who wields a scythe, and is voiced by Fumihiko Tachiki aka Kenpachi from Bleach. Cool backstory about him having been a boisterous party leader who led his party into a cave where he got poisoned by a monster and the rest of the party died carrying him out. Now he has become just a humble soldier and advisor to the captain.

In Relin, he has an XXYY charged quadruple scythe swing attack which feels AWESOME when you are BIS geared and hit the true final boss Lucilius with it. You can very visibly see the HP bar get chunked four times. And for any other boss in the game, it just feels great to four shot them in that one combo.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Percival from Granblue Fantasy, The younger prince of Wales, now appointed by the crown prince as a duke of a territory to fix it up. I like how he is very passionate and fierce. He is a little uncouth, but still clever and smart, and very loyal.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Iver from The Banner Saga. Iver is unusual for RPGs in being an old guy protagonist. He wants to do whatever he can to make sure that his adoptive children will live and prosper. Is also one of the very, very few playable characters in an RPG who gets dismembered during the story, and does not get an artificial limb replacement and instead is animated as having to adjust to his new predicament. In the third game, he gets grouped up with a band of cold blooded killers, and there is a segment where a rapist is mouthing off to Iver his deeds and, but Iver just stoicly keeps his mouth shut for now for the sake of the greater mission. Also very strong mechanically, even after losing his arm.