If you've ever played a turn based RPG, like Chrono Trigger or one of the Final Fantasies, or any Bioware game, you've noticed how in the story parts there will be a large group of characters wandering around and saving the world together, but during battle only a few of them seem to actually be there. Some games specifically showcase this by having the other characters walk in and out of your main character to exit and enter story sequences. I understand that balancing battles for giant groups of heroes is way too much to ask for, but this is definitely bizarre video game logic at its worst (finest?). If the other party members are waiting in camp until you take them in to battle, then does that mean that they shouldn't get any credit for saving the world since they spent the entire time lounging about in your posh headquarters?
Sometimes (rarely), games will help alleviate this ridiculousness by having your characters split up into teams. Final Fantasy 3/6 did every once in awhile (which actually kept me from winning since I was required to use characters I hadn't been using at all). One of the few good things Infinite Undiscovery did was the occasional instance where this happened and you either fought along side your groups or traveled through a tower seeing them appear on the other side of fenced off areas or coming in the middle of a boss fight from a different entrance. So I only personally cared about the three characters on my team, but it at least felt like I was a troop trying to save the world.
Other than bizarre story logic issues this represents, my issue with this concept is that I have to choose which companions are important to me and miss out on a lot of good moments/stories (protagonist & companion content, companion & companion combination content, etc.). This is a way to add replayability, but assuming there are 6 companions (generally there are more) and you can only bring 2 with you at once, then you'd have to beat the game 3 times and probably 70-80% of the content is the same each time. That's not enjoyable, that's tedious. This essentially means to me that all having more companions does for me is increase the chances that I'll like the two characters I decide to play through the game with and the other characters might as well not exist other than the occasional parts of the story you're forced to go bring them with you.
The only way I can think of to fix this is to structure the game where you travel with a small group of characters for a bit and then leave them and move on to another group. Of course, this means that I have less chance of liking the characters I'm grouped with...so I guess I just can't be pleased with this bit of bizarre video game logic.
I hate having to choose between companions, too, but I think that's the best option here. The idea of leaving them back at "camp" or "the inn" or whatever, just waiting for you to explore their stories, is just too obviously catering to the desire to do everything. At least make it seem like they're busy doing their own thing while you're gone.
ReplyDeleteLeaving other people at the camp/inn/headquarters was more a reference to Baldur's Gate 2, Dragon Age, KOTOR, and the like where the companions you don't bring back with you just stay in a known location, but then makes you wonder what they've been doing the whole time. So you still get the problem of only getting to see the stories/interactions with a few characters AND you get the weirdness of wondering where they all go when you're busy.
DeleteI think if you're going to do that, at least let the player send the other companions off on quests to generate crafting resources/items or something so at least they can be useful.
Yeah, NWN2 leaves companions at your uncle's inn, too. It's a little weird (though there's a lot about NWN2 that's a little weird).
DeleteWe haven't decided how we're going to do it yet, but I like the idea of the illusion that they're doing stuff while not with you. So at minimum (because actually making them do stuff is kinda hard), I'd say each companion has their own location they go back to, and maybe they're in a different part of that location whenever you look for them (sometimes in an alley, sometimes in an inn, sometimes in a fight?).
And then if we can pull it off, give them some extra stories to tell of what they were doing while you were gone :-)
Just make sure the player can find them whenever they want. There's nothing I hate more than when I'm told to meet someone for a quest at a certain location and I have to wait for a certain time of day to meet them. Even if there's a way to speed up time, it's still a nuisance. So maybe if you just go to where they hang out, they'll be doing stuff, but you can call them to you from one set location somehow?
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