How much content would I miss if I don't bring any companions?

[kyn]

To my understanding CoC2 emphasis on companions and team-based combat, but I prefer to play as a lone character rather than a team, So I want to ask, if I avoid interacting with companion characters, how much would I miss? Would I miss just the contents between companions and with other npcs, or I would miss some major region/questlines accessable only by certain companions?

 

[WolframL]

You will get your shit wrecked unless you play on Story (ie the lowest) difficulty. The game is balanced around having a three-person party and no accommodation will be made if you choose to handicap yourself by running anything less than that.

And yes, you will miss all kinds of incidental dialogue involving your companions and there are several quests where the presence of certain party members can make a huge difference, depending on how you've built your Champion. To pick one example, you're not going to do well at all in the early parts of Winter Wolf without companions because your success in the first part is partially determined by whether you bring 'strong' characters with you and there are all kinds of checks in the second part which the game has flags for and which are largely based on who you brought with you; there aren't any 'wrong' companions to bring but the game assumes that you brought someone.

Also, there are various plotlines that depend on your companions, Cait in particular. There's a lot of existing/planned content based around the temple which is completely inaccessible unless you finish the Cat Call quest (all of which requires her presence) and there's stuff only indirectly connected to Cait which is (currently at least) gated behind that quest. There's likely to be a similarly large amount of stuff in the upcoming Khor'minos plotline which will be enhanced if you have Brint/Brienne with you. You can't avoid bringing Ryn along for one mandatory dungeon and there's an optional one that requires her as well.

There's also an entire storyline gated behind Kiyoko's recruitment path and while you can play through the game without it, you're literally never going to see any of that stuff on a run where you ignore her entirely, and you're also probably going to Bad End yourself on a particular quest if you both refuse to engage with her content and insist on running a solo-Champion party. Completing that quest is required to access most of the recurring kitsune content.

 

[kyn]

You will get your shit wrecked unless you play on Story (ie the lowest) difficulty. The game is balanced around having a three-person party and no accommodation will be made if you choose to handicap yourself by running anything less than that.

And yes, you will miss all kinds of incidental dialogue involving your companions and there are several quests where the presence of certain party members can make a huge difference, depending on how you've built your Champion. To pick one example, you're not going to do well at all in the early parts of Winter Wolf without companions because your success in the first part is partially determined by whether you bring 'strong' characters with you and there are all kinds of checks in the second part which the game has flags for and which are largely based on who you brought with you; there aren't any 'wrong' companions to bring but the game assumes that you brought someone.

Also, there are various plotlines that depend on your companions, Cait in particular. There's a lot of existing/planned content based around the temple which is completely inaccessible unless you finish the Cat Call quest (all of which requires her presence) and there's stuff only indirectly connected to Cait which is (currently at least) gated behind that quest. There's likely to be a similarly large amount of stuff in the upcoming Khor'minos plotline which will be enhanced if you have Brint/Brienne with you. You can't avoid bringing Ryn along for one mandatory dungeon and there's an optional one that requires her as well.

There's also an entire storyline gated behind Kiyoko's recruitment path and while you can play through the game without it, you're literally never going to see any of that stuff on a run where you ignore her entirely, and you're also probably going to Bad End yourself on a particular quest if you both refuse to engage with her content and insist on running a solo-Champion party. Completing that quest is required to access most of the recurring kitsune content.

Thanks for the anwser, guess I'll have to pass CoC2...

 

[UndyingRevenant]

Thanks for the anwser, guess I'll have to pass CoC2...

I'd like to toss a secondary answer in the ring, being that it really is not a big issue to have a party on a few angles. Fights are structured around it, so if there's ever just a single enemy, then there's a reason for it and you should be on guard. All companions can be ai controlled, and however flawed you may think it is, you can play perfectly well with them like that on max difficulty, I have. All companions are also automatically geared and statted, so there's no extra work, and there are also some instances in game of needing to fight solo occasionally for story purposes. As a rule of thumb also, if none of the party members are interesting enough to want them in your party, might not be the game for you to begin with. Trying to sound not like a prick, but also, rpgs without parties are very, very uncommon and niche. "Challenge" runs also boil down to just breaking the game with item combinations instead of skill, less high score on shooting gallery, more jigsaw puzzle with only one answer.

 

[Kesil]

For the record, you can just get team members and avoid interacting with them, incidental dialogue and companion-focused quests aside.

 

[Burnerbro]

As a rule of thumb also, if none of the party members are interesting enough to want them in your party, might not be the game for you to begin with.

This is a good rule to follow, though sometimes you can find some strange exceptions where the devs (and writers specifically) are a lot better at making other aspects of their fictional worlds compelling and interesting.

Trying to sound not like a prick, but also, rpgs without parties are very, very uncommon and niche.

They are absolutely the mainstream and have been for at least a decade, to a point where party based RPGs are relegated to the realm of AA - at least until Bioware manages to extricate their heads from their collective asses or someone else will step up to the plate.

And regardless of their popularity, games like that often represent a drastically different mood, and are tied to more skill/action oriented gameplay mechanics - so they scratch a different itch compared to more traditional, party based games. I love my Gothics just as much as I love my Baldur's Gates, and my Fallouts (both old and new) as much as I do Mass Effects.

 

[Kingu2]

I've actually been playing a solo run for a while on normal difficulty and it's been a fun challenge. some dungeons and quests will force a companion into your party but you absolutely don't need them to finish the game or access any regions thus far. you will miss out on content related to them if you don't bring them along but. you don't need them for any part of the winter wolf quest, you don't need them for the kitsune den,(I've done both these quests without them) you DO need Cait to rescue her dad and access the cat temple. these are all optional quests you don't have to do but soloing the game is definitely viable with the right build and you can still get a lot of content out of the game.

also I should point out that there is a stark difference between not having companions in your party and not interacting with them. because you see I've recruited and regularly interact with all of my companions in my solo run, I just don't put them in my party. Outside of a few specific dungeons, you are not required to have anyone in your party at any time.

 

[kyn]

As a rule of thumb also, if none of the party members are interesting enough to want them in your party, might not be the game for you to begin with.

It's not that they're not interesting, I didn't pass the tutorial, so I don't even know most of them. I just enjoy the feeling of being alone.

Trying to sound not like a prick, but also, rpgs without parties are very, very uncommon and niche. "Challenge" runs also boil down to just breaking the game with item combinations instead of skill, less high score on shooting gallery, more jigsaw puzzle with only one answer.

Well I enjoy skyrim and fallout(3 and later) a lot, and those games provided great role-playing experience. Fallout new vegas has many interesting companions as well, yet I still avoided them. It's just my preference.
And CoC1, just recently found this game and I really like it. You don't need to have any companion/lover to experience most of the content I believe. This is why I'm interested in CoC2 in the first place.
Maybe I should try TiTS, that game seems to be more like CoC1.

 

[wery12345]

IIRC they have the game balanced this way because they dont want a complete power fantasy with the MC, and honestly the companions are the best part, and the fact everything feels connected unlike in TiTs where its all disjointed and seperate.

 

[Prent]

You can totally do it without party members. It’s hard, but I’ve played up to the current patch without any on dark mode. You’ll have to accept the presence of guests (there’s nothing you can do about it, the game forces you to take them) but besides them, yes you can totally play the game with a party of one.

 

[Prent]

There's also an entire storyline gated behind Kiyoko's recruitment path and while you can play through the game without it, you're literally never going to see any of that stuff on a run where you ignore her entirely, and you're also probably going to Bad End yourself on a particular quest if you both refuse to engage with her content and insist on running a solo-Champion party. Completing that quest is required to access most of the recurring kitsune content.

Sorry for the double post, just wanted to say that you can free Kiyoko and gain access to basically all of the Kitsune content without recruiting her. She actually isn’t recruited until you specifically go back to her place and use the recruit button.

The only content this locks you out of so far as I can tell is Kinu Quest

 

[WolframL]

Sorry for the double post, just wanted to say that you can free Kiyoko and gain access to basically all of the Kitsune content without recruiting her. She actually isn’t recruited until you specifically go back to her place and use the recruit button.

Which is why I phrased things to make it clear they're separate issues. You can see all the kitsune content gated behind Den of Foxes without recruiting her (since that comes afterwards) but the quest is basically a boss rush with many ways to fuck you over so you're almost certainly going to fail if you don't do the Kiyoko content first.

Sorry for the double post

This is one reason there is an Edit option for posts.

 

[Prent]

Which is why I phrased things to make it clear they're separate issues. You can see all the kitsune content gated behind Den of Foxes without recruiting her (since that comes afterwards) but the quest is basically a boss rush with many ways to fuck you over so you're almost certainly going to fail if you don't do the Kiyoko content first.

Ah, that wasn’t clear to me

 

[UndyingRevenant]

This is a good rule to follow, though sometimes you can find some strange exceptions where the devs (and writers specifically) are a lot better at making other aspects of their fictional worlds compelling and interesting.


They are absolutely the mainstream and have been for at least a decade, to a point where party based RPGs are relegated to the realm of AA - at least until Bioware manages to extricate their heads from their collective asses or someone else will step up to the plate.

And regardless of their popularity, games like that often represent a drastically different mood, and are tied to more skill/action oriented gameplay mechanics - so they scratch a different itch compared to more traditional, party based games. I love my Gothics just as much as I love my Baldur's Gates, and my Fallouts (both old and new) as much as I do Mass Effects.

Yeah I dunno I kinda had a brain fart, I usually always run charisma based builds and get companions as soon as possible in Fallouts so it didn't really register, but yeah definitely there are quite a few mainstream. Bias clouded my judgement I just prefer parties or people you can get to do most stuff for you. My bad.

 

[Burnerbro]

Which is why I phrased things to make it clear they're separate issues. You can see all the kitsune content gated behind Den of Foxes without recruiting her (since that comes afterwards) but the quest is basically a boss rush with many ways to fuck you over so you're almost certainly going to fail if you don't do the Kiyoko content first.

It is actually relatively easy to beat the boss rush in the Den solo, the most serious issues you will face stem from not knowing that it comes and not having enough healing items prepared to patch yourself up between fights (and from Winterstem being bugged in the current public patch).

ah I dunno I kinda had a brain fart, I usually always run charisma based builds and get companions as soon as possible in Fallouts so it didn't really register, but yeah definitely there are quite a few mainstream. Bias clouded my judgement I just prefer parties or people you can get to do most stuff for you. My bad.

All is cool, man. It actually brings up an interesting question: how do you classify games like old and new Fallout when it comes to being party- or solo-focused. 'Cause on one hand they have functional companion systems and the devs clearly put a lot of effort in at least some of their personal stories, but on the other time you don't control them directly and are more than welcome to take on the world solo.

Maybe I should try TiTS, that game seems to be more like CoC1.

TiTS is likely to suit your preferences much better, yeah. The story and the gameplay both stay focused on Captain Steele, and besides their company and intimacy, the crew members you can recruit only provide convenience (like on-board vendors) and negligible bonuses to space combat.

Cloud 10 might also be more your speed, since discounting a Cortana style AI companion that comes to occupy part of your brain for plot reasons, you spend most of your time in that game venturing alone deep into the mostly uninhabited and dangerous corners of space. That game has hit a snag in its development some time ago, but what is there already is pretty neat.

 

[kyn]

unlike in TiTs where its all disjointed and seperate.

For someone like me this is actually better.

TiTS is likely to suit your preferences much better, yeah. The story and the gameplay both stay focused on Captain Steele, and besides their company and intimacy, the crew members you can recruit only provide convenience (like on-board vendors) and negligible bonuses to space combat.

Cloud 10 might also be more your speed, since discounting a Cortana style AI companion that comes to occupy part of your brain for plot reasons, you spend most of your time in that game venturing alone deep into the mostly uninhabited and dangerous corners of space. That game has hit a snag in its development some time ago, but what is there already is pretty neat.

Thanks for the info. I don't want to sound like I'm saying [CoC2 is on the wrong track CoC1 is better! ] I fully understand most people enjoy these connected, well-written companions contents, but they're just not my thing.