So when I get an idea in my head and it sticks around long enough, I just decide “Fuck it” and I’m gonna try it and see where it goes. Since I’ve been getting back into CoC 2, I decided to see how each character holed up in my personal enjoyment scale so far. I’ve broken each one down to 3 category’s:
Story: How much I enjoy the character’s Backgrounds, and they’re interaction in the over arching narrative.
Ease of Access: How difficult it is to obtain said companion.
Combat Prowess: How efficient/flexible the character is in a combat based scenario.
It goes without Saying this is my list and I’m curious how everyone else is enjoying each character. I also know there is a thread asking which companion is the best, but this is more a review on how I feel each one holds up so far. Since the developer’s say these are going to be the final character’s you can team up with, I feel it’s a good time to get my thought’s out on which I enjoy the most/least. So far I realize that it was a lot harder to pinpoint which one’s I’ve Disliked so far...with 1 exception, but keep reading to see my thought’s on them. Without further ado, Here They Are!
Etheryn
Story
I mean, what can I say? Ryn’s story is one of the best written plot’s in game so far IMO, and I’ve enjoyed every second of her adventure. Depending on how you treat her, she can either grow to be a powerful confident ruler, or your personal puppet on a throne. Obviously, I enjoy confident Ryn, but that’s just my preference. And I’m glad the developer’s worked to make one of the best character arc’s in game so far. I look forward to seeing what adventure’s lye in store for our new Queen. Because so far we still have the threat of the Demon’s and the growing tension’s of the Alliance. So I’m sure there’s more to come in the future, especially if you spared her sister.
Ease of Access
Pretty straight forward honestly. You meet up with her during the first foray into the Wayfort, impossible to miss her since she’s on the main path.
Combat Prowess
Ryn start’s off with a good mix of damage dealing with some healing thrown in. And eventually gets the ability to heal, giving her a lot of flexibility on that end. Stick with her long enough, and the recent patch’s have even gone ahead and given her a Tanking set. Meaning she has the ability to do anything with almost any composition at this point.
Kiyoko
Story
Out of everyone in the story, I’d say this character is a personal favorite of mine. It was tough deciding between Kiyoko and Ryn, but I think Ryn’s overall interaction in the main plot make’s her just a bit more appealing to me in my book. Not to say the way Kiyoko’s story is handled isn't just as good. I love the way you weave together interaction’s in the Astral Plane with Kinu, and eventually grow a huge family of fox kit’s that ultimately end up joining you in the end. It’s a very personal and enjoyable and sweet situation to be in. Before needing to be thrust back into the real world where a maniacal cult want’s you and everyone you know dead.
Overall no complaint’s. Sure it’d be nice if Kiyoko had more interaction with people outside of the Fox den. But given the overall late coming’s of freeing her and the unique situation's the Kitsune find themselves in the world, it’s understandable that there are little interaction’s she’d want to speak up about unless directly confronted about them.
Ease of Access
It goes without saying that Kiyoko is one of the more complicated character’s to unlock in some respect’s. Needing to find the location of the necklace is fairly straight forward if your exploring each tile of the map. The issue afterwards is making sure to accept a very specific quest from Lady Evergreen in order to unlock the location needed to get to the place you need to take the necklace.
After an...I’m gonna be honest, an unnecessary series of battle’s that I never quite understood why you can’t talk your way through. Like normally the game’s good with alternative situation’s, but needing to fight through at the bare minimum 3 fight’s always felt weird if you’ve helped the other 3 in the old forest. Oh, and you also have the ability to summon Kiyoko temporarily, and that’s never brought up as an option to show them. And...yeah, it’s just a weird situation.
But other than that unlocking her is fairly straight forward if you know where to look.
Combat Prowess
Since Kiyoko comes in fairly late, she already start’s out with several changeable set’s. Which is very appreciated as it gives her a lot of flexibility in combat. She can only mainly specialize in damage dealing, but her defensive capabilities are reasonable enough to keep her in line with most set-up’s in game.
Cait
Story
I’d be shocked if Cait Wasn’t in the top 3. The first companion you get and the main drive in the story to get you forward. She’ll do anything to stop the cult and get her sister back, and your the one who can hopefully make it happen. Really, there’s not much I can say. She has a huge interaction with the main narrative making several comment’s on the situation’s at hand. She’s a priest of the god of pleasure. You get the chance to build a Temple in her god’s name.
Yeah, there’s just no comment needed. Cait’s great and everyone love’s her in game as they should. Honestly the only reason Cait isn’t at the top is because I feel like it’s because she’s sort of like putting your best foot forward. She’s your Ride or Die, and you can be as terrible as you want, and she still feel’s like she’ll go along with it. Weather that’s a good thing or not is up for debate, but I appreciate a partner who atleast might have reservation’s about the decision's you make, but is still willing to put up with you because they wanna believe your doing what’s best in the end. (atleast until I sell my soul to a demon, at that point all’s fair)
Ease of Access
You get the option to recruit her at the start of the game. You could say no and try to solo it...I would not recommend doing that, but you Could.
Combat Prowess
Cait Starts off with 2 set’s early on. Mainly for Healing/Damage Dealing, but it’s nice to atleast have the option. Down the line she unlocks a damage dealing and tanking set that can both be obtained quickly if you know what your doing. So yeah, again no complaint’s.
Brint/Brienne
Story
2 in 1 character’s who are fairly straight forward in they’re desire’s. Depending on your decision's you can either end up with a hunky masculine boyfriend who can lift tree’s with 1 arm. Or a hunky feminine Waifu who can crush you between her thigh’s. And both option’s are a Win in my book.
Most of the plot of Khor'Mino's revolves around the Minotaur's and what they're going through. So they have alot of chance's to shine in term's of character interaction's and wolrd story if they're brought along. Also you get to meet the family, and nothing need's to be said on how awesome that is.
They may be very simple in term’s of want’s/need’s. But hey, sometimes that’s for the best. Not everyone need’s a deep complicated backstory to push them forward. They want what’s best for you and what your adventure’s might bring, making them great companion's through and through.
Ease of Access
Much like Ryn, very hard to miss. Your main quest put’s you on the path to the old forest where you’ll run into Brint. Unlocking Brienne is a bit more complicated, but not by much. If your exploring, chance’s are you’ll run into what’s needed to unlock her.
Combat Prowess
A flexible combat fighter with the ability to swap between Tank and DPS. Eventually able to become either a powerful Ice or Fire Damage Dealer down the line. No complaint’s so far, sooooo, moving On!
Quintillus
Story
Quint is probably my favorite character in term’s of overall interaction with the world. He has a lot of interaction’s with people/place’s due to his involvement with the Cult. Because of that, taking him along to most place’s during the main quest gives you a lot of insight as to what the cult was like and how it operates along with his view’s on it as compared to it back in the day. It’s always nice IMO to get a different perspective about how thing’s operate, and I enjoy it when a character can show you that there’s more than 1 side to every story. (especially since it’s so easy to fail doing that properly nowadays's)
Ease of Access
Quint is a little complicated to get since he’s a random encounter. And unlike Brint, he’s not guaranteed (atleast to my knowledge) to show up for some reason. Afterword’s you need to wait and then do a questline in order to unlock him. And 1 of the quest item’s is a random drop from cultist which isn’t too rare but also not guaranteed to drop I think. And that’s only after you have to wait a few day’s for him to Decide to join you after you saved him. It’s a little odd, but overall harmless since you get a quest for him after you’ve talked to him.
Combat Prowess
In the early day’s I wasn’t a fan of Quint due to his restrictive attack nature only being able to do mostly tease damage. But overtime his ability’s have gotten better, and I think he’s a great DPS so far. And once you’ve unlocked another companion, you can unlock an additional tanking set which is also very helpful.
Azyrran
Story
Now Azyrran is an interesting one. As I was making this list and thinking about it, I put her Below Atugia at first. But then I thought about it and, yeah. She’s actually a lot better the more I think I about it. I think the main reason I was put off by her was her Ease of Access, which I go into below. But otherwise everything else is actually really well done overall. She has a strong connection with the main plot with her whole hive being corrupted. Her interaction’s with Liaden are adorable and hilarious at times. And overall she has some great interaction’s here and there that really make you appreciate her and what she does.
Gotta say I was happily surprised to really think about how much I enjoyed this character in hindsight, and it make’s me glad I made this list to realize just how well written she is.
Ease of Access
This is mainly one of the first reason’s I was off-put by Azyrran, because she has a very strange recruitment requirement. I constantly have to remember how this works because...I just don’t understand why the developer’s made it this way.
In order to recruit her, you need to Fight her in 1 on 1 duels, Multiple times. No, you can’t sleep with her, that only gives you 1 of 5 affinity needed to start her questline.
I don’t understand why recruiting her isn’t easier, because 1, you don’t even Know she’s a potential companion until after you’ve finished the questline. And 2, you do eventually Need to clear the hive down the line in order to upgrade the Wayfort. You’d think at that point you could just Ask her about the problem and if you could help but...Nope.
There is an alternative if you wanna be a Dick and just overpower her with your party. But like...I don’t wanna be a dick to someone I like?
I think an easier alternative is just make the questline available to you after you’ve defeated the Alarune. Have her come up after the fight is done and say she’s impressed with your fighting prowess and needs your help. That would make it much easier and much more obvious IMO.
Combat Prowess
Azyrran has Alot of flexibility in terms of being a little bit of everything. She’s a good tank with some decent healing capability's, and she can develop a more powerful Dragon set down the line, with a Bimbofied set just because why not? Overall great character that can work in plenty of party composition’s.
Arona
Story
Now were getting into the interesting one’s. Arona IMO is a Great companion overall. She has a good story-line, and much like Brint knows what she want’s and is very straight forward in getting it. The only thing I can say about her is overall she’s very much a “What you see is what you get” type of character. Which for an Orc make’s sense, they’re very straight forward in nature.
But that also mean’s she really doesn’t have a huge amount of interaction outside of her quest-line and no real impact on the main story because...it’s not really her problem. Ironically it was more her brother’s problem since he was one who came her on a vision quest to fight the evil that was gonna plauge the land.
So yeah, Arona’s not bad by any standard. She is Just the Standard. Depending on how you rolled, you can either end up as her throne warmer, or she becomes your throne warmer. Not a bad character, just nothing to write home about in my book.
Ease of Access
A fairly straight forward process. In order to unlock her you need to do a quest that involves either winning or losing against her several time’s. I think it’s a little bit of an odd process. Maybe there could be a dedicated tile to fighting her on a daily basis instead of a random encounter. But her encounter rate isn’t too bad, so this is only a nitpick overall.
Combat Prowess
Arona can much like Brint/Brienne sport a Tank/DPS set. She can also get another DPS Caster set down the line...but only after running into a ghost with her in the party. A strange and obtuse way to obtain an in game set I won’t lie, but otherwise no major complaint’s about how each one handles.
Atugia
Story
Atugia is much Arona a character I Like, but one I’m fairly indifferent about overall. She’s a great Person and has an interesting backstory, But much like Arona, she’s not really interesting overall compared to everyone else in my books.
There’s nothing specifically wrong about her in my books, but there’s just not as much interesting to her either. You’d think she would be being a Dulluhan, but it never seem’s to bug her, and she doesn’t really have any driving motivation to figure out how she became the way she is or who did it or anything really. She just join’s you because Carmen said you could have and...that’s it.
I bring up the fact that there’s nothing wrong with simple, but there is a thing such as Too simple. To where a character just doesn’t really have any connection to what’s going on either in the world or interaction’s or anything that you really need to question why they’re there in the first place. I’m not asking for much, but enough to atleast drive them forward and make me appreciate traveling with them. I’ve played through multiple playthrough’s, and the amount of comment’s Atugia has made or comment’s other’s have made about her...well, I could count them on my had at this point is all I’m saying.
Ease of Access
Obtaining Atugia has always been one of the Weirdest processes in game IMO. Not because it’s hard, but because the developer’s took so long to simplify the process, and I still feel like it’s pretty obtuse.
You need to visit her at the manor she’s guarding on the map and either win or lose a fight against her. Then talk to her several times until you ask weather you want to recruit her. Then talk to Baroness Carmen in order to ask her to join you. And if you don’t do these thing’s...she comes down to town and beat’s you up and join’s you anyway.
I...never understood why the game didn’t just flag a quest in order for you to check on Carmen, and have her offer you Atugia as a companion. It just feel’s like the one who thought this up was trying to make the whole process more complicated than it needed to be. And it was More complicated back in the day. Especially when you Had to sleep with her in order to recruit her, but only her body which...yeah it was weird.
Combat Prowess
I’ll admit in term’s of Combat, Atugia has the most interesting style. She’s a self sustaining Heal Tank who can pretty much keep herself up at all time’s. And if you have Arona in the party, she can develop int a powerful Damage Dealer down the line. Overall great flexibility, and a lot of uses in multiple party composition's.
Agnimitra
Story
And now were into character’s that are so late to the party, I often forget they arrive. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with Agni, there’s just not really a whole lot I can say About her. She an ancient being who’s lived for god knows how long, so you’d think there would be a lot there to unpack. But for the most part she’s pretty indifferent about it and the overall world around her.
And I get it, much like Kiyoko she can only tell the event’s of what she knows about the perspectives on how she knows them. But outside of that…I got nothing. She show’s up in your wayfort, you need to have her resurrected. And then she join’s you because...yep. That’s it. No real reason, no motivation. She just does.
I don’t dislike her. I just don’t really have a lot of strong feelings about her overall. Like I said earlier, it’s okay to be simple at times. But there is such a thing as Too simple.
Maybe they’ll be more down the line when we get into details with the Harpy Queen and Shar at some point. Because I feel like it would atleast make a little bit of sense to have her be involved with all that business. But until them...shrugs
Ease of Access
This is such a weird process I just don’t get. First you need to head to the fire temple in order to get her resurrected. Then ask her to join you which make’s sense. But then you need to travel all the way back to Hawkthrone in order to get her 3 flame proof cape’s to wear. Then you need to wait for her to finish her clothing and talk to her again and she finally join’s up with you.
It’s not a difficult processes. But each time I think to myself “Why did the developer’s not put a Waypoint to the temple to make traveling here easier if you need to visit it multiple times?”.
Combat Prowess
Honestly this is the 1 point she excels at. Agnimitra may only be Healer, but she’s a damn good one. Her skills mainly focused on buffing the party while empowering your defensive/offensive skills. I Really like her when I can get the right party type going, and I think with a few more set’s she could have a lot of potential down the line.
Viviane
Story
And now here’s the one character that I honestly have to say, I don’t get it.
I don’t fully understand why Viviane is a companion, but I feel like if there’s 1 character who need’s to the most work next too Agni, It’s Viv.
My only assumption is that she’s supposed to be a replacement for Berwyn. A companion who’s content was retired awhile back. The problem is that Berwyn was a much more interesting character with well written story and personal stake’s that made him appreciate you and ultimately wanna help you on your journey afterwords.
Viviane story is, she’s a Witch with a Traveling house...and that is it. She is about as interesting an NPC vendor in the game. She has no stake’s in any over arching plot. She has no connection to anyone outside of herself. And she doesn’t really care one way or the other about how thing’s are handled. You can turn her into a demon because of that which is...kind of neat I guess?
Now your probably thinking she does care somewhat about the threat of the invasion. But that’s only after you’ve warned her not to drink the obviously soul destroying potion that her first instinct is to drink unless you tell her not to drink it…
Ya know those archaeologist that are always touching the rare artifact’s with evil curses on them? Or the space explorer’s who stick they’re head’s in thing’s? Yeah, Viv wouldn’t last 10 minute’s in those situation's.
I know I’m joking but there really isn’t much for me to say. There are minimal to no interaction’s with Viv outside of a few recent one’s. She doesn’t have much to say on most situation’s. And I’m heavily disinclined to bring her Along to most situation's because, well, keep reading...
Ease of Access
Out of all the character’s, I wanna just ask...why?
In order to recruit Viv, you need to obtain Succubus Milk. A random drop that sometimes drop’s off demonic creature’s. Then you need to take one to her. But again, like Arona, it’s a Random Encounter. Why? Because I don’t know. She has a walking house I get it, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have Some way of contacting or finding her.
But then you talk to her and find out she need’s 9 More Succubus Milk. Again, the Rare Drop that Sometimes drops off Demon’s.
Oh, but you Can buy them off of Farrah, the merchant who moves into your Wayfort(assuming you don’t kick her out) After you’ve defeated Allisa and saved the Winter City. If you don’t mind dropping around 2’000 Electrum For Them!
So, after you’ve either obtained an incredibly rare drop, Or spent a load of cash on it. You need to find her Again in order to hand over the potion’s. Then wait several day’s for her to complete her research and Find her Again!
And then, Finally, she decides to come and join your team and settle’s down in the Wayfort. Which just make’s me question why she couldn’t be in that spot from the beginning but Whatever. After all that, was It Worth It?
Combat Prowess
Nope. Because not only is Viv the weakest in term’s of Story and Ease of Access, she’s also the Weakest character in your entire team.
Her skill set as a Trained Black Mage consist of:
Doing a little damage in order to have a small chance of an enemy dropping they’re weapon. Slightly buffing your or someone else weapon. Slightly damaging an enemy and maybe reduce they’re attack. And summoning a Wolf.
Her power’s aren’t just sad, but they are pathetic compared to some of the mid to late game power’s and ability’s I can unlock as a Black Mage. Even her Ultimate spell is laughable compared to my ability to stun an opponent for 3 rounds and strip them of all buff’s. She can, moderately buff our melee attack weapons. (so I hope your team mostly consist of melee)
I can 100% see a Mixed Fire/Frost/Storm set. Each one centerted around DPS with diffrent variation's. A Fire Set built for pur DPS, a frost set built for DPS/Defense that can use protection spells to buff the whole party, and a Storm Set built to Debuff the entire enemy team. Because you are Magic! Be Magic!
Remember earlier when I mentioned Viv was a Replacement for Berwyn? Yeah, his skilled involved Summing an Earth Golem, healing the team and lobbing fireballs. I don’t know why they didn’t just copy/past his ability’s onto her, but even that would have been a much better alternative.
I try and used Viv, I really did. But because of the power scaling of most enemy’s, I can’t develop a logical party composition that wouldn’t utterly cripple a team’s DPS output with her in it. Out of all the characters, I always question certain decision's made at time. But if you asked me why Viv was ever a thing, I honestly couldn’t give you 1 straight answer.
So there we go, what are all Your team favorite’s? And is there any party composition you like more than other’s? I know I like trying out all sort’s of different one’s, and I hope they're more of each character and character interaction’s down the line.
Story: How much I enjoy the character’s Backgrounds, and they’re interaction in the over arching narrative.
Ease of Access: How difficult it is to obtain said companion.
Combat Prowess: How efficient/flexible the character is in a combat based scenario.
It goes without Saying this is my list and I’m curious how everyone else is enjoying each character. I also know there is a thread asking which companion is the best, but this is more a review on how I feel each one holds up so far. Since the developer’s say these are going to be the final character’s you can team up with, I feel it’s a good time to get my thought’s out on which I enjoy the most/least. So far I realize that it was a lot harder to pinpoint which one’s I’ve Disliked so far...with 1 exception, but keep reading to see my thought’s on them. Without further ado, Here They Are!
Etheryn
Story
I mean, what can I say? Ryn’s story is one of the best written plot’s in game so far IMO, and I’ve enjoyed every second of her adventure. Depending on how you treat her, she can either grow to be a powerful confident ruler, or your personal puppet on a throne. Obviously, I enjoy confident Ryn, but that’s just my preference. And I’m glad the developer’s worked to make one of the best character arc’s in game so far. I look forward to seeing what adventure’s lye in store for our new Queen. Because so far we still have the threat of the Demon’s and the growing tension’s of the Alliance. So I’m sure there’s more to come in the future, especially if you spared her sister.
Ease of Access
Pretty straight forward honestly. You meet up with her during the first foray into the Wayfort, impossible to miss her since she’s on the main path.
Combat Prowess
Ryn start’s off with a good mix of damage dealing with some healing thrown in. And eventually gets the ability to heal, giving her a lot of flexibility on that end. Stick with her long enough, and the recent patch’s have even gone ahead and given her a Tanking set. Meaning she has the ability to do anything with almost any composition at this point.
Kiyoko
Story
Out of everyone in the story, I’d say this character is a personal favorite of mine. It was tough deciding between Kiyoko and Ryn, but I think Ryn’s overall interaction in the main plot make’s her just a bit more appealing to me in my book. Not to say the way Kiyoko’s story is handled isn't just as good. I love the way you weave together interaction’s in the Astral Plane with Kinu, and eventually grow a huge family of fox kit’s that ultimately end up joining you in the end. It’s a very personal and enjoyable and sweet situation to be in. Before needing to be thrust back into the real world where a maniacal cult want’s you and everyone you know dead.
Overall no complaint’s. Sure it’d be nice if Kiyoko had more interaction with people outside of the Fox den. But given the overall late coming’s of freeing her and the unique situation's the Kitsune find themselves in the world, it’s understandable that there are little interaction’s she’d want to speak up about unless directly confronted about them.
Ease of Access
It goes without saying that Kiyoko is one of the more complicated character’s to unlock in some respect’s. Needing to find the location of the necklace is fairly straight forward if your exploring each tile of the map. The issue afterwards is making sure to accept a very specific quest from Lady Evergreen in order to unlock the location needed to get to the place you need to take the necklace.
After an...I’m gonna be honest, an unnecessary series of battle’s that I never quite understood why you can’t talk your way through. Like normally the game’s good with alternative situation’s, but needing to fight through at the bare minimum 3 fight’s always felt weird if you’ve helped the other 3 in the old forest. Oh, and you also have the ability to summon Kiyoko temporarily, and that’s never brought up as an option to show them. And...yeah, it’s just a weird situation.
But other than that unlocking her is fairly straight forward if you know where to look.
Combat Prowess
Since Kiyoko comes in fairly late, she already start’s out with several changeable set’s. Which is very appreciated as it gives her a lot of flexibility in combat. She can only mainly specialize in damage dealing, but her defensive capabilities are reasonable enough to keep her in line with most set-up’s in game.
Cait
Story
I’d be shocked if Cait Wasn’t in the top 3. The first companion you get and the main drive in the story to get you forward. She’ll do anything to stop the cult and get her sister back, and your the one who can hopefully make it happen. Really, there’s not much I can say. She has a huge interaction with the main narrative making several comment’s on the situation’s at hand. She’s a priest of the god of pleasure. You get the chance to build a Temple in her god’s name.
Yeah, there’s just no comment needed. Cait’s great and everyone love’s her in game as they should. Honestly the only reason Cait isn’t at the top is because I feel like it’s because she’s sort of like putting your best foot forward. She’s your Ride or Die, and you can be as terrible as you want, and she still feel’s like she’ll go along with it. Weather that’s a good thing or not is up for debate, but I appreciate a partner who atleast might have reservation’s about the decision's you make, but is still willing to put up with you because they wanna believe your doing what’s best in the end. (atleast until I sell my soul to a demon, at that point all’s fair)
Ease of Access
You get the option to recruit her at the start of the game. You could say no and try to solo it...I would not recommend doing that, but you Could.
Combat Prowess
Cait Starts off with 2 set’s early on. Mainly for Healing/Damage Dealing, but it’s nice to atleast have the option. Down the line she unlocks a damage dealing and tanking set that can both be obtained quickly if you know what your doing. So yeah, again no complaint’s.
Brint/Brienne
Story
2 in 1 character’s who are fairly straight forward in they’re desire’s. Depending on your decision's you can either end up with a hunky masculine boyfriend who can lift tree’s with 1 arm. Or a hunky feminine Waifu who can crush you between her thigh’s. And both option’s are a Win in my book.
Most of the plot of Khor'Mino's revolves around the Minotaur's and what they're going through. So they have alot of chance's to shine in term's of character interaction's and wolrd story if they're brought along. Also you get to meet the family, and nothing need's to be said on how awesome that is.
They may be very simple in term’s of want’s/need’s. But hey, sometimes that’s for the best. Not everyone need’s a deep complicated backstory to push them forward. They want what’s best for you and what your adventure’s might bring, making them great companion's through and through.
Ease of Access
Much like Ryn, very hard to miss. Your main quest put’s you on the path to the old forest where you’ll run into Brint. Unlocking Brienne is a bit more complicated, but not by much. If your exploring, chance’s are you’ll run into what’s needed to unlock her.
Combat Prowess
A flexible combat fighter with the ability to swap between Tank and DPS. Eventually able to become either a powerful Ice or Fire Damage Dealer down the line. No complaint’s so far, sooooo, moving On!
Quintillus
Story
Quint is probably my favorite character in term’s of overall interaction with the world. He has a lot of interaction’s with people/place’s due to his involvement with the Cult. Because of that, taking him along to most place’s during the main quest gives you a lot of insight as to what the cult was like and how it operates along with his view’s on it as compared to it back in the day. It’s always nice IMO to get a different perspective about how thing’s operate, and I enjoy it when a character can show you that there’s more than 1 side to every story. (especially since it’s so easy to fail doing that properly nowadays's)
Ease of Access
Quint is a little complicated to get since he’s a random encounter. And unlike Brint, he’s not guaranteed (atleast to my knowledge) to show up for some reason. Afterword’s you need to wait and then do a questline in order to unlock him. And 1 of the quest item’s is a random drop from cultist which isn’t too rare but also not guaranteed to drop I think. And that’s only after you have to wait a few day’s for him to Decide to join you after you saved him. It’s a little odd, but overall harmless since you get a quest for him after you’ve talked to him.
Combat Prowess
In the early day’s I wasn’t a fan of Quint due to his restrictive attack nature only being able to do mostly tease damage. But overtime his ability’s have gotten better, and I think he’s a great DPS so far. And once you’ve unlocked another companion, you can unlock an additional tanking set which is also very helpful.
Azyrran
Story
Now Azyrran is an interesting one. As I was making this list and thinking about it, I put her Below Atugia at first. But then I thought about it and, yeah. She’s actually a lot better the more I think I about it. I think the main reason I was put off by her was her Ease of Access, which I go into below. But otherwise everything else is actually really well done overall. She has a strong connection with the main plot with her whole hive being corrupted. Her interaction’s with Liaden are adorable and hilarious at times. And overall she has some great interaction’s here and there that really make you appreciate her and what she does.
Gotta say I was happily surprised to really think about how much I enjoyed this character in hindsight, and it make’s me glad I made this list to realize just how well written she is.
Ease of Access
This is mainly one of the first reason’s I was off-put by Azyrran, because she has a very strange recruitment requirement. I constantly have to remember how this works because...I just don’t understand why the developer’s made it this way.
In order to recruit her, you need to Fight her in 1 on 1 duels, Multiple times. No, you can’t sleep with her, that only gives you 1 of 5 affinity needed to start her questline.
I don’t understand why recruiting her isn’t easier, because 1, you don’t even Know she’s a potential companion until after you’ve finished the questline. And 2, you do eventually Need to clear the hive down the line in order to upgrade the Wayfort. You’d think at that point you could just Ask her about the problem and if you could help but...Nope.
There is an alternative if you wanna be a Dick and just overpower her with your party. But like...I don’t wanna be a dick to someone I like?
I think an easier alternative is just make the questline available to you after you’ve defeated the Alarune. Have her come up after the fight is done and say she’s impressed with your fighting prowess and needs your help. That would make it much easier and much more obvious IMO.
Combat Prowess
Azyrran has Alot of flexibility in terms of being a little bit of everything. She’s a good tank with some decent healing capability's, and she can develop a more powerful Dragon set down the line, with a Bimbofied set just because why not? Overall great character that can work in plenty of party composition’s.
Arona
Story
Now were getting into the interesting one’s. Arona IMO is a Great companion overall. She has a good story-line, and much like Brint knows what she want’s and is very straight forward in getting it. The only thing I can say about her is overall she’s very much a “What you see is what you get” type of character. Which for an Orc make’s sense, they’re very straight forward in nature.
But that also mean’s she really doesn’t have a huge amount of interaction outside of her quest-line and no real impact on the main story because...it’s not really her problem. Ironically it was more her brother’s problem since he was one who came her on a vision quest to fight the evil that was gonna plauge the land.
So yeah, Arona’s not bad by any standard. She is Just the Standard. Depending on how you rolled, you can either end up as her throne warmer, or she becomes your throne warmer. Not a bad character, just nothing to write home about in my book.
Ease of Access
A fairly straight forward process. In order to unlock her you need to do a quest that involves either winning or losing against her several time’s. I think it’s a little bit of an odd process. Maybe there could be a dedicated tile to fighting her on a daily basis instead of a random encounter. But her encounter rate isn’t too bad, so this is only a nitpick overall.
Combat Prowess
Arona can much like Brint/Brienne sport a Tank/DPS set. She can also get another DPS Caster set down the line...but only after running into a ghost with her in the party. A strange and obtuse way to obtain an in game set I won’t lie, but otherwise no major complaint’s about how each one handles.
Atugia
Story
Atugia is much Arona a character I Like, but one I’m fairly indifferent about overall. She’s a great Person and has an interesting backstory, But much like Arona, she’s not really interesting overall compared to everyone else in my books.
There’s nothing specifically wrong about her in my books, but there’s just not as much interesting to her either. You’d think she would be being a Dulluhan, but it never seem’s to bug her, and she doesn’t really have any driving motivation to figure out how she became the way she is or who did it or anything really. She just join’s you because Carmen said you could have and...that’s it.
I bring up the fact that there’s nothing wrong with simple, but there is a thing such as Too simple. To where a character just doesn’t really have any connection to what’s going on either in the world or interaction’s or anything that you really need to question why they’re there in the first place. I’m not asking for much, but enough to atleast drive them forward and make me appreciate traveling with them. I’ve played through multiple playthrough’s, and the amount of comment’s Atugia has made or comment’s other’s have made about her...well, I could count them on my had at this point is all I’m saying.
Ease of Access
Obtaining Atugia has always been one of the Weirdest processes in game IMO. Not because it’s hard, but because the developer’s took so long to simplify the process, and I still feel like it’s pretty obtuse.
You need to visit her at the manor she’s guarding on the map and either win or lose a fight against her. Then talk to her several times until you ask weather you want to recruit her. Then talk to Baroness Carmen in order to ask her to join you. And if you don’t do these thing’s...she comes down to town and beat’s you up and join’s you anyway.
I...never understood why the game didn’t just flag a quest in order for you to check on Carmen, and have her offer you Atugia as a companion. It just feel’s like the one who thought this up was trying to make the whole process more complicated than it needed to be. And it was More complicated back in the day. Especially when you Had to sleep with her in order to recruit her, but only her body which...yeah it was weird.
Combat Prowess
I’ll admit in term’s of Combat, Atugia has the most interesting style. She’s a self sustaining Heal Tank who can pretty much keep herself up at all time’s. And if you have Arona in the party, she can develop int a powerful Damage Dealer down the line. Overall great flexibility, and a lot of uses in multiple party composition's.
Agnimitra
Story
And now were into character’s that are so late to the party, I often forget they arrive. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with Agni, there’s just not really a whole lot I can say About her. She an ancient being who’s lived for god knows how long, so you’d think there would be a lot there to unpack. But for the most part she’s pretty indifferent about it and the overall world around her.
And I get it, much like Kiyoko she can only tell the event’s of what she knows about the perspectives on how she knows them. But outside of that…I got nothing. She show’s up in your wayfort, you need to have her resurrected. And then she join’s you because...yep. That’s it. No real reason, no motivation. She just does.
I don’t dislike her. I just don’t really have a lot of strong feelings about her overall. Like I said earlier, it’s okay to be simple at times. But there is such a thing as Too simple.
Maybe they’ll be more down the line when we get into details with the Harpy Queen and Shar at some point. Because I feel like it would atleast make a little bit of sense to have her be involved with all that business. But until them...shrugs
Ease of Access
This is such a weird process I just don’t get. First you need to head to the fire temple in order to get her resurrected. Then ask her to join you which make’s sense. But then you need to travel all the way back to Hawkthrone in order to get her 3 flame proof cape’s to wear. Then you need to wait for her to finish her clothing and talk to her again and she finally join’s up with you.
It’s not a difficult processes. But each time I think to myself “Why did the developer’s not put a Waypoint to the temple to make traveling here easier if you need to visit it multiple times?”.
Combat Prowess
Honestly this is the 1 point she excels at. Agnimitra may only be Healer, but she’s a damn good one. Her skills mainly focused on buffing the party while empowering your defensive/offensive skills. I Really like her when I can get the right party type going, and I think with a few more set’s she could have a lot of potential down the line.
Viviane
Story
And now here’s the one character that I honestly have to say, I don’t get it.
I don’t fully understand why Viviane is a companion, but I feel like if there’s 1 character who need’s to the most work next too Agni, It’s Viv.
My only assumption is that she’s supposed to be a replacement for Berwyn. A companion who’s content was retired awhile back. The problem is that Berwyn was a much more interesting character with well written story and personal stake’s that made him appreciate you and ultimately wanna help you on your journey afterwords.
Viviane story is, she’s a Witch with a Traveling house...and that is it. She is about as interesting an NPC vendor in the game. She has no stake’s in any over arching plot. She has no connection to anyone outside of herself. And she doesn’t really care one way or the other about how thing’s are handled. You can turn her into a demon because of that which is...kind of neat I guess?
Now your probably thinking she does care somewhat about the threat of the invasion. But that’s only after you’ve warned her not to drink the obviously soul destroying potion that her first instinct is to drink unless you tell her not to drink it…
Ya know those archaeologist that are always touching the rare artifact’s with evil curses on them? Or the space explorer’s who stick they’re head’s in thing’s? Yeah, Viv wouldn’t last 10 minute’s in those situation's.
I know I’m joking but there really isn’t much for me to say. There are minimal to no interaction’s with Viv outside of a few recent one’s. She doesn’t have much to say on most situation’s. And I’m heavily disinclined to bring her Along to most situation's because, well, keep reading...
Ease of Access
Out of all the character’s, I wanna just ask...why?
In order to recruit Viv, you need to obtain Succubus Milk. A random drop that sometimes drop’s off demonic creature’s. Then you need to take one to her. But again, like Arona, it’s a Random Encounter. Why? Because I don’t know. She has a walking house I get it, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have Some way of contacting or finding her.
But then you talk to her and find out she need’s 9 More Succubus Milk. Again, the Rare Drop that Sometimes drops off Demon’s.
Oh, but you Can buy them off of Farrah, the merchant who moves into your Wayfort(assuming you don’t kick her out) After you’ve defeated Allisa and saved the Winter City. If you don’t mind dropping around 2’000 Electrum For Them!
So, after you’ve either obtained an incredibly rare drop, Or spent a load of cash on it. You need to find her Again in order to hand over the potion’s. Then wait several day’s for her to complete her research and Find her Again!
And then, Finally, she decides to come and join your team and settle’s down in the Wayfort. Which just make’s me question why she couldn’t be in that spot from the beginning but Whatever. After all that, was It Worth It?
Combat Prowess
Nope. Because not only is Viv the weakest in term’s of Story and Ease of Access, she’s also the Weakest character in your entire team.
Her skill set as a Trained Black Mage consist of:
Doing a little damage in order to have a small chance of an enemy dropping they’re weapon. Slightly buffing your or someone else weapon. Slightly damaging an enemy and maybe reduce they’re attack. And summoning a Wolf.
Her power’s aren’t just sad, but they are pathetic compared to some of the mid to late game power’s and ability’s I can unlock as a Black Mage. Even her Ultimate spell is laughable compared to my ability to stun an opponent for 3 rounds and strip them of all buff’s. She can, moderately buff our melee attack weapons. (so I hope your team mostly consist of melee)
I can 100% see a Mixed Fire/Frost/Storm set. Each one centerted around DPS with diffrent variation's. A Fire Set built for pur DPS, a frost set built for DPS/Defense that can use protection spells to buff the whole party, and a Storm Set built to Debuff the entire enemy team. Because you are Magic! Be Magic!
Remember earlier when I mentioned Viv was a Replacement for Berwyn? Yeah, his skilled involved Summing an Earth Golem, healing the team and lobbing fireballs. I don’t know why they didn’t just copy/past his ability’s onto her, but even that would have been a much better alternative.
I try and used Viv, I really did. But because of the power scaling of most enemy’s, I can’t develop a logical party composition that wouldn’t utterly cripple a team’s DPS output with her in it. Out of all the characters, I always question certain decision's made at time. But if you asked me why Viv was ever a thing, I honestly couldn’t give you 1 straight answer.
So there we go, what are all Your team favorite’s? And is there any party composition you like more than other’s? I know I like trying out all sort’s of different one’s, and I hope they're more of each character and character interaction’s down the line.
