I find companions quite useful as tanks. For the cost of slotting a good heal on my character, they can hold a solo boss wonderfully allowing me to focus on damage and a bit of healing.

I do find Isobel and Ember quite cheerful but I'm fine with that. You might reconsider Mirri. I find her to be companionable but not excessively cheerful. I view her as more of a wise/seasoned adventurer than some of the other companions, which makes her my fave.

I won't deny that the initial companions were designed to be somewhat stereotypical, but I can clearly sense that ZOS is making efforts to improve this situation.

[might be spoiler]
One day, I decided to complete an Endeavor that required killing a certain number of creatures. I chose to target those small animals in the overland with 1 HP, as they were the easiest prey. Zerith was by my side, and as I began killing the first few small animals, he followed me silently, like an emotionless NPC. However, when I was down to the last few creatures, he suddenly asked me, "Is this necessary?" I was genuinely surprised. At that moment, I felt as though I was accompanied by a real person, not just a program-driven companion. I truly hope to experience more moments like this.

Lykeion wrote: »

I won't deny that the initial companions were designed to be somewhat stereotypical, but I can clearly sense that ZOS is making efforts to improve this situation.

[might be spoiler]
One day, I decided to complete an Endeavor that required killing a certain number of creatures. I chose to target those small animals in the overland with 1 HP, as they were the easiest prey. Zerith was by my side, and as I began killing the first few small animals, he followed me silently, like an emotionless NPC. However, when I was down to the last few creatures, he suddenly asked me, "Is this necessary?" I was genuinely surprised. At that moment, I felt as though I was accompanied by a real person, not just a program-driven companion. I truly hope to experience more moments like this.

That IS good!

I don't like companions repeating the same phrases over and over again, sometimes even inappropriately. I hate this senseless repetitiveness.
I'd prefer them to be silent, or there to be an option to make them completely silent.
Unfortunately, the "minimum" mode is really excessive for my tastes.
This, combined with the fact that companions die too much (I don't slot healing, when I run with my dd), makes me never use companions.

Ugh. People. Great.

I get the feeling that most Companions are "cheerful" in a way to seem more appealing to players who like outgoing characters. Still, ZOS has shown that less-than-cheerful Companions can be written well and appeal to a different demographic of players. Companions don't have to be all that sociable to be good adventuring partners.

I'd definitely like to see more Companions in general, but especially some who aren't overly enthusiastic to be there. Sharp-as-Night is a great example of that.

I had hoped for an Evil Argonian Necromancer but ended up with Zerith-Var, at least he has a great passive tool.

I like Mirri because she's sarcastic. I don't consider her cheerful. Sharp, Zerith-Var, and Azandar are also okay. Tanlorin, Isobel, and Ember are all young and chirpy.

I've noticed a difference between the way the male and female companions are written. The males are usually older and they have calmer, more serious personalities. The females are young and chirpy (except Mirri).

I don't want any more companions, but if any more are added, we really need an older female with some gravitas to her personality. No more chirpy young adults please. There's nothing wrong with chirpy young adults, but we already have three of those for females.

(I lump Tanlorin in with the female companions because that's how I see her.)

I don't understand why Mirri will see me picking a flower and assume I'm doing something criminal with "Nothing wrong with a little... opportunistic harvesting."

Like... no? Because that's literally what I'm doing? Why do you have a tone? Do you think I'm stealing this flower from the King of Craglorn or something?

Tanlorin reminds me of my kid. Which sometimes makes them a joy to travel with, and sometimes makes me need a bit of a break from them. Also, I can't take them to Summerset because it becomes a hassle trying to avoid all the hostile gryphons and indriks she'll get pissed at me for killing.

I'm fine with Isobel, except that it's so hard for me to grind up faction with her just doing the things I normally do without going out of my way. I can claw out like three +1s from killing daedra (with some insane cooldown I haven't nailed down yet), then lose it all because there's one "steal" crate in a pile of "search" crates and I don't notice until it's too late. At least when I accidentally suck up a torchbug with Mirri, I can tap a bookshelf and counteract it.

Ember would probably be my favorite if it wasn't for her unnecessarily extreme reaction to fishing. I end up putting her away when I see a fishing hole and then forgetting to bring her back out again for an hour.

It's hard to pin down whether or not I like Azander. I only picked him up because I got tired of Isobel getting mad at me for accidentally stealing the one "owned" grape on a table of abandoned food and needed another tank. He's... odd. I don't know how I feel yet.

And those are all the companion quests I've been able to bring myself to endure. I hate those quests so much. Isobel's isn't bad, because it's quick and all in one area between two close wayshrines, but the rest seem to take forever.

My issue isn't the cheerfulness by itself, but more one dimensional emotion portrayal that ignores any nuances or depth to it. Take Solair from Dark Souls, that one character embodied more emotional depth than all the companions brought together with half a Tamriel along them. Also modernised and "quirky" dialogues doesn't help to carry their characters across.

Besides the combat issues they have, Companions here lacks speech intelligence. They all cycle through a couple lines of dialogue and repeat them in every single city.

That's something I kinda miss from Skyrim, y'know, while they also had a limited speech intelligence, at least each one of them had an opinion of sorts regarding each Hold/City,

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Absolutely agree. And I hope she wouldn't be a stick in the mud, girl boss, or some evil witch either. A female character should be able to be older without being a stick in the mud or a Mary Sue. Give me a woman with a similarly complex story like Zerith. She doesn't have to be a hero but the women need more variety in personality.

Absolutely. I don't want the stereotypical wise woman who dispenses life advice in her quiet, gentle voice, with her white/gray hair pulled back into a neat bun. No stereotypes. An older woman with an interesting backstory and who kicks butt would be welcome.

colossalvoids wrote: »

Also modernised and "quirky" dialogues doesn't help to carry their characters across.

Yeah I really hope the devs don't continue with this. And honestly, even though I like him and think he's a good design overall, I consider things like Sharp's ''skill issue'' line in this category.


Regarding specifically the cheerfulness topic: I much prefer grounded characters like Bastian and Zerith-var but I'm not sure how popular that is among the playerbase. Like, I see a Bastian consistently complained about over the years for being naggy and grating and similar, but he doesn't come off that way to me at all. So if he's too much, then...

I love companions as a feature for roleplaying, so I hope we continue to get more. I'd really like to see a mature woman companion. A mature, not peppy bosmer woman would be cool, considering a lot of the main bosmer women NPCs (Eveli, Gwendis, Little Leaf).