I just think they could be much, much more. Besides, ME "cheats".
And yet you happily support Larian in their endeavour to make the "companions" much, much less...
Edit:
And I want to add that the writing in DA:O is MUCH worse than the one in BG2, no matter if we speak about companions or the overall narrative. It's worse in every single element. It still hurts that DA:O is worse than BG2 in pretty much every single element overall, not only narrative-wise...
Edit2:
You also completely ignore my point that every game companions has in imminent point for the overall narrative just by "being there to help the PC". Is there better content possible? Of course. I never said BG2 had perfect companions. But it did A LOT of things right in respect to companions, stuff that was rarely done ever after again (mainly due to the fact that pretty much all modern games, Bioware ones included, are infected by voice-overitis...). I fear Larian will not built upon the good things about companions, it will just ignore them. Maybe they'll write a better inclusion of them into the main narrative - but that's not all that is needed for perfect companions. If they don't feel like real persons, if they don't have an emotional impact, they're ultimately useless to me and I feel indeed like I just used some random henchmen with a random backstory to help me in combat. But that's not what companions are all about for me. They have to be real persons within the context of the immersive experience, not PnP bots in SP.
Come oooon =) I don't want Larian to make mindless automatons out of the companions, it's quite the contrary : I hope they will feel like they are MORE than companions scattered here and there with a random backstory just because the hero need a party.
At first I was only here speaking for those who aren't interested *at all* in
scripted companions and are wondering whether it will be possible to take full control of them. I can understand the thought process and defend it as much as I can support a damn good writing of the companions. it's all about perspective and I can support both, and everything is leading me to believe it should be possible to have both in DOS2 =) My very own bias is toward being able to lead such a fully customized party but that doesn't exclude well written characters - again based on what I got from the various videos.
Agreed, the overall writing of DA:O is not that good. I only referenced it as the only game I knew where characters were more than potential romances or sidequests.
Actually, I think that what we all see as important in a character are actually only PARTS of a good character. A good character need to feel human and coherent, but also have a role in the story they are a part of. You, LC, from what I gather, value the human part, the organic feeling, the credibility of a character in his actions and reactions. I ( and potentially LAcrymas ) want them to tie nicely in the story, play their part, justify their existence storywise.
I think it all boils down to that.
And I think that thanks to the way they at Larian are approaching things, they should get at least a decent result at mixing those aspects. Focusing both on traits and the greater place in the story, they should be able to deliver us companions/characters that should organically integrate in the plot while still retaining their very own personnality born from their origin story and "experience" ( the combination of talent, "class", traits, maybe even more ).
