Whilst I did like a lot of the BG characters, often I made choices based on party composition. They’re stories weren’t that great that I struggled to kick my adopted sister to the curb when a more useful character turned up.
If I don’t have need for a mage (because I’m one for example), then it doesn’t matter if you appear in a plume or smoke and offer me flowers and a tale of woe, the cleric stays no matter how boring her intro because I need the healing.
If it turns out later she was hiding some great story lines that she was only willing to share at a later date then that’s a bonus.
Don’t get me wrong, companions should definitely be interesting and offer interesting replayability options depending on composition and choice but I don’t need all of them to have some instant hook, but I guess I’m not going to mind if they did.
