My favourite part of the game has to be the companions and getting to interact with them and hearing their reactions to the different encounters. However, it would be nice if this could be taken a step further. At the moment, the companions talk to each other as you are travelling around the world, but the MC doesn’t get to join in. Since these are not proper cutscenes, you can’t actually click on a dialogue option to become part of the conversation. I’m not looking for a fully voiced MC, but I do want to feel as though I’m part of the group. But the problem with the MC joining in, is that your reply might not fit your MC’s personality.
There is one conversation with Lae’zel, where she tells you she is considering ending the tieflings herself, but the MC replies, ‘They are survivors, not soldiers.’ Now, this didn’t seem out of place since it had only triggered on my tiefling playthroughs. However, I am currently doing an ‘evil’ drow playthrough, and that reply didn’t sound right coming from her. Therefore, I want to suggest adding ‘personality types’ to the custom MC’s origin, such as brave, shy, arrogant, selfish etc.
Personality types should affect a few things, most notably your MC’s facial expressions or reactions in cutscenes, and banter when walking around with your companions. There could also be additional dialogue options in cutscenes that are unique to your personality type. But more importantly, it can allow your custom MC to chat to your companions out in the world. There can be a few conversations, each with a line that it relevant to your personality, rather than having one line for all of them that might not fit. Regarding the example with Lae’zel, a selfish reply could be, ‘I don’t care what happens to them as long as I can find a healer,’ while a heroic reply might be, ‘We should do what we can to help them.’
I also want to suggest having more opportunities to get to know your companions. Perhaps you could be sitting around the campfire chatting or having a meal. The game encourages you to take long rests to trigger cutscenes, so why not add more?
Now, I can’t make a thread about interacting with companions without talking a bit about romance. With the addition of more cutscenes, this could also make romance in the game a bit more natural. Gale has two scenes where you can potentially show romantic interest, which later triggers his romance at the party. Perhaps all the companions should have that. When you reach high approval, it could trigger a scene at the camp where you have the option to flirt with the companion. If you do, they then show interest at the party. If you don’t, then you get different dialogue at the party, something that isn’t flirtatious or romantic. The companions could still make a comment if you decide to romance someone, but they shouldn’t get jealous unless you actually tried to flirt with them before.
Take Lae’zel for example. I have never tried to romance her, and usually have her at neutral or medium approval by the party. Her dialogue there seems completely out of place. Why would she be impressed about you killing some goblins? If anything, the line about ‘holding your nerve’ sounds more fitting for the evil route, where you held your nerve while killing the innocent tieflings. (I haven’t done the evil path before so I don’t know if her dialogue at the goblin party is different.) However, she mentions that she might spend the night with a different companion if you don’t spend it with her. Perhaps if you have lower approval, she tells you to go away because she is about to ask a different companion to spend the night with her, and if you ask if she’s interested in spending it with you instead she turns you down.
On the other hand, Shadowheart never shows interest unless you have discovered her secret, which makes sense. Although I haven’t romanced her before either, from what I have read, the night can end as friends. (Since she opens up a bit more about her past, it would be nice if that scene could trigger on a different night too, without needing any potential for romance, similar to how Gale tells you his story the night after the party.)
If romances begin to develop, then perhaps it could also affect the tadpole dreams. Now, I don’t mind not having a full in game backstory for my custom MC, but because of that I find I don’t connect with the dream ‘lover’. I know I can make up my own backstory for the lover, but even then it can’t actually be implemented into the game. So why not have the option to dream about one of the companions instead?
There are two ways this could happen. Perhaps there could be a short narration/cutscene between creating your custom MC and creating the dream lover, something along the lines of, ‘Memories begin to form in your mind. You see your home, the people you care about. But as the images come faster, you start to see memories that are not yours, places you haven’t been, people you haven’t met. A voice cuts through the confusion: “Who do you dream of?” Is it someone you once knew, or someone you have yet to meet?’ I know this is a bit of a stretch, but this could be explained as your mind connecting with all the other people with tadpoles, and your memories merge with theirs. You might find yourself attracted to someone you saw, but in the confusion the tadpole might not realise it’s not actually someone you know yet. But that way, there could be an option to dream about one of the companions from the start.
Another option could be to dream about the companion only after you romance them. The lover could transform into the companion you romanced and ask if you prefer them in this form. If you reply ‘yes’ it stays as the companion. If you reply ‘no’ then you continue to dream about your custom lover. All the companions dream about someone they are directly connected to. So why can’t the MC dream of someone they are connected to at the moment, someone they are starting to care about or that they are potentially even falling in love with? If you want to pursue romance with a companion, it’s a bit immersion-breaking for the dreams to be about someone else.
