Role-playing gamesdon’t need to slot into any particular shape - they can be so many things. But one feature that plenty of them have in common is a commitment to rich characterization. And one of the best ways that developers can make that manifest is by having its best characters tag along as party members.
There are hundreds of favorite party members out there across at least as many RPGs, but we’re taking a crack at mapping out our own most beloved companions.
Please be advised! There are spoilers in each of our entries. If there are games on this list that look neat enough to check out, but you’ve not gotten a chance to do so, consider skipping our thoughts on those characters!
12Kanji Tatsumi - Persona 4
Comes a time when a man’s gotta stand on his own two feet.
Kanji Tatsumi stands out in a game crowded with standout companions. His rough-and-tumbling, delinquent demeanor is one part accurate, two parts facade; there’s a caring young man in there who commits several acts of immense bravery throughout the course of Persona 4’s tale.
Before his father passed away, he told Kanji to fulfill his role as a “man” and “become stronger.” There’s a lot going on beneath the surface for our favorite punk, and he eventually deduced that his father never meant it the way he perceived it. But it’s safe to say this factors into the self-imposed, ill-fitting ways in which Kanji presents himself.
Coming to grips with his more tender characteristics is a game-length journey for Kanji, and he emerges all the stronger for it. We’re happy to be there every step of the way.
11Balthier Bunansa - Final Fantasy 12
I’m only here to see how the story unfolds. Any self-respecting leading man would do the same.
Yasumi Matsuno may have stepped away from his role as Final Fantasy 12’s director due to health issues, but his narrative blueprint is completely intact: a politically-charged fantasy epic that ends with a larger-than-life confrontation but focuses on the lives of more ordinary people.
Unfortunately, for all its heights, FF12 is frequently criticized for a stop-and-start plot that sometimes fades away for hours at a time. It takes a special character, then, to make up for these pitfalls - and Balthier Bunansa is that (leading) man.
Balthier is on our list because, for all his game’s semi-aimless stretches, there’s never a dull moment when he’s around. His English voice actor, Gideon Emery, delivers a career-high performance, while his script is polished to a mirror sheen.
A sky pirate whose past keeps catching up with him no matter how fast he flies, Balthier is more compelling than much of what occurs around him, and he elevates Final Fantasy 12 so thoroughly by his theatrical presence.
10Frog - Chrono Trigger
Ma’am, thou’rt mistaken; I’m not a pet, I’m a knight and master swordsman.
If there’s one Squaresoft RPG that’s completely weathered the test of time to maintain a near-perfectly peerless lasting reception, it’s a game that releasedbeforethe profit behemoth known as Final Fantasy 7. It’s Chrono Trigger. From flawless pacing, to a rock-solid battle system, to captivating character designs from the late, great, Akira Toriyama, it’s got it all.
Those designs don’t go to waste in the least, as they’re matched by characters as charming as they are delightfully drawn. Among them, our favorite is Frog, a young swordsman cursed into amphibian form.
A heart of gold, a legendary sword, and a dauntless conviction to see evil brought to justice imbue Frog’s story with palpable emotion and fist-bumping heroism.
Frog would already be a candidate for this list even without the twist to his late-game final confrontation with the nefarious Magus, but the courage to - should the player permit it - allow Magus to atone for his actions has stuck with us for decades.
9Eunie - Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Every time we run, why do we always end up getting drenched? I mean, feathers are a bitch to dry.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 tells the harrowing tale of a world whose inhabitants are given only ten years to live their lives to the fullest, and even that comes with the dreadful asterisk that they will be fighting in a war the whole way through and may perish long before their limited time is up.
The main cast grapples not only with this horror, but the eventual revelation of what it all means. Time has operated effectively at a standstill for centuries, and people who have perished have had their souls “recycled” and been reborn.
For all the gravitas given to dual protagonists Noah and Mio, we believe the script handles this grim subject most gorgeously with Eunie. As pragmatic as she is sarcastic, Eunie prefers to face the bitter reality of her existence head-on, free of any firm delusions.
Eunie’s fiendishly funny, a real testament to the power of humor in the face of adversity. Yet her inner anguish is merely masked by it. As she realizes that she’s been around the bend in this cycle of death and rebirth in the past, this young woman must contend with the shock that a world whose hardship she had taken at face value is all the more nightmarish than she realized.
8Elhaym Van Houten (Xenogears)
By ourselves, we are lonely, so we try to draw together to live. That’s what it means to be human. That’s how people live. A single hand cannot clap.
Long before Tetsuya Takahashi delivered Nintendo the first installment in the long-running Xenoblade Chronicles franchise, he released what some still consider his magnum opus.
Xenogears' multifaceted plot, thoughtful and provocative themes, and sprawling world may be somewhat marred by its rushed back half, but with characters like Elhaym van Houten, it timelessly rises above the sum of its parts.
Born within the upper social ranks of an advanced aerial society which secretly rules over the dueling nations of the surface world, Elhaym - or Elly, as she’s more commonly called - embarks on a personal journey to break the bonds which chain her to Solarian doctrine. In the process, she unravels shocking revelations regarding not just herself, but the human race.
Fei Fong Wong is Xenogears' steadfast protagonist, and he’s a fine character in his own right. But it’s the game’s heroine whose arc has stuck with us the most. It’s poignant, it’s profound, and it’s symbolic of everything right with this flawed gem of an RPG.
7Solas - Dragon Age: Inquisition
No real god need prove himself. Anyone who tries is mad or lying.
Apologies if you happen to read this after Dragon Age: Dreadwolf releases - whenever the heck that will be - but fans of BioWare’s fantasy role-playing series have been waiting forclose to a decadeto see what happens next, and so much of that anticipation is built around one man: Solas.
Introduced as a Spock-like old soul, a wise if standoffish sort who carries with him a deep passion for all the things which have been lost among elfkind, Solas is never less than intriguing. No matter who Solas converses with, he seems infinitely capable of either drawing out their deepest thoughts, or at least pushing them to the brink of it.
As anyone who has finished Dragon Age: Inquisition surely knows, however, it’s what happens at the end that matters most. Solas is revealed to have set much of the game’s central conflict in motion. An epilogue DLC, Trespasser, carries forward this thread - but only so far.
We’ve waited all these years to see what Solas has in store for us. His ambitions are nothing short of world-shattering, though his cause is tragically sympathetic. He’s an excellent party member while he’s around, but it’s the stuff that happensafterwardthat pushes Solas sky-high.
6Kreia - Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic II
It is such a quiet thing, to fall. But far more terrible is to admit it.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II has long been praised for bringing the Galaxy Far, Far Away into a greyer moral area than the vast majority of Star Wars storytelling.
Obsidian Entertainment took the excellent - and far less nuanced - foundation that BioWare established in the first KOTOR, and used it as a springboard for exploring the Jedi and the Force with a more critical eye. No character in KOTOR II makes this approach more vivid than Kreia.
The game’s lead writer, Chris Avellone, created Kreia in such a way as to give voice to his deep-rooted issues with the Force. Kreia, who has secretly betrayed the Jedi and taken the mantle of Darth Traya, believes that it is only through freedom from the shackles of the Force that true freedom can be heralded.
As a character, Kreia has not only astonished millions of players; she has left a lasting legacy as proof positive that, for all its good-and-evil aspirations, there’s room for ambiguity in the Star Wars universe.
5Mordin Solus - Mass Effect And Mass Effect 3
Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong.
Complicit in the sterilization of an entire species of sentient beings, and remarkably firm in his conviction that it was the safest course of action, Mordin Solusenters Commander Shepard’s orbit early in Mass Effect 2. Mordin’s scientific mind marks an enjoyable contrast to many of the more emotionally-driven squadmates aboard the starship Normandy SR-2.
Mordin’s gradual shift toward a more empathetic viewpoint on the genophage - the aforementioned race-wide sterilization - puts him on a collision course with a high likelihood of a sacrificial fate.
While it’s notmandatoryfor Mordin to die while undoing the genophage’s effect on the homeworld of his former enemy, it’s the probable outcome for most players, and a tearjerker for the ages.
Mordin is as humorous about the doldrums of existence as he is serious about the pursuit of science. He often offers Shepard invaluable insights, and peppers in such off-the-wall actions as a parodied performance of an acclaimed song by Gilbert and Sullivan.
4Partitio Yellowil - Octopath Traveler 2
I’m gonna eliminate that devil called poverty.
Octopath Traveler 2’s entire playable cast is worthy of this list. It’s one of the finest ensembles we’ve seen in years, and it’ll stand the test of time, even if the game itself hasn’t gotten the global recognition it deserves.
Partitio Yellowil, one of the eight titular travelers, is as much a primary protagonist as he is a party member - but that’s OK, because the same holds true of the other seven. Partitio is capitalism in its most utopian form: altruism in the name of innovation.
His quest is to bring happiness to the masses through grit and determination, and as our chosen quote so cleanly illustrates, he dreams of wiping poverty off the face of the planet. Always accompanied by a cheery jazz number that accentuates his selfless soul, Partitio will stop at nothing to bring happiness through capable commerce. Partitio rocks.
3Barret Wallace - Final Fantasy 7/Final Fantasy 7 Remake Trilogy
I know you got problems. Hell, we all do. But you gotta understand that there ain’t no gettin' offa this train we’re on, till we get to the end of the line.
When Barret Wallace’s hometown burns, his own wife among the massacred, by the very corporation whose sweet little lies had compelled him to admire it, his heart is consumed with a need for revenge. Final Fantasy 7 isn’t subtle about this - the man has a gun grafted on his arm.
For the next several years, Barret leads a group of eco-terrorists in a bid to dethrone the wicked Shinra from their stranglehold on society. But what makes him so fascinating is how richly he can still bring himself to demonstrate his inherent goodness. Raising the daughter of his fallen best friend while waging war against a world-ruining corporation is no small feat.
The original Final Fantasy 7 probably handles Barret’s dual-pronged nature more artfully, as it seldom shies away from exploring the darkness in his mission. This makes his gradual softening all the more pronounced.
Yet credit where credit is due: the game’s ongoing trilogy remake, especially its second installment, instills Barret with far more dialogue than he had previously been given. These more extensive scripts are bolstered by the exemplary vocal performance of John Eric Bentley.
