Suggestion: More Companions

[Hasrat]

Stray thought I had. Why is it the only companion pet we get is our combat chocobo? I mean, sure, there's the old egi argument of "it fills all the roles, what more do you need?" But seems like there's a lot more devs could do with that system providing more options with different styles.

Tangential thought that could probably be its entire own thread: I get the impression that this is among many early features that were implemented, with plenty of room to expand upon, but have largely been abandoned as the game moves forward (such as the Hunting Log).

[Dualgunner]

I think we've been waiting for new companions since 1.x which is where we apparently had a story important companion. I'd love to see companions though!

[KokonoeAiyoko]

The game would honestly need more open world content for it to be worth adding additional companions.

[Theodric]

The game would honestly need more open world content for it to be worth adding additional companions.

Correct.

I'm not opposed to the idea - because it has the potential to be pretty neat - but there isn't a whole lot of content that it would be suitable for. There would also be a lot more clutter to deal with on people's screens which is why the various 'pet' classes have such limited options last I heard. I'm happy to be corrected if that is wrong, though.

[Xlantaa]

As far I know, I think the Grand Company Squadron will allow us to use our member as companions, but never have a word again about it. Maybe nothing till 4.1 or ahead.

But if they have the intelligence of a Chocobo, then... welp.

[DamianFatale]

As far I know, I think the Grand Company Squadron will allow us to use our member as companions, but never have a word again about it. Maybe nothing till 4.1 or ahead.

But if they have the intelligence of a Chocobo, then... welp.

I heard that they were going to bring it in shortly after 4.0, so I hope so.

What I would also like to see is more animals with different benefits. Maybe we could have a pet Tonberry, Moogle, Bomb, or etc. Then again, that might just be the beast master class. I do think it would be different. A companion is just a simple NPC that helps you out. You can train it, but you can't control it. I think we could possibly have both.

Either way, I want more companions, and to fight with animals at my side! Beastmaster, or not.

[Zojha]

While I personally must say I don't really care for more companions for the purpose of "doing" something different, expanding the companion system to allow for more variety than just a chocobo wouldn't be too bad.

Alternately, (or additionally), they could put the Blue Mage gimmick into companions, where it would work without massively breaking things. Have the chocobo learn the spells it gets hit by and randomly pick one when it does the respective cast. Just gotta avoid the more gamebreaking ones like Zantetsuken >_>

[Hasrat]

There would also be a lot more clutter to deal with on people's screens which is why the various 'pet' classes have such limited options last I heard. I'm happy to be corrected if that is wrong, though.

It couldn't really be more cluttered than running with the bird, would it? I'm not asking for, like, a whole party of pets or anything here. That would definitely be excessive. Limiting to one companion summoned at a time seems more than enough.

But that is a fair point. Admittedly, my chocobo went pretty neglected for the majority of my leveling experience. It's only really been when I hit the last set of beast tribe quests while in the 45-50 range that I found it more useful to have that little extra help. And I haven't seen HW zones yet to be able to say whether companions would see any use through there, or further speculate how SB might fare.

As a counter-argument, I would offer that it may still be worthwhile, if only for players that don't focus all of their efforts on dungeon runs. Which I know has a bit of a negative stigma in the game (getting to 50/60 through FATE grinding, etc). But, options for all player types.

On implementation, I would expect further companions to be largely similar to the bird in the whole "NPC you have little control over" regard. It's not a great system by any means, sure, but it's functional for what it needs to be. Micromanaging pets can be left to your SMNs or Beastmaster if that ever happens or whatever.

Or, wild idea, why not let retainers act as companions? They do already have the basic AI for NPCs running as various classes, to an extent, from all the job quests...

[Con_Carne]

The other classic FF creature: Moogles. Instead of Gyshal Greens, Kupo Nuts. Instead of bardings, customes similar to the King Mog's Mogglesguard.

Also, a fourth companion role besides Defender, Attacker and Healer: Synergist, with abilities to support us with defense buffs, similar to its function in FF13.

[Hasrat]

The other classic FF creature: Moogles. Instead of Gyshal Greens, Kupo Nuts. Instead of bardings, customes similar to the King Mog's Mogglesguard.

Also, a fourth companion role besides Defender, Attacker and Healer: Synergist, with abilities to support us with defense buffs, similar to its function in FF13.

This would be fine. My actual initial thoughts for the idea were just the beast tribe mounts. Battle Drake, Goobue, Elbst, and... idk, Bomblings I guess?
Obviously not a thing I would expect to happen at this point. I think that would require a bit of a redesign of some things in that area to make it a little more relevant. Maybe if they did some bizarre thing like expanding ARR maps (to make room for 50+ mobs and such), they could expand the beast tribe areas and extend the beast tribe quest system as well, creating a reason for beast tribe companions being a thing.