Retainer Companions

[Hollowed]

Nah, keep the retainers how they've always been, chained to the Market Board, as we're talking about people who tend to steal parts of houses, and I definitely don't trust mine helping me in battle - they're liable to betray me at the first chance they get.

Instead, bring back version 1.0's Path Companions! I miss my acid-tongued miqo'te GLA Path Companion Imarah and her constant flirting.

Haha I forgot about her! Yeah bring those companions back they were awesome!

[Parz3val]

Better yet, just reimplement Path Companions but sharing some of the ideas from this thread!

Gonna post about it.

[HakuroDK]

Considering all of the retainers have a personality that can be set to them, I don't see why they can't have a little more story or dialogue of some kind while fighting alongside you.

I have four retainers. One of them is is a casual Hyur named Crim, the next is a flirty Miqo'te named Mei'lou, the third is a strictly business Elezen named Thyst, and the last one is a burly drunk Roe named Emer. A very ragtag bunch that I'd love to have more dialogue with.

[Fyrebrand]

10/10 Awesome Idea. Let's make it happen, Squeenix!!

Of course, first they have to fix the problem of companion/mount incompatibility. Unless I can ride on my companions piggy-back style..??

OMG imagine if you can do dungeons with your companions. Pretty much you, your 2 retainers and your chocobo. That would be amazing.

Uh... there is no way that would work. An AI NPC could not possibly know how to deal with complex boss mechanics. Even something as simple as avoiding AoEs would be pretty messy.

Implement story characters who are intended to become part of our personal entourage akin to a traditional single-player FF.

Cool idea, but it does not make much sense to see 30 Minfillias running around the same area. At least Retainers are player-created and named, so they're not all going to be the same.

[myahele]

Well the tab for "companions" is plural. It'll be great to have a non chocobo as our partners. Not sure if I want something like a path companion that talks in cut scenes. Would rather ot be similar to the companion system we have now. And thier war cries/defeat will vary depending on personality.

[Duelle]

Not so much on the main scenario inclusion, but turning them into actual companions a la SWTOR would be incredible.

You've opened an old wound and reminded me of something I miss from SWTOR (outside of gun-wielding healers).

An idea I posted on the old forums was basically expanding the companion system to give you allies that can be called to help you incombat as the story progressed. Since I was very much into SWTOR at the time, I suggested having the combat chocobo as your first companion, a moogle (using assets from the moggle mog fight) as your second companion, your path companion as the third companion and your retainer as your 4th companion. With specs for each so that you have not only variety in terms of characters but also in usefulness.

So you might have set your chocobo to be physical DPS, your moogle set to caster DPS, your path companion set to tank and your retainer set to healer. Despite having posted that way before the april fool's favor system, I also suggested the path companion having a romance-ish option.

[Volsung]

When we eventually get more storyline characters, It would be fun being
able to build a bond with a certain one you like and summon them to fight
alongside you. Theyd have their own special abilities and such.

[ErikMynhier]

I would be content to use them as the NPCs in my house as opposed to the standard menders and junk mongers.

[Felis]

To make this work with the varying different retainer personalities they would have to write unique dialog for each of those personalities, multiplied by how many times you'd like the retainer to speak up. That's adds up to a lot of work very quickly. Our playable characters don't even get that kind of attention. I would rather all that effort be spent giving our characters more dialog options in quests instead.

They already did something like this with the path companions. Each race and gender had their own personality and dialogue.

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com...323fd5710d7f4d

Example:

Miqo’te Female
A lady who knows what she likes, and likes a little bit of everything. Don’t be fooled by her coquettish manner and all-too-apparent charms; in her breast beats the fiery heart of a warrior. Not to worry, though, she’ll be gentle—assuming that’s what you like.

[Toodles]

They already did something like this with the path companions. Each race and gender had their own personality and dialogue.

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com...323fd5710d7f4d

Example:

Precisely... it's nothing new, and not like a little dialogue here or there really cuts development time back so severely.....