Companion characters in video games make for a great experience. Sometimes, having a duo of interesting characters throughout a game can add to the narrative and provide intriguing perspectives as well as entertainment.
While there are a lot of interesting characters that team up with main characters throughout the history of video games, in this list, we will be taking a look at a few of them.
Video Games With The Best Companion Characters
Clank (Rachet and Clank)
PlayStation’s Ratchet and Clank series is the last remaining bastion of cartoony platformers that the company still clings to. Most of the popular franchises that they focus on these days are mostly hyper-realistic cinematic games meant for couch play.
Clank is a robot from the franchise, one of the best companion characters that developer Naughty Dog ever created. So much so that a whole series has spawned around them. After learning about the plans for his creator, Clank ran away on a spaceship.
He crashed on the planet where Ratchet grew up. Although Clank is the exact opposite of Ratchet in personality, he eventually became his lifelong partner in crime.
Tails (Sonic)
Among the platformer giants, we feel like Tails takes the crown for best sidekick or companion character to Sonic the Hedgehog. Though he gets mostly overshadowed by Sonic in terms of screentime, Tails has a fanbase of his own.
He is an anthropomorphic fox character with running shoes, and his full name, Miles Prower, is a pun that makes sense for the franchise that’s all about going fast. One of the cool features about Tails is that he sports two tails and can use them to fly up like a chopper.
Tails considers Sonic a role model and strives to be as cool as him, but he is pretty talented himself. Being a mechanical genius and pilot, he serves as a great supporting companion.
Yoshi (Super Mario)
We feel like Luigi is a character who can stand on equal footing to his brother Mario, which is why he shouldn’t be considered a sidekick. That title should rather go to the green dinosaur Yoshi; he has games made around him that have him literally fulfill the role of a trusted companion.
It’s not just a coincidence, but during the original design of Super Mario Bros, Yoshi was intended to appear as a sidekick to Mario. Fast forward to the Super Nintendo era, and that vision was finally realized as the players got to ride the green dinosaur and even devour enemies on the way.
Navi (Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time)
Navi is probably one of the most classic examples of a companion in a video game. This fairy literally looks like an orb of light with wings and still has a fanbase of its own. Navi acts as a navigator in the video game Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
It helps players with numerous hints as well as tutorials throughout the game, even though there is no physical presence during combat. Navi is always by Link’s side and has become popular enough to inspire the idea of companions in future Zelda games, such as Midna and Fi.
Kim Katsuragi (Disco Elysium)
Moving away from the usual platformers and Nintendo-style games, there are amazing companion characters in other games as well. The one that comes to mind from the most recent games is Kim Katsuragi in Disco Elysium.
He may not strike as the best companion out there, but he surely was a supportive figure to our player character, who wakes up with amnesia, having no memory of his immediate surroundings.
Kim appears as a stoic asian man who has an interesting sense of humor, which comes out every time players make dialogue decisions in the game.
Elizabeth (Bioshock Infinite)
BioShock was one of 2K’s most popular first-person shooters set in a fantasy steampunk world. It blew up further with the third installment, BioShock Infinite, which introduces the female companion character Elizabeth.
She has to be the most popular companion character out of any game franchise from the past decade. Elizabeth was out there contending for top spots in video game character rankings almost everywhere.
Elizabeth is a powerful companion who can harness the power to cause cracks in reality, accessing possibilities across infinite timelines.
Atreus (God of War)
Sony’s plan to soft-reboot the God of War franchise worked out really well in 2018. The series thrust Kratos’ fate into the future and the land of the Norse gods. Gameplay was completely reworked to feel new.
What surprised everyone was Kratos’ companion, because it was his own son whom we got introduced to for the first time. Atreus is an archer in training and one of modern PlayStation’s most iconic companion characters.
He reprises his role in the second game with even playable segments as he has an important role to fulfill in the story itself.
Pauline (Donkey Kong Bananza)
Donkey Kong Banaza is going to be the freshest entry on this list because the game just came out. It is already a favorite title among fans of the character who have been asking for a new 3D game in the franchise.
What makes Donkey Kong Bananza special, other than the amazing gameplay mechanics, is that a teenage version of Pauline is Donkey Kong’s sidekick. Pauline has a lot of history with our fan favorite ape, as she appears in the original Donkey Kong game as a kidnapped character.
So it was kind of an interesting move on Nintendo’s part to turn the tables around in changing Donkey Kong’s image of his relationship with Pauline.
Kazooie (Banjo Kazooie)
We are making our way back to good old platformers, because Nintendo made a lot of them, and almost all of them were popular for having iconic companion characters who made for a great tag team. The Banjo-Kazooie franchise by Rare is one that comes to mind the most.
Banjo is a bear, and Kazooie is a bird who hides inside Banjo’s backpack as they go on adventures. Kazooie is his best friend and can provide aerial support while platforming through levels.
The story of this tag team represents the best part about companion characters in games. Kazooie teams up with his best friend Banjo to save his sister from the witch Gruntilda.
Daxter (Jak and Daxter)
Naughty Dog did not just create one platforming game series that revolves around an iconic duo. Modern PlayStation fans don’t remember, but older people do remember the iconic tag team of Jak and Daxter.
It is a shame, but this franchise really never returned to the modern era of PlayStation games. For those who are not aware of the series, Daxter may look like an odd cartoonish anime, but he was originally a human who got turned into an otsel and is Jak’s best friend.
Daxter has an exploding sense of humor that people will love, and this is that one-time special time in video game history when a companion character actually got more popular than the main guy.
