I FEEL LIKE I NEED TO CLARIFY THIS cuz i know it’s sounds really weird and i’ve got some mildly confused tags on this lol . essentially fallout 4 companions tend to follow this structure of
- hi this is me and the front i present
- um you’re kinda cool . not ready to talk about deadwife/whatever the fuck yet
- personal quest and full spill, either before or after
- all traumas resolved, if they’re romanceable then now you can fuck nasty
- character is completely abandoned once this story has concluded and forgotten about
it always feels like the writers want to set up a character that has problems to solve so you can fix them and they’ll be forever grateful and worship the ground you walk on or whatever . and this is very much a consequence of them being a Character, and not a real person with real people problems . yes these guys have baggage, yes if you care about them then you’ll want to help them, but a lot of emotional baggage is well. emotional. it’s not tangible and you really can’t do anything about it .
that’s why it really feels like a hollow victory when you track down eddie winter, as an example. narratively i suppose this is interesting, that nick will always have to live with this and figure out how to move through it, but the aftermath is always implied . the healing process is the largest and most difficult part of the problem . getting cait sober? cool. maintaining that? a very rocky road . but That kind of development is very very hard to pull off in a video game end-of . so bethesda kinda settled on this middle ground where you help them with their immediate issues and then they figure it out on their own from there, and it’s just not satisfying .
That is why i propose (drum roll, flashing lights, pulling back the curtain etc etc) Silly Quests! quests that allow you to build an attachment to a character in the same way you would with knowing all their Deep Dark Secrets but in a less creatively taxing format. yes danse’s main story, unfinished as it is, is pretty interesting and i enjoyed it for what it was . you know what i also wanna do? i wanna take that guy out on the town. i wanna go on the stupidest drunken misadventure with a very reluctant paladin . i wanna have my own buddy cop film .
and while i definitely think that these Ultra Serious Character quests are still very fun and kind of objectively add a lot more to the overall story, i need Something to break up the monotony every now and then . i don’t need to save every single one of you- i gotta find my son! i can, however, spare time for some shenanigans. getting silly in the wasteland is very important to me. i think Get Silly With It should be a mantra all writers repeat in their brains . i’m not saying it has to be funny, but no-consequence fun is really the entire point of video games and i would’ve liked to see a heck of a lot more of it with the companions specifically (it’s still present in stuff like the silver shroud or the USS constitution) . deacons right there, cmon. prime target for a shenanigan or two
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