For us players, having fun and interesting characters to pal around with is something that can easily enhance any game. However, it’s just as fun to watch best friends do their thing completely independent of us too. There’s just something about knowing that our virtual companions have lives of their own too, you know? So, for this week of Listmas, let’s take a look at some of the best friendships in gaming!
Mission and Zaalbar
One of my all-time favorite games is Knights of the Old Republic. I’ve played through it a number of times over the years, and one of the things that’s stuck with me is the friend- ship between Mission Vao and Zaalbar. Now, I didn’t actually like using either of them on my team since Carth, Bastilla and Jolee Bindo were all just plain better, but their interactions were still fun to watch.
There’s a real sense of history between the two, and it’s very clear that they have a very close bond after everything they’ve been through. The funny thing is that even though they’re on this journey together with you, they’re still kind of doing their own thing most of the time. It’s really a nice, heartwarming thing to watch. For dark side players, the final interaction between the two can also be the saddest, most gut-wrenching scenes in the game. (Spoilers ahead. The game is over 20 years old now, but you never know)
As a dark side character, Revan can exploit the life debt owed to him by Zaalbar to force the wookie to murder his best friend when she refuses to turn to the dark side along with the rest of the team. Even to the very end, she believes that Zaalbar won’t actually do it, and the betrayal that settles in as he does is some of the most heart-wrenching in all of gaming. It’s one of the reasons I could never stomach a dark-side playthrough. I could never ruin that friendship!
Shepard and Garrus
Commander Shepard is an interesting character. He’s meant to be more of an avatar for the player, but he (or she) still has a distinct personality regardless of the player’s decisions. For example, whether renegade or paragon, he’ll always have some snark to him, and he’ll always wind up being good friends with everyone’s favorite turian: Garrus Vakarian.
Much like Varric in Dragon Age, Garrus is basically Shepard’s bro. The dude is always ready to back Shepard up when things get hairy, and not even Shepard coming back from the dead in ME2 is enough to phase him. When Shepard meets up with him again, he’s like, “yeah, I thought that was weird, but it’s you so I’m really not all that surprised.” That’s taking having faith in your bro to a whole new level right there! Garrus is the definition of “Ride or Die” and his friendship with Shepard is the best because of it!
Marcus and Dom
Despite Gears of War being a series of very macho “guy games,” it actually has more than a few dramatic and heartfelt character moments throughout its runtime. Some of these are just moments for the players and Delta Squad to take in the sheer devastation and horror of the war they’re fighting, but a lot of them focus on the friendship between Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago. These two have been friends since they were kids, had all kinds of good times together before the Pendulum Wars and the Locust, and now they’re sharing all the worst horrors of war too.
Dominic is shown to be having a hard time holding it together since his wife disappeared, and it’s Marcus who keeps him going, both before they find her and especially after. Dom is also Marcus’s main pillar of support too, one he would have a very difficult time doing without. It’s a friendship built upon a lifetime of shared experience and knowing each other better than they know themselves, something unique and special that you won’t find in any other game.
Jak and Daxter
Jak and Daxter are the quintessential comedy duo of gaming. Jak is, for the most part, always playing things straight, while Daxter, on the other hand, has to make a joke out of everything. This made their friendship kind of confusing in the first game, as their per- sonalities really didn’t seem to mesh very well, but thankfully Naughty Dog fixed that in Jak II and Jak 3.
Jak II turns Daxter from annoying sidekick into a loyal friend and very much needed an- chor/counterbalance to Jak’s anger and destructive tendencies. He accentuates Jak’s se- riousness, making Jak all the more attractive as a mercenary to friendly factions and that much more dangerous to his enemies. We also get to see that Jak and Daxter are on the same page about a number of things: like firepower, jet boards, and, uh some other things.
By the end of the trilogy, we get to see the full extent of their bond and the kinds of mutual understandings between the two. The two really are a team in every sense of the word, being a much greater force together than either could be apart.
Sly and the Gang
I think the friendship between Sly, Murray and Bentley might be my absolute favorite out all the ones I’ve seen in games so far. From the very beginning it’s established that the three have been inseparable since childhood, and it only gets better from there. We get to see the three grow over the course of the trilogy: as a team, as friends and even as individual characters.
We see Murrray and Bentley go from sitting on the sidelines to taking more and more active roles in the heists. Sly goes from being more of a lone wolf in his work to getting more and more comfortable entrusting vital tasks to his friends. Bentley goes from hiding in the van with his computer to operating in the field, and he doesn’t even let losing his legs stop him. Murray goes from kind of a cowardly sort to a rough and tumble brawler.
The team even goes through a crisis of confidence between Sly 2 and Sly 3, even losing Murray for a time. But they come back all the stronger for it. By the end of Sly 3, we get the sense that these three really can overcome anything together and will likely remain inseparable, even if they’re not always together. It was a real boost to the feels as a kid, and I still really appreciate it today. Here’s hoping we get to see another group like the Cooper gang sometime in the future.
What are some of your favorite friendships in gaming? Let us know below and stick around to see more Listmas this week from Cary and the Duck!
Image from by Flickr user: Niranjan (cc)
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