Your preferred Buddy? *Incredibly minor spoiler warning since they're all on the box..but still*

Butters, because I like to hear him say "By the hammer of Butters!"

His random banter when walking around is often quite funny, too.

Butters hits like a mofo.

I ran with Butters most of the game but When I didn't have him with me I had Cartman. I think Stan and Kyle were my least favorite.

I chose Butters because of how helpful his strength/powers are to you in the early going compared to everyone else's, but during the only truly hard parts of the game it's Kenny that's easily most valuable. He causes tons of damage to all enemies with the Furry Friends attack while also starting bleeding, and can lower their attack with Charm before that. The way the mage works in this game, one round of that followed by another round of fire or slow magic and Kiss to gross them out and the enemies were often killing themselves as they attacked the second time or I was getting in a third strike before they got their second. But then Professor Chaos is so much more clutch than any other abilities that Butters becomes super important again in the late game.

The only time I was Jimmy was for his side quest and a few random times when I just needed to regain Kenny or Butters' health and randomly picked him. Stan likewise seemed pretty useless and I don't really remember what Kyle did but I do know it felt good to fire that arrow attack and it seemed like it was probably the true second strongest buddy attack. I loved that Cartman's main attack was the v-chip (even if that should've been a plot device to make it make sense) but I could take him or leave him.

My biggest complaint was that, alongside the game being fairly easy (challenging to win, but hard to die) they only used a two character party. I picked my favorites early on and the newest characters came so very late that it was hard to invest any effort in learning their timing or tactics. The whole system seemed like it'd have a lot of potential in a sequel, though. The variety of the buddies was totally well done.

Butters until you get Stan. Stan until you get Cartman. "Your insides are rotten bro."

Butters was my favorite as far as the little quips he would make throughout the game when walking around would go.

But Kyle was my favorite battle partner, Kick the baby was a devastating attack sometimes and the one that rained down arrows was great at taking out groups even when you messed it up.

As much as I loved Butters and Cartman, Kyle's summon elemental(kick the baby) does crazy amounts of damage. I was having it hit for 12,000-14,000 by the end of the game, and the arrow attack drops 8,000-10,000 even when you botch it. He can also buff the party every turn(maybe that's why he was hitting so hard). I actually quit using him because he was making things a little too easy.

Butters seems like the most well-rounded, so I stuck with him for the majority.

But MAN, Kyle is just a game-breaker. Wish I had him unlocked during a certain mid-game boss fight.

Kyle is great at clearing out multiple enemies.

I voted Stan just cause I like Stan I guess. Truthfully at high level his basic attack hits a ton and it hits a whole column so it can do some real damage and he is way less paper champion than all your other allies, don't forget his free defense down dog move either. Power wise though at max level Kyle is easily the best companion, if you pull off his archer move perfect it will one shot kill pretty much 95% of the regular enemies in the game and it hits all enemies. Butters is probably the "best overall" since he is one of the few with a power attack basic hit that lets him hurt armored dudes and he has some useful skills+Doctor Chaos is pretty nice. For pure funzies and favorite though I would say Princess Kenny even though he hits like a girl on all but his top special moves. Of course there is the sick enjoyment I get out of purposefully failing his unicorn move as well....

I have been rolling with Butters as well and it's that move specifically that's the reason for it. It is one of the few moves that targets all enemies and deals a shit ton of damage. Plus is always good to have a healer, even though it's somewhat unnecessary given all the health loot you're given or find.

Just got Stan and Kyle as buddies, so looking forward to seeing if they have any better offers.

You don't have an all of the above.

I rotate them all out regularly as they are all fairly useful in one way or another.

Stan is really good at area damage and lowering their defenses every single turn.

Kyle is really good at "nuking" (doing massive amounts of damage) and has a really nice buff he can cast every single turn. He's actually better than Cartman as even his regular attack does a ton of damage where as Cartman does not.

Cartman has some amazing "nukes". Other than that he's just a funny jerk.

Butters is good for healing others (which I have needed less later in the game) every single turn and has an amazing ultimate skill. His damage output is also decent but doesn't have the same endurance (like, if you use his ultimate in a fight you aren't doing anything else unless you give him more PP first). He also pulls tons of aggro which can be bad as it tends to mean (if you don't stun lock the enemy which is usually easy to do so not a big deal) he gets knocked out a lot or takes tons of damage but he doesn't actually have the HP to compensate. He is my favorite South Park character, though, and is used well in the game.

Kenny... He has a funny fail state (I wont spoil it) for one of his attacks but I don't actually find him all that useful so I only used him when it was part of the quest. Swapped him out otherwise. He isn't even particularly useful for ambient dialogue (because he can't actually speak without mumbling as is his character).

Jimmy has some decent buffs which take some getting used to as he isn't so much built for fighting (although he does fine with that) but his debuffs make him useful. I don't use him much but he has merit.

I've pretty much rolled with Butters for the whole game. I got so used to him in combat, and I just like his dialogue in the game so much I never switched away from him too long before going back.

Never got tired of hearing, "Feel my righteous fury!"

Kyle. Playing as a fighter, using your ultimate ability and then following up with Kyle's ultimate kills almost everything in one turn.

I got really fond of "I got your back, yo!"

Butters seems to have the most outside-combat dialog, even if most of it is just in the first areas of the game, when you're breaking shit in Eric's house.

When I got inside (end-game spoilers):

Mr. Slave I switched to every character to hear their dialog.

I didn't really care enough about special abilities as I found the combat incredibly easy and manageable with just my main Mage dude (I played Fighter also and found the Fighter to be even more powerful), so I kept Butters with me most of the time, since there really isn't much dialog at all outside combat and cutscenes.

Kyle, for the easy buff. Also I like Kyle.

Jimmy and Butters are okay too. Kenny's abilities aren't all that bad either.

I don't care for Cartman and Stan much, sadly.

Cartman is crowd control at it's finest.

Butters hits hard and he heals you.

Butters

for two reasons: 1. He hits har and can heal me 2. Tehre was never a need for thinking of a strategy to begin with so I always kept him.

Butters and Stan. I just liked the massive damage output. The game is so easy, especially with the Jew's plague power, that it almost doesn't matter who you pick

When I was a Jew, Cartman. When I was a Mage, Stan.

You fools dont know. Jimmy is OG

This, although Kenny has the funniest ability.

Surprised at the lack of love for Jimmy. His quickmove gives you near infinite pp, all his moves are aoe and sleep is spammable

Butters for both his silly banter and his great variety of effective attacks. Except when I'm facing enemies too powerful, then I use Kenny and spam his rat horde, or use Kyle and spam his kick-the-baby (don't kick the god-damn baby).

Stan and Cartman I used for 5 minutes each and thought they were weak. But I saw a lot of people praise Cartman's powerful ass, so I'll use him on my second playthrough.

Kyle's "Kick the Baby" allied with my mage got me through the last few hours of the game almost single-handedly.

Butters is the best character though (that goes for South Park in general, not just the game).

LOL, I thought it was just my ridiculous setup that made the kick the baby move good too...

MAIN CHARACTER ----- Automatic +1 attack at start of battle.-----------> Super coffee pill. ---------> Raining Frogs Move ----------> Raining Frogs Move (Like +5 buffs to ability... and debuffs to enemy)

INSERT KYLE ----- debuff setup move ------> kick the baby

I was getting like 28,000 - 35,000 from kick the baby.

I used Butters for pretty much the entire game but Princess Kenny's Unicorn Attack is pretty hilarious especially when you mess it up.

I stuck with Butters for most of the game cause of the random banter and Kenny doesn't really have any. I did use Cartman a lot once I got him.

I stuck with Butters and Kenny for most of the game but I used Cartman almost exclusively for the last couple hours or so since it was so effective. Cartman was pretty much a 1-shot kill near the end. I think I only used Stan and Kyle once or twice. Never really found them that effective compared to Butters or Cartman. Kenny has some great stuff, but those bows only do so much later in the game so I kind of stopped using him 3/4 of the way through.I think I used Jimmy once at the ranch.

I've been using Butters 90% of the game but, I may switch to the others just to try em out before I finish it. Haven't really seen a lot of their attacks yet.

I alternated between butters, cartman and stan