EternalNothingness

You know, there was one game that handled multiple playable characters right, and that was Sonic 3 & Knuckles. The reason was because Tails and Knuckles played the same as Sonic but with their own powers, without deviating from the Sonic formula like they did in Sonic Adventures 1 and 2. As for their powers, the two of them could use those powers to access routes not even Sonic could access. Tails could fly over most of the zones and access upper routes, while Knuckles could go through lower routes with his giant fists.

And the one thing that makes this fact strange is that Tails' flight and Knuckles' strength all make Sonic himself look less like the awesome, speedy character we'd make him out to be, and more like an average, every-man protagonist. In other words, Sonic 3 & Knuckles literally kept the title protagonist himself from living up to the hype, while his own sidekick and rival unintentionally took all the glory with powers that make Sonic's speed look like nothing.

To be perfectly honest, I like the idea that Sonic gathers companions on his journey to defeat Eggman on a regular basis. It was one of the reasons why I enjoyed Sonic 3 & Knuckles so much, because Tails and Knuckles had powers that allowed them to access routes Sonic could not access. But everywhere I go, people are criticizing the Sonic franchise for its ensemble cast of anthropomorphic animal friends, without giving any good reasons why.

So why hate Sonic's friends, yet be perfectly okay with other heroes gathering their own respective companions on their journeys, like Mario and the way he carried around characters like Wario, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, and Rosalina?

Say that other developers want to develop squadmates with character-arcs as deep and well-written as the Mass Effect trilogy's squadmates. How do you think they can do it, and why?

For me, making AI-controlled teammates would be a two-step process. The first step is to use familiar archetypes within any group of heroes, including the leader, second-in-command, muscles, brains, and heart. The second and final step would be to build upon those archetypes by giving them well-written and developed character arcs.

That was how the Mass Effect trilogy did it. In Mass Effect 2, for example, you technically had three second-in-commands (Miranda, Jacob, and Garrus), two muscles (Grunt and Zaeed), four brains (Mordin, Tali'Zorah, Legion, and Kasumi), and three hearts/biotics (Thane, Samara, and Jack). Not only that, but those familiar archetypes were also built upon with loyalty missions, each revolving around a squadmate's piece of baggage to resolve before the suicide mission.

Therefore, it would not be so hard for other developers to create characters as well-written and developed for single-player as the Mass Effect trilogy. Even Super Sentai/Power Rangers did it on a regular basis with each new team! Therefore, it would have been cool to have a squad of those familiar archetypes in something like Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Halo, not only fighting with their respective weapons and skillsets, but also interacting with each other and resolving their character-arcs, Mass Effect-style!

You know what would make the 4-vs-4 team battles more awesome? It's if each team of four had a base or generator to defend, and so the goal is for each team to destroy the other's base while defending their own. That way, it could promote teamwork better.

Cool, right?

Here are at least three ways I can think of to help the team without fighting or killing:

1. Healing and/or tanking to sustain main-attackers/carries (RPGs and MOBAs).

2. Capturing and holding objectives (online shooters).

3. Building and amassing an army with a base (RTSs).

You know how in most shooters and sandbox games, e.g. Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed, you only have one main-character? Like with my Witcher example, I could just imagine those games doing what the Mass Effect trilogy did, and included AI-controlled companions.

And, it's not that hard to write companion characters, either. When you look at Garrus, Wrex, Tali'Zorah, and Liara, they are technically members of a Five-Man Band, including the Lancer, the Big Guy, the Smart Guy, and the Chick, respectively. Using these familiar archetypes and building upon them, like BioWare did the Mass Effect trilogy, would not be so difficult when writing single-player campaigns for games like Watch_Dogs, Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty, etc.

EDIT: And not just the first Mass Effect, either. Remember the Suicide Mission in Mass Effect 2? Yeah, in my opinion, the Five-Man Band would have included the second team leader as the Lancer (e.g. Miranda, Jacob, and Garrus); the tech-expert as the Smart Guy (e.g. Mordin, Tali, Legion, and Kasumi); the biotic-expert as the Chick/Heart (e.g. Thane, Samara, and Jack); and the combat-experts who hold the line at the end as the Big Guys (e.g. Grunt and Zaeed).

For me, my favorite team in video games would be Commander Shepard's Normandy Squad from the Mass Effect trilogy, and that's mostly because of the huge mixture of different skill-sets and deep, intricate character-arcs. Honorary mentions goes to the Investigation Team from Persona 4, as well as Isaac and Felix's respective groups from the Golden Sun two-part game series.

As for army, again, it's from the Mass Effect trilogy, and that was the multi-racial coalition fleet from the third game. Honorary mentions go to the Terrans, Protoss, and Zerg from the Starcraft series, the Alliance and Horde from Warcraft, and probably Eddie Riggs' Ironheade army from Brutal Legend.

@artisanbreads: What meter?

But in some regard, yeah, you're right. All twelve members of my Inner Circle would have had deeper, more intricate character-arcs, mostly in the form of side-quests I could unlock and complete for them. But the agents? They might as well be anything else other than just what the game claimed each of them to be.

So far, I've missed two opportunities to recruit agents, including Sister Anais, whom I've sent to help out refugees, and Ritts, whom I rescued from Templars but could not fulfill specific requirements to recruit her.

Should I get all hung up on missing agents, and just replay all of DA:I from the beginning just to recruit them? I don't want to, because I've already restarted the game numerous times for other agents that I missed, and I don't want to do it again.

For me, my most likely lesson I learned was that I did not need to score kills or prove myself powerful to be useful to the team. Sometimes, I can just play a support role, and still help my team come out on top. The support role can involve the following:

1. Capturing and holding objectives in online multiplayer shooters.

2. Tanking or healing in RPGs and most MOBAs.

3. Expanding territory, gathering resources, and spending them on building and amassing armies in RTSs.