Companion Cube/Video Games

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Companion Cubes in Video Games include:

  • The Trope Namer, the Weighted Companion Cube from Portal; while the player doesn't treat the Cube as a real person, GLaDOS and the unseen previous escapee certainly do. Which makes the cruelty of GLaDOS forcing you to "euthanize" it all the more bizarre, doubly so when she later guilt-trips you over it during the final battle.
    • In the commentary, the developers explain that, by making GLaDOS talk about the cube as if it were alive, players went from abandoning the cube and trying to solve the puzzles without it to always keeping it by their side. One of the developers has stated that this was based on a declassified CIA document which stated that people in isolation would bond with inanimate objects.
    • In the "Lab Rat" tie-in comic to the sequel, the Cube serves as the schizophrenic Doug Rattmann's spiritual advisor of sorts, giving him advice and moral support.
    • The cube makes a couple of reappearances in Portal 2 itself, first in the early test chambers, where GLaDOS taunts you by fizzling it, then reveals that she has "entire warehouses full of them", and then fizzles it yet again when you try to smuggle it out of the test chamber, which you would never think to do if she weren't giving you hints about it. Oh, and she again claims that it's sentient. Yank the Dog's Chain indeed. And lastly, at the very end, she gives you back the original Cube, charred from its trip to the incinerator but otherwise apparently intact. Likewise, the Cube has several less noticeable cameos, including the occasional cube flying through pipes and one falling into the incinerator after GLaDOS's reactivation. You can't save it.
      • If left to its own devices in the second game, the cube actually starts to "sing" to Chell, putting weight behind the sentient theory (developers said it's because all of Aperture is glad to have Chell back)
  • In Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, in the Laboratory Room (Door 8), examining the testing dummy enough times will result in Junpei feeling sorry for it, and giving it the name 'Science Boy'.
    • Similar to the Portal example, to solve the room you have to burn the mannequin. Examining it again before letting Clover out of the room (which is pouring with smoke from the burning dummy) will result in Junpei caring more about Science Boy.
      • And upon leaving, you have to enure another of Junpei's puns:

Junpei: (So long, mannequin... You may not have been a real man, but I always thought of you as kin...)

  • The L-Block from Tetris won the November 2007 GameFAQs character battle.
    • And the day after its victory, the site's daily poll was a "bonus" battle between the L-Block, the Companion Cube, the Paddle from Pong, and the [?] block from Super Mario Question Mark Block won.
    • For the 2008 contest, the Weighted Companion Cube itself is an entrant in the main battle, along with L-Block aiming to retain its title. There was a rally for the Surveillance Camera from Shadow Moses heliport in Metal Gear Solid, but it didn't get enough nominations.
  • Mr. Bear, Penny's teddy bear, from Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. Since Penny is utterly, utterly Ax Crazy, Mr. Bear comes off as rather... sinister in the process.

Penny: Penny likes you... but Mr. Bear HATES YOU!

  • The 2007 Crimbo season of Kingdom of Loathing had the Bulky Buddy Box as a prize for fighting the Crimborg Elves—a reference to the Weighted Companion Cube.
    • Earlier Crimbo seasons offered the Pet Rock and the (non)functionally identical Toothsome Rock.
      • The Sombrero and Bloodfaced Volleyball as well, though they do do things...somehow. (though at least Sombrero is partially justified by being combined with a chicken's ghost.)
        • The Blood-Faced Volleyball is a direct Shout-Out to Cast Away. Though the game will reject any attempt to name your volleyball companion any form of "Wilson".
      • The various incarnations of Teddy Bears may qualify for this, since they don't actually do anything except block hits and get the stuffing knocked out of them. And you can name them endearing names.
  • Sasha, the Heavy Weapons Guy's minigun in Team Fortress 2, as seen in the Meet The Heavy video. The ingame taunts involve him hugging the gun saying things like "Kiss me!" and "You did well!". There is also a similar unlockable gun, Natasha. It is heavily implied that the Heavy is having an affair with this gun. Seriously.
    • The Sandvich, which comes from the same update as Natasha, appears to be getting the same attention as well, with lines such as; "What's that, Sandvich? KILL THEM ALL!? GOOD IDEA!" It even got its own video.
    • Meta-example and not to the same degree, but frequent Engineer players will often grow attached to buildings that manage to survive multiple player deaths.
    • It is also revealed that the Heads in meet the Soldier are the Soldier's companion cubes.
    • One Valve-made comic has a photo of the Heavy sleeping in his forest cabin, with Sasha layng next to him on a smaller bed. The Scout lampshades this odd situation.

Scout: That's your gun there?
Heavy: Yes.
Scout: In a tiny bed. Beside your bed.
Heavy: Yes.
Scout: That's pretty embarrassin'.
Heavy: I know. I must buy Sasha bigger bed.

  • Trilo from case 3 of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice for All is a ventriloquist's dummy who seems to have a mind of his own. He may have been derived from the Batman character The Ventriloquist, as he also abuses his handler.
    • The Ace Attorney series also has "Charley", a potted plant in the main character's office. It's one of the few characters from the original series to show up in the fourth game.
  • This shows up in Devil May Cry fanfiction with the Devil Arms, but since those bear the sentient souls of the defeated demon in question, it's something of a Justified Trope. More straightforwardly, in an early scene of the fourth game, Nero and Kyrie talk about Nero's "Red Queen" sword as if discussing a female.
    • Two of the Devil Arms, Agni and Rudra, can even talk, although Dante would only take them with him if they kept silent. They start laughing during one of Dante's flashier combos with them, forcing Dante to yell "SILENCE!" as a reminder of their agreement.
    • In the first game, Alastor and Ifrit also speak to Dante (via text, no words are heard on the player's end)... before respectively impaling him and trying to toast him alive. If Viewtiful Joe is any indication, recurring character Blade Master Alastor is the spirit of the same blade Dante obtained in DMC1.
  • The cardboard box from Metal Gear Solid is referred to repeatedly as if it were a person.
    • "Take care of your cardboard box, and it'll take care of you."
    • In the world record attempt on the largest number of video game cosplayers in one area, at London Expo 2008, the Box (brought along by a Metal Gear cosplay group) was counted by the Guiness team as a character.
      • I think it's because cosplaying cardboard box is quite popular on conventions. Also people tend to bring along Companion Cubes with 'Portal' music inside or they even wear one on head !!
    • In the fourth game hiding in the box increases the rate at which Snake's psyche meter refills, implying that he finds it comforting to be in there. The trophy for it in Super Smash Bros. Brawl even notes that Solid and Liquid Snake have "a deep affection for cardboard".
  • Boo, the Miniature Giant Space Hamster of Baldur's Gate fame, served as a biological version of this trope for the brain-addled Minsc. Although it's also entirely possible Minsc was right. It has been implied by what may count as Word of God that Boo was bought from Elminster himself.
    • It's also worth noting that canonically, Giant Space Hamsters do exist in the Forgotten Realms Settings at that point.
  • The Modron toy in Planescape: Torment. Initially you just start playing with it, but then you can talk to it, much to Morte's irritation. It gets better from there, to the point where Morte's final irritation is actually worth a voiced line. Also makes your character alignment more Chaotic.
  • Some Angband players treat slime molds as pets rather than as food items.
    • Likewise some nethack players and the custom-named ---Bane items, or random artifact items of popular use.
  • Sweet Tooth's motivation for entering the first Twisted Metal tournament was to find his lost best friend, Crazy Harold the Wacky Lunch Sack. Yes, it's just a paper bag.
    • Somewhat lampshaded by Calypso, even. The sheer ridiculousness of the wish completely blows his mind.
  • Fallout:
    • Harold the Ghoul has the plant atop his head, Bob.
    • Vault 77, Inhabited by one man and hundreds of puppets. Hilarity Ensues.
    • Fallout: New Vegas has Davison and his long-dead bull's skull called "Antler".
    • New Vegas also gives us ED-E for the player. It's a floating robot ball that doesn't talk or have personal problems to solve like the other companions. But it has a fun nickname, plays a jingle to alert you to enemy presence, increases your detection range, has a zappy laser weapon that sets enemies on fire, and is generally adorable to watch just floating around. If you complete ED-E's sidequest, his slide in the ending notes that it stays with the Courier as a loyal companion.
  • Cute little boy Carl Clover from BlazBlue has an automaton named Nirvana that he talks to and treats like his older sister, Ada. It's animate, and is implied to be sapient... but isn't actually capable of talking. He acts like it is, anyway. Various characters can't decide if Carl's just crazy. Well, he is probably crazy, but, as it turns out, the automaton IS his sister. His father finally alluded to killing Carl's sister and using her soul to power the automaton.
  • The enchanted pyrite parrot in Tales of Monkey Island is getting this treatment.
  • Marky Dubois's (of Backyard Sports) frog, whose name is Frog. Also, Luanne's teddy bear.
  • Aida, of Unreal II the Awakening fame, has a magnum pistol which she calls Grace. She's even more emotionally attached to the ammunition, judging by how few bullets the game gives you for the damn thing.
  • Catherine, a Magical Computer in a briefcase, is treated this way by the protagonist of Flower, Sun, and Rain, and it never leaves his side if he can help it. Although given the setting's peculiarities, it's anyone's guess whether or not it's actually sentient.
  • League of Legends: Have you seen my bear, Tibbers?
    • Come on, that thing is a 10 foot tall flaming demon bear for christ's sake!
    • Oriana's ball is the closest thing to a companion cube on Runeterra.
    • Another example is Tristy.
  • In the second BioShock (series) you can get the Handyman Gene Tonic, which lets you spend EVE to repair friendly bots and turrets. In true mechanic fashion, it also gives names to the bots you've hacked to fight alongside you. It kind of gives you an incentive to keep those bots active given that it's you versus a city full of Splicers.
  • Bionic Commando 2009. Man... Okay, so, pretty much, his arm is his wife. Good lord, what else is there to say? Near the end of the game, it is revealed that Spencer's missing wife was killed and her brain was integrated into his one companion for the whole game, his bionic arm. He is in severe denial after this reveal, probably because he sees it as ridiculous as it is. The twist was severely criticized by multiple reviewers, and thus is a perfect example of handling a Companion Cube poorly.
  • In Silent Scope EX, one of the bosses is piloting a helicopter with a human-sized stuffed bear in the gunner's seat (named Teddy). The game gives you an obvious weak spot, the boss's head. However if you get a headshot on the bear instead, which you have 3 second window of opportunity in the beginning and the bear's head is a bigger target than the boss's, the boss instantly dies. Also instead of the shot-through-the-skull image, the image is of the bear's head.
  • Left 4 Dead 2, this is Ellis's relationship with Jimmy Gibbs Junior's stock car.
  • Borderlands has Tannis becoming attached to her tape recorder as she descends further into madness.
  • Dragon Age's 'feast day' DLCs adds special gifts to give to your companions, more specifically 'special gifts' and pranks. Shale's special gift is a pet rock called "Herbert". The insulting one? An uncrushable pigeon.
    • Bianca of Dragon Age II is an even more apparent instance of this trope. Varric actually holds conversations with Bianca. Bianca is a crossbow, by the way.
  • Zaeed flat out loves "Jessie".
  • The Touhou character Alice Margatroid and her army of dolls. She is even attempting to make them sentient, though hasn't had much success so far.
    • Though fandom sometimes makes her Shanghai doll and less often Hourai doll somewhat sentient. And then there's Medicine Melancholy, a sentient doll youkai. She and Alice have yet to meet in canon, but fanon has them meet a lot.
  • The Male Undead Merchant in Dark Souls has a wooden basket named Yulia, which he constantly pets and talks to.
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