Guest Star Party Member: Difference between revisions

 

Compare with [[Crutch Character]] and [[Awesome but Temporary]]. Contrast [[And Now for Someone Completely Different]], where an existing party member takes over as the viewpoint character temporarily.

 

* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past|The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He Past]]'' has Zelda, and later a monkey and a maiden {{spoiler|who is a demon}}. Later, a treasure chest will inexplicably follow you around.

** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening|The Legend of Zelda Links Awakening]]'' has Bow-Wow, a ghost, Marin, and the Flying Rooster. Bow-Wow and the rooster are actually useful, Marin gives you some fun scenes, and the ghost...is just a [[Broken Bridge]] character that you have to get rid of to get into the next dungeon.

 

 

* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons|D&D]]'' video game ''[[Demon Stone]]'' has a chapter where you are required to exchange control of your least used character for special guest star Drizzt do'Urden, the dual-wielding drow ranger who ''defines'' melee badassery for many D&D players. Combined with a nerfing of weapon enhancements, a single-target super attack instead of a multi-target super, enemies that regenerate, and a few segments that even remove the ability to swap into control of your other characters in preference for just Drizzt, playing the super-badass drow just plain sucks.

* Soul Calibur 3's adventure mode features many characters coming and going in your party. They should in theory start out stronger than characters you always have available, however due to leveling up by fighting (even if you lose) it makes more sense to just keep using your own characters.

 

 

* ''[[Blacksite Area 51]]'' is a rare first-person shooter example of this, where {{spoiler|the [[Big Bad]] actually fights as a member of your squad for several missions (against his own troops!), as part of a [[Batman Gambit]] to get inside the Allied HQ.}} However, despite being an augmented super-soldier (who can soak a few hundred bullets in the final battle), when he's on your side he's physically indistinguishable from your other AI-controlled squad buddies.

* In the PC version of ''[[Ghost Recon]]: Advanced Warfighter'', the ''President of the United States'' himself carries a pistol and follows you around (very briefly) after you rescue him from rebel soldiers.

 

 

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has many [[Escort Mission]] quests where the NPC can actually fend for himself pretty well. The Wrath expansion also introduced several group quests where the player can call NPCs to help him if there aren't enough other players around to help with them. There is also a quest to free captive horde soldiers that will join forces with the rescuer for a while as thanks.

** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in quests involving [[Indiana Jones|Harrison Jones]] which states that you are either being escorted by him, or are supposed to simply stay out of the way while he does his thing.

 

 

* ''[[Pikmin]] 2'' features the Bulbmin, who are immune to all environmental hazard but can only be used in the dungeon they are found in.

 

 

* In ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]]: Explorers of Time/Darkness'', you are joined on a mid-game dungeon run by {{spoiler|Grovyle}}, who is a huge asset to your team as you can simply stand back and let him do the fighting to conserve strength. And later, you are joined by a {{spoiler|''Shiny Celebi'' of all things, [[Cute Bruiser|who deals out more ass-kickery than you ever thought possible from a pink fairy thing.]]}}

** In the main series, the fourth generation has something like this: in certain areas you'll team up with another trainer who double battles together with you until you get through the area (all of your wild encounters will suddenly start being doubles) and heals everyone at the end of each battle. They only ever have one or two mons.

 

 

* ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'' has Fusoya, who sticks around for only a single dungeon near the end. Additionally, Kain and Rosa function this way when they first join the party (departing again fairly quickly). In general, the entire party gets well-shuffled over the course of the game; only a few (Rosa, Rydia, Tellah, and Edge out of 11 characters) stick with Cecil for more than three dungeons at a time.

** Heck, Edge is the ''only'' party member who permanently joins when you first get him.

 

 

* A few survival horror games, while not having a proper "party" do temporarily switch control from your main character to a secondary one. Frequently, this is explicitly so the secondary character can save the primary one who is in imminent danger. Examples include Rebecca from the first Resident Evil and Kaede from the first ''[[Onimusha]]''. In a subversion of a few of the RPG examples above, these guests are usually lacking in weapons and armor (Rebecca only has a handgun with no extra ammo) and can be a pain to play as.

 

 

* In ''[[Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice]]'', Master Big Star and Salvatore join the group for the final battles, and stay until you beat the last boss. They rejoin permanently soon after in the first two post-story events, though.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'', there are often temporary members who assist your team in battle. If they accompany your team for multiple battles, they will even show up in your party menus, and you can meddle with their equipment freely. This is even occasionally true of a plot-important character that does not show up in more than one battle, such as Alma or Princess Ovelia, who remains with the team for an extended period but prefers not to fight. However, unlike most [[Guest Star Party Member]] situations, these characters will not be under your control during battle. They will be labeled Guest, to distinguish them from the ones labeled Enemy, but both guests and enemies are computer-controlled. Enemies that are subjected to a successful Invite attempt by one of your Talk Skill users will qualify as a Guest until the battle is won, at which point you will have the option of making them team members or turning them away -- they are not allowed to continue being a Guest beyond the initial battle. Guest characters are the only ones exempt from the "[[Lost Forever|three turns KO'ed=crystal or chest]]" rule, primarily because of [[We Cannot Go on Without You|their importance to the plot]]. Once their role in the story is fulfilled, they can be recruited and at which point they can die for real at any time after that.

 

 

* ''[[Odium]]'' has three permanent characters, as well as two other slots which keep changing as various allies join, depart or are killed off. You begin with the three guys, and by the final level of the game you're back to just these three again.

 

 

* Nefertari Vivi of ''[[One Piece]]'' fits the bill. While she never officially joins Luffy's crew, she sticks around with them for a couple of story arcs after her introduction and becomes a major character during that time.

** Similarly, Jinbe for the Fishman Island arc.

 

 

* In ''[[RPG World]]'', the group fights Galgarion at one point, with (former) Evil Soldier #347 joining them as a "computer-controlled" ally for the battle after Galgarion {{spoiler|killed his wife and kids}}.

* In ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'', [[Shock and Awe|Celia]] plays this role for Haley and Belkar after the party splits. She can't help them much, though, as she's an [[Actual Pacifist]].