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Player Mook: Difference between revisions
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** This is sometimes subverted in that there are [[Prestige Class]]es that ''only'' Player Mooks can have.
* While Story Characters come and go at the whims of the plot, you can make as many Player Mooks as you want [[Arbitrary Headcount Limit|within limits]] and dismiss them whenever you want if you desire to do so.
* Because their number and makeup is entirely determined by the player, these Generic Characters will never appear in a cutscene or do anything in the plot. The one usual exception is when they are first introduced, the one time in which the game can know who/what and how many they are.
Because they're always present and eminently customizable, quite a few benefit from getting nearly as much experience as the main character, so they are never [[Overrated and Underleveled]] nor do they require [[Leaked Experience]].
Because of the amount of time and effort many players put into training and equipping these kinds of characters, they often become the target of [[Video Game Caring Potential]].
Compare with [[Canon Shadow]], which is a character that is there, but adds little to nothing to the plot. Also see [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] and [[Cast of Snowflakes]].
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** ''[[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]'' ([[Nippon Ichi]] seems fond of this trope)
** ''[[Ogre Battle]]'' and its [[Spin-Off]] ''[[Tactics Ogre]]''
*** In ''Knight of Lodis'', there is a way to actually ''turn'' a [[Player Mook]] into a named character. By following a certain sequence of events, [[Secret Character]] Deneb can "take over" a Player Mook's body.
** ''[[Super Robot Wars]]: Original Generation/Original Generation 2'' (Although they're always [[Guest Star Party Member]]s)
** ''Destiny Of An Emperor'' seemed like a pretty standard RPG based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms story, until you realized that that's not HP, but soldiers! Wow, so many dead bodies!
** ''[[Wild
* ''[[Dragon Quest III]]'' had this. Other than [[The Hero]], you could go to a tavern at any time and make new characters.
** ''[[Dragon Quest IX]]'' has this too, as a throwback to that
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* Similarly to DQIII and DQIX, ''[[Makai Toushi SaGa]]'' lets you choose which kind of character [[The Hero]] is, and you can recruit up to three more generic party members at a guild. ''[[SaGa 2]]'' has [[The Hero]] take three of his classmates with him.
* By nature of the genre, most [[Real Time Strategy]] games use this.
* [[Pikmin]] are cute little versions of these. They almost reach the level or [[Redshirt Army]]. That is, if the player doesn't feel horribly guilty letting just one die; [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esYm9q-bi4w this video can change that opinion quickly].
* [[Overlord]] has the Minion Army, which function as basically evil uglier versions of Pikmin.
** The sequel partly averts this by naming every single Minion you summon and allowing you to ressurect specific ones if you desire.
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** A subversion in [[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]]: Party members past yourself and your partner are all these, but they are forced to appear in cutscenes, since all of the cutscenes take place on the overworld map itself. That said, they mostly just lurk behind the heroes and don't talk, although they will react to certain events or cutscenes by getting startled or fainting.
* As do Atlus's Persona (and several other [[Shin Megami Tensei]]) games. New players tend to have a mental hurdle to overcome fusing or disposing of their old demons to make way for new ones.
* ''Dynasty Warriors'', from the third game on, allow the player to recruit bodyguards and armed them, but they just ended up being kill-stealing player mooks.
** Later Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors games added Create Your Own Officer options and allowed you to play as a Player Mook in campaign. Every created officer had the same storyline.
*** Even later games in the Empires sub-series mixed Mook and non-Mook offices into the slush during game play. Based on your "friendship" with the various officers you commanded different ones would appear in cut scenes. If you where close to your Player Mooks, then they showed in the events.
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* ''Mario Superstar Baseball'' and its sequel, ''Mario Super Sluggers'', uses this trope like there's no tomorrow. In fact, the only [[Palette Swap]]s available in those games are for the mooks themselves (complete with individualized stats), with the thin justification that those same mooks had palette swaps in the main games to begin with (except for Magikoopa and Dry Bones, who only had palette swaps in the [[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]] series). Interestingly, while Yoshi gets palette swaps in the sequel, Birdo still doesn't, despite different colored Birdos blatantly appearing elsewhere in the game.
* The title soldiers in ''[[Cannon Fodder (series)|Cannon Fodder]]'' mostly play this straight, but they each have names, and they're so darned cute that they tend to provoke [[Video Game Caring Potential]]. Mind you, since this game attempts to avert [[Do Not Do This Cool Thing]], an average player will see more than 200 of them meet [[Family-Unfriendly Death|Family Unfriendly Deaths]], each adding another tombstone to the hill on the pre-mission screen and deepening the player's angst.
* ''Star Wars Battlefront'' is this trope in spades - you even jump between random shmoes (somehow keeping your experience and bonuses) if your [[Player Mook]] gets wasted.
* While most ''[[Wizardry]]'' games follow this trope, ''Wizardry 8'' has an interesting subversion. While you do create and customize your players in a fashion similar to Player Mooks, you can also give them their own distinct voices and personalities. They talk as necessary whenever the plot demands, and often they feel like story characters rather than Player Mooks.
* One of ''[[Perfect Dark]]'''s multiplayer modes had player 1 try to complete a single-player mission while player 2 controls the mooks. The mook usually has only 2 weapons. If the mook gets stuck (or player 2 needs to get to a closer mook) he can use a cyanide pill to effectively [[Body Surfing|Body Surf]] to another mook.
* ''[[X-COM]]'' and its sequels/successors/clones. Due to [[Nintendo Hard|the nature of the game]], players can expect casualties, lots and lots of casualties.
* ''[[Scarface the World Is Yours]]''. No matter how many times your Enforcer, Driver or Assassin gets wasted, you can call up another one. The regular drivers/co-pilots that assist Tony come in differing flavors and talents and skills (this last part may not be intended). It's so cute to hear them scream curses like the boss. Their highly efficent fighting skills definitely invokes the above mentioned Caring Potential when an enemy mook rushes out of the bushes and shoots them point blank in the face.
* ''[[Fire Emblem|Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon]]'' gives you these if you get enough normal characters killed. ([[Video Game Caring Potential|Most players STILL Start over on a single death anyways]].)
** This series as a whole tends to avert it, though, because everyone in your control is unique, with their own sprites, portraits, and stats.
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* In [[Mr. Robot]], there are four plot-essential robots that join your party (by having their personalities [[Party in My Pocket|copied into your head]]), one for each "class". But you can also get a couple more robot personalities to help you in battle by exploring the world thoroughly, and their existence isn't mentioned at all (even when the main character whines about how crowded it's getting in there). If I remember right, they do have names, but for some reason they aren't capitalized. Weird.
* ''Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas''. Being awesome enough means one can recruit fellow gang members to assist on missions. They will follow, fire, pursue and then try to get in the car with you to go back home.
* ''Scarface: The World Is Yours''. The assassin, the driver and the enforcer. All have unique dialogue, look very different and controlled by the character. They can even get A.I. backup like Tony does (call for a car, the driver is armed). Bonus; they can murder civilians.
* ''[[Final Fantasy IV: The After Years]]'' does this over and over again. There's a generic Black Mage (named "Black Mage") and a generic White Mage (named "White Mage") who join you in both Ceodore's and Porom's chapters - between the two chapters, they're actually on your team about as long as Palom and Porom were in the original (and in the same places to boot!), but their generic names, nonexistent personalities, and lack of special abilities make them feel a lot more impersonal. In a similar vein, you get "Monk A", "Monk B", and "Monk C" in Yang's chapter; Edward's, meanwhile, has "Guard A", "Guard B", and "Guard C". Then again, this game has [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] to begin with, so it seems the game designers were just trying to give you some [[Crutch Character]]s without overloading the player.
* ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' has the ghosts in the Phantom Train. Most ghosts are enemies but a few will offer to join your party. They have no backstory, a unique class, and a stat set randomly chosen from three presets. You can only recruit up to however many to fill your party; if they are KO'd or use their "Possess" skill they leave you party and you can recruit another one, endlessly. However, they always leave at the end of the level.
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[[Category:Video Game Characters]]
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