Player Mook: Difference between revisions
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Umbire the Phantom moved page Player Mooks to Player Mook: Singular form
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Then, there are ''these'' player characters.
These characters have no names, unless the player [[Hello, Insert Name Here|gives them names]]. They have no personality, and they don't act in the plot at all.
Essentially, they're [[Mooks]] and [[Red Shirt
This is a Player Mook. a [[Player Character]] that is a character strictly in the game mechanics sense. They can be defined by a few features that differentiate them from the Story Characters:
* The Player Mooks use [[You All Look Familiar|the same set of appearances.]] Often whatever class the generic character is will dictate how they look.
* If there are mechanics to raise and develop characters, Player Mooks can learn only "generic" abilities. While they'll have access to all the default classes and skills, the Story Characters often have a unique class, plus they can access all the generic classes.
** This is sometimes subverted in that there are [[Prestige Class
* 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 [[
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]].
{{examples
* This is a common trope in Strategy [[RPG
** ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]''
*** Strangely, there are actually some specific, non-generic Mooks in the Final Fantasy Tactics games: In the first, the generic characters at the introductory monastery fight (that you keep once you get into chapter 2) all have set names. Also, the plot-relevant Chocobo, Boco, is otherwise just a generic monster (who has dialog when using "help" on his name in the formation screen while real generics just say "..."). The original release had exactly enough space to keep every named character, including these, and no more. In Tactics Advance, there are recruitable 'generic' characters with story ties which come with powerful skills pre-learned.
*** Generic units in Tactics Advance and its sequel are ''slightly'' less generic in that they can at least get a fair bit of dialogue if you opt to deploy them as the leader for a sidequest battle. Each race has their own unique pre-battle and post-battle dialogue, and with all of the dozens of sidequest battles, that amounts to a lot overall.
** ''[[Disgaea]]''
*** In particular, Prinnies are even treated like mooks by the plot, and all [[We Have Reserves|that]] [[What Measure Is a Mook?|entails]].
*** Though in ''Disgaea'', your non-Mook player characters have a harder time learning magic (except Flonne) and can never change class, as your Mooks can, so the Mooks can actually easily outdo the non-Mooks (except [[One Man Party|Laharl]]) unless you abuse the Mentor/Student system to teach your named characters a wider variety of magical spells (and even that is hard for the less magically-inclined among them, especially the monsters-type ones who can't use staffs).
*** 3 adds a bit more personality to generic characters, with an introduction scene for each class that plays upon creation, and the ability to talk to them to get some often amusing dialogue from them. 4 lets you individualize them a little by choosing one of three personalities for them during the creation process, which determines their battle quotes and voice, and also allows you to place them in the hub to provide conversation or run the various shops and services.
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** ''Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity''
** ''[[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]'' ([[Nippon Ichi]] seems fond of this trope)
** ''[[Ogre Battle]]'' and its [[Spin
*** 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
** ''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
* ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
* Similarly to DQIII and DQIX, ''[[Makai
* 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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** Though if you lost enough soldiers, you'd get faceless mooks with limited stats to replace them.
* Similarly averted in [[Valkyrie Profile]] 2. The einherjar all fall into four general categories (light knight, heavy knight, mage and archer) but they all have their own names and models and different stats.
* Possibly averted in ''[[
* ''[[Diablo]] 2'' allows you to hire expendable mercenaries in town to aid you.
* ''Mario Superstar Baseball'' and its sequel, ''Mario Super Sluggers'', uses this trope like there's no tomorrow. In fact, the only [[Palette Swap
* The title soldiers in ''[[Cannon Fodder (
* ''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 ''[[
* 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.
* ''[[
* ''[[Fire Emblem|Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon]]'' gives you these if you get enough normal characters killed. ([[
** This series as a whole tends to avert it, though, because everyone in your control is unique, with their own sprites, portraits, and stats.
*** Although [[Fire Emblem Jugdral|Fire Emblem Thracia 776]] played this straight in one chapter, where Glade joins along with a couple of generic knights under his command, who have names such as [[Exactly What It Says
* Averted in the [[Jagged Alliance]] series, which plays like a tactical strategy game, but instead of giving you generic soldiers, it has [[Loads and Loads of Characters]], each with their own dialogue and personality. Played straight with the militia, who are AI controlled allies that you train to defend your towns. You will probably lose dozens if not hundreds of them during the game.
* [[City of Villains]] and the Mastermind class. Full stop.
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* Bioshock 2's mutliplayer has you play as the Splicers to avoid having six Deltas running around at once.
* [[Gradius]]' Big Core MK I gets a starring role in ''Gradius NEO Imperial''.
* ''[[
* 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:
* ''[[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.
* ''[[Hellgate
* Starting with Delta, [[
* Starships owned by the player of an [[X (
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