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Player Mook: Difference between revisions
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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|Red Shirts]] that you get to control.
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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|RPGs]]:
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*** 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|Guest Star Party Members]])
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* ''[[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|Palette Swaps]] 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 (Video Game)|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 (Video Game)|Cannon Fodder]]'' mostly play this straight, but they each have names, and they're so darned cute that they tend to provoke [[
* ''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 (Video Game)|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.
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* ''[[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 (Video Game)|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. ([[
** 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 On the Tin|Lance Knight and Bow Knight.]] Since they're only available for the one chapter, most players just strip them of their weapons and use them as cannon fodder.
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