Minor Characters Who Are More Interesting Than the Main Cast

[Castle]

Video game traditionally feature numerous NPCs. Some are major players in long side quests. Others are mere background. But sometimes a character intended to have a minor presence is written to be so interesting that you might regret they're not around more often.

Ydwin, a sidekick from Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, is a good example.

In Deadfire, there are two types of companions who can join you on your adventures. The first kind are fully fleshed out and have their own personal sidequests and will interject in dialog. Many of them can even be romanced under certain conditions. The other type are sidekicks, which are fully playable but don't feature any of that pesky writing. All you get is a brief scene introducing the character and then they're silent for the rest of the game.

Ydwin's scene is a fantastic introduction that seems like it was intended for a full fledged companion. Alas, her character abruptly ends as soon as it does.

Spoiler

Ydwin is an animancer, a researcher who studies souls. She divulges that she performed an experiment that separated her soul from the wheel, or the cycle of life and death, and in so doing effectively made herself immortal and dependent on soul energy to sustain her life force. She is, in effect, a soul sucking vampire. Or a fampyre to use Pillar's vernacular. This scene is helped by having some pretty amusing party banter depending who you have along with you.

This is a great set up for a character. It's a shame it ends there. It doesn't help that her voice and appearance are super cool; that of a sort of nerdy, bookish intellectual aristocratic type who is nonetheless rather suave, confident and sophisticated - a very unique and deserving clash of character traits! Unfortunately, she will never speak in dialog again after that first scene. But at least the game still plays her canned dialog callouts every once and a while when you give her orders like every other character.

Sadly, in addition to being a great setup for a character that remains unfulfilled, a fully written Ydwin would be right at home in the game's plot given the series' focus on souls and the fact that animancers are such central figures in the lore and there's never been one in the party before. Ydwin feels like she's cut content that wasn't entirely scrapped.

I would rather Obsidian had made her a mage and replaced Adoth, who is the lamest stereotype of a mage Obsidian could have possibly conceived, is no one's favorite, and yet is one of the few characters they carried over from the first game. Pillars of Eternity is just begging for a better mage and Ydwin could've been it. She's also a pale elf. And Pillars has not featured a major pale elf companion yet either.

Am I the only one who's encountered a minor character who deserves a bigger spotlight?

 

[Spirit]

I cant think of anyone in a game other than Malon right now.

It isn't that she is interesting, more so the stuff happening to her off screen feels as if it needs to be noted because Ingo is clearly abusing her after he takes over Lon Lon Ranch.

What i'd like in OoT is to have a short sequence of Link really giving Ingo what he deserves because of his behaviour rather than just beating him in a race.

Maybe set a flock of cuccoos on him or something.

I know OoT is a family game but it feels off to sidestep something so terrible and sidestepping it at all makes it worse.

So Malon needs more screentime and agency in OoT in relation to Link and his actions.

 

[Castle]

Ingo is clesrly abusing her after he takes over Lon Lon Ranch.

Well... Malon does say Ingo abuses the horses. But there's nothing to suggest he's abusing her unless you read that far into it.

Still, it's a lot to assume because in typical ninty fashion there is more going on there than they can be arsed to explain.

Why did Malon stay after her deadbeat dad got kicked out? Does Ingo's abuse stop at the horses? Is she doing something to oppose him or even defy Ganondorf?

I guess all we've got is head cannon and fan fiction.

Nevertheless I'll lament never being able to sic a flock of Cuccos on Ingo.

 

[Hero of Pizza Time]

I cant think of anyone in a game other than Malon right now.

It isn't that she is interesting, more so the stuff happening to her off screen feels as if it needs to be noted because Ingo is clearly abusing her after he takes over Lon Lon Ranch.

What i'd like in OoT is to have a short sequence of Link really giving Ingo what he deserves because of his behaviour rather than just beating him in a race.

Maybe set a flock of cuccoos on him or something.

I know OoT is a family game but it feels off to sidestep something so terrible and sidestepping it at all makes it worse.

So Malon needs more screentime and agency in OoT in relation to Link and his actions.

To be fair, Ingo was being mind controlled or something, and he was the one who used to do all of the work. Come to think of it, Lon Lon Ranch is only ever said to be owned by Malon and Talon before Ganondorf took over. From what we know about feudalism, maybe Ingo was a serf who's master was Talon. This might be why Talon never does any work and gets away with it despite owning the place. Maybe Malon decides to help Ingo do work out of a sense of sympathy. Bottom line: Ingo has probably had it pretty hard (especially if he is based on Luigi whose older brother gets all the credit). I wouldn't beat him up because he definitely changes at the end.

Alright, to answer the OP, I think that Malon actually might be on my list along with the Happy Mask Salesman. It's too bad those characters have not appeared in a Zelda game for over ten years. As for characters from other games:

-Jonathan Morris and Charlotte Aulin (from Castlevania. They did star in one game together but they have only ever been in one game since and that game was not even cannon. I personally think that both of them are more interesting than some of the more common protagonists of the series).

-Falco (Star Fox 64)

-J. Jonah Jameson (from Spider-Man 2, mostly because of his performance in the movie, so I wish he was more prominent in the game)

-Nanase (from Custom Robo V2)

-Yoshi (from the Mario series)

-Ivan (from Golden Sun, which I still have not yet finished)

-Uh ... a lot of Zelda characters

Overall I am usually happier with our main characters.

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

The Happy Mask Salesman. He was given more of a role in Majora's Mask, and there was so much mystery about him. He is such an interesting side character. I don't know if giving him a bigger role like that could work again, but it might be cool to see again.

 

[Hero of Pizza Time]

The Happy Mask Salesman. He was given more of a role in Majora's Mask, and there was so much mystery about him. He is such an interesting side character. I don't know if giving him a bigger role like that could work again, but it might be cool to see again.

At least there are some references to him in other Zelda games. Like in ALBW, Ravio's design bears a subtle resemblance to the Happy Mask Salesman (plus there is the fact that he is a traveling merchant and the fact that he has Majora's Mask on his wall). At the very least, he has to be in assist trophy in the new Smash Bros. game.

And Malon or a similar character has to make another appearance in the Zelda series. I don't think we have gotten an innocent, normal, sane Zelda character who doesn't have any kind of secret magical powers since Wind Waker (where we got Link's sister).

 

[YIGAhim]

Happy Mask Salesman, for sure. Can't really think of many others. Maybe later

 

[Darthnut]

Nearly every minor character has more personality and depth than the main cast, who are bland allegories with personalities staler than a potato chip.


However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Link should be bland as he is meant to be a reflection of the player. I only wish he needn't always be a goody two-shoes. Zelda and Ganon could use depth though.