What Good RPG with interesting pet system?

[Dasale]

Few month ago I played Ancient Domains of Mystery, even if pets didn't play a major role and die easily there was many details linked to pets and that was quite interesting.

I just tried the demo of Fate where there's a pet, well the free session end and I'm not sure if I want pay to play more. But that raise this question: What Good RPG have and interesting pet system?

[Corwin]

Try Fallout. Most D&D's make use of pet familiars for the mages. Pets are not my thing; too difficult to keep alive.

[Dasale]

Fallout? I played it and don't remember any pets noteworthy. Well I don't remember pets at all in fact! It's a long time ago.

You are right a common problem is keeping them alive.

[VPeric]

The Geneforge series maybe?

[magerette]

Dungeon Seige II has quite a nice array of odd creatures for pets which you earn thru specific quests. Titan Quest has an interesting pet or pets available for almost every class--if you can play action rpgs. But it sounds like you may mean pure rpgs, in which case I'm clueless, except to mention that at least one of the Fallouts does have a dog pet available.

[Dasale]

I tried Geneforge quickly in past but didn't get catch, I don't remember its pets. Yes Dungeon Siege II series had useful pets, interesting proposal but already played.

For Fallout that could be Fallout 2 that had pets, I never succeed play it despite Fallout 1 is a favorite. If it's Fallout 1 it could be because I forget it or haven't done the right tricks to get one.

Titan Quest, I never tried this one. I don't like a lot Action RPG because usually it means only action but if it is full of interesting tricks to find, riddle and puzzles I could enjoy. Dungeon Master is another favorite and it can be classified as H&S but it isn't restricted to H&S and have the best set of tricks/puzzles/riddles I know, most often not too tough nor not too easy. Also for me, Dungeon Siege II series is more than pure H&S. I'll give a try to Titan Quest.

Thanks all for the proposals.

[magerette]

Titan Quest, I never tried this one. I don't like a lot Action RPG because usually it means only action but if it is full of interesting tricks to find, riddle and puzzles I could enjoy. Dungeon Master is another favorite and it can be classified as H&S but it isn't restricted to H&S and have the best set of tricks/puzzles/riddles I know, most often not too tough nor not too easy. Also for me, Dungeon Siege II series is more than pure H&S. I'll give a try to Titan Quest.

Thanks all for the proposals.

Titan Quest is pretty much a straight hack and slash diablo clone. There's LOTS of slaying mob after mob of monsters. The character and skills systems are very good though, and the mythological setting is well done. No puzzles or riddles, I'm afraid. :(

[Dasale]

Well I downloaded the demo but failed upon an installer bug, one more crap management of disk space. Ok I doubt anyway I will have enjoy, direction the trash. :)

[Dasale]

Why new generations don't enjoy anymore using their brain? Perhaps another effect of the global warming? :biggrin:

[dteowner]

Someone with deeper experience with the game would have to confirm/deny, but would Diablo 2's Necromancer fit the bill if he was a golem builder?

[Dasale]

I played 2 times Diablo 2 plus played a bit some classes. I gave up the Necromancer very fast because it was too complicate to control.

I don't think it's the meaning of your question but I could read it as: What is an interesting pet system in a CRPG?

Well there's multiple answers, for me some elements:

Yes the pet shouldn't be controlled, otherwise it's just another PC in the party.
Yes you should have tools to keep it alive through the whole game.
Yes it should be useful, eventually for fights but also for other stuff.
It can be a plus to have a tame system that add pets choices and depth to the story with the pet. But some pet relationships could be quite fun and be a change in CRPG.
Pets should not have a full inventory, eventually only one very limited otherwise it's just a PC or NPC in the party.
Story with the player should be animal story not human relationship.
Active learning system to let opportunity for the player to learn stuff to the pet can improve a lot the pet system.
At least a NPC in the party that won't bore the player with stupid romances with the player.
Some special tricks dedicated to the pets could be a plus.
Some NPC joining the party could bring a pet and that can add some story elements.

[Corwin]

There is a Dog in Fallout 1 (and 2), but keeping it alive is a headache.

[dteowner]

Dare I mention "Black and White" ???

[Corwin]

No, don't you dare!! :)

[Maylander]

There's a Dog in Arcanum, which is one of the best characters in the whole game. However, I wouldn't really count it as a "pet", because it's simply one of your followers.

Beyond that, there's always various D&D games (NWN1, 2, BG1, 2). Rangers and Druids tend to get "pets", and wizards/sorcerers can summon tons of animals, demons and so on, in addition to their "familiars".

Hellgate: London has two nice pet classes - Summoner and Engineer. Both are very powerful, and have two completely different ways of using their pets. As mentioned, Titan Quest has some decent pet classes.

[Wulf]

The Diablo 2 necromancer spawned pet skellies whith amazing attack routines which did all the hard work. By careful 'holding back' and 'circumventing' strategies one could play the necromancer with little or even no combat involvement - while all the time the exp' was accumulating. If a skelly did get killed just a press of a button and "whoosh" another bunch appeared, i preferred to heal them for as long as possible just for the challenge factor. Running from the attack zone always made the skellies retreat back to the necromancer yet still keep attacking within that zone.

From what i can deduce from Diablo 3 info' the witchdoctor will be superior to the D2 necromancer with better magic spells and traits and far superior pet spawn abilities.

[zakhal]

Dare I mention "Black and White" ???

The dog in fable 2? Cant be any worse than all the action "rpgs" mentioned here.
But the big thing, one of the biggest parts of Fable 2, will be the introduction of a dog to the game. Not just any dog, but your dog. The dog will be faithful to you and will have a deeply nuanced artificial intelligence so you won't actually control your dog at all. Instead your dog will act as a sort of living HUD. The game has no map, no other user interface on screen. Instead you will have to rely on the dog and what he sees and does.

You also will control the dog by your own actions. A great example. You come upon two bad guys and pull our your gun (yes, the game has guns) and the dogs knows automatically attack the closer targets.

[Alrik Fassbauer]

The dog in fable 2? Cant be any worse than all the action "rpgs" mentioned here.

You should - to be fair - keep in mind that Fable 2 isn't out yet.

[Dez]

Fable 2 will have a dog companion..heh its most what we know about the actual game, but Peter seems a bit excited of it =)

[zakhal]

You should - to be fair - keep in mind that Fable 2 isn't out yet.
Its out in next month so its not that long.

[Dasale]

Fable 2 will have a dog companion..heh its most what we know about the actual game, but Peter seems a bit excited of it =)
He could I think it's not something really developed in CRPG. :biggrin:

But one part isn't clear for me:
The game has no map, no other user interface on screen. Instead you will have to rely on the dog and what he sees and does.

That seems quite weird and in fact hard to understand what this mean exactly.

[txa1265]

Fate has a pet as well ... but the system is just 'OK'.

[Dasale]

I read more about the pet in Fable 2 (not Fate 2) and this will be a little miracle if it's not going to be another stupid follow the cursor thing.

When looking for The Witcher EE in shop I found Titan Quest at very low price so take it. Well that game is almost a crap. It's just a Diablo clone, so much that they should get a lawsuit for that. But the worse is to have to suffer all Diablo crap and not what's good, boring stuff like no save, death experience penalty, fights fights almost only that. And I didn't see any pet, well almost some class have some summon that are named pet. Ok it can be played and isn't a total crap but it's a shame to see unimaginative design like this. In comparison the unfinished game Dungeon Lords is just Brilliant.

EDIT: And Fate (not Fable!) seems good in comparison to Titan Quest!

EDIT2: Dam I wrote Fate 2 instead of Fable 2! And finally Titan Quest isn't so bad

[GhanBuriGhan]

I believe I remember there are some pet companion mods for Morrowind. I haven't tried them myself, but I believe they were fairly popular and pretty well done.

[titus]

Like already mentioned: D2
and also Guild wars the ranger chars and necros

[Dasale]

Well dig through Morrowind mods will be a big task. When I played some and seek among what was available to extract the best, I don't remember to have see anything good about pets.

Yes Diablo 2 had companion, no pets. Well eventually for most CRPG pet or companion it's the same.

Titan Quest pets (that are summon) works better than those is d2. The game isn't that bad finally, I wrote my very negative comment above a bit fast. :) For sure it's a clone and not as good than the original but it has some good points and once I found some more funny way to do fights I get more fun.

Pets in TQ are more like summon but persistent summons. To avoid companions/pets get lost the game teleport them when they are too far, so many game had pet following not working that well and should have do something like that. Also the summoning avoid have them die too often like most CRPG with pets and avoid have them stronger.

Overall in TQ the pets/companions are working well during fights. Without to control them you can manage it in different ways.

[Zloth]

Well, if you want to go back... WAY back.... you can go get the latest version of Nethack (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nethack). You get a dog or cat there that you need to keep fed and will fight for you (or with you if you leave it behind and it goes feral). The little buggar can haul things out of shops, too.

[Dasale]

Well, if you want to go back... WAY back.... you can go get the latest version of Nethack (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nethack). You get a dog or cat there that you need to keep fed and will fight for you (or with you if you leave it behind and it goes feral). The little buggar can haul things out of shops, too.
You are right, when I think pet it's more with details that I've seen in some ASCII games. I haven't played Nethack but I doubt I could play any rogue like game after to have play ADOM (even if I didn't finished it). I don't remember very well but I played Moria and Rogue and in one of them there was a pet with some interesting stuff.

And for the quote, Titan Quests and Fate was interesting quotes about pets.
That said, I have yet to see a CRPG that includes a good pet system. Some have very interesting point and eventually it's ADOM that cumulate the most stuff relative to pets but alas their gameplay value is weak just because they die quite easily. I played another rogue like game that replace ascii by some icons with also some good points about pets. For example you could find a way to use the pet to identify what's poisoned, something I haven't found in ADOM for example.

Ha well despite I'm highly suspicious about Fable 2, I have to admit that because of the pet thing as soon as it is ported to PC (or wii!!) I'll try it.

I'm sure there's something very good that is still to do about pets in CRPG.

[Alrik Fassbauer]

There are graphic tiles for Nethack out there, in a similar fashion like for Dwarf Fortress.