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No Wait, Come Back: 8 Video Game Companions Who Can Leave You Permanently, But We Wish Would Stay Forever

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Benson Boone in Fallout New Vegas, Urdnot Wrex in Mass effect, and the party together in Pyre.

You’ll play plenty of games solo, but those with some of the most memorable characters tend to have a whole group you control. These parties are filled with lovable characters that you’ll spend the whole game bonding with. Or, if they’re particularly abrasive to you, pushing away. This is all fine and dandy, until the consequences hit.

Cloud and Sephiroth standing in the rain in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

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Sure, your companions can permanently die in some games, and that hurts. But what can sometimes feel even worse is seeing the choices you directly made lead to someone leaving you. In these games, your actions with your companions carry weight, with some of them ultimately leaving you altogether based on the choices you make.

8 Fallout: New Vegas

Boone Talking With The Courier, Fallout New Vegas

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Fallout: New Vegas

Released
October 19, 2010

ESRB
M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs

Developer(s)
Obsidian Entertainment

Publisher(s)
Bethesda

Engine
Gamebryo

Franchise
Fallout

Platform(s)
PS3, Xbox 360, PC

How Long To Beat
28 Hours

PS Plus Availability
Premium

Metascore
84

Often heralded as one of the strongest entries in the Fallout series, Fallout: New Vegas offers you plenty of choices in terms of roleplay, and a healthy cast of companions to reflect your own choices off of. All of them will react to your choices, though not all of them will outright leave you based on your actions.

Some will, though. Boone hates the Legion and loves the NCR, so being too buddy with the former and hateful of the latter will turn him hostile. Cass will leave you if your karma goes too low, and Veronica doesn’t take too kindly to repeated insults to the Brotherhood. It is entirely possible to keep every companion comfortably, just be ready for the consequences if you swing to the extremes.

7 Baldur’s Gate 3

Karlach looking serious in Baldur's Gate 3.

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ESRB
M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence

Developer(s)
Larian Studios

Publisher(s)
Larian Studios

Engine
Divinity 4.0

Multiplayer
Online Co-Op, Local Co-Op

Cross-Platform Play
Full cross-platform play.

Cross Save
Full cross-platform progression.

Franchise
Baldur’s Gate

Number of Players
1-4

Split Screen Orientation
Vertical Only

Steam Deck Compatibility
Verified

PC Release Date
August 3, 2023

Xbox Series X|S Release Date
December 7, 2023

PS5 Release Date
September 6, 2023

Platform(s)
PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC, macOS

OpenCritic Rating
Mighty

Local Co-Op Support
1-2 Players

How Long To Beat
100+ Hours

X|S Optimized
yes

File Size Xbox Series
140.38 GB

PS Plus Availability
N/A

Metascore
96

Reviving the old Bioware series, Larian made waves with Baldur’s Gate 3. Not only was it packed with so many choices that new ones are still being uncovered, it came with one of the most memorable parties in recent years. Each of these character’s is a fleshed-out individual in their own right, and that means the choices you do or not make will change their relationship to you.

Dunwall's royal palace grounds under attack in Dishonored 2, red energy engulfing a player in Elden Ring, and a sinister looking Tiefling in BG3.

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In general, the vast majority will leave you if you let their approval drop low, though they have plenty of other more specific decisions beyond this. Shadowheart leaves if you pursue her personal quest without her. Karlack abandons you if you attack the Grove. Gale can leave if you ignore him for too long. You can keep them all, but the line gets easy to cross with certain roleplaying options.

6 Mass Effect

Urdnot Wrex glaring at the camera in Mass Effect.

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Mass Effect

Released
November 20, 2007

ESRB
M For Mature 17+ due to Blood, Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Violence

Developer(s)
BioWare

Publisher(s)
Electronic Arts

Engine
Unreal Engine 3

Cross-Platform Play
doesn’t have cross-play between PC and consoles,

Cross Save
yes

Franchise
Mass Effect

Platform(s)
PS3, Xbox 360, PC

How Long To Beat
17 Hours

It’s easy to forget in hindsight that the original Mass Effect trilogy was made in such a short period of time, and had an incredible amount of respect to your choices made across games as a result of that speedy development. With companions such a major focus of these games, it makes since that the way you treat them, and how they react, is a such a major thing.

In the very first game, Wrex can leave you if you can’t convince him to stand down. Considering he is standing against the genocide of his people, it’s a fair response. And while it’s somewhat in reverse, refusing to recruit Garrus in the original Mass Effect will make his return in Mass Effect 2 seem like he is a brand new character.

5 Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Title Art

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Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor

Systems

ESRB
T For Teen Due To Fantasy Violence, Language, Mild Blood, Partial Nudity

Developer(s)
Atlus

Publisher(s)
Ghostlight, Atlus

Engine
Unreal Engine 4

Franchise
Shin Megami Tensei

Platform(s)
Nintendo DS

How Long To Beat
31 Hours

Developer
Atlus, Career Soft

Metascore
84

In the grand pantheon of Shin Megami Tensei and Persona games that Atlus creates, it can be easy to forget the smaller games that exist within those series’, and Devil Survivors is one of the best. Originally made for the DS, the game takes places across seven days and has you making major choices across all of them that determine who you recruit, and who stays.

5:42

Shin Megami Tensei A Strange Journey, Persona 4 and Metaphor ReFantazio.

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The route you take determines who is even available, and certain party members will react differently. Maybe they don’t like someone you recruited and just leave. You might get the chance to bring them back, but it might take getting rid of someone once. There are so many different options available here, so choose your party carefully.

4 Dragon Age

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Dragon Age: Origins

Released
November 3, 2009

ESRB
M for Mature: Blood, Intense Violence, Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content

Developer(s)
BioWare

Publisher(s)
Electronic Arts

Engine
Eclipse

Franchise
Dragon Age

Platform(s)
PS3, Xbox 360, PC

How Long To Beat
40 Hours

X|S Optimized
No

In Mass Effect, most of your companions will stay with you quite literally to their death, though Dragon Age tends to have a bit more granularity in this regard. With The Veilguard as the sole exception, your companions can leave you permanently in all of the games. And sometime, it might happen more suddenly than you expect.

It is most prevalent in Dragon Age: Origins where Leliana, Wynne, Shale and more can all leave you or even become hostile. In Dragon Age 2, the party is smaller but still have companions who can leave, such as Isabela and, canonically, Anders. Though it is harder, Inquisition makes big swings here. Just about everyone can leave you, both through hatred of you and through story, leaving you with only Varric if you really try.

3 Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Fire Emblem Three Houses - Ashe

FIRE EMBLEM THREE HOUSES

The Fire Emblem games in general are well-known for the variability of the characters you recruit, with many only going based on how you interact with them or exclusively with other characters, though it is rarer for them to outright leave. In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, you of course have the eponymous houses and their respective students.

Male and Female Alear stand beside each other, Eliwood and Lyn prepare to attack, Chrom falls through the air with his allies

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You can poach students from each house to your own, though this may come back to haunt you. Certain characters, based on the route you play, will leave to return to their original faction. And if you don’t speak to them with Byleth, then they won’t consider rejoining you at all. Ashe and Petra are major examples of this.

2 Middle-Earth: Shadow Of War

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ESRB
M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence

Developer(s)
Monolith

Publisher(s)
Warner Bros. Games

Engine
lithtech

Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer, Local Multiplayer

Franchise
The Lord of the Rings

Platform(s)
PS4, Xbox One, PC

OpenCritic Rating
Strong

How Long To Beat
21 Hours

X|S Optimized
No

File Size Xbox Series
60 GB (November 2023)

PS Plus Availability
N/A

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War is far from a party-based game, nor are the orcs you recruit strictly companions in the traditional sense. But once you cultivate these orcs and see their stories evolve, you can’t help but feel like they are your lifelongs companions. Which can make their departure all the more painful.

This doesn’t just refer to them dying in combat, either. Some of these orcs are very strong-willed, and will happily betray you when the chance to take power arises. This feels especially cruel when you have spent so much time empowering them, granting them new ranks, all to be stabbed in the back. But isn’t that just the way or Mordor?

1 Pyre

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Pyre

ESRB
E For Everyone: Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Tobacco Reference, Use of Alcohol

Developer(s)
Supergiant Games

Publisher(s)
Supergiant Games

Engine
MonoGame

Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer

Steam Deck Compatibility
Playable

Platform(s)
PC, PS4

OpenCritic Rating
Mighty

How Long To Beat
11 Hours

How Long To Beat (Completionist Runs)
21 Hours

Supergiant has made a lot of incredible games, but none of them are quite so unique as Pyre. Part visual novel, part sports game, Pyre has you spend its entire length recruiting an eclectic band of travelers to yearn their freedom back to the world above. Except once you finally reach the competition at the very end, you learn it’s not quite so simple.

Only one companion can go at a time, and it is only those experienced enough. You have to make the call, but that only makes it harder. They have to leave, and only a certain amount can go. It becomes a balancing act of building a team that can still win, while also having to give up your star players, and any of the relationships they’ve cultivated along the way.

People talking in unicorn overlord, makoto and junpei in the original persona 3, and a character from skyrim.

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