As I sit here in 2026, reflecting on the RPGs that have defined this decade, my mind keeps drifting back to Avowed—a game that promised so much yet delivered so little in the one area that matters most to me: companionship. Before its launch, I was among those defending Obsidian's bold choice to exclude romance options, believing it would free the developers to craft deeper, more authentic character relationships. I imagined companions who would challenge me, who had lives and convictions independent of my whims, whose stories would unfold in unexpected ways. What we got instead feels like a collection of sketches rather than finished portraits, a party of spectral figures who haunt the edges of the Living Lands but never truly inhabit them.

The reality of traveling with Avowed's four companions—Kai, Marius, Giatta, and Yatzli—has been profoundly disappointing. When they occasionally voice disagreement with my decisions, it's always a temporary grumble, quickly forgotten the next time I initiate one of our painfully casual chats. These conversations dispense lore like a textbook, but they never reveal who these characters are as individuals. They remain walking representations of their races or ideologies, never becoming people I care about. Most painfully, there's nothing approaching the emotional depth of Parvati's beautiful romantic side quest from The Outer Worlds—the exact kind of character work I'd hoped Obsidian would excel at without romantic entanglements. In fact, side quests of any meaningful kind are startlingly scarce.

Only Half a Party Gets Stories

With just four companions total—a meager number even by 2016 standards—I expected each to receive extraordinary attention. Instead, only two even have quests bearing their names. First comes Kai's 'Battle Scars,' which we encounter early because he's the first companion recruited. The quest has us recovering the tags of his late commander, who died saving Kai after a battlefield mistake. Through this, Kai learns to forgive himself and embrace the warrior his mentor saw in him.

It should be moving, but it plays like the most standard military redemption tale imaginable. Once completed, Kai shows barely any growth—just minor dialogue tweaks that rarely feel significant. We learn little about what makes him unique or about Avowed's world through his eyes. The whole experience feels like checking a box labeled 'companion backstory.'

Marius's Almost-There Tragedy

Then there's Marius and 'Chorus of the Lost.' Here, we travel to his abandoned village in Galawain's Tusks, discovering it destroyed with only his old friend Iancu remaining—drift ing in madness from Dreamscourge infection after their clan was slaughtered by Razvan in a cult ritual.

This story has genuine potential! It's less clichéd than Kai's, leading us to Razvan's lair where we find him also consumed by Dreamscourge madness. We can kill him or leave him to suffer, but here's the bizarre part: Marius, whose entire clan was murdered, passively agrees with whatever I choose. Where's his rage? His grief? His moral stance? The emotional stakes evaporate, leaving another half-realized narrative.

The Forgotten Half

What about Giatta and Yatzli? They don't even receive proper companion quests. Giatta's 'moment' comes during main story recruitment when we discover her parents died in an Animancy lab accident—transformed by their experiments—all while she's absent from the scene. This could have been fascinating world-building specific to Avowed's magic-science blend, but it's delivered with such generic exposition it feels like an afterthought.

Yatzli fares worst of all. During the endgame trek through the Garden—where other companions relive pivotal moments—she merely discusses her research while I briefly shapeshift into her human form. I actually thought I'd missed her companion quest until reaching this sequence and realizing: there was nothing to miss. She has no personal story, no emotional arc, no reason to exist beyond combat utility.

Why This Matters in 2026's RPG Landscape

Looking at today's RPG scene—where games like the recent Dragon Age: Veilguard and the massively expanded Cyberpunk 2077: Phoenix Rising set new standards for companion depth—Avowed's approach feels particularly anachronistic. Modern RPG fandoms sustain themselves through love for characters, through fan art, fan fiction, and endless debates about relationships and moral choices. Avowed offers none of that fuel.

Consider what's missing:

🔹 Meaningful disagreement - Companions who truly challenge your worldview

🔹 Independent lives - Characters with goals unrelated to your journey

🔹 Evolutionary arcs - Personal growth that changes how they interact with the world

🔹 Inter-companion dynamics - Relationships between party members themselves

The Empty Feeling of Partnership

What stings most is remembering my initial optimism. I truly believed removing romance would lead to richer platonic bonds, to friendships tested by ideological conflict, to mentorships and rivalries that felt earned. Instead, I got combat assistants who occasionally offer opinions they don't seem to believe strongly enough to act upon.

Even the game's structure seems to acknowledge this deficiency. The companion quests we do get feel truncated, as if development time ran out. Marius's quest in particular suggests the team intended full stories for all four companions but only completed two before launch. In an era where games routinely receive substantial post-launch content, I keep wondering: will Obsidian address this? Will we ever get proper quests for Giatta and Yatzli?

A Comparative Glance at Modern Companions

Game (2024-2026)	Companion Depth	Personal Quests	Relationship Systems
Avowed	Surface-level	2/4 companions	Minimal reactivity
Dragon Age: Veilguard	Complex, multi-layered	All companions + interwoven arcs	Friendship/Rivalry with major consequences
Cyberpunk 2077: Phoenix Rising	Deep personal stories	Multiple per companion	Evolving bonds affecting ending variations
Starfield: Legacy Edition	Varied but inconsistent	Most companions	Romantic and platonic paths with narrative impact

The Lingering Question of Legacy

As I replay Avowed in 2026—something I do more out of obligation to the genre than genuine desire—I find myself inventing stories for these characters. Imagining what Kai's leadership struggles might mean in a world beyond his military guilt, wondering about Giatta's research and her parents' legacy, picturing Yatzli's life before joining my party. The game gives me so little that my mind fills the gaps.

This, ultimately, is Avowed's tragic irony: by avoiding romance to focus on 'deeper' relationships, Obsidian created companions with no relationships at all. They're narrative ghosts, present in body but absent in spirit. In a gaming landscape increasingly defined by memorable characters who feel real enough to mourn when their stories end, Avowed's companions barely register as having stories to begin with.

Perhaps this will be the game's legacy—a cautionary tale about how removing one system (romance) without replacing it with substantive alternatives creates a vacuum nothing fills. Or perhaps, in some future update or sequel, these characters will finally receive the attention they deserve. For now, they remain what they've always been: echoes of what might have been, wandering a beautiful world they never truly inhabit.