In 2026, Avowed is no longer a distant promise or a screenshot-heavy mystery. Obsidian Entertainment’s first-person fantasy RPG has been out in the wild for over a year, letting players tromp through the Living Lands, swing swords, cast spells, and fire pistols like a caffeinated wizard-pirate. And after all that time, one design choice still makes armchair game designers twitch: Avowed has exactly four companions. Not six. Not nine. Not the sprawling, interchangeable follower army of a certain dragon-slaying game. Four. Kai, Giatta, Marius, and Yatzli. That’s the whole squad. Is that brave, foolish, or secretly brilliant?

Let’s set the table. Obsidian’s previous RPG-flavored space romp, The Outer Worlds, shipped with six companions. Dragon Age games often aim for around nine. Skyrim hands players a follower buffet where any random housecarl can carry one’s burdens until they are inevitably forgotten near a cave entrance. Avowed, by contrast, looks at that industry tradition and says, “No thanks, we’ll take a poker hand.”

Game	Companion Count	Vibe
Avowed	4	Focused, chatty, deeply weird
The Outer Worlds	6	A solid mix, but some felt undercooked
Dragon Age: Inquisition	9	A full roster, plus advisors
Skyrim	Dozens	A walking inventory extension service

So why would Obsidian limit itself? The answer is screen time. With only four companions, each one can actually get a full arc, a personal quest, and enough banter to feel like a person rather than a combat stat with a face. Kai brings rugged charm and a big heart. Giatta is the moral compass with a scientific streak. Marius is the grumpy survivalist who probably complains about the weather in every biome. Yatzli is the magical chaos agent who makes poor decisions look stylish. In a game with four, no one gets left on the bench for forty hours.

What is the point of ten companions if only two are interesting? That is the question Avowed implicitly asks. In many RPGs, a bloated roster means some characters get a single quest and then fade into the background, occasionally piping up to say, “Nice weather for a apocalypse.” Avowed’s tighter cast avoids that fate. Each companion has a reason to be in the Living Lands, and each one’s personal quest ties into the setting’s politics, magic, and general strangeness.

But is four enough to represent an entire frontier? The Living Lands is a bizarre, diverse region full of different cultures, races, and factions. Four companions mean four perspectives. That leaves plenty of room for other voices to go unheard. Could a fifth companion from a distant settlement have made that region feel more alive? Possibly. Could a sixth have fixed pacing issues in the main story? Maybe. But would more companions have diluted the ones already there? That is the real gamble.

Post-launch, the conversation has only gotten more interesting. In 2026, players have had time to finish every companion quest, test every party combination, and argue on forums about whether Marius is secretly the best character or just the most tired. Updates and patches have smoothed out combat and quality-of-life issues, but the companion count remains four. Some players still wish for a bigger roster. Others argue that Avowed’s four are more memorable than entire casts of other RPGs. The debate is basically a family dinner: loud, repetitive, and weirdly affectionate.

Obsidian’s approach is not unprecedented. Mass Effect 2 had a dozen squadmates, but only a handful mattered to the main plot. Baldur’s Gate 3 offers a rich cast, yet many players stick with the same three favorites for an entire run. Avowed simply cuts out the middleman. It says: here are four people. Learn them. Love them. Get annoyed by them. Take them into a glowing cave and hope they do not stand in the fire.

Does that make Avowed lesser? Not necessarily. A smaller roster can feel like a tighter story, not a cheaper one. Each companion in Avowed has a distinct fighting style, a personal questline, and a role in the party’s banter. They are not interchangeable. They are not generic. They are four weirdos with opinions, and that is more valuable than a dozen silent sword-arms.

The real test is memory. In 2026, can a player name all four Avowed companions without checking a wiki? Can they remember a favorite line, a tough choice, a moment of unexpected tenderness? If yes, then Obsidian’s gamble paid off. If no, then maybe the Living Lands needed a few more voices. But here is the thing: a small cast forces developers to make every companion count. There is nowhere to hide a bland character. Every personality has to pull its weight.

So Avowed’s four companions are not a limitation. They are a statement. In an era of endless content and bloated party menus, Obsidian chose depth over breadth. It chose four people who feel like actual people, rather than twenty who feel like inventory slots. And honestly? That might be the most radical RPG design choice of the decade. Four is not a small number. It is a focused one. And in the Living Lands, focused is exactly what players need.