Summary
‘The Power of Friendship’ is a concept you expect to see heavily in animated kids' movies and TV shows. But it actually features in a lot of different media, including video games. Of course, it isn’t always presented in the same way. After all, it doesn’t have to always be such a cutesy and cliched thing. you may have stories revolving around friends that are very serious and compelling.
Technically, any games that involves a party system could be somewhat considered a ‘power of friendship’ game as you adventure together. However, some titles make an extra commitment to friendship by making it a key part of the story or gameplay. Here are some of the most notable examples.
Traditionally, assassins are often depicted as lone-wolf types who work alone. Yet, in Assassins Creed 2, the protagonist Ezio’s success is partly down to his allies.
He spends the game tracking down and killing those responsible for the deaths of his father and brothers. For each elimination, he gets help from his friends to reach his target, whether that’s his Uncle Mario, the thieves he befriends in Venice, the leader of the courtesans in Florentine, or his good buddy, Leonardo da Vinci. They all help him in various ways. If they didn’t, he wouldn’t be able to avenge his family. In fact, he may have ended up dead himself.
In Marvel’s Midnight Suns, you get to create a brand-new Marvel hero who embarks on an escapade to stop their evil mother, Lilith, who’s threatening the world. You don’t go on this mission alone, as you team with various Avengers, members of the Midnight Suns, and other Marvel characters. You all spend half your time completing missions.
The rest of your time is dedicated to creating bonds with your allies. You chat, gaze at stars, play video games, and even create little clubs with your heroic buddies. For example, you start a book club with Blade, Captain America, Captain Marvel, and Wolverine. Befriending various heroes can unlock extra abilities and hero combos, so your friendship actually makes them better in battle.
Once you reach the final boss of Final Fantasy 6, it becomes clear how important friendship and creating bonds is to the overall narrative. The main villain, Kefka, is an all-powerful evil-doer who is committed to destroying everything. In fact, he pretty much does, as he’s one of themost successful Final Fantasy villains ever. Yet, your party still gets a chance to beat him at the end of the game.
Before that, though, your characters interrupt his nihilistic ramblings to talk about the bonds you’ve all created and how important love and friendship is. Then, you team together to take him on. Even someone as strong as Kefka struggles against the power of friendship.
Most games about the power of friendship are fairly wholesome. However, that is not the case with Grand Theft Auto 5. In fact, if you told the three protagonists, Franklin, Michael, and Trevor, that their adventure was about the ‘power of friendship,’ you’d get a bullet in the head.
The three friends embark on many criminal jobs together throughout the game. Some of the jobs are to make money, while the others are about getting the Government off their backs. During it all, they bicker a lot, particularly Michael and Trevor, but they need each other. After all, sticking together is the only way they’re able to survive against the many enemies they make. This is certainly shown in the good ending of the game.
Persona 4 has a mechanic called social links, which are special bonds that you share with other characters. You rank it up by spending time with them, saying the right things in conversations with them, and helping them out.
Improving your friendship with party members doesn’t just make you feel warm inside; it improves their combat capabilities. So, friendship makes your party stronger and increases your chance of beating the game. Perhaps if the villains had more friends, they would be able to stop you.
Mass Effect 2 is an RPG about the customizable Commander Shepard attempting to save the galaxy from the threat posed by an alien race known as the collectors and their synthetic Reaper overlords. The hero can’t do it alone, so they have to spend the game recruiting a collection ofgreat companions.
Not only do you recruit them, but you can also get to know them and, eventually, do a mission for them that makes them completely loyal to you. In other words, you can make them your friend. This is important in the final mission of the game, as that loyalty increases the chance that they and other team members survive the final quest. So, befriending them all could literally save their lives.
Undertale is set in an underground region filled with all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures. You play as a kid stuck in the underground and tasked with getting past these creatures to find your way back to the surface. Much of the story hinges on how you treat these beasts. You can kill them or spare them.
However, to get the true pacifist ending of the game, you must do more than spare their lives. You must befriend them all, which sometimes means hanging out with the creatures and getting to know them. By becoming friends with everyone, you get the very happy and perhaps best conclusion to the story, showing how important friendship can be.
One ofthe best and most famous quotes in the entire Kingdom Hearts seriesis, “I don’t need a weapon. My friends are my power!” It comes from the protagonist, Sora, in one of the most pivotal moments of the first game.
That alone should tell you how important friendship is to the main story ofKingdom Hearts. Sora’s relationship with longtime friends Riku and Kairi is a significant part of the tale, as is the creation of his bond with the likes of Goofy and Donald Duck.
