An interface for video games in which you are given a sidekick, usually a pet, that acts as a guide/virtual pet of sorts in the world. You can play with it, it will alert you of enemies, it will dig up hidden items, sometimes you can ride it, it usually can't die except in Plotline Death.
Sort of a low key Exposition Fairy crossed with Nintendogs.
Of course, since writers have known for decades that killing the main character's adorable pet is the cheapest and easiest way to get to an audience emotionally, you might want to read a FAQ and spoil yourself before you get attached to any of these. This can of course lead to So Long, and Thanks for All the Gear if you've leveled up the pet. Not related to Platforming Pocket Pal (mostly).
Compare/contrast a Non-Player Companion, who usually takes a more active role in helping the Player Character.
Examples:
- Agro from Shadow of the Colossus, to some extent.
- Greatly expanded in the follow-up, The Last Guardian which is the story of a boy and a giant colossus griffin-thing that he rescues and follows him, providing him ways to negotiate the terrain.
- Possibly the Guidebot introduced in Descent 2.
- He becomes more of an interface element in Descent 3
- Dogmeat from Fallout 4 can fetch ammo and items and search for enemies. He can also lug your stuff.
- One of the most attractive features of the PC game Fate is the fact that your avatar is given a pet sidekick. You can name the animal, decide if you want a cat or a dog, and choose from a handful of different color variations. Although not invincible, the pet will fight for you and takes far less damage. Farther into the game, you can feed your pet different kinds of fish to turn it into a giant spider, a unicorn, or a number of other things, each with their own attributes.
- Torchlight and its sequel have a similar system to the above thanks to Runic Games having the creator of Fate on the development team. While your pets do have health as a concern, they only run off in fear if they run out and they get a lot of HP as you level up. Along with temporary and permanent transforming fish for combat boosts, they can also equip a collar and two tags in the sequel and even learn spell tomes though they can only cast half as often as the player can.
- The Awakening game series features Randolph, a talking fairy owl, who provides exposition and hints, and an unnamed pocket dragon who perches on the side of the inventory and helps with melting and lighting things when needed.
- Except for the first two in the Mystery Trackers series of games, the player character will be accompanied by a miniature pinscher named Elf who will assist in grabbing hard to reach objects.
- Several classes get pets in World of Warcraft. Elementals can be summoned by Shamans (earth, fire) and Mages (water), Priests get a shadowfiend, Death Knights can raise a ghoul from a corpse (even that of a dead player!), and Warlocks can summon a variety of demons, from the lowly Imp to the massive Infernal. But none are as pet-focused as Hunters, who not only can tame almost any Beast-type enemy in the world, they get to name the pet and give it its own minor talent tree. In all of the above cases, the pet gets a small bar of icons above the player's Action Bar, for the player to give commands with.
- Guild Wars, likewise, allows player characters to train pets using the Ranger class' Charm Animal Skill (which any character can gain access to by switching their secondary profession to Ranger). Actually having the pet show up requires Charm Animal to be equipped, and other skills do things like healing, buffing, and reviving it. A character's pet can be named and if charmed below level 20 will level up and gain different, mutually exclusive traits as it levels (for example, pets that took dramatically more damage than they dished out will gain a permanent bonus to hit points at the expense of attack damage). Characters can unload a pet on an NPC "trainer", at which point the pet is lost, but opens up the slot for a new pet. Pets will hide in Hammerspace when in towns or when Charm Animal is not equipped.
- Wizard101 has pets that are raised to compete with other players in races and provide the occasional stat boost or spell. There are over a hundred different pets that can be obtained from various ways ranging from boss drops, quest rewards, to free with the purchase of a gaming card.
- Star Wars: The Old Republic has this as one of it's many unique features in that your "pets" are fully fleshed out companions with unique combat roles and reactions to certain situations. They can even be sent on missions or given crafting orders to keep them busy while you're out on, say, Tatooine killing sand people. Just make sure you leave one with you to help in combat, because the game's balanced in a way that makes solo combat without a companion somewhere between diffcult and impossible.
- Tricky the "Triceratops" from Star Fox Adventures.
- The ENTIRE Spyro the Dragon series. Sparx the Dragonfly is your health meter (Gold -> Blue -> Green -> Gone, later updated to include an additional level of health, either a glowing gold or a warning red), and in later games can bust nearby gem cases, collect nearby gems, and even has his own levels.
- In the Professor Layton games, you're given a pet that will point out hint coins for you and unlock a set of bonus puzzles once you've completed its particular minigame. In Curious Village, it was a robot dog you had to assemble; in Diabolical Box, it was a hamster you had to exercise; in Unwound Future, it was a parrot you helped make deliveries (this was changed from the Japanese version, where you taught the parrot different words instead). The fish you get in Last Specter still comes with a minigame, but it will find hint coins for you even before you complete it.
- In Starship Titanic, your interface is called a Personal Electronic Thingummy. In other words, it's a P.E.T. Interface.
- In Pepper's Adventures in Time, at several points you will take control of Pepper's mutt Lockjaw. He basically interacts with the world like Pepper does, except doesn't have an inventory. Or opposable thumbs.
- The dog from Fable II, who suffers a Plotline Death at the hands of the main villain (in a literal case of Shoot the Dog). Your dog is then lost for good unless you pick the ending where he is revived, or get the Knothole Island DLC (where you may resurrect your dog at a special shrine with a human sacrifice).
- The "dog after me own heart" in The Bard's Tale.
- The game plays with parts of the trope: suffers a Plotline Death but is revived as a ghostly skeletal dog.
- Nall mostly provides snark in Lunar: Silver Star Story, but he's also the menu cursor and your Bag of Sharing. Same with Ruby.
- Baby from the Guardian's Crusade, which revolves around this trope.
- The transforming dog in Secret of Evermore.
- Dogmeat in the Fallout series, but Fallout 3's Dogmeat is the best example.
- Specifically, you can order him to retrieve items for you in addition to siccing him on your enemies. There are also options to praise and scold him, but those are just there for flavor.
- Skye from Grandia II is a bird that acts as a father figure and a bad mode of transport to the main character.
- Final Fantasy VIII had one of the main characters have a pet dog named Angelo which could help attack in battles, such as shoving it onto a Blaster Edge and firing it at enemies. She could also revive KOed allies, (and make the party invincible), and search for items on the battlefield.
- Which is based on the "Animals" ability from Final Fantasy V, where a character could summon random animals to attack enemies, heal you, block attacks, etc.
- Shadow's dog would occasionally enter battle for a free attack in Final Fantasy VI.
- Which is based on the "Animals" ability from Final Fantasy V, where a character could summon random animals to attack enemies, heal you, block attacks, etc.
- The Mabari war hound in Dragon Age: Origins (later named "Barkspawn" in DLC). Another Mabari shows up in Dragon Age II, though more as a Shout-Out to the first game (it's treated as a summoned creature, while the original dog was a full companion character).
- In Skies of Arcadia, Fina has Cupil, a living weapon of sorts which acts as her pet and her only childhood friend. In the Dreamcast release, while on foot and not in a cutscene Cupil would hang around inside the LCD screen of VMU memory cards and clown around, "squeaking" with the VMU's beeps when the player was close to a treat for him. This was changed to an onscreen icon and chirping in the Legends remake.
- Torchlight combines this with Bag of Holding; your pet acts as a secondary inventory as well as a combat helper, and can even go back to town to sell your excess loot for you. Somewhat unnecessary given how common town portal scrolls are, and you get a much lower sale price for your spoils, but nice for those times when you just can't be distracted.
- NetHack - While not an integrated system, a surprising amount of NetHack's gameplay can be usefully applied to pets — or rather, tame monsters (which can include humanoids).
- Cats, dogs, and horses can be tamed with appropriate food. Magical means permit other monster types to be tamed.
- Carrying pet treats in open inventory (tripe for dogs/cats, pears/apples for horses) means your pet will stay much closer to you.
- Tossing your pet a treat reinforces its recent behavior. You can train your pet to steal from shops!
- A leash physically keeps your pet close to you, even when going up/down stairs or dropping through holes. (You can use multiple leashes, too.)
- A tin whistle will kind of call your pet to you. A magic whistle will teleport your pet(s) to your side if they're anywhere on the level.
- #chatting to your pet can tell you about their condition.
- Pets are reluctant to step on a square with a cursed item on it. (unless there's food there they want.) This can identify cursed items. It can also be used to control a tame animal's movement.
- You can apply a bullwhip at a humanoid pet to take their weapon away. (For replacement with a better weapon.) You can also prepare and leave weapons, armor, and tools for your humanoid pets to pick up and use.
- Wand of probing tells what a monster (tame or otherwise) is carrying.
- A stethoscope tells an animals basic hitpoints and it's speed.
- Spells of healing and extra healing can be used to heal pets.
- Breaking a potion of regular, extra, or full healing can heal pets.
- Saddles permit horses, dragons, and some other monsters to be ridden.
- The Spirit Dream Eaters that serve as your party members in Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]. You can name them, give them treats to boost their stats, pet or nudge them to increase their affinity (and combat effectiveness), and play minigames with them. They also serve as the game's primary source of new abilities and commands.
- Terranigma has Yomi, a Ridiculously Cute Critter who manages Ark's inventory for him. Of course, he turns out to be evil and attempts to orchestrate the main character's death once he's outlived his usefulness, but dies himself and is replaced with his Light Gaia counterpart.
- Black & White: You play as an immaterial deity overseeing a village of worshipers, and a Kaiju that you might want to train not to eat your followers and stomp on their houses (or not).
- Harvest Moon has featured a dog and a horse in virtually every incarnation. Sometimes you also get a cat (or have to chose between the dog or cat).
- The April 2021 patch for Civilization VI added a "Pet" button to the early Scout unit to allow the unit to pet their canine companion. If you have the Scout Cat mod enabled (which replaces the dog with a cat), the option is greyed out with words saying "one does not simply pet a cat" when you hover over the option.
- Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots provides the tiny, cute, adorably flaily Metal Gear Mk. II (and III). You can use it to do reconnaissance, fetch ammo for you, and extend a prod from it to electrocute Mooks. Find a dog that can do that.
- Brown from Rule of Rose.
- Hewie from Haunting Ground.
- The dolphins in the Endless Ocean games.
- The adorable Jeanne from No More Heroes. She gets fat in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, and if you get her to a low enough weight, Travis gets inspired and gains a new move.
