Companion characters in SWTOR explained

BioWare's creative director and lead designer, James Ohlen, has dished on the companion characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Turns out, these Companions can not only join your cause for their own reasons, but can also be influenced by you, and are integral to the storyline.

Companions will range from droids to aliens, princess to pirates, and each class has its own unique views, commentary, personality, and will also help out in combat.

"Companion characters have a significant impact on the player's experience," Ohlen revealed to IGN. "They are integral to the player's storyline. They interject during conversation to give the player their view on things. They give commentary as the player explores the world. They are an important part of combat, providing extra DPS, healing, tanking abilities or even crowd control.

"Players can change his companion's attitudes and sometimes even his moral leaning. It is dependent on who the companion is and what kind of person the player is role-playing as.

"Some companions can be twisted to the darkside of the Force and others can be redeemed. Some companions can become stronger and more independent or be beaten down until they are subservient. This is done through a system that we are tentatively calling the Affection system.

"It's loosely based on the Dragon Age affection system and allows the player to change his companion's attitude through his actions, words and even through gifts".

Sounds utterly great to us. EA's surely investing its money wisely.

You can read the full interview through the link up top there.

BioWare plans to update the official SWTOR website with this information tomorrow.

SWTOR is out sometime after March 2011.