You don't actually have to use the "eye" icon either in the games. So one could say its useless... In the game the only three that are really useful, are walk, hand, and your inventory box.
It offers more explanation why they did away with most icons in KQ7, and went the single cursor method (since those could all be folded into two, the hand/walk and the inventory box).
Which unfortunately did away with the fluff, and in a way created a giant red X everywhere, (or in the case of that game, the non-glowing cursor) but the things you could interact with. (glowing cursor)
Note of trivia, apparently early demo build of KQ7 actually has graphics for a full icon set (walk, look, talk, pickup, etc), like previous games, hidden in the game files. So its possibly they originally were going to make it like the previous games, but removed it from the finished product, to use the context-sensitive single cursor instead.
I'm also not fine with making someone a companion that is in nearly every screen and does absolutely NOTHING. And I'm CERTAINLY not fine with a big ol' red "x" coming up on the screen! It's not just that he's useless, it's that he's *important* and useless!
Cedric's and the X are two separate issues. Just because X's seem to appear more when he is on screen is a coincidence... :p... And as best as I can tell, no fluff actually replaced any narration (there is more on screen "fluff" narration than there was in any previous game in most screens). Cedric's brand of fluff is more or less the same kind of fluff represented by talking to any character on screen you are in, and getting a tiny bit of background to what and why they are in that particular screen.
I don't know why there are X's maybe its because they didn't quite know how to use the engine yet... It was a new engine, and it looked like they were experimenting with it, and quite figured out what to do with it.
Seriously though, without Cedric, the game wouldn't be as fun... People would probably have forgotten about it and there wouldn't be anything to talk about... You'd lose all the interaction between him and other characters, such as the Mariner, that adds to those characters backgrounds... Hell they might have just did away with the Ancient Mariner and just allowed you to talk to Pearl directly... Cause mariner is kinda useless in a way (without the Cedric scene his diaologue is completely bland, and he's uninteresting)... Oh even Crispin is kinda of useless (gives you a couple of items, expects you to take on a wizard on your own, and doesn't show up until the very end)... Yep they probably could have streamlined and simplified the game and gotten rid of a few characters, and unneeded puzzles and characters. No need for Amanda and her son (they did get rid of them in the NES version), no real need for man working on the wagon, no real need for the second baker brother in the back of the shop, no real need for the two people in the Shoe shoppe, no need for toymaker's grand daughter and son, no need for the tailer's assistant and the customer, no need for gnome's son (they could have folded that interaction into a single gnome), no need to have three thugs in the inn, you could have easily been knocked out with 1 or just two of them. Probably could have did away with most of the bandits. You can't even go into one of the tents, so really only needed to be one tent. Hmm, Herbert doesn't really do anything important, so he could be cut. You'd could still be able to save Alicia however. Yes, I wonder how much useless stuff could be cut from the game... It simply wouldn't be the same game...
Its starting to sound like you hate KQV about as much as most people hate MOE, LOL.
Also, does anyone know if early SCI1 allowed for more complex companions interaction? Maybe there were limitations with what they could actually do with that type of character, in the engine? Again, it was the first time they used the engine as well... They hadn't learned how they could "push" it yet.
Actually many of these complaints about the game may actually be complaints about technical limitations of the early version of that engine, and their lack of knowledge of how to use the engine, and experimental use of it.
King's Quest VI was built on the SCI1.1.