Animal Companion

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Animal Companions are animals that follow characters around and aid them in being adventurers. Unlike familiars, animal companions aren't usually magical in nature, though they can be exotic, such as dinosaurs, exotic predators or alien fauna. It's a very simple and very old archetype that can be seen in many different genres; in a Western, an animal companion may be something like an extremely well-trained horse that can do clever tricks or a loyal-to-the-death dog, or it could be an exotic predator that somehow has befriended the hero (or villain), like a wolf that regards them as a packmate, a tamed falcon or a pet bear. The name was popularized by Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, but the concept predates that game considerably.

Deadlands

Rules for having a faithful animal companion in Deadlands Classic can be found in the first bestiary; Rascals, Varmints & Critters.

D&D + PF

In Dungeons & Dragons, animal companions are predominantly associated with the druid and the ranger, who could acquire animals as followers in the older editions. They became core class features of these classes in 3rd edition, and thus in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

The "holy steeds" of Paladins sit somewhere between being animal companions and being familiars.

1E & 2E

The concept of animal companions in Dungeons & Dragons first took form in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and here they were associated exclusively with the Ranger; the druid instead had to rely on its magic to summon, talk to and control animals, which is a different thing.

In 1st edition, rangers gained followers as they leveled up, just like clerics and fighters, and these followers could be humans' (clerics, druids, fighters, rangers and wizards), demihumans (dwarf, elf, gnome, half-elf, halfling), animals (black & brown bears, blink dogs, giant lynxes and giant owls), mounts (centaurs, hippogriffs, pegasi), creatures (brownies, pixies, pseudodragons, satyrs, sprites) or special creatures (Copper Dragons, Storm Giants, Treants, Werebears, Weretigers). It all depended on what the dice gods decided when you made that followers check.

2nd edition stripped this concept away from the ranger in the default, making no mention of it in the Player's Handbook or the Dungeon Master's Guide, only to then bring it back in the Complete Ranger's Handbook. The basic concept here is the same, except now that each different biome has its own unique d100 table of followers, which ranges from various native beasts and even a few monsters to humans. To score an animal companion under these rules, the ranger needs to roll low; they end up with a boring old human or demihuman follower on a 71+ in Arctic environments, a 66+ in Mountain or Underdark environments, a 61+ in Aquatic, Desert, Forest, Hill, Jungle or Swamp environments, and finally a 56+ in Plains environments.

3E

Here was where the animal became more of a second player character, becoming their own character, with a statline and levels and typically available to Druids and Rangers. The 3E version was considerably simple in that regard, being merely a level-adjusted animal from the bestiary that benefits from the same spells as their owner as well as some spell boosts. That said, this was the extent of what they could do without any extra benefits outside of their natural abilities. This was especially damaging for the ranger, as their companion scaled terribly in comparison to that of a druid via a drastic level penalty. Paladins could also pick up a steed, though the leveling scheme for those was drastically different.

4E

Animal companions as they were didn't really exist as a central feature. For the most part, Druids weren't particularly affected about this since they still had their spells and Wildshape shenanigans, but it did impact the aspects of the Ranger (especially now that the class lost its spells). It wasn't until the Martial Power 2 splat that pets were included back on the roster for Rangers, but this option was generally viewed as pretty poor since it forces them to only fight in melee for any powers that relied on the pet and losing the Prime Shot ability for some attack bonuses. Druids would also get pets in a way, with the Sentinel class making it a central aspect. Paladins, in the meanwhile, got nothing aside from a utility power in Dragon Magazine that lets them call up a divine steed and some feats to make that steed into something more badass.

Alongside those were a couple character themes that also included pets, though the powers that actively made use of them as more than mere advantage-givers are limited to only those given by the theme itself.

5E

The prospect of taking compaions in 5E are...not good. For Rangers, one of the classes that most relied the most on them, the pet was restricted to subclasses, with the CRB's Beastmaster subclass gaining the unsavory reputation of being the absolute shittiest class to have ever existed. See, it's one thing to just have a scaled-down monster from the bestiary with a minimal CR limitation, but the action economy actively works against them since the Ranger needs to spend feats in order to make them act - that's right, unless ordered, this pet will do nothing but sit like a fucking dumbass. When confronted with this complaint, Mike Mearls (then one of the writers for the game) insisted that people "just weren't playing them right". Efforts were made to slightly improve this, from the revised class writeups to new archetypes and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything introducing more generalized and overall better-received companions that didn't choke so hard on the action economy.

As for the Druid and Paladin? Jack shit aside from some summon spells.

Pathfinder

Pathfinder changed this by giving the animals a more full-blown level chart and providing a limited list of feats for them to pick up. These companions were also not just bestiary animals with level scaling, instead being statted out on their own unique chassis. While there was a level penalty for Rangers who pick up a pet, the gap isn't nearly as colossal and could be remedied if you picked up a feat. On top of that is the fact that there were more classes and archetypes that relied on these pets, notably the Cavalier and Hunter.

Later splatbooks would open up some archetypes to provide more specialized purposes for these pets, with Ultimate Wilderness in particular opening some truly insane possibilities like magically powered companions, dragon-blooded companions, and even cyborg companions.

Second Edition would also include pets, with the various types of pets giving unique actions. However, rather than last edition's level schemes, these pets can only be improved by taking an iterative series of feats, with the final two feats providing the more unique specializations for them, including specializations based on being influenced by genies.

Warhammer

In Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, certain special characters are particularly defined by the unique animal companions that they can take into battle. Particularly prominent examples are the Space Wolves, who can take Fenrisian Wolves in various ways, and the Orcs & Goblins special character Skarsnik, who is forever accompanied by the loyal squig Gobbla.