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[DunDunDunpachi]

Muh ludonarrative dissonance.

But really, it's a bit immersion breaking for NPCs to be labeled with their name before the character has even met or identified them. It makes every NPC encounter in every RPG, adventure game, etc a quick exercising in sorting between "villager" and "uniquely named and dressed NPC". Ignoring any of the characters without an assigned name is usually a safe bet in videogames. This isn't anything new, despite new technology and larger writing teams.

As a result, these towns full of NPCs criss-crossing one another still feel very empty. When I know in the back of my mind that 90% of them have no unique dialogue or special contribution to the game, I'm not impressed when I see a lot of them wandering around. Plus, it can turn searches for NPCs into a Where's Waldo unless I resort to the minimap. A small town, a few dozen uniquely-named NPCs, and sprawling dialogue/behavior trees would be more interesting to me than seeing yet another sprawling city with hundreds of dullards clipping into walls and repeating the same clips of dialogue.

What are your thoughts on this shallow nitpick? It hasn't ruined a single game for me but it's one of those small complaints that I can't shake.

 

[Kuranghi]

I like in games when it says "Unknown person" or the like until you learn their name, thats one way to avoid the problem.

I feel like they tried to do the "condensed small town with loads of unique dialogue and behavior for each person" but they ran out of time. The problem is most people will never see all the dialogue in BotW because its situational depending on weather, time of day, the clothes you are wearing and some other stuff I can't remember.

There is no way to just see that dialogue via trees like you said unfortunately, I'd like to see something like that in BotW 2. There is actually quite a lot of it if you go looking for it, but then some people don't really change what they say much as well so thats kinda crap.

Did you play BotW?

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Yeah Kuranghi BotW packed in a lot of named NPCs relative to the overall population size, that's a good callout.

One small side-effect: it was very obvious when encountering a Yiga 'Traveler' because they had a generic name, but other than that, I liked how almost everyone I met had a name and a bit of unique dialogue. There was always a slight chance this same NPC could be tied into one of the game's quests in some way. At least, that's how it felt to me.

 

[DrDerekDrs]

Ha! Weird to see this as this is exactly the thing I'm avoiding with the game I'm making at the moment! It bugs the heck out of me, too.

 

[Kuranghi]

Yeah Kuranghi BotW packed in a lot of named NPCs relative to the overall population size, that's a good callout.

One small side-effect: it was very obvious when encountering a Yiga 'Traveler' because they had a generic name, but other than that, I liked how almost everyone I met had a name and a bit of unique dialogue. There was always a slight chance this same NPC could be tied into one of the game's quests in some way. At least, that's how it felt to me.

Totes mate, the funny thing with the Yiga 'Traveler' events was that you could put a bunch of chu jellies on the ground and when they jump they sometimes explode them all and they freeze/burn/get shocked + other silly stuff with items.

Did you know the Yiga Blademaster's Windcleaver 2H weapon flies in a straight line for a bit longer than any other 2H when you throw it, as if its carried on the wind! I love BotW ha.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Totes mate, the funny thing with the Yiga 'Traveler' events was that you could put a bunch of chu jellies on the ground and when they jump they sometimes explode them all and they freeze/burn/get shocked + other silly stuff with items.

Nope, I haven't experimented much with torturing the AI but that sounds funny. It reminds of the sort of stuff I would do in Metal Gear Solid 5 (messing around w tools and weapons). BotW is packed with so many little nuances.

Did you know the Yiga Blademaster's Windcleaver 2H weapon flies in a straight line for a bit longer than any other 2H when you throw it, as if its carried on the wind! I love BotW ha.

I had no idea about this either, but that makes sense.

 

[Kuranghi]

One of my favourite MGS:V gameplay things is requesting a different pickup point for the chopper after the mission-scripted one happens on repeat playthroughs of missions, on Phantom Limbs you can avoid the skulls completely and escape without a confrontation and on Hellbound you can change the chopper point to the bottom of the road near a checkpoint and just bomb it down there in the truck rather than play hide and seek.

I hope we get more next-gen games with that kinda stuff, feels so great. I'm the king of this game! *holds arms up in the air while wearing only underpants at 2:19pm on a Tuesday* Jesu Christi guys, I think I need to get back to work soon...

Off Topic: How funny is it when family members are saying "We're so bored, we have nothing to do" and I'm "bitch, please [sorry mum] get a Switch and stfu, how do you think I fill my spare time? Watching the shitbox?". Did you guys know there are TV programs that are just watching peoples reactions to shit? The adapted Twitch to TV! lol I haven't watched TV in like 15 years.

Also: My flatmate told his mum to go for a walk in the woods but she said its boring because "its just all trees and nothing else", I'm like "bitch, please [Sorry sandra], get a Switch and play BotW there's plenty to see in them there woods"

 

[Portugeezer]

Yeah it's kind of annoying when you can tell a character will be important because they have a unique name, they end up being part of main story or side quests... Takes away some of the surprise of the world.

 

[Kuranghi]

My flatmate is playing Ghost of a Tail right now and thats really cool if you want a big congruent world with named characters who have "complex" quest chains/dialogue. Its a stealth game (you can't really attack), it has a full day night cycle, open world and it features a Dark Souls 1 world thats full of shortcuts kinda thing.

I was surprised how believable the world felt, puzzles are good too. He says its like the Redwall novel series if anyone is into them.