npcs

ok, go play emily short's galatea, which an all-text game that's nonetheless technically dazzling. it's just a conversation with the titular npc, a statue who may or may not be alive, with a whole conversation system that's so sophisticated it actually almost raises meta-level questions about that (at least until you take a look under the hood and the magic dies.)

blue lacuna also attempts to build an npc that lives and breathes in a small world that does likewise but it's just... slightly too janky. the opening prologue is pretty great even if it features neither of those things.