npcs

i was thinking about npcs

how a lot of games are, pretty lacking in decent characters

but i thought of a few i like, in games that are otherwise lacking and felt like talking about them

pokemon x & y isn't really the best about this, at all, tbh.. but the old man that you meet shortly before the elite four, and give a pokemon to for company that, dies and leaves you a nice thank you note.. was pretty good. i dunno. i wouldn't argue if you said it was mawkish, but i felt things. there's also, not really a full character, but a trans lady trainer that exists and isn't really offensive or shitty (look i know it's kind of pathetic but this is the fucking gold standard of trans characters in games, or media in general really). also appreciate the professor being gay for lysandre, though they're.. really not all that interesting otherwise

skyrim has, even less. the blacksmith that invites you into his home at the start of the game is a nice, moment i guess? like just an ordinary guy living in this fucked up Sky World. and if you're willing to count mods in, inigo is a great friend that will read adventure books to you. and anum-la is pretty cool and likeable in a fanfic-y way, and.. was probably someone's d&d character first
(also yeah i really like argonians)

Robopon 2 for the GBA doesn't really set a high bar for NPCs, but I do really like the recurring rival-type character Nick D. His thing is that he runs an orphanage that is steadily losing money. His plan is to hunt down valuable gems called the X-Stones. The problem is that the X-Stones are what you, as the player, have to collect to challenge the rank holders (think gym leaders in Pokemon). So every time you find one, Nick D. is hot on your tail. Every time you fight him, his team is embarrassingly weak, and it's never a challenge to beat him, but as the game goes on, he gets more and more despondent. Eventually, he comes to the conclusion that hunting down the stones is a dead-end, and that he's going to have to take on a second job alongside running the orphanage to keep it running.

Not enough monster-collecting games make you feel awful for beating your rival.

ahh dang tba that sounds really sad D:

Bioware has a good reputation for NPCs being cool, especially in the Mass Effect series. Although most of the character appeal in that game comes from the squad who can be considered main/side characters.

I do wish the Elder Scrolls had better NPCs, yes, especially Morrowind. The dialogue system in that game is super awkward and is pretty much just you saying DIRECTIONS, then every character having the same line, or from a list of other same lines.

As for Sycamore x Lysandre, all I can say is let me plug this fanfic I wrote way back https://m.fanfiction.net/s/10399511/1/Sunrise

(just realized I haven't shared my fanfiction here... huh. well there's only one other and both are dead anyways.)

mass effect 2, shadowrun: dragonfall, and undertale are like.. the absolute top-tier for good characters, i think

wait whos the trans lady trainer in x/y?

wait whos the trans lady trainer in x/y?

there's a beauty class trainer in the battle maison that says something along the lines of "a year ago i was a black belt! quite the transformation, eh?"

Here ya go:



And here's an article confirming that she was in the Japanese version too.

oh yeah that was a bit... subtle i guess. pokemon games will probably be the last to fully embrace LGBTQ culture, but at least theyre getting there. cant believe it was only recently that they started having black characters.

I'm actually an NPC

oh yeah that was a bit... subtle i guess. pokemon games will probably be the last to fully embrace LGBTQ culture, but at least theyre getting there. cant believe it was only recently that they started having black characters.

yeahh, i agree honestly

the last bit is.. actually one of the worst things about them likely not having trainer customization past x/y

I'm actually an NPC

true

I'm actually an NPC

It's an honour to meet you!

Welcome to our village!

Shout-out to the best NPC, though:

I'm actually an NPC

*sneaks behind you, replaces everything in your pockets with live rats, and carefully places a bucket over your head*

you're forgetting

Robopon 2 for the GBA doesn't really set a high bar for NPCs, but I do really like the recurring rival-type character Nick D. His thing is that he runs an orphanage that is steadily losing money. His plan is to hunt down valuable gems called the X-Stones. The problem is that the X-Stones are what you, as the player, have to collect to challenge the rank holders (think gym leaders in Pokemon). So every time you find one, Nick D. is hot on your tail. Every time you fight him, his team is embarrassingly weak, and it's never a challenge to beat him, but as the game goes on, he gets more and more despondent. Eventually, he comes to the conclusion that hunting down the stones is a dead-end, and that he's going to have to take on a second job alongside running the orphanage to keep it running.

Not enough monster-collecting games make you feel awful for beating your rival.

I FORGOT THIS GUY GOT A HAPPY ENDING

I'm actually an NPC

*sneaks behind you, replaces everything in your pockets with live rats, and carefully places a bucket over your head*

I'm actually an NPC .(

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I FORGOT THIS GUY GOT A HAPPY ENDING

omg this is the best way his arc could have ended

I have the sneaking suspicion that he didn't know he could apply for it or something.

This guy is best npc

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.

dark souls npc's (mentioned because im playing and hype about dark souls) are interesting to me inthat i like the idea of an npc story that you maybe never knew was there and how like sometimes you can go "whatever happened to x" and then get the answer later in the form of a dead body but the execution of it is really like half and half imo

i think that Siegmeyer of Catarina and his daughter best exemplify the strenghts of a Dark Souls NPC quest where like, you help this very passive man grow and get his adventure blood pumping but then you meet his daughter who just wants to find him and come home and now you're less sure about if you should have pumped him up which leads to him jumping to almost his death and its like, playing it through was really neat and the ending to it with him and his daughter is also fitting with how the curse in dark souls works, imo! but then you have solaire who only gets a real ending if he dies lol!

npc's are def hard esp when like, you have to be careful about how much you reveal with them? its a weird line i think... i dont know what im saying