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General discussionGames where the NPCs have lives(57 posts)(57 posts)
(57 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted February 13, 2020
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Matewis: Are there more examples of games that have these kind of NPCs, apart from Skyrim of course?
If I remember it right (mind you, it's quite some time since I last played it) at least some of the NPCs in "Two Worlds" have "a life".
Though I cannot say how consequently Reality Pump have pulled this through.
Posted February 13, 2020
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Matewis: I've been on the fence some time with regard to the Risen series, but this makes me more inclined to get off. The whole pirate atmosphere is what is so alluring, which will be made all the better by a world that feels 'real'. Are the cycles similar to Oblivion in that it's not the same cycle each day?
At least in Gothic 1 and 2 and Risen 1, no, it's the same each day. And Risen 1 isn't about pirates.
Posted February 13, 2020
In the first Fable game at least, NPCs and shopkeepers go to sleep at night. If you are in the shop after the closing hours, you can no longer trade and the shopkeeper waits until you see yourself out before closing.

Had a funny bug once where I got locked inside a shop after closing hours and the shopkeeper went to sleep. I could steal anything I wanted without any consequences. The trade-off was that I was trapped inside the shop until the morning :D
Posted February 13, 2020
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idbeholdME: In the first Fable game at least, NPCs and shopkeepers go to sleep at night. If you are in the shop after the closing hours, you can no longer trade and the shopkeeper waits until you see yourself out before closing.

Had a funny bug once where I got locked inside a shop after closing hours and the shopkeeper went to sleep. I could steal anything I wanted without any consequences. The trade-off was that I was trapped inside the shop until the morning :D
At least you were only trapped until morning; imagine if you were trapped in the shop *forever*. (I think most game developers would consider this sort of softlock a bug.)
Posted February 13, 2020
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nightcraw1er.488: Npcs are always bad, they all have one or more annoying feature. A need to talk all the time, get in the way, need upkeep. Etc.
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dtgreene: That doesn't happen in the party-based RPGs I generally play.
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wolfsite: Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

Each character has a fully fleshed out story and you can follow them all throughout the games timeline going work, worrying about the situations to the final hours. This is the most alive I have seen NPC's in a console game up to that point, with many of there stories which can move you very emotionally.
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dtgreene: Didn't I just mention that game?
uuuhhhmmmmmmmmmm.........noooooooooo?
Posted February 13, 2020
Night in The Woods. The characters in this particular games are so well built.
Posted February 13, 2020
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dtgreene: ...
Thank you so much for the in depth answer. I'm definitely going to reference this once I'm in a position to acquire one/two nintendo consoles. For the time being at least I suppose I can check out the NES titles since those at least are trivial to emulate. Just need to get a proper USB controller first.
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Tallima: Wish no more! Hardwar had some goofy loopy ownership rights, so nobody could publish the game after 2002 (though gamersgate had it for a while ages ago). However, the lead programmer was permitted to put up ISOs of the game without selling them. Since the game had no real value, I think nobody cared.

Anyway, it's about as sketchy as abandonware, but it's not just some random guy. This is the guy who put this blood, sweat, and tears into this game and was crushed when it tanked and overjiyed when it became popular years later.

After putting up the ISOs, he then went in and reprogrammed it to work with modern OSes, widescreen, and better graphics.

You can get it here: http://www.zedo.hardwar.info/gethardwar.htm
I'm not sure how I wasn't aware of this, but thank you very much for sharing it :) It's now officially on my to-do-list this year. I would've settled for proper support on modern OSs, but enhanced graphics and proper widescreen support takes the cake
Post edited February 13, 2020 by Matewis
Posted February 13, 2020
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dtgreene: ...
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Matewis: Thank you so much for the in depth answer. I'm definitely going to reference this once I'm in a position to acquire one/two nintendo consoles. For the time being at least I suppose I can check out the NES titles since those at least are trivial to emulate. Just need to get a proper USB controller first.
A Link to the Past is also trivial to emulate, and I would personally recommend that as your first Zelda game, as it has features like a map and doesn't have either the semi-random hidden entrances (some of which are important) of the first Zelda nor the combat difficulty of Zelda 2 (which is unlike any other game in the series). It also doesn't have the annoying aspects (like insta-fail stealth sections) that appeared later in the series.

Edit: Actually, Zelda 1 *does* have maps, though the overworld map doesn't show any detail; it only serves to pinpoint your location and does not show any terrain.
Post edited February 13, 2020 by dtgreene
Posted February 13, 2020
Lure of the Temptress is already mentioned.

May also add Soldak games, where NPC's complete quests before you if you are slow, level up, attack your town, betray or join you and so on
Posted February 13, 2020
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dtgreene: That doesn't happen in the party-based RPGs I generally play.

Didn't I just mention that game?
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wolfsite: uuuhhhmmmmmmmmmm.........noooooooooo?
Press CTRL+F, type "Majora", and you'll see that dtgreene is the first one to mention it on this page.
Posted February 13, 2020
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wolfsite: uuuhhhmmmmmmmmmm.........noooooooooo?
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teceem: Press CTRL+F, type "Majora", and you'll see that dtgreene is the first one to mention it on this page.
I saw it when I read the original post pointing it out, I was just being silly there. :)
Post edited February 13, 2020 by wolfsite
Posted February 13, 2020
I never really liked this feature, and Mortius hits the nail on the head why:
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Mortius1: When tasked to find someone, you would have no idea where would be, and random searching was of little help as they kept moving into the areas I had already searched.
I can't think of a single gameplay reason why this 'feature' would be a good thing (aside from the aforementioned nebulous 'immersion', which I am not sure I buy: getting smacked on the head in real life when you get hit on the head in a game might be immersive, but it isn't furthering gameplay).
Posted February 13, 2020
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babark: I can't think of a single gameplay reason why this 'feature' would be a good thing (aside from the aforementioned nebulous 'immersion', which I am not sure I buy: getting smacked on the head in real life when you get hit on the head in a game might be immersive, but it isn't furthering gameplay).
A game I liked a lot: Deadly Premonition
I regularly consulted a guide - there were quite a few side missions that were only available (or able to continue) at a certain time of the day, and more often than not the game didn't provide any hints.
I didn't like that aspect of the game. Maybe it's a Japanese thing: providing content only for the real fanatics...
Posted February 13, 2020
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Matewis: Now that is a series I've wanted to get into for a long time, but the problem is I just don't know where to start. Several consoles, sometimes backwards compatible, sometimes not etc. Need to take the time to figure out what's the least amount of consoles needed to play all of them, how viable emulation is for some of them and so on :P
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dtgreene: If you want the series with the least amount of consoles, you could get a Gamecube with the Game Boy Player and a 3DS; the Gamecube covers 1 and 2 plus OoT and MM...The 3DS covers Link Between Worlds
I played Ocarina of Time in a 3DS and I know that Majora's Mask is available for it too.

Honestly I think OP's best bet is to emulate anything older than the Wii. He won't even need a particularly powerful computer, and all these consoles and cartridges have long been off the shelves.
Posted February 13, 2020
My two greatest references for active NPC lives have already been mentioned.

The biggest one was Ultima 6 (nostalgic memories of arriving at a town and having to wait for a sleeping NPC during the night) ^^ And after that, the Quest for Glory games, where you had the night and day cycles, each with their particularities!

Good Old Games indeed !
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This is my favourite topic
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General discussionGames where the NPCs have lives(57 posts)(57 posts)
(57 posts)