5 reviews
  • Add Review
  • Subscribe
  • Nominate
  • Submit Media
  • RSS

Exclamation!

Just something miscellanous! Every so often, I get some folks wondering what the '!' means in the screenshots I post. Well, now I'll let ya know; they represent the visible NPCs that the player is able to speak to.

This is actually something that's coming up more and more in modern RPGs, as towns and other places are opting to be more realistic and vibrant with more people (to effectively imply that cities are actually cities with more than a population of 10), speech bubbles are an effective way to manage who the player can gain information from without overwhelming them with the ability or inclination to be able talk to everyone.



The very first time I've seen this in action was FFXII, and I thought it was very cool, because many of the cities in that game can be pretty sprawling, and it felt very real to have some NPCs that are doing their own thing that aren't interested or have time for a conversation. FFXII, while not perfect, had a very, very impressive worldbuilding, lore and setting (I think it's easily the most well thought of the entire series), and many of my game's thought train comes from that plane. It's just a shame that Yasumi Matsuno couldn't finish it!

But yeah, whenever you see the '!', note that those are people you can talk to. The rest are doing their own thing!

Posts

Pages: 1
Kaempfer, I hope you're still working on Evoker >:3

author=Feldschlacht IV
Hell, I was in the military, and if some dude walked up to me in the middle of my watch while making rounds, trying to pump me for information (assuming it's not important/an emergency), hell yeah I'm going to tell him to buzz off.

Heresy!
You should be giving up vital war intel and sharing your personal opinion on your commanding officer. Or at least, tell them you sure don't hope they find the base's secret entrance behind the garbage cans.
RMVX can support all sorts of sizes of sprite, right? You should totally have a huge sprite with a tonne of NPCs in it. Like, a whole crowd in one sprite. Use the power!
I think the exclamation mark could be smaller; it's like 2/3 tall of a regular sprite which doesn't really work well here IMO.
I see what you guys are saying. My perspective is a little bit different because unlike quite a few JRPGers, I started with WRPGs first, and the concept of 'untalkable' NPCs is s pretty old concept (yes, even before 3D RPGs, and the old isometric games), and the idea of everyone in a populated town giving you a conversation and the time of day is relatively newer, and stranger to me.

I'm able to suspend my sense of disbelief and enjoy myself, but like it was mentioned above, places like South Figaro and Vector still feel small to me because there's like maybe 20 NPCs, all talkable, between them both. Not to mention that in many JRPGs the towns are designed around that expectation of how many NPCs are going to be in them. South Figaro for example could have had a ton of NPCs doing there thing, but a 1/3rd of them talkable, and for me that would have been fine.

author=Dyhalto
I'm kind of interested in knowing what that dude staring at the girl is doing. Is he some kind of creeper? Maybe her pimp? Or just a reluctant John? Maybe she's not even a prostitute. I'll never know because I can't ask.

And to me, that's the beauty of it; there's some things the player will never know, because the world is simply bigger than the main characters, not everyone has time for you, and much of what happens is none of your business. For example, in the Witcher 3, if you walk up to some Redanian soldiers on patrol (which there are many, everywhere past the Pontar river), some of them (in quite literal words) will tell you straight up to fuck off.

That's perfectly fine with me. Hell, I was in the military, and if some dude walked up to me in the middle of my watch while making rounds, trying to pump me for information (assuming it's not important/an emergency), hell yeah I'm going to tell him to buzz off.

It makes the world feel vast, real, and wild, and for me, adds a layer of mystique in knowing that the player isn't going to know everything.
author=Dyhalto
3d RPGs need this feature because they have to fill wide open expanses. 2d RPGs can avoid this simply with good Town design. You don't have to build huge acreages populated with zounds of people just to get the point across that it's a large, major city. I would save this feature for something like a Secret of Evermore market recreation, where you do want to simulate huge crowds that interfere with player travel.

I think I agree and disagree with you simultaneously. There's no real reason a 3D city can't use good town design to eliminate the need for hordes of NPCs; FF7 began in a massive city, but it only allowed you access to certain sectors of it and then filled those sectors with NPCs. I really like FFXII, but the cities in it were kind of boring. They were big and interesting the first time you were let loose, but after awhile you were kind of just treading the same corridors over and over, and you realize there's not that much to do. There's no reason all of the services in Dalmasca couldn't have been located in one or two central areas (say overlooking the rest of the city to give an idea of unreachable scale).

On the other hand, I really liked Dalmasca because it was different. When I first played FFXII it felt new and huge and big, and it was impressive that you could explore so much of it. A 2D RPG can take advantage of that same feeling. Lots of NPCs can act as interesting visual flare. I love (love) SNES RPGs, but there isn't a town I can think of (save MAYBE Vector) that seemed like a "big city" in a 2D game, and part of the reason was because there was a total of three NPCs walking around outside buildings. It didn't bother me in the least, but that doesn't mean the alternative couldn't be cool.

My only problem with this system is that you don't have nearly enough NPCs clogging those streets to warrant using it! Unless this is a reasonably empty area, of course. If you're going to limit dialogue to a handful of people, though, you should go completely nuts. It's sort of all or nothing; either imply it or show it outright.

Also the shadows in this screen make no sense heh

edit: Oh and Fourside also seemed like a big city, but that was because it had skyscrapers everywhere
hmmm... I dunno. I'm kind of interested in knowing what that dude staring at the girl is doing. Is he some kind of creeper? Maybe her pimp? Or just a reluctant John? Maybe she's not even a prostitute. I'll never know because I can't ask.

3d RPGs need this feature because they have to fill wide open expanses. 2d RPGs can avoid this simply with good Town design. You don't have to build huge acreages populated with zounds of people just to get the point across that it's a large, major city. I would save this feature for something like a Secret of Evermore market recreation, where you do want to simulate huge crowds that interfere with player travel.

But you're well into development now, so don't let my meager opinion give you pause for reconsideration.
Pages: 1