NPC's

[Mitsuki]

I searched and noticed that the topic hasn't been created yet. So just curious...what do you guys think about the NPC's in the game?

The reason I'm asking is because several people agreed with me on this: the NPC's are quite boring to talk to. I mean, don't get me wrong, I really did try to get into what they said throughout the game, but to me, I felt like most of the things they said were pretty much useless. Sure, there's the occasional helpful ones, but in majority, they were not as interesting as in the previous FF games.

I think the reason is because there are way too many NPC's in this game. In VII, VIII, IX, X, and X-2, I talked to ALL the NPC's. I found most of them interesting because they actually interacted with the characters. But in XII, there doesn't seem to be much of that. In the other FF games, the NPC's gave us lots of information about special items and what we're supposed to do next. Granted, I know there's some in XII that tells you of some special items, but my point still stands that the rest are just gibberish information.

The fact that there's also so many NPC's in XII made it seem a little overwhelming, in my opinion. In Rebanastre, they were everywhere! I talked to some, then lost interest and completely stopped talking to the rest altogether. Well, I'll talk to them every now and then, but not ALL. I don't know, I just found the NPC's here a bit disappointing.

 

[Rydia]

I found that there were way to many too to the point I get bored. I don't have enough time to play this game as it is much less talk to about a hundred NPC's to figure something out. And many don't even tell me anything useful. So I've pretty much stopped talking to them except on rare occasions.

They could have had less of them be able to talk to you and then maybe it would have made it better.

It makes this game feel even more like an MMPORPG

 

[Holic]

I agree, though I will admit I am not very far at all.
I usually talk to every character in RPGs multiple times. Rule of thumb is at least 2x. Anyways, thats how I hit this game and it quickly became a chore and boring and yea, overwhelming.

Another thing is that a lot of people looked exactly the same and said the same things. There just wasn't as much personal stuff like Mitsuki said. Everyone seemed to be on their own little missions and were robots.

For example, one of the early missions where you are claiming to be Basch. Ok, probably not a fair example, but how many of the same character models do you see. A lot. I may be overusing this one though cause its a mission and they probably put those their so you could get it done.

But, you can which characters are worth talking to and which are not. Its sad cause I liked knowing everyone in the city.

 

[Archangel]

I agree, the same no name people with the same ole crappy things to say. At first I tried to talk to eveyrone in every area. I'm not too far out of Archadies and have lost the will to continue to talk to the npc's anymore. I have narrowed it down to those with real names, which I am talking to less and less and all MOOGLES. I find them to be more usefull than Humes and they are alot cooler!! I guess it would be too challenging for SE to make all the NCP's in this game have a purpose. There is alot of them. Is it just me or is there more in this game than previous installments??

 

[Mitsuki]

I think there is definitely a lot more in this game than in previous installments. The XII world is quite big too, you know.

Hmm, I do think however, that the NPC's presence here add more realism to the environment of XII, such as the real world. I guess that can be seen as a good thing since there's a lot of people that likes realistic ideas. Or a bad thing, to those who wants to get away from the real world and jump ship to "Fantasy Land." (Ahem, Rydia) Lol.

 

[Misty]

Too many? There's a right amount - what do you expect with massive places like Archades, Bhujerba and Rabanastre? Of course there's going to be many people you can talk to in all sorts of places - I wouldn't expect people to just stand there and look like a complete idiot - otherwise, they'd come across as ignorant as well as stupid. Pretty much every FF game has similar looking character models, so..I don't see FFXII in a negative way for something like this.

Server, you're making it sound as if XII is the only game to feature repetition of dialogue from characters. This has been seen in almost every game you know?

No-one's forcing you to speak to them either.

They're not as interesting as the ones in previous games? It's not as if every single NPC in a previous game held much useful information either. The characters in XII don't talk gibberish, they're just..being themselves? Having a little chat with you?

I'd be surprised if there were fewer NPC's in the game. It's a reasonable amount, and reflects the populus of certain places. Just like IX - there were a lot of people there, many you could talk to.

 

[Archangel]

Too many? There's a right amount

Server, you're making it sound as if XII is the only game to feature repetition of dialogue from characters. This has been seen in almost every game you know?

No-one's forcing you to speak to them either.

Yeah I guess your right if there where less it wouldn't have that "big city" feel. Which you can't help but like. The way that the towns are set up add to this effect as well. Its not just one big square after another the streats go diagonal, sideways, with little nuks and crannys where peope (npc's) hang out.

Thinking back I do realize there was alot of reputition of dialogue I guess it just kinda got to me more because its on a wider scale. More npc's, more talk. It really dosen't bother me that much but like I said after going town to town talking to EVERYONE, like I was doing it gets hard to go back to a huge town and keep doing it. Guess I'm getting lazy?

 

[Mitsuki]

M'hmm, yeah it does seem to be the right amount in every city since they're so huge, but put them all together and it becomes a tad bit overwhelming for me. But I do agree that the NPC's here do come off as more realistic than any of the other FF games. I've noticed that their AI is quite well done, because the way they move or do certain things is normally what "real people" would do as well. So that was interesting to see and definitely new. I can just sit there and watch what they'll do next and be completely blown away by how "real" they almost feel like, IMO.

I just have a bit of trouble taking in their comments and what they say about random stuff. I understand that's what they're supposed to do, but for some reason, I don't know what it is that makes them less interesting to me. I mean, in the previous games, you have the option to say this or that. The NPC will then react to whatever it is you "picked" to say. Hence, character interaction. I guess I was looking for that in this game.

I know I don't have to actually talk to them, but then I feel like I'm missing out because I really do wanna get most out of the game. So that kinda frustrates me. I mean, I'll go and talk to half of the people in a big city, but it gets a little old quickly.

Meh, maybe it's just me. -Shrugs- Lol, like Sever Off, maybe I'm getting lazy as well.

 

[Amizon]

I don't really mind the NPC's to be honest. They're just extras in the game, right? As Judge said, no one's forcing you to talk to them.

 

[Big Boss]

I rarely talk to the NPCs anyway, so I couldn't really care how many they put.

 

[Mitsuki]

Hmm, yeah I completely understand that they're just there for extras, and I don't actually have to talk to them. But well, I really love talking to NPC's. After a major battle or event in a FF game, I love taking breaks and exploring towns, most especially talking to NPC's. <3 So I hope you understand where I'm coming from. I don't have a problem with them being "there." Not at all.

 

[Rydia]

For me there was just too many to talk to and most of them didn't say anything useful. And I like to talk to NPC's incase that one give me some important information. But in this game there is just so many that it just gets so tedius and well I get bored. So I've stopped talking to them but I can't help but worry that one or two will tell me something very useful. So then I talk to a few and sit there and groan wishing that I could get on with the game.

In previous there weren't so many that it wouldn't take much time to talk to them all.

As for realism, well the last place I want realism is in video games. They're supposed to me my escape from reality.

 

[Misty]

Understandable, but to make things look right, you have to put in a large amount of NPC's. Too little, and it just doesn't seem right for the game. A big bustling port in games/real life needs an abundance of people, otherwise it's going to come across as odd.

I only talk to certain NPC's once myself xD

 

[Rydia]

Understandable, but to make things look right, you have to put in a large amount of NPC's. Too little, and it just doesn't seem right for the game. A big bustling port in games/real life needs an abundance of people, otherwise it's going to come across as odd.

I only talk to certain NPC's once myself xD

Yeah, I think that there should be a bunch in the game, or it wouldn't look right. I think that there are too many that you could talk to and many of them don't tell you anything useful. Maybe if there were less that you had the option to talk to, it would make it less frusterating.

At least in this game it is just text and you can click it away, unlike other games where the person would be voice acted and there would be no way to shut them up.

There needs to be some dancing girl NPC's. Or maybe there is and I'm just missing them.

 

[Misty]

I miss those from the early games~

LOL - imagine them dancing with Vaan <3

 

[Phenom]

There should be lots of people because of the settings. But, in terms of talking to them, there's just too many for my liking. Can't be bothered talking to most of them. Or any of them, for that matter.

 

[ACEBlitzerX]

I completely agree. I usually talk to every single NPC but after a while I started to not even care if I missed some item, I just couldn't talk to them all. They need to fix it for the next game

 

[AddleBoy]

I usually talk to all of the NPCs I can in the other games because they would give useful info sometimes and maybe give you items. There are just too many to talk to in FFXII. So much that I stopped talking to them unless I had to.

 

[Just_Devyn]

ZOMG, THERES NO WAY IT JUST CAN'T BE DONE IN ONE MANS LIFE SPAN!!!

lol, theres just to many of them, i'd stop for the odd chit-chat, but thats it, lol.

 

[ubergoat]

My only complaint about the NPCs is that since there ARE so many (which I dont think is a bad thing, I like realism ) some of them should give tidbits of information about the secrets of the game. Like one of them could tell you about ultima or something and the Zodiark spear etc etc. It wouldn't have been too hard to put a few hints in there to give a very vague direction of where to go for the extra features.