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Any good RPGs with non-obvious dialogue choices?

DraQ

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I would say any cRPG that uses a keyword parser for the conversation system or requires player input.

Filling in the blanks is always more challenging than multiple choice.
Parsers have the problem of precluding information gated plot.
 
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Musaab

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Shroud of the Avatar will be like this. It's still in pre-release alpha, but when they finish the story, you will have to type out question to NPCs and many of the quests won't just be in your face. You will have had to talk to others to know what topics to talk about to get quests. Also, there will not be any quest markers. So you just have to figure stuff out on your own.
 

SCO

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
I would say any cRPG that uses a keyword parser for the conversation system or requires player input.

Filling in the blanks is always more challenging than multiple choice.
Parsers have the problem of precluding information gated plot.
Only if the information encoding is coded by monkeys
 

polo

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Try the biowheel, you never know whats coming out of it! ZO MUCH FUNZ!
 

Sykar

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pippin

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Shroud of the Avatar will be like this. It's still in pre-release alpha, but when they finish the story, you will have to type out question to NPCs and many of the quests won't just be in your face. You will have had to talk to others to know what topics to talk about to get quests. Also, there will not be any quest markers. So you just have to figure stuff out on your own.

So, back to name-job-quest-health?
 

Kem0sabe

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Geneforge 1 and 2 are pretty good in that regard. The consequences of what you say and to who aren't always obvious before you even begin talking with someone. Geneforge 3 and beyond go derp where the choices are super obvious and so they aren't nearly as interesting as the first two games.
Problem with his game series, avernum, geneforge, is that all the choices you made in the previous game don't carry over to the next. Why have all that c&c when he always resets the world state to his own idea of what is canon
 

Hobo Elf

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Geneforge 1 and 2 are pretty good in that regard. The consequences of what you say and to who aren't always obvious before you even begin talking with someone. Geneforge 3 and beyond go derp where the choices are super obvious and so they aren't nearly as interesting as the first two games.
Problem with his game series, avernum, geneforge, is that all the choices you made in the previous game don't carry over to the next. Why have all that c&c when he always resets the world state to his own idea of what is canon

While this is true, it only became jarring (to me) with Geneforge 4 and 5 since all the important characters became recurring and established figures from Geneforge 3 onward. The transition from Geneforge 1 to 2 and from 2 to 3 felt better since G1 and 2 were self-contained stories and you didn't run into anyone majorly important again that could possibly fuck up your own "canon".
 

oscar

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Another recommendation for Unrest. The game is largely driven by dialog with your decisions influencing the land's eventual fate. Lots of non-obvious (but logical) butterfly effect things from your actions earlier in the game. Also interesting as failing as a character in one chapter can be beneficial to another later and vice versa. Most of the characters are reasonably sympathetic as well and have understandable goals and motivations.
 

DraQ

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I would say any cRPG that uses a keyword parser for the conversation system or requires player input.

Filling in the blanks is always more challenging than multiple choice.
Parsers have the problem of precluding information gated plot.
Only if the information encoding is coded by monkeys
There is not much you can do if you let player say whatever the fuck their please regardless of their character's knowledge.
You can't gate anything based on PC learning new information.
 

SCO

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Sure you can. Just like old adventure games prevented from doing some parser actions before 'mother may i' of noticing they are possible, or just like a puzzle is multistep, so you could have a multistep dialog where if you just jump to the end the interlocutor would go 'watcha talking about willis'. If that is any better that is another thing.
Parsers don't need to be context free, just add memory.
 

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