Monocause
Arcane
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2008
- Messages
- 3,656
So The Witcher II came out. When I played through the prologue I thought that Foltest is a truly memorable character, which later on got me thinking about the memorable characters from the first game. Digging deeper I recalled some folks from Risen, FO:NV, VTM:B. Long story short, there were quite a few of them, even when it comes to games that I haven't replayed for ages. Not to mention the older games, but I'm not taking these into account on purpose; I played them when I was younger and more impressionable.
That, obviously, got me also thinking about recent Bioware games, as in: ME games and DA games - Jesus, how bland are the NPMCs (non party member characters) there. I replayed ME1 some time ago and can't recall any single character aside from the PMs (and that's just because I've seen them all the time, one-liners are hardly memorable), same with ME2 - with the notable exception of Captain Anderson and some parts of Normandy's crew, but I guess they don't count. I finished both of these games twice in the past three years.
With DA:O and DA2 it's quite similar. Origins? I honestly can't find any sort of personality in the NPCs there. I remember a couple of names, sure - but it's mostly due to the fact that they were quest related. But could I describe, say, Arl Eamon in any more detail than some vague "A stereotypical honorable human noble"? No. Same with all the dwarves who are simply "funny backstabbing cunts". In DA2 the only non party member characters I remember are Gamlen, Varric's brother and the Arishok - the last one probably because he was the only Qunari with any sort of exposition. Even Meredith didn't really have a personality to speak of. The description I come up with is "A formerly just and proper templar with her mind twisted by some evil magic" and that's all there really is to her.
Here's the meritum of this thread: I don't believe that Bio writers and artists (the blandness also covers samey character models and painfully recycled VAs who didn't even try to diversify their acting) are so inept that they can't instill any sort of personality into NPM characters - especially since I don't think BG2 was that bland. Perhaps this is a design philosophy of sorts? Maybe the rationale behind this is: if the whole world is unremarkable and every character you meet is bland, your party members feel more unique and heroic.
DISCUSS!
That, obviously, got me also thinking about recent Bioware games, as in: ME games and DA games - Jesus, how bland are the NPMCs (non party member characters) there. I replayed ME1 some time ago and can't recall any single character aside from the PMs (and that's just because I've seen them all the time, one-liners are hardly memorable), same with ME2 - with the notable exception of Captain Anderson and some parts of Normandy's crew, but I guess they don't count. I finished both of these games twice in the past three years.
With DA:O and DA2 it's quite similar. Origins? I honestly can't find any sort of personality in the NPCs there. I remember a couple of names, sure - but it's mostly due to the fact that they were quest related. But could I describe, say, Arl Eamon in any more detail than some vague "A stereotypical honorable human noble"? No. Same with all the dwarves who are simply "funny backstabbing cunts". In DA2 the only non party member characters I remember are Gamlen, Varric's brother and the Arishok - the last one probably because he was the only Qunari with any sort of exposition. Even Meredith didn't really have a personality to speak of. The description I come up with is "A formerly just and proper templar with her mind twisted by some evil magic" and that's all there really is to her.
Here's the meritum of this thread: I don't believe that Bio writers and artists (the blandness also covers samey character models and painfully recycled VAs who didn't even try to diversify their acting) are so inept that they can't instill any sort of personality into NPM characters - especially since I don't think BG2 was that bland. Perhaps this is a design philosophy of sorts? Maybe the rationale behind this is: if the whole world is unremarkable and every character you meet is bland, your party members feel more unique and heroic.
DISCUSS!