You probably already know what I’m talking about here: that thing where you’re in the middle of dialogue with an NPC, but the rest of the scene has chosen not to cooperate. It’s a common feature of RPGs, but it shows up extra often in Bethesda games, and of course has returned in Starfield. I can’t get enough of it.
My favorite example so far is the video embedded above, which tells the very brief tale of a chipper fellow who fails to watch his own back.
These mid-dialogue attempted murders come in lots of flavors, though. Sometimes it’s not a messed up bone-spider thing that ruins the NPC’s day, for example, but the player themselves.
One conversation I had released an entire dialogue at once. Like 50 voices all at once I thought I was having an acid flashback.
Resistance is futile!
Hah. I thought Steph Sterling’s video was exaggerating that one but I guess not.
I tried talking to an npc that was having a conversation with another npc. That conversation continued while they started talking to me as well, and I couldn’t make out a fucking single thing they said.
That fucking robot coming in and wailing in that one npc is my new favorite video.
That was the absolute best example ever!
