Basic Trope: Non Player Characters in video games have limited, fixed dialogue.
- Straight: The townsfolk of Adventure Town can only say one phrase each.
- Exaggerated:
- The major characters can only say one phrase each.
- There is one line of dialogue said by everyone in Adventure Town.
- Downplayed: The townsfolk of Adventure Town pick one of a few random phrases to say when the heroes speak to them.
- Justified:
- The townsfolk have been cursed by an eccentric evil wizard.
- The townsfolk only know a bit of the language the main character speaks, so they have no choice but to repeat the only phrase they know over and over.
- The townsfolk suffer from Alzheimer, it can be annoying at times… oh before I forget, the townsfolk suffer from Alzheimer, it can be annoying at times… oh, Before I forget,…
- The NPC robot characters are stuck in a watch-dog-loop. note
- Inverted:
- The NPCs are fully interactive, each one having their own Dialogue Tree and Relationship Values.
- The player characters only ever say one line, and they say it to everyone they meet.
- The NPCs are actually sentient.
- Subverted: After you talk to one NPC a certain number of times, he says something different.
- Double Subverted: He then proceeds to say that every time you speak to him.
- Parodied: The Idiot Hero tries to hold a conversation with an NPC who can only say one thing.Bob: Excuse me Ms. Jones, did you see my friend Alice? I swear, she just ran off this way!
NPC: Hello, welcome to Everytown. My name is Olivia Lloyd, what's yours?
Bob: I already told you, my name's Bob Johnson! Did you happen to see Alice walk by?
NPC: Hello, welcome to Everytown. My name is Olivia Lloyd, what's yours? - Zig Zagged: Some NPCs have limited dialogue, some are more interactive.
- Averted: NPCs get a healthy amount of dialog to cycle through.
- The only NPCs in the game are the ones involved in cutscenes; the player never gets to talk to them directly.
- Enforced:
- "Most players will only talk to these guys once, so why waste money paying the writer to come up with additional dialogue?"
- "We don't have the time to give these characters full dialogue."
- "There's not enough disc space to give so many characters full dialogue."
- Lampshaded: "So why is it that we're able to say so much more than most people are? It's almost like we're the only intelligent people left on Earth!"
- Invoked: Most of the NPCs are at least somewhat interactive, but one lost a bet and has to say the same thing every time someone talks to him.
- Implied: The Hero replies to an NPC, "I heard you the first time!".
- Exploited: The Big Bad kidnaps one of the characters right in front of several townsfolk, and then captures the rest, because the NPCs can't warn the player.
- Defied:
- The game employs a thesaurus-like algorithm, so the NPC doesn't say the exact same thing every time you talk to him... just different phrases with the same meaning.
- The Token Evil Teammate scares away each NPC after they've spoken once.
- The NPCs never repeat the same phrase. They will say something else if necessary.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: "I can't figure out what to do next, and these people aren't much help."
- Deconstructed: The NPCs are mindless zombies who are only capable of saying the last thing they said before Emperor Evulz brainwashed them.
- Reconstructed: NPC dialogue isn't a precise repeat of the same dialogue, but is more or less the same thing; they simply don't feel the need to say anything else to the Hero.
- Played For Laughs: The NPCs have built an entire language that works using only singular phrases like this. Several languages, technically, and one of the more dynamic characters mentions that there's good money to be made in translating.
- Played For Drama: The NPCs can only repeat their Madness Mantra.
"You can click this link and go back to Welcome to Corneria!"
"Thanks, but I wanted to go to my watchlist."
"You can click this link and go back to Welcome to Corneria!"
"Okay..."
"You can click this link and go back to Welcome to Corneria!"
"Thanks, but I wanted to go to my watchlist."
"You can click this link and go back to Welcome to Corneria!"
"Okay..."
"You can click this link and go back to Welcome to Corneria!"
