Best Dialogue Options in Games

[Reasonable Atheist]

In one of the kotor games, you can persuade some unsavory characters that the best and fastest way to get down an elivator is to jump.down the empty shaft.

I was so happy.

 

[ecoho]

so what would be your definition of a well written game?

Answering that would just result in us arguing personal preferences.

usually yes but I actually want to know, and not just to argue. feel free to just personal message me your answer as im actually curious.

Well, two more recent examples;

Wolfenstein: The New Order - It's a silly story about robot Nazis on the frikking Moon, but the character dialoge is so terrific that it makes you buy into its ludicrous concept. You can have the most complex and intricate story, but if the characters are flat and dull it really won't matter.

The Last of Us - Yes, I know, the most overrated anything that ever existed. It does however have one of the most subtle character arcs I think I've ever witnessed in a game. And it's nothing to do with the cutscenes, since I know people like to criticize the game's story for only taking place in the cutscenes, but that's far from the truth. The best writing can be found in the in-game dialoge, and it's there that you truly see Joel and his relationship with Ellie change gradually as the game progresses. And it's done almost pitch perfectly.

you kow I can actually agree with you on wolfenstein very well made game with a surprisingly good story. Last of us just wasn't my type of game so didn't really care about anyone in it.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Pretty much any game in which your character doesn't have an actual voice, so Pillars of Eternity, Dragon Age: Origins, Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment, Fallout 1 and 2 (3 and NV were pretty good too, but not quite as good as 1 and 2), etc. I lost count of the # of times in Mass Effect or Dragon Age: Inquisition when I'd click on a dialogue option and then my character says something that was completely different than what I was expecting, and not something my character would say.

Special mention has to go to the Fallout games, which have hysterical dialogue options if you play as a really stupid character.

 

[AgedGrunt]

Final Fantasy 9.

At one point you need to pass through a village and cross a region that the people consider sacred, and only for couples married under them. Protagonist pairs with love interest, but then there's a little Vivi and Quina in your party. I sat up and called for it; the dialogue box came to tell them to get hitched, and... I so happy.

 

[Buckets]

Monkey Island, hands down.

 

[thoughtwrangler]

Monkey Island, hands down.

Indeed. Almost every scene in those games (particularly the early PC ones) are good. Gotta love the insults that determine the sword fights.

Spoiler

 

[necromanzer52]

There's this game called save the date, wherein you take a girl out on a date, but then she dies. So you restart and try different dialogue paths, but she keeps dying. But then, you start getting options for things that you as a player want to say, and some other stuff happens. I won't spoil it but it's free and won't take up more than a half hour of your time. Go check it out.

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

I'd say Deus Ex: HR. Not really because of the specific options, but because the text you choose is the actual lines that Jensen says
Never understood why other games didn't do that

Thanks. Was going to say that Human Revolution fixed most issues i had with that horrible Bioware dialogue wheel.

OT: I think my personal favorite is Fallout series with it's famous "retard route". Plenty of good, and funny dialogue there. I still remember how i could tell some angry thug, asking me what i'm looking for here, that i want a donut.

Otherwise, i think Torment takes the cake, when it comes to dialogue options. And words are so powerful in Sigil, that they can literally "make" things.

Spoiler

For example, saying a name your character has came up with enough times will make another character *pop* into existence.

.

 

[The Madman]

Since people are commenting on dialogue wheels and games that have used them well, I should mention that Dreamfall: Chapters has the best use of dialogue options I've seen yet. Perhaps not in terms of the dialogue itself but definitely in how it's portrayed to the player.

Whenever you're in a conversation and you have multiple options, hovering your mouse over an option will start a small monologue where the character you're playing debates that option in their head. Basically you don't just know what they're going to say, but why as well, and that's brilliant. I doubt we'll ever see a similar system implemented on any sort of grand scale however since the added costs and effort of implementing so much extra voice work has got to be a handful.

Still I figured I'd point that out since I'd forgotten to mention it earlier. Dramfall: Chapters, pretty damned good so far.

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

Mass Effect

Just fucking kidding, as much as I love 1 and 2, dialogue "choices" weren't its strong point. you could issue minor changes, but all the dialogue trees lead to essentially the same place.

Now that I think about it, I can't really think of a game I've played with an admirable dialogue system. Most games just aren't well written enough, or the system was just highly extraneous.