Best character interaction in a game?

[themistermanguy]

Of all the character driven games you have played, which do you feel had the best character interaction? For me, I feel it's a tie between Kid Icarus: Uprising, and Fire Emblem: Awakening. The snappy writing, comedic moments, and Character personalities of them, I think are on par with well written cartoons like Adventure Time, MLP, Avatar, Fosters, and even Gravity Falls. I also enjoyed the light-hearted, Hollywood style interactions in the Uncharted series as well. And I certainly enjoy the Hammy banter in the Ratchet and Sly Cooper series as well.

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

I know a few things that come to mind are the Dragon Age games. The character and love interest interactions were pretty awesome and made me feel like I really did have a relationship with these characters.

Also including the Mass effect games for that same reason, and the new infamous Second Son. Reggie and Delsin have such a complex and well done brotherly relationship I love it.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Part of why I love Xenoblade Chronicles so much is that the character interactions were very enjoyable. The main story itself was good enough, showing a good-sized cast of compelling characters that had interesting interactions. However, much of the beauty also comes in all the minor, sometimes hidden, interactions that can be had. Comments made after fights, special comments made during dialogue with NPCs for quests, and the Heart-to-Heart moments all complemented the main interactions very well and made an already great set of characters truly remarkable.

Others that I have to go for are Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Mass Effect.

The Sands of Time (and, to lesser extent, The Two Thrones) absolutely nailed the interaction between The Prince and Farah, and I consider it the best single relationship I've seen in a game. Even if that was the only real interaction that occurred, I'd still say it counts.

Mass Effect's characters also largely are what made the franchise stand out to me. They're what brought me back to ME1 when I thought I would never play the game again, and they are what kept ME2's writing interesting even when the overarching story was absolute crap. Even most of my favorite memories from ME3 revolved around concluding the character interactions. Ultimately, even at its worst, the characters of Mass Effect kept me interested, and its best was generally coincided with the best of the character interactions.

 

[Radeonx]

Definitely Fire Emblem: Awakening. While the overarching story was REALLY lacking compared to Radiant Dawn and Path of Radiance (And the other ones, but the GC/Wii games have the best stories, in my opinion), the dynamic in the supports for the characters were generally all incredibly entertaining. A lot of wit and charm went into the support system, and it definitely showed, as that was the saving grace for the plot side of the game for me.

Hopefully the next Fire Emblem is able to combine Radiant Dawn's story with a support system like Awakening's, and I will be incredibly happy.

I'd also add the Bioware games (KotOR, Jade Empire, Mass Effect, Dragon Age) - pretty much all of them have companions that have incredibly interesting/deep backstories, and they really make you care about your team and how you affect them in the game. Especially Dragon Age, where the story was fairly cookie cutter and average, much like Fire Emblem, only to be saved by the AMAZING interactions between the party.

 

[omega 616]

Gotta be The Boss.

She was a mother and mentor turned traitor.

Spoiler: Please play MGS3 before reading this!

except she didn't, everything she did was for her country. Even down to beating the shit out of Snake twice, making him truly believe that she had defected.

Then the very last gameplay piece was you pressing fire to kill Boss mid cutscene. They could have easily just made the cut scene play out with Snake just doing it, instead they force you to be the one who ends her. Ending a war before it starts by forcing her student to carry out Russia's demands that Snake be the one to kill her and have her legendary name forever tarnished by letting everybody believe she is a traitor.

Have to admit, got a little chocked up when I first played it.

 

[Mikejames]

Probably Walking Dead's Lee and Clementine for me. The way that they both came to have such a strong influence on each other and how they coped with their terrible situation; it covered the whole emotional spectrum of strangers becoming a family.

 

[Godhead]

Planescape: Torment, and Papers, Please. Planescape had some of the best and deepest conversation pools I've ever seen in a video game. One time I was playing next to a friend who was playing SC2, and it took him 3 matches for me to finish a single conversation with a non-important NPC.

Papers, Please just has the dialogue down to a bare minimum while still giving a lot of emotion and conflict behind multiple decisions.

 

[Ikasury]

character interactions are the best part of most games to me, Bioware games (Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect definitely) have this, witty snark all up and over the place...

Old Favorite is Xenogears, and its spawn-off Xenosaga series (need to get a Wii and check out Xenoblade...)

though i have to say, as weird as it sounds, FF14, yes an MMO, has been surprising me with the end-questlines for some of the classes, oh those crafting guildmasters are crazy XD

 

[duwenbasden]

2. Dragon Age Origins. The banter between companions are often amusing and hilarious (we still love you Oghren.)

1. Fallout: New Vegas. My team consisting of my character, a Deathclaw, Mister Handy the robot, and zombie tophatter do not talk much, but knows exactly what to do and how to do it. This is a different way of character interaction without invoking word vomit.

 

[IllumInaTIma]

It's tie between Fire Emblem: Awakening and Persona 3 and 4. What I love is that character interaction is a part of gameplay and that characters themselves are incredibly enjoyable to interact with! Mass Effect and Dragon age also had some elements of that, but I just never really felt that my interaction with the characters directly affected the gameplay in any major way. In Persona, your friend will land that crit or will take a hit for you because you bothered to spend time with him. And in Awakening one character will assist another because you bothered to team them up and listen to their conversations.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Human Revolution's conversation mode, where you can monitor your target's emotional levels to play with their reactions and get what you want. Or, if you fuck it up, make later objectives harder.

 

[Evonisia]

I'll say Silent Hill 2. Every character interaction is just an act of trying to figure out the other's problem, emotions all spurting out or breaking down to reveal the horrific criminal underneath. Maybe it's just because the interaction being 'off' is part of the story.

Spoiler

 

[The Random Critic]

Surprise no one mention Baldur's Gate, the dialog exchange between companions are some of the best I've seen in games. Not only this, the contents in this game is very non linear and interconnecting. So the characters you pick up and the order you picked them up is entirely dependent on you. It also has character porting between games similar to ME. and there are plenty of mods that improves on the game, such as with any IE games.

And Dragon Age of course, given that it's suppose to be a successor and all.

(Keep in mind that both these games are pure hack and slash affair though, but they are TACTICAL hack and slash affair)

Some of the visual novels are all character interaction, but most of those are CYOA

They're is also Persona, with it's social system. Also Catherine, if a bit of platforming is your deal.

I really need to get BG2 working again...

 

[Mikejames]

I'll say Silent Hill 2. Every character interaction is just an act of trying to figure out the other's problem, emotions all spurting out or breaking down to reveal the horrific criminal underneath. Maybe it's just because the interaction being 'off' is part of the story.

What I love about the interaction in Silent Hill 2 are the parallels that James, Eddie, and Angela all seemed to have.

Early on, one assumes that Angela and Eddie are both just unstable, but as things continue, it becomes clearer how all three characters reflect a similar story with different ultimatums.