[LIST] Games where dialogue choices are a major gameplay aspect

[Vorpal_Smilodon]

You know what I mean - games like Planescape: Torment or Mass Effect. I'll be updating this post as people tell me about more games, as I think it would be neat to have a somewhat complete list of games like this. The rating out of five is rating the dialogue mechanic, not the games. I'm only counting adventure games where the different choices result in different gamestates, like in the Walking Dead.

Sandbox: the games mostly let you go where you want, though often limited in some way
5/5 Fallout series, a favorite of mine and a perfect example as you can talk past fights
3/5 the Elder Scrolls series, generally doesn't actually have that much dialogue that matters
1/5 Two Worlds, I guess there's a questline or two where it forks based on what you say
1/5 Risen some very basic choosing different questlines

Highly Limited Sandbox: you can go where you want but it's all gated off quite alot
5/5 Planescape: Torment, probably my favorite game ever
2/5 Fable Series I think Fable 1 was better for this, but basically you only get to choose from being a stereotypical nice guy or being a murderous cruel jerk for little reason

Hub: you get to move freely around a small area at a time
5/5 Deus Ex series
5/5 Vampire: Bloodlines just started playing it, reminds me of Deus Ex quite a bit
5/5 KotOR series
4/5 Mass Effect series, fewer less detailed choices
?/5 Jade Empire... I didn't play much of this, I dont really recall. It was pretty prominent right?

Mission Based: you get to choose the order of missions somewhat, but you basically have to go through them all in a row
5/5 Alpha Protocol
4/5 Dragon Age series, very similar to Mass Effect there aren't a ton of choices

Railroaded: you have to go straight along the story, but you make choices as you do
5/5 the Walking Dead, pretty much the entirety of the game
1/5 Binary Domain, very limited, it's mostly a Third Person Shooter but there are different conversations and endings based on how you treat your squad

18+/Pornographic: title says it all...
3/5 Corruption of Champions is all about choosing between being corrupted into a sex-demon or staying pure in the face of temptation, and keeps track of relationships with individual NPCs

???: haven't played them myself, suggested by others
5/5 Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
?/5 Baldur's Gate??? I never played it because I was playing Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and thought it was the same game.
?/? Gothic series not sure
1/5 Shin Megami Tensei series I played 16 hours of Persona 4 and didn't see much more than a dating-like sidegame, but supposedly there's more ot it later in
?/5 the Witcher series


That's all the ones I can think of. So, what games am I missing? Tons of other people want more games like these, right? Let's help each other find ones we haven't played yet.

 

[DoPo]

(I'm not sure how to classify this - probably highly limited sandbox or sandbox. It's the same as the old Fallouts, as in you have an area but after you leave the map, you can go on or fast travel elsewhere)
5/5 Arcanum Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura - you have a chat with the last boss and he's actually quite well spoken and reasonable - doesn't even try to attack immediately. You only fight him if you cannot convince him he's wrong to wanting to kill the world. Well, and you'd need higher ranks in persuasion to do that but still.

 

[Vorpal_Smilodon]

Is there really that much to the dialogue choices in Persona? I thought it was more cosmetic.

Maybe I misremember Planescape, but it seemed like new locations were always behind main story gates. edit: oh, you meant for arcanum! silly me, lol

 

[DoPo]

Maybe I misremember Planescape, but it seemed like new locations were always behind main story gates. edit: oh, you meant for arcanum! silly me, lol

Lol, yeah, when looked what I wrote again I see it can be easy to get the wrong meaning. I'll edit it just in case.

 

[Nfritzappa]

Dark Souls.

And its just yes and no responses.
EDIT: Well I guess not so much, but those choices do take a huge consequence sometimes. Sometimes resulting in characters/features completely disappearing, or dying.

 

[Tom_green_day]

As much as I love Mass Effect, the dialogue choices mean bugger all. It's more so you can fill the shoes yourself, as you can choose to be lovely flowers and rainbows Shep or dickish racism Shep. The only change to gameplay is getting you paragon or renegade points... Which in turns just opens up more freakin' dialogue options.
Fallout 3 and NV aren't that great regarding dialogue either, as most of the time you aren't given a choice between fighting and talking. Granted there is more, the opportunities where you skills or speech level let you bypass bits, so I guess this qualifies.

 

[Vorpal_Smilodon]

As much as I love Mass Effect, the dialogue choices mean bugger all. It's more so you can fill the shoes yourself, as you can choose to be lovely flowers and rainbows Shep or dickish racism Shep. The only change to gameplay is getting you paragon or renegade points... Which in turns just opens up more freakin' dialogue options.
Fallout 3 and NV aren't that great regarding dialogue either, as most of the time you aren't given a choice between fighting and talking. Granted there is more, the opportunities where you skills or speech level let you bypass bits, so I guess this qualifies.

Dialogue choices effects who lives and dies, both party members and ENTIRE SENTIENT SPECIES. I think that counts as having an effect. Who cares if it changes the actual gameplay anyways, it's just third-person shooting. Also, the dialogue options that get opened up? Dialogue options -are- gameplay.

I don't think you can say the dialogue in Dark Souls makes up enough of the game to qualify for what I mean. When someone says they enjoy the dialogue in Mass Effect do you really feel like recommending Dark Souls to them based on that?

As for Fallout 3 - many of the sidequests have a wide array of outcomes depending on who you talk to and what you choose. New Vegas even does that to some degree for the main quests.

edit: Sheesh, I didn't start this thread to argue sorry about that, I'm just looking for hidden game gems like Vampire: Bloodlines

 

[DoPo]

edit: Sheesh, I didn't start this thread to argue sorry about that, I'm just looking for hidden game gems like Vampire: Bloodlines

Well then, just pick up Arcanum. It's not totally the same - it's more in line with Fallow 1/2, however it's made by the same people who did Bloodlines and when I first played Arcanum (last year) I saw the definite touch of Troika upon it. I don't know how to describe it but it's there.

VtM: Redemption is a different game set in the VtM universe - it actually has nothing in common with Bloodlines - it's set elsewhere, does different things, it's done by another company. It's still worth a play if you want to see more of the Vampire setting. And there is some dialogue - not as prominent as Bloodlines, but it's there. More or less what it boils down to is giving you different endings - there are three depending on how much Humanity you have at the end - (evil, good, and...sort of neither). Humanity drops from dialogue choices or if you kill innocents (also, if you get to Humanity 0 - it's game over), but it raises only from some conversations, so unlike Bloodlines it actually matters. I believe the Humanity gains are enough to push you right over the maximum, so if you do take very small hits in it, you'd still be able to max it.

 

[DoPo]

Actually, now I remembered something - you might want to look at Divinity: Original Sin [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/larianstudios/divinity-original-sin] - the kickstarter is going to finish soon but whatever - it's still promising a really interesting conversation system for coop - each player would be able to choose what they want and it'd still work. Apparently they'll be able to discuss it in-game and finally their social stats are taken into account for the final outcome.

 

[BeeGeenie]

You thought Baldur's Gate = Dark Alliance? What a tragic misunderstanding

You've already covered most of the bases, though.

Actually, you've left out Japanese Dating Sims... Those are pretty much exclusively dialog based. ;D

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I saw the definite touch of Troika upon it. I don't know how to describe it but it's there.

'Tis the Mark of (Tim) Cain.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

It's already been brought up but I'd like to stress out Persona 4. This is a game where a major factor in deciding which ending you get comes from a series of choices from a highly touchy dialogue tree. And none of them are very obvious. It's quite tricky. You're supposed to buy time through your choices, but even the obvious "stall" options are wrong.

Also... I remember Talers of the Abyss locks/unlocks sidequests depending on your dialogue choices.

 

[Vorpal_Smilodon]

Huh, I thought more people would be interested in this topic, dialogue RPGs are my favorite genre.

Actually, now I remembered something - you might want to look at Divinity: Original Sin [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/larianstudios/divinity-original-sin] - the kickstarter is going to finish soon but whatever - it's still promising a really interesting conversation system for coop - each player would be able to choose what they want and it'd still work. Apparently they'll be able to discuss it in-game and finally their social stats are taken into account for the final outcome.

I played a demo for Divinity 2 and it seemed pretty lame, is the game better than it seems, or is just the upcoming title I should look at?

Actually, you've left out Japanese Dating Sims... Those are pretty much exclusively dialog based. ;D

Hay, if you know of any in english where you get to affect the overall game state with choices, rather than just having a a large branching story tree like the ones I've played, I'd love to hear about them.

 

[DoPo]

Huh, I thought more people would be interested in this topic, dialogue RPGs are my favorite genre.

Actually, now I remembered something - you might want to look at Divinity: Original Sin [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/larianstudios/divinity-original-sin] - the kickstarter is going to finish soon but whatever - it's still promising a really interesting conversation system for coop - each player would be able to choose what they want and it'd still work. Apparently they'll be able to discuss it in-game and finally their social stats are taken into account for the final outcome.

I played a demo for Divinity 2 and it seemed pretty lame, is the game better than it seems, or is just the upcoming title I should look at?

Dunno, never played the other Divinity games but this one is stand alone. I think it's only set in the same world or something. In terms of gameplay, and I assume story, too, it's separate.

 

[saintdane05]

18+/Pornographic: title says it all...
3/5 Corruption of Champions[/b] is all about choosing between being corrupted into a sex-demon or staying pure in the face of temptation, and keeps track of relationships with individual NPCs


Much more htan that. THere is also actions in combat, item use, etc...
Anyway, I noticed alot of people play Coc. We should start a group or something.