Grieving Mother might be the best written NPC character I've seen in an RPG game

[Rorschach]

Torment's writing was excellent but Planescape Universe is far less reallistic. PoE world is much closer to a "real world", which leads us to another league of feelings.

The fact that they managed to use mature themes with, among others, a talking skull is something I would count as a merit. PS:T is the best written RPG I've played in my opinion. Pillars was good but the characters seemed a bit distant, sometimes unrelated to the present. More books than people. My favorite character was Durance, the way he changes along the game..., so yeah, another MCA fan over here. He'll be missed on Obsidian.

[Tigranes]

GM has a great story, delivered in the worst way possible. It's like they took the script of a video game or film, and copy-pasted into dialogue screens. (Which is pretty much what happened, when they couldn't do the expansive 'mind dungeon' minigame originally envisioned.)

 

Durance survives to be a memorable character, despite also being a word vomit dump, because of his, uh, winning personality.

[jsaving]

GM and Durance sum up the pros and cons of having CA write those characters without much further involvement in the game.  They have exceptionally well-crafted backstories that tie in to the lore of the setting and explore deep philosophical issues, but also have an almost complete lack of interactivity with in-game developments coupled with off-putting personalities that must be endured in order to reach the aforementioned backstories. 

Edited February 2, 2017 by jsaving

[Elric Galad]

 

Torment's writing was excellent but Planescape Universe is far less reallistic. PoE world is much closer to a "real world", which leads us to another league of feelings.

The fact that they managed to use mature themes with, among others, a talking skull is something I would count as a merit. PS:T is the best written RPG I've played in my opinion. Pillars was good but the characters seemed a bit distant, sometimes unrelated to the present. More books than people. My favorite character was Durance, the way he changes along the game..., so yeah, another MCA fan over here. He'll be missed on Obsidian.

I didn't mean that the writing was better than Planescape. I agree that PS:T has probably the edge as "best written RPG ever". Not to mention the musics.

 

But talking to a living skull does not make me as empathic as talking with Sagani who gave birth to five children and lost a couples. Planescape has serious themes but it is still more "Pop" in a certain way.

 

Different styles, I guess.

 

By the way, the best NPC ever created was Dak'kon

Edited February 1, 2017 by Elric Galad

[ActionAlligator]

Ew, I hated GM. I agree with others, she was boring. I also found her and her writing kind of cringey..least favorite companion of all by far.

 

Hiravias was inconsistent for me; sometimes I thought his dialogue was well-written and funny, others I found it cringey and forced.

 

The rest were great, although I haven't had a chance to really experience the WM companions. I think my favorites were Pallegina, Aloth, Durance, and Kana.

[Rorschach]

I didn't mean that the writing was better than Planescape. I agree that PS:T has probably the edge as "best written RPG ever". Not to mention the musics.

 

But talking to a living skull does not make me as empathic as talking with Sagani who gave birth to five children and lost a couples. Planescape has serious themes but it is still more "Pop" in a certain way.

 

Different styles, I guess.

 

By the way, the best NPC ever created was Dak'kon

I agree with that about Dak'kon.

 

I don't know, I felt that the writting on PoE was lacking in some ways (see Tigranes comment). What I meant was that while PoE characters may had a higher starting empathy factor, the overal empathy was much higher, to me, towards Torment characters. Sagani's story was more like hearing a tragedy in the news and Dak'kon's or Morte's was like hearing somethinf from a close friend. With Durance, even with his narrative issues, I felt more connected. Maybe because it was an ongoing issue opposed to the past with Sagani.

[IamNOOB]

I am very supportive in this topic! 

Grieving mother rockz ! She is well written and unique and also the combo obstetrics + soul magic + mystical old believes is kind of original and unexpected. She is a mage and not a mage, a doctor and not a doctor, a helping hand and a dangerous influence, surely this is amazing.

But do not underestimate other great characters in RPGs. Great characters I know surely include the following [as far as the script is concerned]:

1. Thane Crios in Mass Effect.
2. Liara in Mass Effect, esp. if she replaces the Shadow broker.

3. The main character in FABLE - ok, he is not a NPC.
4. Varric from the Dragon Age series

5. Shale the Golem [Dragon age ]

6. Leto in the Witcher 2,3

Edited February 1, 2017 by IamNOOB

[Selky]

I thought Iovara was also well written. Despite her lack of scenes I thought she made a huge impact. Maybe it was because she had less throwaway lines than someone like, I dunno... Maerwald! lol

 

I haven't played through Grieving Mother's story yet, so I can't comment on that. Her introduction is certainly interesting.

 

I'm glad to find someone else who liked Iovara! The amount of freedom you're given to decide the PC's relationship with her was something I really appreciated, it's always interesting roleplaying it differently in a new playthrough.

[Kriber22]

I both love and hate Grieving Mother. I love her because she's an original and unusual character, her story arc is interesting and the "moral choice" (for lack of a better word) at the end of her personal quest is profound without being right or wrong.

 

On the other hand I hate her because using her forces me to read the interaction/dialogue text, which is atrocious. I have no idea who wrote it, but that person should have an editor permanently assigned to them to vet every word they get to put in the game. GM and Durance have this in common, their interaction texts are a horrible mash-up of run-on sentences, weird punctuation, incoherent rambling and disjointed narrative.

[ActionAlligator]

I thought Durance's dialogue had personality, not sure I see all the run-on sentences etc. you're talking about. Grieving Mother was very hard for me to get through, though, because nothing about her really made me care, for whatever reason..

[Madscientist]

MCA is the best, but I find GM quite boring.

The best characer ever is Kreia from KotoR2. She is a mystery, wise and fanatically insane at the same time, tragic and evil, but not the kind of evil that kills and steals just for fun.

Dakkon would be second.

[FreyaMaluk]

late to the party, but I just wanted to say that I don't like her that much tbn. Unless you are a wizard, druid or priest you might not get to much out of her.

 

What I do like are the implications for her inclusion: The witcher getting to know people beyond their physical appearance, which in this superficial world is kinda a nice lesson to try to apply in your daily life.

 

As a character she does have some interesting interactions specially when u have to talk to spirits or some of the sort, but other than that, I think her character needed a bit more meaty roundness. She doesn't evolve as much as the other characters. You forget or remember... Nothing much in there IMO.

[Hulk'O'Saurus]

I was very happy with the presentation of the Mother and Sagani both. I rememeber being fairly annoyed with the Mother when she was telling me what to do during the first long conversation of her quest. 

[the_dog_days]

Old thread, but I've always thought GM felt like a TNG character plopped down in Eora. She feels completely out of place. I usually bring her on just to watch her turn the coward and run when confronted with the truth. Seeing her choose to be a hypocrite makes me smile.

 

I wouldn't dislike her so much if she wasn't made to be the embodiment of a concern troll as a companion.

[Mygaffer]

Durance was the best companion in the game by my estimation, he's not a good person but he's engaging and a character you definitely have to have an opinion on. Very well characterized too, it's clear who he is and what he's about.

 

Grieving Mother honestly fell a little flat for me. All her dialogue is so focused on her one issue, children and their souls. Whether her companion quest, Vela, or what to do with the souls. I felt like the character was a little too one dimensional.

 

Other characters I quite enjoyed were Eder (good natured, loves animals, unworldly farm boy trope, who could hate him?), Hiravias (angry at Galawain, quick with a joke or an insult, big personality in a little body), and Sagani (practical woman who's given years of her life to honor the traditions of her tribe, all while missing her husband and children who are back home while wondering if the whole thing is even worth it).

 

The other companion characters were fine but those are the ones that stood out the most to me, or at least the ones I found most interesting.