Figured somebody here would get a kick out of this

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah that examlpe of just a "you can only pick these responses" isn't nearly as good as the other thing I said, about a conversation changing in a much more complex way, more naturally.

"You can just choose these responses"... you mean a standard adventure game setup with a list of replies, right? As for the 'you don't actually speak', what do you think about my explanation for why I think they use them, though? It certainly seems to make sense to me... yes, it makes for unnatural conversations, but if I'm right then there is logic behind it... both for why you don't speak sentences, really, and for why the conversation stream isn't really natural (of course, a big part of the fault there is on the player -- if you just go down the list it'll usually work fine, I'd say...).

'conversation changing in a more complex and natural way'... what games would you use as examples for this? If you mean what I think you do it'd be pretty hard to program, I imagine... but I'm pretty sure that I know what you mean and yeah, when you are given real choices it's even better than just having a list. This is more common these days, with everything from Tales of Symphonia to KotOR having game-effecting choices and not just a list of things to choose from that you'll choose all of eventually anyway.

Anyway, Wind Waker got rid of that completely. Every single moment where you think "oh boy, another false choice" is actually just answered automatically with a nod of Link's head. The only acception is when they ask if you want to hear some important quest information over again in case you missed it.

I didn't notice that, but you're right...


As for Zelda adding choice, that'd be cool, definitely. When a game puts a good system like that in place it's great and really helps the game... and it'd absolutely be great in a Zelda game. Oh, you definitely should have to be a hero if you're playing Link in a Zelda game, but letting it be more of your own hero... of course that'd be great. :)

Oh, as for Link being an avatar, yeah. QFG is just doing the same thing except in a game where they can't pretend that you are mute and yet you speak... having 'you said X' without explaining HOW you said X is an effective solution really...