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  • Edge

    DISPATCHES JANUARY

    Dec 02, 2021 6 minutes

    Dialogue

    Send your views, using ‘Dialogue’ as the subject line, to edge@futurenet.com. Our letter of the month wins a 12-month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership

    If you say the word

    Stuck with my PS4 for now, I have been heartily enjoying Hades and its wonderful narrative system – which is largely thanks to the Odyssean scale of its writing as much as the technical marvels that keep it humming. But ultimately, even though each time I’ve spoken to an NPC it feels special and relevant to my playthrough, it’s held together by what I imagine is a massive spreadsheet keeping track of every variable imaginable and matching this unique fingerprint to lines of pre-written dialogue.

    It got me thinking about whether the sheer computing power in next-gen consoles could be harnessed not just for prettier reflections, but for prettier interactions. Am I being fanciful to imagine an RPG in which NPCs genuinely respond to your actions

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