It really helps that they can't wrap every sidestory up in a bow, that they don't have to pretend the player solved everything after strolling in

So much game writing is about setting up conditions for a narrative that works, so frustrated by the transactional, checklist nature of player progress

A big enabler was the focus on time, which allowed NPC stories to move forward and conclude. Kid->Bad Future gave them space to write tragedies, then the 3-day doom cycle in Majora's gave them space to put way more player agency.

In both cases the player can't permanently change the outcome, though

That team really changes starting with Link's Awakening. From Twin Peaks-inspired dreamworlds they start querying fictive friendships on the Game Boy, then aging, lost futures, and reciprocal relationship in Ocarina, which plays it much subtler than Majora's and satisfies the heroic fantasy above

these are nice, the color treatment really set the mood

The author set a tricky task for illustration: they are equally described as alien and peaceful/wise. The slug eyes have such strong connotations that outweighs the rest.

The Mononoke forest spirit conveys a similar tone in visuals, I think

Oh that's very interesting, I thought this was closer to a beefy text parser game.

I should have a breakpoint between text parser and bot game. Probably deemphasizing natural language interface, focusing on breadth of responses, non-baked responses

I can't believe no one has revisited Event[0], a 2017 game that fit their limited chatbot in their world by making it a) broken and b) malicious/mischievous

When it responded oddly or out of bounds it was perfectly rational in the game world

store.steampowered.com/app/470260/E...

We're completely lacking the game design work to integrate llms. I see academic toys and investment proclamations but not small games making mechanical sense of an encyclopedic, characterful, uncontrolled companion. Without that none of this can be real in a bounded, rules-based gamespace