Text boxes VS. Text interaction

When adventure games were born the idea of interacting with little virtual people through non-combat became popular in both Japan and the West. Few games exemplified this trend more than some of the early Japanese style Adventures (such as Dragons Quest). In this game you walked up to characters and pressed a button to open a canned dialogue box. When talking to specific individuals these dialogue boxes would often move the game story along, but sometimes NPCs would merely provide hints on where to go, or in worst case scenarios there'd be a wall of text involving unimportant information that the player would have to patiently skip through.

The combat in these games actually work very much in synergy with the way verbal communication happens, in a turn-based manner. The difference in this situation would be that players would have multiple options to respond to their attackers, unlike the consistently passive interaction with NPCs. Borrowing this game mechanic from board games like Dungeons & Dragons, this interactivity would add a strategic element to these games that worked together with its turn-based narrative style.

Gargoyles Quest

Gradually or at the same time I'm not sure, but text boxes evolved to include some kind of strategy in the form of player responses and the option to use special items on NPCs. I use the word strategy very lightly by the way. In effect it was more like a self contained conversation that was circular, rather than something relating directly to the movement of the plot, or a rote fetch quest puzzle that involved a specific NPC in the game world.

When consoles began to release non-linear action games though some of them began to utilize NPCs in more abstract ways. Castlevania: Simons Quest and Zelda II: The Adventures of Link were both non-linear action games that required players progress through unconventional interactions with NPCs. The puzzle like nature of interacting with individuals in these games therefore served a purpose directly relating to the plot and not just a stopgap for chitchat or a basic item puzzle. Unfortunately, while this is good as an idea, the mechanic of NPC interaction has almost always been executed poorly in games, including both Zelda II and the Mass Effect series. The former creates confusion through making these interactions like abstract puzzles, and the latter creates frustration by limiting player choice too much.

I have a problem with the way abstract puzzles in general factor into their progression systems, something I deal with here.