History Main / WelcometoCorneria

Not to be confused with the [[StarFox Planet Corneria.]] [[FinalFantasyI Or the kingdom.]]

Not to be confused with the [[StarFox Planet Corneria.]]

* At Gringotts in the HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone GBA game the player can talk to two different goblins who both claim to be counting piles of thousands of rubies... but no matter how many times you talk to them, they're still counting up from ruby number 95.

* The majority of 8- and 16-bit era games fit. The trope name comes from ''[[EightBitTheater 8-Bit Theater]]'', [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2001/04/12/episode-015-a-little-intellectual-conversation/ parodying said games]]. (Note: in the first English release of ''FinalFantasy'', [[BeamMeUpScotty the actual line]] is "This is Coneria, the dream city." Later remakes translated the name properly as Cornelia, but the "the dream city" was in either way)
** ''DragonQuest'' has this as well. The guards by the front gate of Tantegel Castle in the first three games apparently have nothing to say that's more important than welcoming the hero(es) to the castle where they're standing guard. Seeing how the first three games take place years apart from each other, this tendency seems to have been passed down from generation to generation.
*** Mostly averted in ''DragonQuestVIII'', where dialogue will sometimes change not only after major events, but in response to the day/night cycles (assuming they're not asleep). Considering how big the game is, the writers likely raked in overtime on this.
**** Heck, it can depend on who your character up front is. If you go to Jessica's hometown, for example, with Jessica up front, the dialogue will be different from the dialogue you see as Hero.
** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] to hell and back in ''{{Final Fantasy X-2}}'', especially with certain people in Luca.

* Blizzard's ''{{Warcraft}}'' and ''{{Starcraft}}'' games subvert this. If you click a unit (or an NPC in ''{{World of Warcraft}}'') [[StopPokingMe enough times]], it will start BreakingTheFourthWall, saying {{One Liner}}s from movies, referencing RealLife, or noting some absurd detail about its fictional existence. The (incomplete) {{GameFAQs}} list of ''{{Warcraft}} III'' "pissed quotes" is over 90 kilobits big.
** And in ''Starcraft'' and ''Warcraft'', clicking on a critter enough times will cause it to explode. (No SplashDamage, though)
** Capital CityGuards in ''{{World of Warcraft}}'' actually manage to be useful, as they can be asked for directions. They all share the same (rather extensive) DialogueTree per city, but still. As with ''Warcraft'', the NPC spoken dialogue will go into "pissed" when you pester the same NPC long enough, but with only about two sets per race/gender, the variation isn't quite as much. A few {{NPC}}s use lines directly from ''Warcraft III'', though.
*** There is some variation for the guard talking to a few of the different classes. Rogues are told by Orgrimmar guards that they are being watched.
**** So do the Ironforge and Stormwind guards. The former sometimes complain that they may have to keep a close watch on the player, the latter just wish that they are allowed to drag you to jail.
* In ''{{Diablo}} II'', the guards in the city of Lut Gholein only say "welcome to the palace" and "stay out of trouble".
* WorkingDesigns loved to parody/[[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] this trope. Indeed, very few {{NPC}}s in their games didn't result in a decently complex dialogue between them and the main characters. The same sort of thing (minus the parody) could be found in the ''{{Grandia}}'' series, made by Game Arts, the same company responsible the ''{{Lunar}}'' series that Working Designs is best known for.
* ''[[TheElderScrolls Oblivion]]'' and ''[[TheElderScrolls Morrowind]]'' have more stock lines for its {{NPC}}s than most games, but if you talk to them a lot (or just listen to them talking with each other, in the case of Oblivion) eventually the lines start to repeat. Unlike many other games, the dialogue does update to acknowledge the player's accomplishments.
** The updating isn't entirely consistent, either: a NPC may praise you as a hero when seeing you, then suddenly turn gruff and unfriendly when you initiate actual dialogue.
*** Sometimes, the dialogue will be surprisingly detailed, but have no purpose: the shaggy dog story of NPC dialog, a classic example of which can be had from any of the Atius and Sintav family members in the Imperial City. Other times -due to a bug, ITTO- the [=NPCs=] won't switch to their new dialog when they're supposed to. Confusion ensues.
*** Also, if you've managed to level any of your skills up to the high 90s-100, get ready to hear about it from ''every single NPC you meet.'' There are even mods that remove [=NPCs=]' ability to comment on your skills, as there's only about one or two lines per skill and their likelihood of spouting them is pretty damn high.
---> [[MostAnnoyingSound "How's about mixing up some potions? You look like quite the alchemist...!"]]

* The ''{{Shadowrun}}'' game for SNES has one egregious example. In the Caryards, you can either leave by paying King 4000 nuyen, or you can fight (and kill) him in the arena; if you take this latter route, the [=NPCs=] in the Caryards will still act as if King is still alive. (This is all the more annoying given their dialogue mostly consists of [[DudeWheresMyRespect jeering about how you'll never beat him]].)
** News travels ''very'' slowly in these parts...
* ''GoldenSun'' has an interesting variation on this. While most [=NPCs=] follow the trope to the letter, you can also cast the Mind Read psynergy on just about anyone, revealing their thoughts in the form of a second static line of dialog. What makes these lines interesting is that they often reveal info the NPC doesn't want to give, or reveals them to be big hypocrites.
-->'''Meditating guy's thoughts:''' "... ... ... I sense impure thoughts from the man next to me!"
-->'''Other Meditating guy's thoughts:''' "... ... ... I am hungry."
** Those actually are impure thoughts. Meditation is to remove yourself from worldly concerns and attain some kind of profound understanding of or peace with the world. This guy is failing hard by having his mind preoccupied with what's for lunch.
* An aversion is in ''TheWorldEndsWithYou'' which, like ''GoldenSun'', includes mind-reading, with the twist being that you cannot talk to most of the [=NPCs=] to begin with, and you can't mind-read the ones you can. Every [=NPC=] on a given screen will have a totally different thought, but thoughts repeat if you go to different places, and look at different people, thinking ''the same thing.'' Throughout the length of the game these thoughts actually progress in related chains, including some related thoughts (male and female thinking of each other) being intentionally funny.
** This is played straight near endgame for a creepy effect. [[spoiler: Everyone's thoughts are the same [[{{Instrumentality}} because they are being brainwashed.]]]]
* An interesting subversion occurs in the first two ''{{Gothic}}'' games. The non-plot-essential [=NPCs=] fall into categories -- like Rebel Camp Miner or Castle Guard -- and every member of a given set has identical clothes and has the same dialogue, but the dialogue takes the form of a multiple-choice conversation, just as if you were talking to a more important [=NPC=]. They'll give the same answers every time, but behave more like information points than tape recorders.
* Played embarrassingly straight in ''BlackSigil''... if you visit one particular town as soon as you get the airship, {{NPC}}s will reference events that haven't happened yet.
* The old ''{{Ultima}} Underworld'' games were like this as well. All non-named {{NPC}}s fell in groups like "outcast", "guard", "goblin" or whatever, and you could have the same dialog with all {{NPC}}s in the same group.
* Other {{Ultima}} games have the ''player'' falling into this role, since the three phrases you can say to any NPC are "name" "job" "bye". Ultima VII [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this by having an actor who portrays the Avatar describe his dialogue as very repetitive.
* Averted in ''DarkSun'', where no two {{NPC}}s had the same line. There weren't many inhabitants in the villages, but each one had unique lines and different dialog branches.
* The inhabitants of TheHub in the ''PaperMario'' games update their dialogue after every chapter, so if you TalkToEveryone every time you return, you'll get entirely different dialogue. The inhabitants of the various villages, however, mostly play this straight, usually having only "before chapter" and "after chapter" dialogue.
* ''DarkCloud 2'' also averts this by updating the dialogue of most {{NPC}}s every chapter. Many characters will also say different things depending on whether you are using Max or Monica. However, if you repeatedly talk to the same NPC, they will repeatedly say the same thing.

* In a {{Filler}} arc of ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}'' in which the characters have to play a virtual-reality RPG, there is one example of this despite the apparent intelligence of most of the rest of the game - the characters attempt to cross a desert and fail, only to be greeted by an old man who tells them they need a specific card to cross the desert. The heroes try to get more information out of him but he just repeats the same line.
** Another filler arc that featured many of the same elements revealed that Gozaburo Kaiba had a biological son before adopting Seto and Mokuba, but the boy - Noah - had his mind uploaded into a virtual world after an accident damaged his body beyond repair. Gozaburo went to the trouble of making the world fairly detailed, but it had obvious limitations, this being one of them. In short, Noah is one of the few characters to actually ''be driven mad by this trope''.
* The above is also done in the Greed Island arc of ''HunterXHunter'', where trying to ask an NPC specific questions that he doesn't know just results in a generic "...What?" response.

* An interesting TabletopGames variation occurs [[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Noh here]] where the players ''refused'' to let the GameMaster just HandWave a ThresholdGuardians existence. Warning, some NotSafeForWork related pictures at the bottom.

* "[[ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink I am Error.]]" What? "I am Error." Is that what you really said? "I am Error." Is your name Error, or are you an error in the game code, what are you? "I am Error." Is there anyway I can fix you? "I am Error." Hmm..um...ok, you just keep on doin' what you do then, man.
** [[http://digitalunrestcomic.com/index.php?date=2009-04-27 One possible explanation]] for "I am Error"...
*** It's generally supposed that the game makers meant to have his name be ''Erroll'' (like Flynn) and it translated badly. But Error really is the character's name. The reason that's all he says is so that Link/the player can identify him. Later in the game, [[spoiler: another character tells Link to get certain information from Error. This requires him to go back to wherever he found Mr. Self-Identification, who will now say something completely different and plot-relevant.]] The MemeticMutation is legendary, though.
*** The name of the guy who tells you to get information from Error is an unnamed man in the town of Mido. There is also a character who lives in the woods named Bagu. As in a messed up recursive translation of Bug. Error. Bug. Programming jokes. He also triggers different dialogue/events in people, but aside from his appearance is not connected to Error in any way.
*** [[http://www.flyingomelette.com/oddities/error.html This page explains it all.]]

** Most of the squads dialogue of MassEffect 2, however, is averted--usually under the vein of a squadmate is busy or has nothing to say:

* MMORPG ''{{City of Heroes}}'', though the game's mechanics tend to mask it well. Any "contact" whose missions have been exhausted will repeat the same line explaining that "and now we are done" and any who have not been introduced will direct the player to speak with someone else, instead. Even worse are the civilians roaming the streets, who will repeat a single random line every time they are spoken to. Somewhat averted in that civilians are generated at random, but their lines are still mostly limited. Interestingly, civilians whose names start with a particular letter can give out meta-game information, such as total hours of playtime or players currently in the surrounding zone.

** In the majority of Tales of... games, this is the case. However, [=NPCs=] often have varied activities depending on your actions, and they're frequently updated constantly throughout the game, to a remarkable degree.
* ''[[AssassinsCreed Assassin's Creed]]'' is ridiculously guilty of this, especially with guard dialogue. "YOU DARE STEAL IN MY PRESENCE?! THAT WILL COST YOU YOUR LIFE!!" tends to get wearing after the tenth time.
** Probably the strangest part is that they had multiple actors record the exact same lines. So in different towns, you'll encounter different beggar women, with different voices and accents, yet they will both same the ''exact'' same piece of dialogue, word for word.
** FridgeBrilliance: The game takes place in the recollections of Altair. Do you really think he'd remember the exact words of all those citizens and guards? The Animus probably fills in the holes rather than force you out of the experience with white noise.
* Mostly played straight in ''NetHack''. However, there is one brilliant exception. A co-aligned priest, if spoken to, will give you "two bits for an ale" if you are pennyless. But if the priest himself is out of money, he will instead "preach the virtues of poverty." however, in the endgame, the high priest will go through the same routine as normal priests, giving you two gold pieces just before you ascend to Demigodhood.
** There's [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything more than one aversion,]] this being NetHack. Shopkeepers typically play this straight, but if you die within sight of their door, they can come over and look at your corpse sadly, or loot your inventory, or even still be angry at you if you've stolen from them in a previous life.
** A pet dog will howl at the moon if it is a full moon and nighttime (in RealLife) when you chat with it.
*** Vampires also have different dialogue based on the time of day, monster's peacefulness, whether you're kindred, or a "night child." More info [[http://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Talking_to_vampires here]].
** Quest guardians play it straight, but quest leaders rejecting you based on lack of experience or low alignment give different messages based on how many times you fail.

* In the last ''DotHack'' game, one of the {{NPC}}s casually state that, since every other player says the same thing, this cannot be a real MMO (which it isn't, of course)!
* In ''{{La-Mulana}}'', the elder has a wide variety of sayings which include useful hints as well as gratuitous {{Take That}}s at Nintendo games, but past a certain point in the game will only repeat, "The wind is restless..."
* In ''Game/TheGodfather'' game, pretty much every civilian has only so few lines to use. It gets bad when random mobsters all say the same lines over and over.

* ''{{Stalker}}'' takes this to new irritating levels, especially in the bar area where people repeat the same dialogue ''over and over'' again. Plus they stop you using your gun to vent your frustration.
** It's really no surprise whatsoever that nearly every mod for the game in existence either stops them from repeating the lines or simply makes them all stop talking altogether.

* There's a curious example in {{Fallout 3}}, with Three Dog and President Eden. Since most players have their radio on most if not all of the time, the banter given by these two tends to get really repetitive. Three Dog comments on in-game events, although the changes in his monologues can be pretty far-between. This is, of course, not even mentioning how repetitive the MUSIC they both play is. Thank god for music add-on mods.
* FalloutNewVegas has the NCR troopers saying "Patrolling The Mojave Almost Makes You Wish For A Nuclear Winter" very very often.

* Despite being a modern game for the {{Wii}}, the [[Game/AliceInWonderland video game version]] of TimBurton's ''Film/AliceInWonderland'' has this with a number of the talking flowers.
* Dr. Robotnik (from "Shadow the Hedgehog"): "You know what they say; the more the merrier! You know what they say; the more the merrier! You know what they say; the more the merrier! You know what they say; the more the merrier! You know what they say; the more the merrier! You know what they say-" No, Robotnik, I don't know what they say. Could you please elaborate? "-the more the merrier!"

* Happens fucking all the time in ''[=~Izuna: Legend Of The Unemployed Ninja~=]''. Especially {{egregious}} in that 1) sitting through it is mandatory, provided you want to do such exotic things as repair your equipment, access items you've put into storage, buy or sell things, or save the game outside of a dungeon, 2) every single time you want to do any of the aforementioned actions, 3) it seems to be unskippable (the manual says something about holding A to speed the text up, but it's never seemed to help much), and 4) this isn't some NPC giving you a one-line greeting--oh no, these are full-blown conversations, complete with responses, counter-responses, and often counter-counter-responses.

[[AC: Non Game Examples]]
* Parodied in ''RPGWorld'', where [[http://rpgworldcomic.com/d/20001021.html one minor character]] just simply sighs and says "Times are tough" to anyone and everyone that interacts with him. He also appears in every bar that the team visits.
** There was actually a game based on this guy-there was a text box, and you could type in anything you wanted to say to him. Naturally, he would only respond with "* sigh* Times are tough." This was about as amusing as you let it be.
* ''{{Adventurers}}!'' liked to [[http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/0066.html parody]] [[http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/0082.html this trope]] [[http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/0225.html too]]. The line "There are many guards in the castle" became a RunningGag, especially as seen [[http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/20011121.html here]].
* This one was played with in the first episode of ''UnforgottenRealms''. [[spoiler:Rob, having decided to voice most of the characters, played an NPC "realistically": only saying one thing; this went on until Mike corrected him.]] And in the next episode,[[spoiler: there was an NPC who could only say "Press B to jump", and in fact continued to say it when no one was talking to him.]] Who then died [[spoiler:accidentally, at Mike's character's hands]].
* ''ElGoonishShive'' presents [[http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/?date=2009-11-17 an example]] -- according to its annotation, taken from the RealLife.

* Parodied in [[http://www.onemanga.com/to-LOVE-ru/93/15/ this]] ''{{ToLoveRu}}''.
* In ThirdRockFromTheSun, Dick first encounters Christmas on a large scale. A woman manning a Christmas donation stand says "Merry Christmas" whenever Dick puts a coin in the box. Obviously, that woman is coin operated.

* Partially averted in ''{{Dwarf Fortress}}''. In Adventurer Mode, NPCs have randomly generated interests, professions, and so forth. Of course, this results in the occasional NPC suggesting that you [[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=27591.msg941291#msg941291 consider torture]].
----

* WorkingDesigns loved to parody/[[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] this trope. Indeed, very few {{NPCs}} in their games didn't result in a decently complex dialogue between them and the main characters. The same sort of thing (minus the parody) could be found in the ''{{Grandia}}'' series, made by Game Arts, the same company responsible the ''{{Lunar}}'' series that Working Designs is best known for.

*** Sometimes, the dialogue will be surprisingly detailed, but have no purpose: the shaggy dog story of NPC dialog, a classic example of which can be had from any of the Atius and Sintav family members in the Imperial City. Other times -due to a bug, ITTO- the NPCs won't switch to their new dialog when they're supposed to. Confusion ensues.
*** Also, if you've managed to level any of your skills up to the high 90s-100, get ready to hear about it from ''every single NPC you meet.'' There are even mods that remove NPCs' ability to comment on your skills, as there's only about one or two lines per skill and their likelihood of spouting them is pretty damn high.

** In the majority of Tales of... games, this is the case. However, NPCs often have varied activities depending on your actions, and they're frequently updated constantly throughout the game, to a remarkable degree.

*** The name of the guy who tells you to get information from Error is Bagu. As in a messed up recursive translation of Bug. Error. Bug. Programming jokes.

* There's a curious example in ''{{Fallout}} 3'', with Three Dog and President Eden. Since most players have their radio on most if not all of the time, the banter given by these two tends to get really repetitive. Three Dog comments on in-game events, although the changes in his monologues can be pretty far-between. This is, of course, not even mentioning how repetitive the MUSIC they both play is. Thank god for music add-on mods.

* Mostly played straight in ''NetHack''. However, there is one brilliant exception. A co-aligned priest, if spoken to, will give you "two bits for an ale" if you are pennyless. But if the priest himself is out of money, he will instead "preach the virtues of poverty." however, in the EndGame, the high priest will go through the same routine as normal priests, giving you two gold pieces just before you ascend to Demigodhood.

*** Vampires also have different dialogue based on the time of day, monster's peacefulness, whether you're kindred, or a "night child." More info [[http://nethack.wikia.com/wiki/Talking_to_vampires here]].

* In ''TheGodfather'' game, pretty much every civilian has only so few lines to use. It gets bad when random mobsters all say the same lines over and over.

* Averted in ''{{Earthbound}}'' and ''{{Mother 3}}''. You won't get nearly as much from this series if you don't TalkToEveryone, because the game developers love adding in plenty of extra NPC lines for towns you'll never visit ever again. A particularly big example being Happy Happy Village, which is [[spoiler:slowly turning back from the strange cult town it was into a normal town as you progress through the game. People slowly turn back to normal, many other people will apologize, and the red house will open revealing a Mr. Saturn.]] Also, as a sort of hidden line near the end of ''Mother 3'', [[spoiler:in the basement of the Empire Porky Building, if you talk to Flint 6 times he'll comment about his baldness. If you talk to him ''again'' he'll comment about the metaphor he used for his baldness.]]

* Happens all the time in ''[=~Izuna: Legend Of The Unemployed Ninja~=]''. Especially {{egregious}} in that 1) sitting through it is mandatory, provided you want to do such exotic things as repair your equipment, access items you've put into storage, buy or sell things, or save the game outside of a dungeon, 2) every single time you want to do any of the aforementioned actions, 3) it seems to be unskippable (the manual says something about holding A to speed the text up, but it's never seemed to help much), and 4) this isn't some NPC giving you a one-line greeting--oh no, these are full-blown conversations, complete with responses, counter-responses, and often counter-counter-responses.

** [[http://digitalunrestcomic.com/index.php?date=2006-11-06 One possible explanation]] for "I am Error"...

*** Mordin is working--he actually has quite a few lines about what he's currently doing whenever you ask, with one fixed line per ship visit

*** Notably the character who tells you to talk to him again is named Bagu, which ''is'' a mistranslation. It's supposed to be "Bug" as a synonym to "Error"; Bagu/Bug appears as a PaletteSwap of Error.

* Happens all the time in [=~Izuna: Legend Of The Unemployed Ninja~=]. Especially {{egregious}} in that 1) sitting through it is mandatory, provided you want to do such exotic things as repair your equipment, access items you've put into storage, buy or sell things, or save the game outside of a dungeon, 2) every single time you want to do any of the aforementioned actions, 3) it seems to be unskippable (the manual says something about holding A to speed the text up, but it's never seemed to help much), and 4) this isn't some NPC giving you a one-line greeting--oh no, these are full-blown conversations, complete with responses, counter-responses, and often counter-counter-responses.

*** Vampires also have different dialogue based on the time of day, monster's peacefulness, whether you're kindred, or a "night child." More info here: [[http://nethack.wikia.com/wiki/Talking_to_vampires]]

* Happens fucking all the time in [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Ptitle5zaa1fwe Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns]]. Especially {{egregious}} in that 1) sitting through it is mandatory, provided you want to do such exotic things as repair your equipment, access items you've put into storage, buy or sell things, or save the game outside of a dungeon, 2) every single time you want to do any of the aforementioned actions, 3) it seems to be unskippable (the manual says something about holding A to speed the text up, but it's never seemed to help much), and 4) this isn't some NPC giving you a one-line greeting--oh no, these are full-blown conversations, complete with responses, counter-responses, and often counter-counter-responses.
* Referenced in 3d Dot Game Heroes with the town of "Colneria."

* In {{Diablo}} 2, the guards in the city of Lut Gholein only say "welcome to the palace" and "stay out of trouble".

* Happens fucking all the time in [[Ptitle5zaa1fwe Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns]]. Especially {{egregious}} in that 1) sitting through it is mandatory, provided you want to do such exotic things as repair your equipment, access items you've put into storage, buy or sell things, or save the game outside of a dungeon, 2) every single time you want to do any of the aforementioned actions, 3) it seems to be unskippable (the manual says something about holding A to speed the text up, but it's never seemed to help much), and 4) this isn't some NPC giving you a one-line greeting--oh no, these are full-blown conversations, complete with responses, counter-responses, and often counter-counter-responses.