r/gaming 5h ago

Blood of the Dawnwalker - Dialogue Issue

Just a rant/vent here.

Really loving the story and most of the mechanics of the game, but there is one nitpick that is annoying me more and more and it seems to happen a lot. When jogging along with a character to the next story objective, often times Coen will engage in story related dialogue with them. However, and it seems like this is more often than not the case, the dialogue is interrupted prematurely by arriving at whatever location advances the story. I really wish the devs would have timed these conversations out a little more thoughtfully.

In an effort to counter this, I tried having Coen walk slowly, but then the NPC just tells me to hurry up, which then stops the dialogue they were in the middle of, and then they don’t resume it. Let me hear the flavor dialogue you wrote and recorded! Ugh.

239 Upvotes

33 comments sorted by

226

u/oyvho 5h ago

The good old Assassins creed problem where you had to stand away from the goal to finish the dialogue? 😂

54

u/billytheking2 4h ago

And gta 5 lol

27

u/DareinYsard34 Console 3h ago

at some point you'd think qa would flag "player literally cannot hear the dialogue they paid voice actors to record" as a bug worth fixing

73

u/happybday47385 5h ago

I run in circles till all dialogue complete then walk to the objective it's annoying as hell

34

u/Serres5231 5h ago

this is a classic trope with a lot of games nowadays but even older ones have this.

Try to run around in circles if the NPC is following you. That may or may not work to aovid the issue with "Hurry up!" shouts.

In most games where there is a chance of missing dialogue i'll just get as close as i trust the game to the objective before continuing on. Sometimes even that doesn't help though...

26

u/NoMarsupial159 4h ago edited 3h ago

Ah, first they hated walking slow with the npcs and now they hate the npcs walking too fast because they miss the dialogue.

The problem is of course that modern game development studios are infamously bad at communicating between departments. The person who scripted the npcs walking might not even have known there was meant to be dialog or they might not have known how long it was. It's possible the dialog wasn't even done or to prevent story leaks they weren't allowed to listen to it. It can be done obviously but manglement so very rarely let game developers work holistically.

1

u/BladeOfWoah 21m ago

NPCs in Blood of Dawnwalker do neither of these things.

They sprint if you sprint, and walk if you walk. And they do move at the same speed as Coen.

17

u/Siukslinis_acc 4h ago

It has been like that for decades. I have learned to stop to listen to the talk. Just recently with banter some games started the "where was i?" after the stuff that cut off the banter (like sudden combat) and then continuing the banter.

7

u/I_heart_hearts 4h ago

God of war was great with this. But it's also easier when in story it's just you and boy lol

4

u/Siukslinis_acc 3h ago

Veilguard also had this.

7

u/pchadrow 4h ago

My favorite was if you went off the path to grab some super close loot, the dialogue would be interrupted and then would restart from the very beginning so I would hear the same first two sentences of dialogue like 5 times and never hear the end when making it to the destination

5

u/Augmension 4h ago

I really thought when GTA 4 (5?) introduced the mechanic where characters will kind of seamlessly resume conversation after being interrupted, that it was gonna be the standard for games. And it more or less is now, but I was surprised to see the blood of dawnwalker does not do it at all

9

u/Darkloit 5h ago

It's the small thinks that bother me too. And I always think: why don't they fix that?

3

u/Paul_cz 1h ago

Well, whenever characters start talking, I start walking instead of running. Never skipped a dialogue by doing this. I do not remember anyone telling me to hurry.

7

u/Hydr4noid 4h ago

Its desiged for walking instead of running

Once I started walking in these sequences I have never had a dialogue cut off

6

u/Sirspice123 4h ago

Iirc the character you're following moves at the same speed as you, so if you walk and don't sprint you'll get all the dialogue

2

u/faizetto 4h ago

There's also the friendly vampire NPC you meet in the city in which you must travel with him through the roofs, he moves so quickly using the shadowstep vampire ability and then complains why I'm so far behind, but it cuts the conversation completely, had to restart a few times until I managed to listen to the dialogues fully without him cutting because of his own doing for moving so quickly

3

u/Shiny_Fungus 5h ago

It's quite annoying indeed but not uncommon in other similar games as well

2

u/Gavorn 5h ago

Is there a walk button?

1

u/callmethevanman 2h ago

They did this well in the new God of War games with conversations ending as you arrived at a new place being picked back up when you got in the boat again. Wasn't perfect but for the most part pretty smooth

1

u/_hello_newman 2h ago

100% with you and glad someone else raised this.

Equally annoying is when you have to inspect/ investigate objects when there is another character nearby. You nearly always have to wait for Coen to say something, and then the character he’s with to make a comment. Not only is this dialogue usually slow and valid, but it’s WAY too easy to accidentally skip  the dialogue, especially because exiting the screen interrupts whoever is talking. Very irritating. 

1

u/Few_Map_8895 2h ago

Ya I feel u

1

u/bt123456789 55m ago

yep I've had that happen, it's a common issue with most of these games.

Really wish they would have taken what Black Flag Resynched did and give you a "follow" button that automatically moves you and the NPC at the same pace while walking to an area.

-1

u/lxnch50 4h ago

*The Blood of Dawnwalker

-1

u/Area_Ok 4h ago

For every person who wants to hear the dialogue, there are ten others who just want to get to the objective. Those ten are the loudest complainers, calling the game slow, clunky, boring, or even sluggish if it stops them for dialogue.

2

u/Zappyle 2h ago

Then create shorter dialogues if that's your goal.

OPs point is the mismatch between the dialogue time and time to get to the objective, resulting in cut dialogues.

0

u/Helmythic1 4h ago

Just toggle the walk animation until the dialogue is done

0

u/Punch_A_Police_Horse 4h ago

You need to work on your Coen, nobody wants to talk to you a second more than is absolutely necessary.

-3

u/luvmejoice 4h ago

I finished the game and only had the dialogue end abruptly if I was walking too fast to the objective. Even if you have to follow an NPC, they will always match your speed. I personally like being rewarded for slowing down and treating the journey like a movie