Quote Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno View Post
I think what we should be doing with the new generation of hardware is expanding games and working more towards building relationships between the characters and player and I don't mean loads of dialogue either. Just using body language or making the character do something a little quirky when they do normal things (like adding a skip when they walk) just to throw the player off their game would suffice. Giving the player the option to get to know the character rather than force it down their throat.
Body language definitely goes hand-in-hand with communication, even though it's such a small detail, it can really bring a character to life whereas in most anime or video games they might seem "stiff" or "flat". I see that more modern games are progressing with body language on their characters, which is good. I still think that it needs to get it to a higher level though. The hand gestures, the head jerks, the eyebrow movements, the arm and leg stances, all need the volume turned up. Having a person act out a live scene of such a conversation as a reference for creating it in 3D would probably improve the body language dramatically as well as the voice acting by heaps, since said person can actually "flesh out" that role a lot more naturally, making the voice acting sound a lot more natural as well and far less forced. I also agree that it doesn't have to include astounding heaps of dialogue either [wouldn't want to get too carried away, since it's a video game and not a TV show or something].

Your point about the reaction from the characters in Persona 3 is also quite valid. In a lot of video games, the characters' reactions to cataclysmic events usually seem pretty flat [there is some emotion displayed, but you never get the sense that it bothers them for more than a few minutes]. I haven't played Persona 3 myself, but from experience I know that you have good experience and excellent taste with this area, so I'm going to comfortably take your word for it. We need more of this!

Kanno, why don't we just team up and make our own video game.