NPCs in Video Games

[@NakeyJakey]

jarby wanted me to let you know he forgives you :) and wants to sell you a really crappy sword for 2,000 gold?!? also what are some of YOUR favorite NPCs?? genuinely curious cause its such a broad topic and I can only cover so many examples before I pass out!!!
 xoxo, Jacob 

 Twitter ► twitter.com/nakeyjakey Instagram ► instagram.com/nakeyjakey

[@AsexTwin]

😘

[@Lua0x07]

LOCK YOUR DOORS !!

[@michaelbelshaw6985]

It has to be Uthgerd the unbroken. Absolute unit

[@Finky18]

My favorite npc is probably the adoring fan from oblivion, hes just so happy to be there

[@jacobwheeler1348]

I REALLY LIKE THE PELICAN GUY IN TEARS OF THE KINGDOM HIS NAME IS PENN AND HE SAYS "SOAR-LONG!"

[@Dante037704]

Pro tip: Be sure to ask Jarborious where the blacksmith is BEFORE divorcing him, you’ll lose the dialogue option afterwards.

[@butcherpete2286]

I had to restart my playthrough twice because of this.

[@DJSnackBandit]

Can't I just Google where the blacksmith is? Or is it one of those things where that dialogue option unlocks access to the blacksmith.

[@MidnightMan04]

⁠​⁠​⁠@@DJSnackBanditDone several playthroughs, Blacksmith is bugged right now, so asking Jarborious is the only way to open it up.

[@hiondubs]

​​@@MidnightMan04They fixed the bug, but asking Jarborious about the blacksmith before visiting him for the first time opens up a secret dialogue which unlocks access to tier 3 upgrade materials in his shop before level 16

[@MidnightMan04]

@@hiondubs That's odd, because it's still bugged on mine, and I'm running latest patch. Maybe it's an issue for specific reigons? I'm on the NTSC copy.

[@EddyBurback]

clicked for jakey and left a divorcee with jaborious

[@c4greg_758]

Eddy butt back 😂

[@multz3240]

Clicked for eddy, left eddy to pursue a relationship with jakey

[@mustardsauce5201]

jaborious was toxic and u know it. he wanted our wares. sexual deviant much?

[@Blacktown_Lad]

You didn’t watch the video

[@_Cotton]

your wife, girlfriend, and boyfriend are gonna be so pissed

[@DMGT]

That hour long "Bethesda's Game Design is Outdated" video essay is going to bang, isn't it

[@benjiusofficial]

You can hardly call it game design at this point.

[@yaboi912]

We need it so badly. When he drops it I'm going to get a beer and some snacks to watch on the big screen.

[@esmeecampbell7396]

Please............................. two and a half hours MINIMUM 🤣

[@ThwipThwipBoom]

Starfield was such a disappointment. It's not a bad game, but it's not good either. It's just ok and I'm sure that made Jakey as sad as it made me.

[@JL-ek9to]

we need it so bad

[@LifeofBoris]

it's all fun and games until you see yourself as an NPC in a STALKER game

[@shiven513]

Andrei Tarkovsky did not intent for that

[@iCookCrystalMeth]

everyone’s an npc in stalker

[@michaelwesten4624]

Boris blyn

[@HushPuppy-sz4dp]

@Nakeyjakey wakey wakey jakey can I get a like

[@uzbekistanplaystaion4BIOScrek]

opachki

[@MarcelSOLDIER]

Was honestly shocked at just how genuine Jakey’s acting during the opening was. Bravo, I say, Bravo

[@vau_st]

I am Vst and I approve of this message.

[@BigGayIncorporated]

it was giving Potion Seller vibes (which is a compliment from me)

[@Aestareth_]

bruh watdahell he identifies as a fl studio plugin@@vau_st

[@dahat1992]

And all in one take. Very nice.

[@solokiou5602]

Bravo Vince 🙏🏼

[@camh6892]

I'll never forget playing MGS5 the first time and realizing the npc soldiers at outposts would start to get smarter and smarter with the equipment they used depending on how you approached them for takedowns.

[@ThwipThwipBoom]

it was so cool

[@camh6892]

holy shit, my father jakey liked my comment

[@EJD339]

@@camh6892shit. Now I want to play the game again. It’s been 4 years and I didn’t know they did that. I went into that game blind and fell in love

[@Ardioss1]

​@@EJD339 Soldiers are starting to wear helmets if you do a lot of headshots, equiping gasmasks if you're using sleep mines and gas grenades. Or having much more troops with nightvision goggles if you often taking them down without being seen... If you didn't notice that, it probably means you should play it again 😄

[@Trefox87]

​@Ardioss1 I somehow just thought the guards wearing helmets after I spent like 4 hours shooting guys with the tranq pistol at almost every location was just the game getting harder and me needing better than the basic pistol, but that makes so much more sense and almost makes me feel sorry that I took that as a kill on sight change to how I played

[@Patterrz]

You nailed the cadence of an Oblivion NPC so well it was almost scary

[@RNCHFND]

Did you notice that his mouth moves exactly like Melissa McCarthy's?

[@tw0crows74]

The fact oblivion had secret sleeper agents of the mythic dawn who had lives but would attack you after a certain mission was a great touch, tgey didn't just spawn in, they had a routine.

[@jacobp8294]

I feel like if Bethesda spent more time focusing on the immersive end of their rpg-sims they would be more fun

[@toastedt140]

​@@jacobp8294They figured out the minimum amount you have to develop a feature in order to make broad claims about it that may be true, but they are facetious.

[@everythingpony]

No they just spawn in i check the oblivon mod kit

[@jaikthesnake6285]

I remember one time my little cousin wanted me to get him into the dark brotherhood, so I decided to kill a random guy. That random guy happened to be mythic dawn and he transformed and killed me lol

[@elobiretv]

@@jacobp8294 Just play Oblivion without doing the story and it's a lot of fun. Same goes for most Bethesda games really.

[@eliminoh_p7877]

My favorite NPC you don’t really interact with. It’s a street performer in Cyberpunk. He doesn’t do anything special, only sits there and plays guitar. Being a guitar player myself for 20 some years I stopped to listen. After about a minute I realized that some genius programmer actually went through the trouble of making this NPC’s hands and fingers move EXACTLY like it would in real life for every note, pick, strum, and fret placement. I don’t know if it was mocap or just very well done animation, but it just really impressed me that someone took the time out of their day to add just that tiny bit of realism to a tiny little corner of the world.

[@cooooooooooooooool3]

Damn, I'm glad I'm not the only one that did this

[@shquankinket8068]

Yeah I play guitar too and anytime a guitar is shown in some sort of media I love pointing out that they are obviously playing it wrong. I like how in Elden ring the merchants are pretty accurate with how there instrument is played too

[@Endemoniada]

CP2077 has a ton of mocap, and yeah, that is absolutely one such instance. Their use of the JALI tech is also super interesting, making really high quality lip synching dynamic and instantly available for any audio translation. It's not perfect, certainly not compared to super high-quality mo-capped cinematic games, but it's certainly the best dynamic, on-demand way of doing it I've seen in any game. To tie back to @shquankintet8068 Elden Ring has some of the absolute worst, most lazy lip animation (it isn't even "synching", it's just random babble mouth movement) of any game I've seen, certainly in modern times. It's so weird how they'll put a ton of effort into NPCs playing instruments, something that doesn't matter at all to the game, and then have their most important story NPCs look like goldfish out of water, gasping for air.

[@abadenoughdude300]

This reminds me of the guitarist in Belobog in Honkai Star Rail. Can't say how accurate the animation is, since I don't play guitar, but it looks very convincing and it's way more detailed than it needed to be considering it's just a random npc.

[@dclxvi_89]

Not to diminish that example, but I noticed that Red Dead 2 does that with guitars, banjos, trumpets, mouth harps, and accordions.

[@marcocagg]

A day where Jakey drops a video is always a great day

[@benfroggo]

The best days

[@HushPuppy-sz4dp]

@Nakeyjakey wakey wakey jakey can I get a like

[@slipknotkid2]

How do I upvote this a billion times?

[@KingKuntaNAtor]

my entire family was slaughtered but yeah a day where Jakey drops a video is always a great day

[@toastedt140]

​@@KingKuntaNAtorCan't let Tomar keep getting away with this

[@ThatOneBlackGuy]

no feeling is warmer than coming back home from a long trip to be welcomed by NakeyJakey and his large ball

[@marunya287]

Balls

[@TheBestRoddy]

Cringe

[@_solace_]

@@TheBestRoddyit’s cringe to hate on positivity

[@TheBestRoddy]

@@_solace_ nah it's cringe to repost the same comments over and over again

[@EXISTENTRILLEST]

every video is a gift!

[@vileplumbious9134]

the picture at 1:50 is actually my dad!! I have no idea how you got that picture but the guy on the left with the rainbow suspenders is my dad and the guy on the far right is my uncle

[@Uggggu]

And I'm Obama, nice to meet you

[@DarlingMissDarling]

That's super fun... random dnd pics have the chillest vibes ✌🏾✌🏾

[@Ar1kAwasH3r3]

the npcs in fear were sick. playin that game on hard and tryin to hide while you hear "FLANK HIM! HE'S BEHIND A DESK!" is truly a gamer experience better than sex.

[@senritsujumpsuit6021]

Spec Ops the Line having voices be so frantic an being drowned out half the time is also interesting experience since the game is meant to be overload

[@keelysmash]

I also love as you pick more of them off they actually start arguing with themselves like one saying “ Shut your fucking mouth” when asked to flank

[@GuacaTypeBeat]

My biggest NPC memory was playing Bully (Canis Candem Edit), i was playing as usual, and I specifically remember Algernon, one of the nerds, walk up to a bully in the hallways and just said "I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS" and started beating the everloving shit out of the bully. More students jumped in and it was a absolutely giant punch up where I was helping the nerds out. That has never happened again in any of my playthroughs but i think about his bravery atleast 3 times a week. Rock on Algernon.

[@zebertmcfly7274]

Oh man, I loved Bully. Rockstar should bring that back. Srsly, would get me more excited than gta6. And they should try to have random crap like you described happen every few hours in game. Wonderful stuff.

[@dali-dog]

I also love Bully’s NPC interactions so much. You can stumble upon so many funny and interesting things just by walking around and watching the silly little people go around talking to each other and beating each other up. It’s not like a crazy lot and I’m sure there are a lot of other games that are more impressive, but each character does have a pretty surprising number of voice lines that can change based on who they’re fighting and what chapter it takes place in. Like for a random example if a bully is fighting a jock, they might say an insult relating to the jock clique (especially if that particular bully happens to have a particular distaste for jocks, since each NPC has their own memorable personality and likes and dislikes and sometimes even a bit of backstory if you pay attention to them) or if something’s just happened in the story, like Lola cheating on her boyfriend, you might hear that topic come up in NPCs conversations. Anyway I just happen to be really into Bully right now and I was happy to see someone mention it :) !!

[@d.sadster5684]

God... Bully was legendary For me it was when I discovered I could kiss one boy from every clique, I was the Biggest Bullworth Bisexual

[@danman1950]

My personal fave is the kids playing pranks on each other and the adults. The halloween mission in particular is in more chaotic than the end mission simplt because the kids will prank each other with LITERAL EXPLOSIVES and no one seems to care.

[@TheOriginalEdFry]

​@@d.sadster5684hold the phone... You're telling me it AIN'T just the Blonde Douche from the Bully Group???

[@aosundragonkiller11]

The Austin shout-out was something that touched my heart. I've watched him for years and he most certainly does have a unique voice and personality 🫶

[@willis8907]

He's come a long way since he used to make misleading content about busting eggs (I don't think he's ever busted a single egg - at least not on camera)

[@aosundragonkiller11]

@@willis8907 Eggbusters was a great series what are you on about 💀

[@willis8907]

@@aosundragonkiller11 I was fooling around - I understand it was never actually about eggs

[@ToonfieldAnimations]

Why does it always feel like a NakeyJakey video is only like 5 minutes long? it's entertaining to the point you dont notice you've been watching for 13 minutes

[@THICCTHICCTHICC]

BRO WATCHING ON 2.5x SPEED 😂😂🤣🤣😂🤣😭😭🤣🤣😂🤣🤣😭🤣😂😅

[@3Gads]

It certainly feels that way when you skip the paid promotion.

[@STOPSYPHER]

@@3Gads Truuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuue

[@medicinalcarrots123]

You’ve got a Heart of Gold Jacquan, don’t let them take it from you

[@bubbleraydiddly3334]

Jaquan the Jequel

[@Rahnonymous]

​@@bubbleraydiddly3334A great movie, but I've always prefered "The Jaquanning"

[@jerynturner4626]

Sir Jarborious of Nakeyshire

[@Castreyy]

Nice demon's souls reference

[@refusingtoconform]

But the kidneys are up for grabs, yes?

[@toomanymelons]

the sword in Transistor is my absolute favorite npc! the voice acting is really well done and it's like having a buddy while you're fighting increasingly apocalyptic enemies. since the character you play as, Red, is mute, you don't really get to hear her thoughts on the situation, everything is interpreted and translated back to you by the sword. really moving game

[@starbound03]

The voice acting in general in that game is fantastic.

[@indeimaus]

seeing jakey talk about FEAR whilst talking about enemy AI is beautiful, thank you jak

[@TheTechDweller]

Shocktober baby let's gooo

[@dylanchannel2661]

you should totally do a video on blood dude

[@Tenjeen]

@@dylanchannel2661 Top 10 bloodstains let's goooo

[@Staysyk]

Sometimes playing with friends makes you understand NPCs who run into walls. Very realistic.

[@Staysyk]

Yes

[@SwedePotato314]

@@Staysykdid you just reply to your own comment? Are YOU an NPC trying to be 2 NPCs?

[@Staysyk]

@@SwedePotato314 No.

[@UltimateGattai]

Interacting with some people irl makes you I derstand NPCs who run into walls.

[@iced34ler73]

Just lost my dream job in the games industry due to lay offs...due to missmanagement...thanks for this new video, Jakey! Made my day, cracks me up every time. Keep doing awesome videos like this please!

[@rubbadubdubb6929]

Did you work at Epic? Ik a lot of there employees just got laid off

[@johnic1641]

@@rubbadubdubb6929 There are layoffs across the industry at the moment sadly.

[@Baldybrew]

No one else has talked about the non-matched walk speed in Starfield and I'm so glad someone finally brought it up.

[@benjiusofficial]

It's funny that I was just playing Morrowind and could fortify speed on the NPC escorts so they could keep pace with me. Bethesda learned the wrong lessons after Morrowind.

[@glenaladar]

@@benjiusofficial Morrowind is still in my top 3 fav games of all time lol

[@planescaped]

@@glenaladar It's Bethesda's best game at the very least.

[@alexaburks]

Extremely pumped that the Nancy Drew NPCs got a split second shoutout because truly all of them are memorable as hell

[@JosieTrent367]

What time?

[@jonathanbol3969]

Shouting out Any Austin is genuinely one of the coolest things you've done community wise

[@narlycharley]

I’ve been following him through the years and it’s been a blast.

[@ericeastland6321]

I second this

[@lazy_bloom]

Warmed my heart greatly. Austin does amazing work and deserves the shoutout

[@davemakesnoises]

yeah he deserves it, love his unemployment videos!

[@mrshmuga9]

His eShop mini video reviews for Gonintendo are great too. It’s where I first saw him.

[@willg1439]

Hell yeah to shouting out any Austin his content is so great. Love his video about the woodworking in Skyrim

[@ZiggyPalffyLA]

I hope his channel blows up after this, he deserves it!

[@Dominicn123]

Lol ya you right about Jake it’s da way he pushes his penis and came out and admitted how he was born with only one testicle that makes him the single queen that we stan 😂🎉

[@Fossilized_Nerd]

Oh my gosh the AnyAustin shoutout is not the thoughtful gesture I saw coming but that is so kind of you and absolutely deserved, it's a really cool niche of content he covers that I've enjoyed for quite a while Also your stance on AI is great, I really hope there's a good way out there for an NPC to use AI to influence their behaviors rather than their design and script so they might act more closely to changing scenarios while still respecting the artists that bring these characters to life through word choice, character design, voice direction, etc

[@imaginekudryavka9485]

I went to check him out too, and realized I had watched a couple of his videos but hadn’t yet subscribed. Shoutouts like that really matter a lot more than some might realize. Even if only a dozen people out of thousands take the time to seek it out, those dozen people likely care enough to subscribe and stick around. And many others will have an increased awareness of that creator and will be more likely to click on a recommended video if they’ve heard of them enough times. So yeah, genuine shoutouts are great.

[@borntoDillyDally]

Had never heard of his channel before and I am now binging through every video he's made. Literally the perfect content for me dude is amazing.

[@AntiBellum]

AnyAustin makes great videos, so glad he got recognized

[@ingasparrow]

7:31 Ghost of Tsushima actually fixed this issue! The NPC moves like an arrow pointing you to your destination in older games. It doesn't matter how fast or slow you go. The NPC is always in the lead and moving towards the objective. I don't get why no one else thought to do this. Edit: I just remembered Okami did this too.

[@Fanthomas1742]

The Witcher 3 has it as well but not all Npcs which is a little weird.

[@catwiffhat4274]

yeah Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk do this as well

[@wes8723]

@@Fanthomas1742 hmmm..really? Which don't? I remember that all NPCs walk and run at the same pace as Geralt/Ciri, aka the player

[@Fanthomas1742]

@@wes8723 one that comes to mind is Thaler when you escort him out of the cave, theres also no conversation for like half of the time you are walking back to his wagon

[@paytonpehrson7741]

​@@wes8723Can confirm, especially in quests with Triss and Yennefer, if you sprint, they sprint. If you jog, they jog. If you walk, they walk.

[@caseygroat]

A well-deserved shoutout to Any Austin! Love that guy

[@redpup112]

2:42 In case someone who reads this was wondering, this was a real thing that happened in Dwarf Fortress. The only change was that there was a small bug that made it so every time they licked their paw it was the same amount of alcohol as in a mug of beer. Unfortunately, all the cats died. I only know this from the noclip interview they did with one of the developers of Dwarf Fortress, which you should watch for more stories of this style.

[@danielkalcher648]

Great work boss. Loving the new schedule you're sticking to and the content is better than ever.

[@mje91]

The way I flipped out at the Any Austin shout out. Legend recognizes Legend 🙏🏻🔥

[@jacobyounce3223]

YO I'm so happy to see AnyAustin get some random love at the end of the video, he's ABSOLUTELY worth checking out. Best NPC reviewer ever, also just genuinely funny quirky man.

[@SauROnmiKE]

Don't forget an amazing employee of the Bureau of Labour Statistics

[@bruhmoment11111]

AnyAustin is amazing, and it's great to see a big KZbinr like Jakey acknowledge him

[@uamsnof]

Yes! I've watched a lot of AnyAustin, it's very soothing, but he seems so niche, just like the topics of his videos, so I was very pleasantly surprised to hear his name mentioned here. Ironically, I discovered Jakey long after I discovered AnyAustin

[@muertolamento]

Been following Austin since his Eggbusters days, very underrated channel.

[@SleepyLyric]

love austin and his vids so much!!!

[@PsychoPenguin1919]

so cool to see a shoutout to Any Austin at the end of this video! Been following him since the early days in his Eggbuster era and love the new stuff he's been putting out lately.

[@brunkosproogle5046]

The Any Austin shoutout was hella unexpected but absolutely welcome. I've been following the guy's content for like 8+ years, he's an absolute treasure.

[@itsnotlogan4]

Just when I think Jakey has hit the peak of cool, he recommends Any Austin's content. Two of my favorite video game content creators, both of whom could not be rated high enough, in my opinion.

[@pakhyeoncheol]

Woah didn't expect the Any Austin plug hell yeah he's one of the only other people on here making videos this entertaining about games (and Action Button)

[@AlcachofaQ]

I really enjoy Rain World's enemy AI and world, you can never tell what you'll find when you're exploring the world since these enemies interact with each other and sometimes you'll encounter them being attacked by a different enemy, makes it refreshing every single time

[@BlamedAxis]

My favorite NPC interaction was in Cyberpunk 2077, actually! I was talking to Vic the ripperdoc, and as I was listening to him talk, I started wandering around the room, looking at all the details. At some point, I wandered too far from him, and he was like “Oh, ok, bye then.” and when I went back to talk to him, instead of repeating all of his dialogue from the beginning, he continued his story from where he left off when I walked away. That shit blew my mind, I though it was so cool

[@drmaulana2600]

And everytime someone calls you when you in a fight, V just like "I'm busy, imma you later" then after the fighting end V call the person that calls them before and said something like "aigh, where was we? Yes that" and continue the dialogue. Its kinda cool actually

[@wilbo.channel]

omg the Any Austin shout out was so unexpected but deserved! I hope he sees this

[@TheShadowHatter]

That intro had me dying dude. I need a NakeyJakey and Joel Haver crossover because I could really see Jake in the Haver animated style doing european fantasy RPG skits like this more often.

[@GarArtStudios]

Thank you for shouting out Any Austin. He’s an absolutely underrated gem. All his videos are fantastic and unique in the best way - love his perspective. One of my fav’s.

[@TerryJives]

I really wasn't expected the Any Austin shout out. I've been really enjoying his content for a while and I'm glad someone is giving him some recognition for his creative video series.

[@djsalad7891]

Yess.. I've been watching him for literally 10 years

[@starbound03]

​@@djsalad7891been watching since eggbusters, he's so underrated

[@dr_rowby.scramble]

Surprised Jakey didn't mention my favorite part of RDR2, the camp encounters. There are so many interactions that I missed during my first playthrough and saw during my second at camp. Examples: Sean and Karen gettin freaky in John's tent, Hosea and Dutch holding hands together and being all around gay, Reverend Swanson stealing from the camp funds and Pearson yelling at him, Javier talking to Micah in private, Arthur apologizing to the gang around the campfire for being rude the past few months. There are so many things about RDR2 I love, but the camp interactions are the best part. Not to mention when Javier began to play a song and I ran to hear him each time. Angel De Amor best campfire song don't @ me.

[@adamjames8854]

I'm really happy you came back man lol, you're one of those unique creators that can't really be replaced

[@liambaumgartner5330]

I stan for Jarborius, he should have been given the ending he deserves

[@melissad4056]

A few people have already mentioned Bully NPCs, but my favorite thing about them is when you're just running around Bullworth and just hear crazy shit like "my mom says it's normal to wet the bed sometimes". Never fails to crack me up.

[@eeezaack3854]

I can’t express how much jakey has tapped into the being of my soul, ROMCOM is literally my favorite album of all time. Keep doing you fam

[@AceHuman]

Amazing video, always a great script with the most perfect of jokes! Glad to see Any Austin getting love, such an upstanding entertainer

[@MrrQuackers]

I'll never forget when I was a young buck and played FEAR for the first time. There was one thing that happened that BLEW MY MIND when it happened. I was up on some kind of catwalk and there was one enemy left looking for me. For the first time in my life I witnessed an NPC not just wander around the room aimlessly trying to hunt me down, since I was high up I was able to watch him go from cover to cover, but not walk. He would sprint to one cover, look over, then find the next piece of cover and sprint to it. At the time it was mind-blowing how lifelike it was.

[@topcat59]

The voice acting for the NPC of oblivion is something all new gamer’s need to hear once in there life.🐱

[@bbbbbbb51]

It's part of the jank that's so charming. Was just reminiscing with my brother about Oblivion.

[@CovertBandit0]

@jabron.destoroyah omg it's the npc from the video!! nice to meet you sir 😄

[@CovertBandit0]

@jabron.destoroyah You literally have a similar name as Jabronius from the video. Chill the fuck out.

[@NerdyBoiJay]

Two nakey Jakey videos in one year, Christmas came early 😎 thank you for your content jake, you have inspired me in my life to make my own content and your music/videos have saved me from some of the worst moments of my life. So thank you so much for the laughs and keep doing what you’re doing! Love you, ya hot gamer boy! ❤

[@American_Heart]

7:09 Navi... the NPC who haunts my dreams with "Hey! Listen!"

[@zacharymay3520]

Just as I started catching up on his videos, he blesses us with this addition. Halloween has come early lads!

[@youtubesucks1821]

Dude, Halloween was last year

[@zacharymay3520]

@@youtubesucks1821 Aw shucks man I missed it already? I seriously gotta stop chugging straight NOS and doing gainers off the Empire State Building, I’m making time go by way too fast!

[@Banananaki]

I was NOT expecting a shoutout for the eggbuster man himself, Any Austin. Been following him since the early days. Respect o7

[@rmd9746]

that kingdom hearts music never fails to be so good in every scenario you put it, either relaxing, funny, or exciting it always gets the job done that's a guarantee.

[@SkeetleSimsy]

holy shit thank you it was driving me insane trying to figure out what that was from

[@FrenchyAU]

Big ups for shouting out any Austin, been watching him for years and ive been loving his gsming employment series

[@gothicreggae]

I truly believe that your videos are so good that you don’t really have to be super interested in video games to like them

[@monkeyshunenugz]

By far, one of the most dynamic examples of NPC interaction, which utilizes frameworks like behavior language as a part of the AI, has to be Trip and Grace in the game Facade. You may not be able to get an infinite amount of potential endings depending on what you say or do. But the game’s AI combined with the freedom of the speech mechanic essentially guarantees that each experience with the couple will almost always be unique. The game even encourages the player to interrupt or pressure either character about things in their personal lives just so you can make your point to them, or just simply to fuck with them.

[@Lorentz_Driver]

PLAY DISCO ELYSIUM. Not only is the writing best in the business, every NPC feels alive with an ocean of deep personalities. They may all stand in one place but they do have a schedule that meshes with the time mechanic.

[@tijgo6]

And even your brain is sort of like a bunch of NPCs

[@incognitoomen7898]

I am sad, I am a sad man. I study law, and it doesn't help. It made me an alcoholic. But every damn time you say Jakey, Jakey and Jackey. You make my heart happy. Thank you Jakey.

[@MPHswayze]

Poor Jackey

[@STOPSYPHER]

Jackey Mehoff

[@zaidlacksalastname4905]

Why don't you thank the 2 other jackeys

[@Haggieboi]

Ah yes nothing fills my heart with joy than a random visit from that favorite cousin I never get to see. Thank you Jakey.

[@DaMiffinMan]

I appreciate you providing a bit more optimistic take on the future of AI in video games. I truly hope it becomes the tool to *help* writers and programmers make their worlds more immersive, and not just... be their replacements and make uncanny junk at a low-low price for publishers.

[@MothFable]

The good thing is that we are a ways away from ai being able to write competently. One important thing about current language based ai models is that all of them are essentially cool search engines. Sure they may have some bells and whistles but their a ways off from being a true artificial intelligence. When ai write today you either get the blandest, most tropey shit possible or shit that makes no sense.

[@ZechsMerquise73]

With time you could potentially do with a more advanced version of this tech what takes a team for 120 people. That consolidation in our hands puts us on even playing field; one artist can make their magnum opus without selling their soul to Disney and spending their life fulfilling some corporate boardroom's idea of what media should look like. The future I'm worried about is the one where average people let their fear get AI legislated by a technophobic congress so that it's only in the hands of the powerful.

[@Cyliandre441]

The tools would have to not fundamentally suck for that to happen, which they don't, so we will mostly be getting generic slop.

[@Millie-um2bi]

Shadow of War also has a difficulty setting that increases both the enemies' damage and your damage dramatically, as well as makes the orcs use more advanced tactics and group strategy against you. Absolutely the way to play that game and I wish more games did that!

[@lrgogo1517]

5:20 jakey: Yo watch me pull this smooth transition between ideas jakey, jakey, & jakey: how about you pull some bitches instead

[@jeffq9553]

I honestly love u Jakey I’m drunk asf but u give me so much hope in life because u always remind me that ur human like the rest of us and we all go through our own battles

[@StoneEagle194]

So one of the wacky game tester stories I heard about from an old issue of GameInformer was about Oblivion's radiant AI. This was a long time ago so I might be full of crap with my memory. Basically, guards keep going into a prison and killing a quest NPC. They couldn't figure out why, so they watched the guards. Turns out that the guards ran out of food, so they stole the prisoner's food, killing the guy in the process. The solution apparently was to add more food for the guards to eat.

[@FIoridaMan]

6:57 Straight nostalgia w that Traverse town Music frm Kingdom hearts

[@samfisher8850]

Was going crazy trying to remember where this was from, thx

[@jamesabdullah4334]

AnyAustin’s unemployment rate is one of my favourite things on this site. I’m glad Jakey is giving him a shoutout

[@TheAwkwardo]

Dialogue Trees really make for interactive experiences too. One of the heads of voice directing for Baldur's Gate 3 has a tiktok where she actually goes into the art of dialogue trees and non-linear dialogue which adds so much to the NPC experience!

[@JeremiahMack]

I think it's really cool that you gave a shout out to Any Austin. He puts out some really interesting content that definitely deserves more attention!

[@twinkpeaks9993]

When you were talking about NPCs with their own schedules my first thought was literally AnyAustin’s NPC employment rate videos, glad you mentioned him

[@PinkMonkeyBird]

Album of the year and he still finds time to make us laugh

[@stompstomp8033]

Nice use of the Ultima Online OST, I always get a nice shot of nostalgia when I hear those tunes :)

[@captainweekend5276]

7:15 on the quest where you give Balgruuf Ulfric's axe you don't actually have to sit through the whole debate between him, Irileth, and Proventus, you can just talk to him again and he will say something like "I don't care what my advisers say I've made up my mind" and hands you the axe back. Likewise after killing the first dragon you don't need to sit through his whole speech after being made thane, you can just walk away since the quest is already completed and the new one started.

[@placefantasy1821]

eyes closed, hands off the wheel, ready to listen to nakobjakob talk about so much and nothing. Also oh MAN the Traverse Town theme in this video made me tear up in this one I'd love to hear you talk about video game OSTs more bc the background music in these videos is so well done every time.

[@TheCarpDM]

My vote for best NPC goes to Varric from Dragon Age (especially DA:2). Between the writing, the acting, and his antics in the game, it's almost impossible to hate or get tired of him, regardless of playthrough.

[@shadwkeepr9107]

Killing Floor 2 has one of the best uses of AI for increasing the difficulty. As you move up each difficulty level, the enemies don't just become bullet sponges, they act more and more aggressive and begin moving in ways that make them harder to shoot

[@WalYT]

the shoutout to any austin was amazing, ive followed him since eggbuster days and love to see his growth and style flourish right now

[@lawjef]

NPCs have to compete with social media, tv, movies, et al where no thought or effort is required. You should never expect too much from NPCs

[@claireviland4406]

Damn I've been having a rough year but seeing a Nancy Drew game for half a second in a NakeyJakey video just made life ok.

[@harrison553]

Womp womp

[@goodjoe794]

this is so real

[@Shoxic666]

I think one of my favourite AI enemies in a game is the gangs in Infamous, especially number 2. They fire in short bursts at range but mag-dump you up close, in 2 they spam grenades a LOT if they can't hit you with bullets, guys with RPGs will sometimes not shoot when you're aiming right at them because you can blast the rocket back at them and they seem to know it, they even surrender in Second Son and if you walk away or aren't nearby when they drop their gun they'll just run for the hills and escape.

[@revan7383]

Having played a lot of d&d and ttrpgs, nothing so far has beat human-powered nps for me. The potential for things like random enemies becoming major characters or unimportant background characters becoming major villains are currently only possible with non computer games and its made video games sort of hollow for me

[@condroid3000]

In the darkest of times we will always get jakey videos when we need them most. Thank you sir, it's wonderful to see more of your main channel content

[@gentlesirpancakebottoms6692]

I'm playing TES IV: Oblivion right now. That intro is spot on😂. Except from the stealing part. Merchants in Oblivion will in fact not buy stolen goods. Even when they shouldn't be aware that its stolen.

[@ZoeSensei92]

You have a CAPTAIN CLAW profile pic?!? My god, I thought that game lived only in my and my cousins' memories. Fucking love that pirate cat

[@d4n5t3p3]

it was funnier in morrowind where you could sell it but they actually reacted to that and called for the guards

[@grimmick9446]

​@@d4n5t3p3But GodDAMN how accomplished do you feel when you finness a glass Armour set from a merchant 😂

[@gentlesirpancakebottoms6692]

​ @ZoeSensei92 That game is awesome! :D I'm truly disappointed that Cpt Claw isn't available on GOG yet. Captain Claw deserves a proper remaster.

[@MaticTheProto]

2:48 oh my god I love you for talking about dwarf fortress

[@violetrapture3776]

AI can definitely be valuable, but it's the fact that it can also take a lot of jobs away from voice actors and take voices already out there without the persons knowledge. I've seen a lot of voice actors saying "please don't use my voice in AI, I didn't say that and it furthers the idea that we can be replaced"

[@elohzza9599]

Thank you for existing. You really have no clue how much entertainment you've created for so many people. I'm also on shrooms and feel highly sentimental but you're truly one of my favorite youtubers of all time.

[@milkman2266]

as someone who dropped out of college for game design after 3 years and hearing the "escort NPC walks at a weird speed" complaint from so many people, i have to leave this comment. The reason the NPC walks slower than your max speed, but faster than your slowest speed, is to allow you to catch back up to them if you get distracted by something else along the path. If they walked at your max speed the entire way, sure you'd keep up with them for the first minute or two, but as soon as anything went wrong you would never be able to catch them again. this is not an accident! this is something designed intentionally! also some games have found a slightly better way to do this by just having the NPC move fast, and then stop if you get too far away. but i just wanted to explain why they sometimes walk at an awkward pace.

[@atlasbluejay]

The mention of Baldur's Gate 3 actually made me pump my fist the entire time, amazing content, I listen to your music all the time, thank you for making such awesome content that tickles my brain.

[@SlimXD_]

What a great day. Jakey starts the video with Oblivion dialogue ❤

[@gimpthe2nd735]

I LOVE how you mentioned any austin, i’ve been watching him since i was like 8 and he deserves more recognition

[@Engitainment]

One of my fave NPCs was the hairdresser in Bowerstone in Fable 1. She had a unique model, a different voice and felt like there was just a Touch more dialogue given to her. She was still a bog-standard vendor but going to her made me feel like I was a regular at a real shop, rather than a murder-hobo saving the world.

[@TheLlamaHaze]

Her name is Scarlet.

[@ZacharyMurray-xe8nu]

Real. She was one of the girls i always married on each playthru

[@TheTechDweller]

I've been playing through cyberpunk again and I'm reminded of how good the characters and quests are in that game. Small side quests have multiple paths and let you genuinely roleplay out situations differently. Character interactions are great, pretty much every dialogue other characters will be doing some action while talking, they have subtle head turns, nods, shaking their head, it's fantastic. Feels like a real conversation, reminds me of GTA V where I was impressed by how characters would be emoting naturally during driving conversations. And yeah, tried starfield, was so disappointed it feels like a step backwards from oblivion.

[@Endemoniada]

Playing Starfield and then Phantom Liberty is like... _ouch_. It's just such a ridiculous, laughable chasm of quality between the two. None of all the supposed benefits Creation Engine has, that Bethesda fans *love* ranting about, is ever really used in any way, shape or form in Starfield, but you can bet your ass all the drawbacks and compromises made to support them are front and center: glassy-eyed, soulless NPCs fixed in place, dumb-as-rocks AI, dead world reactivity (they literally don't even stop in their tracks when I fire a massive machine gun at their feet in New Atlantis), absolutely abysmal writing and dialogue, and my god, *the loading screens*... CDPR made a lot of mistakes too with CP2077, but writing and story NPCs weren't among them, and with Phantom Liberty as a sort of unofficial re-release of the original game, it is ten times the immersive RPG that Starfield is. NPCs react to what you do, they speak like real people, the world changes and lives outside of your player viewpoint, enemies put up a real fight, random things happen on the streets. Even the romance options are much deeper, even though they appear simpler, because they assume there needs to actually be a real, meaningful connection between the PC and the NPC, and even that their sexualities must match. A gay male NPC is simply not going to be interested in your female player character *just because* you're the player, because why would he be, that isn't how real people work. And no, I can't hoard sandwiches and simulate them physically within the game, you got me there, Bethesda fanboys... But that doesn't *really* matter. That's a neat quirk that may be fun for a little while, but it's not *the game*, it's not the reason you play the game, and it's certainly not the reason you remember it fondly. Starfield lets you hoard sandwiches, yes, but its writing is still shit, its planets still boring, its locations repetitive and impersonal, its NPCs are still lobotomized robots, its "romances" shallow and player-sexual, and the world still static and devoid of responses to player behavior. Sorry for ranting, but I was excited for Starfield and I genuinely like *some aspects* of it a lot, it just makes so many mistakes, on such another level than even CDPR and Cyberpunk 2077, that I get angry just thinking back on my time in that game. For a game so many people, including those at Bethesda who made it and Todd Howard who had been dreaming about it for 25 years, worked so hard on for so long, it's frustrating seeing it be born as a mutated, slimy mess, rather than the splendid culmination of decades of RPG development and experience it ought to have been.

[@iammichaeldavis]

The Fellowship theme, the U9 tapestry, and then the Daggerfall door opening sound effect, all in the first three minutes. I am the audience for this

[@thevibedoctorphd]

Cp2077 NPCs were pretty... and upon launch but now, the game has a different feel to it. With the latest update, I've seen random shootouts, car chases, and the car chases you can get into with either gang AI or the NCPD are super fun to do, as opposed to before where they just didn't exist outside of super slow chase scenes.

[@lucas33308]

Can we talk about how smart (90% of the time) the enemy AI is in Baldur's gate 3? There are some enemies that will focus on killing the squishier party members and try to position themselves to get some sort of advantage that not even the player knows about or even use the sceneries elements to insta kill you. Is one of the few games where I'm the one learning new stuff from the NPCs.

[@electricmiragemedia]

Love the marathon reference at 10:08

[@The_Real_Daniel]

I'm 31 now, and you're still as hilarious to me as when I was 26. Love your stuff man

[@--dave]

Only makes sense. He's growing at the same rate as us!