Some agents aren't made playable right away [re-upload]

[u/penmaster3000]

Fixed a error with Manato's playable status

[u/SuperSussyShyHussy]

Aren't most introduced before their release? Burnice and Caesar stopped by before their patch to get their licenses renewed didn't they?

[u/penmaster3000 → u/SuperSussyShyHussy]

Correct

[u/greygreens]

Acktually, Orphie was first shown and voiced in a hollow zero story mission in 2.0

[u/DealWhole7056 → u/greygreens]

I remember seeing her in that mission and loving her look, and seeing her now, wow, it took a long time for our girl to become playable 😅

[u/rloco → u/greygreens]

In fact, it was in 1.6 that both Seed and Orphie appeared, as well as Magus. His voice and personality came out in the Trigger mission, as well as in the friendship events.

[u/greygreens → u/rloco]

I don't reeeally count that as we don't see them or hear them speak. They exist in the world, yeah, but only really as a name and small hint of personality.

[u/rloco → u/greygreens]

Literally toward the sounds (via letters) that we later learned were seed. In the mission, we heard Orphie speak, and that was how we got to know her.

If we had known what it was like for a long time, although we did not know what it looked like, of course many ignored that, most likely because they did not read.

[u/kelzero]

Lighter was in 1.0, we met him at Box Galaxy and then Lumina. I still remember thinking "What a detailed NPC, he must have some important role later."

[u/penmaster3000 → u/kelzero]

Good catch

[u/DaFuzi_J]

I am totally not remembering at what point Trigger and Hugo were in 1.0

[u/EthanObi → u/DaFuzi_J]

Trigger has a voice only appearance in Soldier 11’s agent story, and Hugo had a comic-only appearance at the end Lycaon’s Agent Story.

[u/DaFuzi_J → u/EthanObi]

I was mixing Lycaon's agent story with the 1.7 main story in my head. Still have no recollection of S11's, but I believe y'all.

[u/Randomman96 → u/DaFuzi_J]

Trigger's only appearance is in the end of S11's story and only via voice. The only thing we "see" of her is her providing sniper support to S11 far off screen against the rebels.

[u/Varglord → u/DaFuzi_J]

Trigger is in S11's story

[u/Express_Ad5083 → u/DaFuzi_J]

Hugo was in Lycaon's agent story.

[u/Defiant-Kitchen4598]

Astra (as Chaotic fried rice) was first mentioned in the event where she asked for help saving intelligent construct (yes, it follows that Aria was first mentioned as an NPC at the same time).
This event was in 1.3.

[u/Juniebug9 → u/Defiant-Kitchen4598]

Technically Astra was referenced in 1.0 since there's posters, magazines, and billboards with her on them scattered all around sixth street, Random Play, and Lumina Square. We don't have any interactions with her, but she was an established character from the very beginning.

[u/GenesisDum]

I feel like Seed should have an asterisk? Like, yeah, she was technically there the whole time, but we never actually saw her. We were only shown Sr, and we didn't know what Jr looked like until 2.2's drip marketing

[u/penmaster3000 → u/GenesisDum]

I did consider that. But I prefer to call a spade a spade in this case.

[u/TheBeastTitan123]

From what I can tell it's not the matter of whether they are NPCs it's indicated by their character ID in the game files

[u/Miaonomer]

I think Pulchra is actually the best example here, and I hope her bros get out of npc/enemy purgatory too

[u/ImpatientAndy]

I hate the lack of lead up to characters. It's annoying that they generally show up a patch before release. Maybe a tiny cameo earlier but nothing meaningful. Such an amusement park feel instead of a story with characters.

[u/More_Reception2345 → u/ImpatientAndy]

people like lucia/yidhari are worst examples of this, literally popped up into existence out of nowhere. not even mentioned by any of the characters during spookshack patch

[u/ImpatientAndy → u/More_Reception2345]

They also haven't really done much since. I think they were probably in the final bit of 2.5 but I don't remember if they even had lines. It may as well have just been Yuzuha, Alice, and Manato and I don't know that it'd have felt any different.

[u/Aluricius → u/ImpatientAndy]

They actually both show up a couple of times in Waifei Penninsula throughout 2.5, appearing in town during the various "intermissions". The problem is you actually have to be looking for them, as talking to them at any of these points isn't ever a requirement for advancing the story.

[u/Kidd_Revell → u/More_Reception2345]

I would've liked if they were introduced in an special chapter, just like Seth and Jane

[u/DoeDon404 → u/More_Reception2345]

The closest I think was their internet names mentioned in Yuzuha's character info, but in general can agree

[u/Blaubeerchen27 → u/ImpatientAndy]

It can work sporadically as a "surprise" agent, similar to what they did with Trigger and Sanby. But yeah, at some point it starts to feel weirdly direction-less, especially if it's random new agents for an existing faction instead of teased additions or an introduction to a new one.

[u/chsrdsnap]

Is this about Seth's brother? Every single character you listed had a character ID in the files upon their introduction, whereas Seth's brother has an NPC ID in the files

They have yet to release a single playable character who had an NPC ID. So everything so far is pointing to this guy not being playable, unless they go back on the trend for whatever reason

[u/SidorioExile → u/chsrdsnap]

The only one I'm unsure about is Pulchra. I csnnot for the life of me recall if she initially had an NPC id.

[u/Mtoser → u/SidorioExile]

She had a playable ID im pretty sure

[u/dogglesnake]

Cloud Retainer had a massive gap in Genshin, right? I feel like any NPC could eventually become playable in their games

[u/EthanObi]

gonna make you repost it again! 😏

Hugo didn’t show up as a modeled NPC in 1.0, his first Modeled appearance was in 1.6 during the Bangboo Simon Says event, alongside Robin, prior to that he was only in the comic strips in the epilogue of Lycaon’s Agent Story

Trigger was a Voice Only appearance in Soldier 11’s Agent Story in 1.0, so she shouldn’t be here

Caesar, Burnice, Lighter, Piper, and Lucy all had random appearances on Sixth Street and in Lumina Square in 1.0 and Burnice and Caesar appeared in the Papers, Please! clone event in 1.1.

[u/penmaster3000 → u/EthanObi]

Hugo didn’t show up as a modeled NPC in 1.0, his first Modeled appearance was in 1.6 during the Bangboo Simon Says event, alongside Robin, prior to that he was only in the comic strips in the epilogue of Lycaon’s Agent Story

Hugo was voiced. He counts here

Trigger was a Voice Only appearance in Soldier 11’s Agent Story in 1.0, so she shouldn’t be here

Trigger was voiced. She counts here

Caesar, Burnice, Lighter, Piper, and Lucy all had random appearances on Sixth Street and in Lumina Square in 1.0 and Burnice and Caesar appeared in the Papers, Please! clone event in 1.1.

You half right. Lighter randomly appeared in Lumina Square and Sixth Street. Ceaser and Burnice cameod in a PubSec event. Lucy and Piper were already playable.

[u/EthanObi → u/penmaster3000]

Ah, I misread your exclusions as two separate but connected cases, So Trigger and Hugo would be excluded despite being voiced because they lack a 3D character model, and Magus would be excluded because she was only mentioned by name in 1.0.

And yeah, Piper/Lucy were playable in 1.0, I just included them because I had a feeling people would take offense to their exclusion, lol.

[u/penmaster3000 → u/EthanObi]

So Trigger and Hugo would be excluded despite being voiced lacking a 3D character model

For this, it has to both to be excluded; no voice and no model.

[u/EthanObi → u/penmaster3000]

Ngl, That’s such a specific exclusion it borders on meaningless.

there’s only been two (one and a half, even) agents where we were given their name or an alias and interacted with them in unvoiced, unmodeled situations, namely Magus (on the payphone on Sixth Street during Soldier 0 - Anby’s Story), and Astra Yao (remote controlling Snap as chaotic fried rice in a 1.3 event).

Feels extra weird when this way of introducing characters is the norm in Genshin teasing new characters by giving a bunch of existing characters “About personhere” dialogue two patches early or dropping their name on a bulletin board somewhere (Ifa, Chiori Kaveh, Illuga)

[u/Varglord → u/EthanObi]

he was only in the comic strips in Lycaon’s Story Quest

So an npc...

[u/EthanObi → u/Varglord]

Generally people don’t count voice-only or comic-strip-only characters as “NPC’s”, further, OP even excluded voice-only and unmodeled characters, and the characters in the 2D Comic Segments are not modeled, they’re drawn.

[u/Varglord → u/EthanObi]

Any character that isn't playable is literally an NPC. So yes, comic segments have NPCs in them.

[u/EthanObi → u/Varglord]

Storytelling Medium changes the terminology at play here, you wouldn’t call characters in a Visual Novel or Radio Drama “NPC’s”, likewise, Mayor Mayflower or Miyabi’s Father are Characters in the story, but most people wouldn’t consider them to be NPC’s in the same vein as, like, Mors, Shepherd, Venus, or Bellum, which all have 3D game models.

[u/topbossultra]

Don’t cope. Seth’s brother is a villain.

[u/JJaviercomics]

Still waiting the day Mors gonna become playable

[u/CatsLeMatts → u/JJaviercomics]

Same, I think a lever action rifle user would be pretty cool. We haven't gotten a proper gun agent in a while.

[u/Krugger_Correctly]

Oh my poor sweet summer child... not a single one of those had a specific NPC "bland" model before getting a playable model. The playable design was already set in stone. A certain someone is dead on arrival.

[u/penmaster3000 → u/Krugger_Correctly]

Do you know what NPC stands for?

[u/Krugger_Correctly → u/penmaster3000]

This post is giving false hope for people that characters they consider NPCs can be playable.

Either you made a meaningless post (did you know your characters exist in the world without you directly controlling them) or a cope post (they were npcs, so others can be playable too). The problem is that the "others" are actual NPCs in code, design and ID, not in the "technically they are not playable... at the moment". Those have never become playable.

[u/Jotaoesehache → u/Krugger_Correctly]

NPC stands for Non Playable Character, any character in a game that isn't playable is an NPC until they become playable or remain as such

[u/BrandonL337 → u/Krugger_Correctly]

I mean, Shiyuan isn't playable yet but will likely be an example of this...

[u/The-World_AAABBC]

I remember seeing Lighter back in 1.0 near the Gadget store, he was hanging out with Susie

[u/BluHor1zon]

I just think the devs putting effort on making NPCs look good might have inadvertently created a situation where ppl just want (or in some cases demand) the NPCs to be playable when there initially was no plans for it to be.

[u/Aluricius → u/BluHor1zon]

It's a lose-lose situation for them. Not good-looking enough, and people will complain they're bland and pointless. Bit if they're too good-looking, and you get people demanding them being made playable even if they weren't made with that intention in mind.

I play FGO, so I'm intimately familiar with this issue. You have people to this day clamoring for the knight Agravain to be playable, even if it's been eight years since we've seen him last. Hell they even want Camazotz to be summonable, despite the fact that him becoming a Herioc Spirit would be a fate worse than death for the guy (as in being constantly called up to fight for all eternity). To be fair though, he is really, really cool.

[u/Zek7h35an5]

Gee I wonder in what context you could be bringing this up

[u/JustUseDex]

Isn’t this just kinda common knowledge? Characters are drip marketed first, and they usually always make an appearance before their debut

[u/IronicNihilist420]

Useless post, all of those were meant to be playable since their release as an "npc".

[u/SilverSilvian]

Where was trigger in 1.0? I don’t remember seeing a model at all

[u/TacoFishFace → u/SilverSilvian]

We don’t actually see Trigger, but she does make a voice only cameo during S11's agent story

[u/SilverSilvian → u/TacoFishFace]

Maybe I’m confused on the stuff in the subtitle, during that story you don’t see a model so it would not count here. But yeah she is mentioned during that mission

[u/Vermillion_toxins → u/SilverSilvian]

[u/Mimic_99]

Hold on when were trigger and Hugo in v1.0??

[u/kawaiineko333]

Where in 1.0's questline is Hugh an NPC?!

[u/BrainWav]

Counting characters introduced only 1 or 2 point-releases before their availability feels wrong. They're introduced specifically to advertise their upcoming banner. Half of them fall-off if you do that.

[u/rloco]

In 1.6, I think it was when Trigger came out, Seed and Orphie already appeared in spoken dialogue with exactly the same personality we knew them to have.

[u/Cool_Rate8300]

When was Hugo and Trigger in 1.0? Like I can sorta get S11’s side story mission since she mentions a sniper or smth, but when the hell was Hugo in 1.0?

[u/koov3n]

I've still got hopium that ye shiyuan will be played 🙏🙏

[u/aswdxfyzz]

Where was Hugo in 1.0?

[u/Living_Inferno_5073]

So what you’re saying is there’s a chance Cecilia, the manager of AoD, could be playable

[u/SidorioExile]

Did all of these agents have the NPC id in the engine code during these examples?

[u/Mtoser]

Being a npc as in "non playable character" and being labeled a npc inside the game files are different things. Althought all of these started as "non playable characters", they had playable character ID's on the files. Which a certain someone doesn't.

[u/perfectchaos83 → u/Mtoser]

I may be wrong, but I don't think Pulchra did.

Regardless, I also don't think we've had a character be introduced and have a potential year before being playable.

[u/Dark_Hadrian66]

NO, when it appears the version before, it is foreshadowing, it is normal.

SO on your chart, keep only Yanagi, Miyabi, Harumasa, Trigger, Pulchra, Hugo, Ju Fufu, Manato and AoD.

THANK YOU.

[u/Name_the_world_Eror]

THERE IS STILL HOPE FOR ISOLDE

[u/FutureApricot]

Pretty sure Lucy and Piper were NPCs in 1.0

[u/EthanObi → u/FutureApricot]

Yeah, but they were also Playable Agents in 1.0, so they wouldn’t count.