Planescape Torment:
(best case scenario):
(complimenting Anna)
Truth:"I mean, have you ever *looked* at yourself? Aside from the way you carry yourself, you're confident, sensible and graceful. And that doesn't even take into account your obvious good looks: you have that rich, fire-red hair, those sharp green eyes, and that striking profile."
(dissing Anna)
Truth: "I mean, look at yourself. You're at least twice the greedy corpse pirate that Pharod could ever be, and you have that strange Hive smell about you that makes my eyes tear up, and you have that filthy, rat-like tail sprouting from your backside"
D:OS2
(where you ostensibly control a robot by remote control rather than playing a character):
(complimenting the red prince)
"Greet him with nice words"
(dissing someone)
"Insult him"
Torment: Tides of Numenera:
No complimenting and no dissing. No any kind of character, whether humorous, malicious, aloof or otherwise. Pretty much.
Just straight requests for information ("What is X again?") or informational statements ("I'm going to kill you".), which of course can imply intention, but the same way a .. psycopath implies intention, I suppose.
Just goes to show, you have all manner of ways to spectacularly fail in capturing what makes dialogue engaging.
TTON manages it one way, D:OS2 manages to do it another way.
