Now, this sounds like some good news. Dialogue where the first impression actually counts, unlike most other RPGs where you can just quit the convo and talk to the NPC again, this time trying out different choices.
Not exactly. Sure, there "may" be some differing outcomes, but this good comes with the terrible malady of the whole "first impression" being a total crapshoot. The "stances" seem to be basically only the tone in which you do something, they probably don't tell you how your character is going to "act". And by act, I mean take action. For instance, if I'm a suave fellow, and happen upon some sort of big guy picking on the little guy scenario, there's at least two "suave" ways to deal with the scenario. One "could", in "reality", elect to be a suave nice guy who diplomatically stomps the big mean guy by using his suaveness to humiliate or emasculate him, or perhaps "suavely" applies a ju-jitsu joint lock and follows it up with a corny line. One could also choose to be a suave douchebag and curry the favor of the big mean guy by "suavely" joining in on the fun, whether with words or violence. So if the stance system is the only method of conversation, as it has seemed to be in all the previews so far, as opposed to a filter for dialogue trees, it's going to be like Mass Effect's extremely idiotic cousin with the player's choice having a huge disconnect from the character's actual actions, which is a bad thing in a role-playing game...a really bad thing.
