8 NPCs Who Obliterate You If You Annoy Them Too Much
Mess with these video game characters at your peril.
Non-player characters (NPCs) can add so much life to a video game, because without them, even the most lovingly rendered open world would feel utterly barren.
All those characters and their various quirks contribute to making a game world feel truly alive, but it's also fair to say that not all NPCs are created equal.
While some are fully fleshed-out in their own right, others are merely part of the furniture with little in the way of personality.
And then there are those rarest of NPCs who aren't just passive participants in proceedings - push them and they'll push right back, and maybe even worse.
That's assuredly the case with these NPCs, each of whom could only be antagonised for so long before they decided to fight back one way or another, typically in a manner far beyond what any player expected.
These NPCs all packed a far mightier punch than anyone could've anticipated, perhaps even revealing themselves to be a secret superboss while giving you a firm pummelling for... whatever obnoxious thing you predictably did to them.
And so, these surprisingly well-prepared NPCs should make you think twice about any "minor" characters you're planning to pick on for kicks...
8. Old King Doran - Demon's Souls
FromSoftware games are known for their dangerous NPCs, but there's one above all others who simply won't sanction your buffoonery if you dare mess with him - and that's Old King Doran from Demon's Souls.
And in Doran's defense, he offers up a totally reasonable deal to players who track him down in The Boletarian Palace.
He'll initially ask you to prove your worth, letting you attack him while offering up only the bare minimum offense in return. Once you've depleted 25% of his health, the encounter will end, and he'll invite you to take one of his swords, Demonbrandt.
While you're advised to just walk away, players who keep hacking away at poor Doran will get one hell of a nasty surprise if they persist enough to rinse around 50% of his total health.
At this point, Doran will quit playing around and fight back hyper-aggressively, to the point that he can easily kill most players in just a hit or two.
There's clearly a lesson here about knowing when to quit, but since when did SoulsBorne fans ever know anything about that?