Recurring Traveller: Difference between revisions

In mild cases, this is just a travelling salesman or [[NPC]] who shows up with no logical regard to how they could be there. In dramatic cases, this is obviously an important character who plays [[The Ditz|the idiot]] as a disguise, so you aren't suspicious of them following you.

 

 

 

{{examples}}

* This seems to happen a lot in ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games:

*** Several of the Moogles - Montblanc's brothers and sister especially - also recur in various places across the game.

** Chocolina in ''[[Final Fantasy XIII-2]]''. Which is especially odd, since the game has you hopping around time and space. Sazh's DLC episode confirms that Chocolina is {{spoiler|Dajh's chocobo chick, given a human form by Etro to help those in need, whatever era they may be in.}}

** In ''[[SaGa 1]]'', also known as ''[[Final Fantasy Legend]]'', a daper gentleman in a black suit and hat pops up throughout the game to give your party tidbits of advice as they climb the World Tower. At the end of the game it turns out he's The Creator, who set up the entire plot as a game.

** They're actually [[Inexplicably Identical Individuals]], as they're actually different people. Some of them are actually infected with Las Plagas, and in different stages of the infection too, if you look at their eyes.

** How identical they actually are is debatable, since we never get to see their actual faces, they DO sound exactly the same tough.

** Mother 3 has the Item Guy, who appears in locations that are so obviously inaccessible ( {{spoiler|including the final area, which is thousands of feet underground with the only way to get to it being a one-way elevator controlled by the [[Big Bad]]}})it could practically be considered a [[Lampshade Hanging]] in its own right, even though it's played more or less straight.

* Neko the cat and Watts the blacksmith in ''[[Secret of Mana]]''.

* In ''[[No One Lives Forever]]'', every bar the player character visits (and there's a bar in every mission setting that might plausibly have one, or not, as there's one at a {{spoiler|space station}}) has the same drunk tourist as a patron. {{spoiler|The twist is that he's actually secretly the leader of the evil organization H.A.R.M.}}

* Ooccoo from ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]: Twilight Princess'' is a slightly more disturbing example, as she is a being that has the bald head of a human, but the size and body of a chicken. She is a rather interesting variation, as she can be used ''as an item'' in the various dungeons. Specifically, she can teleport you to the dungeon entrance if you need to get something from a shop, etc. Her usefulness and the fact that she's a genuinely nice lady more than make up for her odd appearance. She also is a part of the main plot, as the reason she shows up in every dungeon is {{spoiler|that she's trying to find a way to her home, which happens to be the location of the final piece of the Mirror of Twilight. Did I mention that it also happens to be a city in the sky?}}

** There's also a photographer in ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]: Link's Awakening DX'' who shows up throughout the game.

** In ''Majora's Mask,'' a map-maker named Tingle is hovering on his balloon in the air in every area in the [[Overworld]]. If you pop it, he'll drop down and sell you a map of the area (cheaply) and one of another area (expensively.) Just how he's never seen to move but always manages to be where you show up is a mystery.

* Similarly, an unnamed Travelling Salesman always shows up at each new city you need to go to in ''[[Valkyrie Profile]] 2'', including destroyed castles only accessible through deadly caverns full of monsters... even going so far as to show up in Asgard ahead of you. Though, admittedly, this turns out to be the dead spirit of the merchant's ancestor, he still carries the exact same inventory as the living version.

* The weird stalker who appears at the front of every Gym in the [[Pokémon]] series to give you advice, later, Scott in Emerald as well.

** In the anime, a character known only as "Magikarp Salesman" who pops up every now and again.

* Murray the Talking Skull from ''The Curse of [[Monkey Island]]'' shows up in every chapter of the game save for the third and last chapters. One ''could'' theorize that he's simply following Guybrush around in hopes of getting his arm back, except he has no legs.

* In [[Super Mario RPG]], you follow around a shmuck who's looking for the mythical Grate Guy Casino, while Toad follows ''you'' around.

* ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]: Hordes of the Underdark'' avoids the improbable traveling merchant version. Rather than placing merchants in improbable locations in the Underdark and Outer Planes, the game gives you a shopkeeping genie in a bottle that you can summon at will.

** ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'' gave us Guyven of the Road, whom you can eventually convince to come and stay in your keep after meeting him three times in the wilderness.

* The G-man in ''[[Half Life]]'' starts out this way, but eventually becomes part of the story.

** It IS fairly odd, though, when you find Bottles inside a giant mechanical shark floating in the sewers.

* ''[[Shining Force]]'' contains a character named Boken who is apparently on a personal quest, which happens to take him to many of the same locations as you. He even has his own character sprite; oddly, though, he's never recruitable as a Force member, not even in the GBA remake.

* Raddle the Traveler and his sometime companion Rumina appear in the first three ''[[Star Ocean]]'' games, always hopelessly lost, and in fact giving them correct directions will get you prizes of some sort.

* There are several of these in ''[[Okami]]''. There's Waka, who follows you through the entire game {{spoiler|including your fight with the Big Bad}}, and is the most reasonable, because he has magic powers. In the last chapter, you have Oki, who manages to follow you {{spoiler|through a magic gateway to 100 years into the past}}. And in the first chapter, you have Susano, the [[Fake Ultimate Hero|inept, stupid, useless fool]] who, despite being completely incompetent, manages to get past the puzzles it takes you hours to solve in a few minutes. How the hell ''did'' he get into {{spoiler|the Moon Cave}}, anyway? {{spoiler|[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Not that we're complaining, mind]].}}

** There's also an unexplained farmer called Lahl in the first game who keeps showing up (with the same dialogue) in different places from Nashkel to Beregost. He's even been spotted in two different copies in the same area, so apparently the game chooses to spawn him near you for some reason.

** There is also the Smuggler, Slim Cognito, and, to a lesser degree, the Shady Salesman.

* Many kids who give you challenges in ''[[Backyard Sports|Backyard Skateboarding]]''.

* Not one, but ''three'' characters in ''[[Professor Layton]]''. We have Granny Riddle, who picks up lost puzzles for you, Pavel the guy who keeps getting lost, and Stachenscarfen. {{spoiler|Out of the three though, the first game revealed everyone as robots, and the second game revealed everyone as a ''hallucination'', so it's debatable about Granny Riddle and Stachenscarfen. Pavel has absolutely no excuse though.}}

* Martel from ''[[Legend of Dragoon]]''.

 

* Naturally, this is played for laughs with the shopkeeper in ''[[Press Start]]''.

* The [[Cirque Du Soleil]] limited series ''Solstrom'' had a well-dressed matron appear somewhere in each of the first 12 episodes, even though each story took place in a different city (and several different countries in all). At the end of the 13th and final episode, {{spoiler|it is revealed she is the mother of the astronomer who was tracking the sun creatures all along and narrating what he saw}}.

* The cabbage merchant in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Video Game Characters]]