I agree with all those. As a counterpoint, I felt salt and sanctuary didn't quite live up to either dark souls or hollow knight with its NPCs. They just felt ki

I agree with all those. As a counterpoint, I felt salt and sanctuary didn't quite live up to either dark souls or hollow knight with its NPCs. They just felt kind of generic. To add some more to your list though, Majora's Mask and Link's Awakening probably had my favourite NPCs in zelda games. Both of those games had weird trippy vibes that the NPC's helped bring out. Especially majora's mask, everyone just felt wrong and their side stories and quests really helped make the game.