So, the world and dungeons are randomly generated. To what extent does this effect Npc's and villages? Will I be seeing unique villages and events/characters within them each game, or will I see repeats fairly often?
The village buildings and story-line content are hand-designed and will be mostly the same each time you play. Most of the NPCs you see are randomized though. And the story-line is optional so if you're playing repeated runs you won't have to sit through the same dialogue and cutscenes each time. To avoid the story-line you simply just don't do what NPCs ask you to do. Your map screen will always show you to the next dungeon regardless of whether an NPC has given you the quest.
aw ok. I'd would have loved a random arrangement of village buildings appearance/arrangement at the least... Just enough so it doesn't feel like the same town twice.
Oh right! The arrangement of the town is randomized. The only thing that stays the same is the buildings present there.
Just thinking aloud: what if the game had for every type of house a set of different looking templates? When generating the world it could pick one randomly. But then again this kinda... suggests itself (what I mean is the idea is kinda obvious) and you already thought about that. <headdesk> I'll just go then and hide behind a cactus.
