While God of War 's merchants, Brok and Sindri, need to explain how they can travel between locations so quickly, it’s merely accepted that merchants like Ninja Gaiden's Muramasa can simply be interacted with at glowing shop signs even though the swordsmith isn’t even there. In other games, such as Red Dead Redemption 2, merchants can be literally robbed and murdered before returning to their shops a few days later with no memory of the event and perhaps nothing more than a bandage wrapped around their wounds.įor these reasons, video game merchants work best when the game is not meant to be grounded in reality. For example, Resident Evil 4’s merchant–possibly one of the most beloved gaming merchants of all time–is inexplicably found all over the map despite only being one person. Generally, gamers have always had to suspend their disbelief when it comes to dealing with in-game merchants. A YouTuber recently posted a video hilariously pointing out how absurd The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim's merchants would be in real life.
