Why is there a separate Menu and Dialogue text field?

[AoF]

I can't figure out the point of these two fields being separate. If one is missing, it uses the other. Why not condense this into one field?

[Tony Li]

Response menus use the Menu Text field, falling back to the Dialogue Text field if Menu Text is blank.

Subtitles use Dialogue Text, falling back to Menu Text if Dialogue Text is blank.

If you use both, typically Menu Text will be a shorter paraphrase, and Dialogue Text will be an expanded version. Mass Effect is a good example. The response wheel has short paraphrases (Menu Text). When you choose a response, the PC speaks a much longer version of the response (Dialogue Text).

This can occasionally frustrate the player when their interpretation of the Menu Text paraphrase doesn't match with the expanded Dialogue Text. (Sarcasm, for example, is notoriously hard to convey like this.)

But it's usually outweighed by allowing the designer to write shorter, non-overwhelming menus but then expand each response's Dialogue Text to provide more detail.

[AoF]

The response wheel has short paraphrases (Menu Text). When you choose a response, the PC speaks a much longer version of the response (Dialogue Text).

Ah, I get it. So is this only relevant if the player "speaks" his responses? Put another way: Are they the same thing if the player does not speak his response after selecting it?

[Tony Li]

Yes.