theres an entire subculture on youtube with cocky middle aged adults using some uninterestingly designed persona talking sprite that they commissioned some artist on deviantart for, and use them to make “rant videos” and talking about shit absolutely no one cares about and they are the most boring things on youtube with a huge following
and they’re always videos like this like watch out this talking drawing is going to pwn feminists with his epic ideas for 12 minutes
I would also like to add: If I run and they run at my speed, the dialogue has to be shorter than the time it takes to reach the next cutscene
solution, make them match your speed. Have them run when you run and walk when you walk. Have short conversation at the start and then just a few quips here and there afterwards for the rest of the trip