The goal:
Establish a bunch of character relationships all at once.
This is accomplished by having multiple cascade-scenes occur at the same time.
I guess I'll call this technique a  "character interview"



The idea is that your whole party reacts to a new character, revealing the new relationships with each of them.

Let's say a new character has joined your party.

When they join, or you talk to a nearby NPC, or do something... this character steps aside for a "character-reaction scene"
Normal so far.  They have something to say about it.
When the player talks to them, they say something and then...
all your other party members react to this and step aside!

They each have a response to what this new character just said.
And now you can see what each party member thinks of the new character.

But there's more!
You can then cascade each of these into conversations between that party member and the new character.
So you can see what the new character thinks of each party member.



 How?
Talk to NPC
New character steps aside.
Talk to new character.
All party members step aside.
Talk to person 1, new character reacts and steps aside. (different position)
Talk to new character, person 1 reacts and steps aside. (different position)
Talk to person 1, new character reacts and steps aside. (different position like always)
They can go back and forth as long as you like, forming a conversation between them.
Talk to person 2, new character reacts and steps aside.
Talk to new character, person 2 reacts and steps aside.
Talk to person 2, new character reacts and steps aside.
etc...

You can talk to the party members in any order, and advance each conversation at any time.
Or you can walk away at any time and call-off the whole thing.



 Why?
To entertain.
In general, it's entertaining just to see interesting characters react to each other. And because it's entertaining, you generally want to do this often.
 (It's almost the entire approach Ranma 1/2 uses to entertain you)
 (and I use it a ton in my Pokemon game.)

Scenes like this don't necessarily have to advance the story. And if it doesn't, it's optional, which allows these scenes to be safely skipped by the player, added anywhere, or even hidden.

A "character interview" scene thoroughly introduces the player to the new character. By seeing every other character's reaction, it reveals the relationship between each of them and the new character.


This has many advantages.
Each dialog is a character reacting to another character.
The player can stop at any time if they get bored or want to go back to playing the game.
  (like the Chrono Trigger textboxes that you can walk away from)
The player can choose who responds, theoretically controlling the direction of the conversation.