Robots And AI – Character And Cliche In Visual Novels
I Do Not Understand Your Human Emotions
Modern
sci-fi across the world has an obsession with AI and Robots so it
should come as no surprise to find numerous characters fitting this
description within visual novels. These machines are the perfect
breeding ground for complex theming around what it means to be human
and the important questions surrounding technology. Not being bound
by the expectations of a human character has led to this these
machines developing their own brand of cliches and defining aspects.
The majority of the Robots and AI in visual novels fall into the
category of being stand-ins for humanity or take an element of human
nature and isolate it for examination. Characters in this group range
from copies of living humans to machines who hide their true nature
and make for vivid spectrum of personalities. Next to these sit the
AIs who are purely functional in nature, those who might present
human mannerisms but only exist as mechanisms with nothing going on
behind their eyes. Beyond them exists a broader overarching element
of these machines stemming from their nature being fundamentally
different from ours. They are not bound to the flesh like a human is
and reflecting on this invites interesting additions to these
characters’ presentation. Let’s boot up our systems and look at
how different titles handle this archetype.
Metaphor For Humanity
By
far the most common use of Robot and AI characters is as a means of
reflecting human nature back onto the other characters and pointing
out the absurdity and beauty to be found within it. This provides a
space for the narrative to be flexible in how its cast deal with the
events around them when confronted by a vastly different yet familiar
viewpoint. It can utilise the inorganic nature of these machines to
make the singular focus of their personalities more believable and
allows for them to be slotted into the desired thematic spot. Since
they are man made constructs they end up being a mixture of their
creator’s imperfections and the cold steel of their materials and
reflect this back at those same creators. In order to fill this role
these characters tend to either be lacking emotion or have an element
of childishness and innocence to their identities. Many share a lot
in common with child characters in their inquisitiveness with a layer
of adult knowledge showing their data based nature and lending them a
slight disconnect from their organic counterparts. One style of this
character is those created from the memories or brain scan of a
person so inheriting their personality passed through the lens of
their programming and metal container. These AIs generally act as a
kind of ghost for the cast since their original is often dead which
is case the Amadeus, from Steins;Gate 0. She is a copy based on
Makise Kurisu but made from memories from before Kurisu met Okabe
which makes her artificial nature immediately apparent and her
interactions with Okabe are awkward due to the differences in what they
both remember. For Okabe, Amadeus is Kurisu’s ghost who has come
back to haunt him and he both wants to talk with her and yet fears
the guilt which weights him down. She reflects his self-loathing and
apathy back into him while constantly presenting the truth about what the real Kurisu would have wanted Okabe to do. Being digital means
she can nicely slot into the phone angle of Steins;Gate where the
main way they interact with is over the phone rather than in person
furthering the idea of her as a ghost detached from the physical
world. Overall, Amadeus, like most ‘copy’ AI’s, is more a
narrative device than a complex character and they are simple
outlines around which other characters must develop and grow rather
than having much in the way of agency themselves.
 |
| Purity and innocence define a new born machine as much as they do a child |
Another kind of
Robot, and one Key in particular is in love with, is those focused
around purity and childish innocence. Philia, from Stella of The End,
perfectly captures this approach with her boundless curiosity and
complete lack of any sense of danger. These are the traits of a child
played up to their extreme in a mechanical form which does not
experience the world in quite the same way as a human. She simulates
the needs of an organic, such as hunger and sleep, but they are obvious
not quite right since her understanding of them is filtered through
her nature. This slight disconnect is perfect for her role
in providing a reflection of humanity to a jaded Jude that he cannot
easily dismiss and brings out the caring part of him buried beneath
the scars. Unlike the previous type of machine characters, Philia
gets an arc and meaningful development where she matures out of the
innocence into a well rounded adult without losing the valuable parts
of said innocence. Our final group of characters are those who keep
their artificial nature hidden and pass as humans from the point of
view of both the player and other characters. When initially shown
Luna, from Virtue's Last Reward, the player is likely not going to
suspect her to anything more than a kind and timid woman who wants
to have the most peaceful solution possible. Only at the end of her
path, late into the game, is the truth about her mechanical nature
revealed and this reframes her actions over the course of the story in a new context. The fact she knows a lot about what is going on but
is bound to rules which prevent her from revealing this information, presents the only unquestionably good person as not human at all.
Yet there exists a contrast between her and Zero III AI in that she
ultimately chooses the people she has experienced these events even at
the cost of her own existence while Zero is completely obedient
mechanism which adheres to its programming. This works to highlight
the theming surrounding human nature by being another angle through
which the power and value of choice are presented to the player.
Functional Machine
This
kind of machine character is an odd one to talk about since their
nature as mechanisms not capable of acting outside their determined
limits results in them being more plot device than person. Often they
serve the purpose of being the mouth for exposition or a surprise
source of conflict when they are hacked by the antagonists.
Inhumanity through a lack of agency defines these characters and they
present the veneer of being sentient but this quickly collapses under
scrutiny. Their broader role is to be a contrast against the push and
pull of the human characters who shape the story so the importance
and consequences of this freedom can be put into focus. One basic
example of this kind of AI character is Anato, from Secret Agent, who
manages the running of the city. She is the quintessential functional
AI with her role within the narrative being solely based around what
utility she can offer the cast. This means she is regularly reduced
to explaining the world to the player or providing a key bit of
information a character needs so the plot can move forwards. Despite
her motherly personality, she is presented through the lens of her
nature as a bundle of programming rather than a person and has an
identity which remains entirely static while also being passive to
the cast surrounding her. This makes such characters great for this
role due to the audience’s expectation for a machine making it less
distracting for them to dump information than someone who is meant to
be a living person.
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| Can a connection be meaningful when the other person can never say no? |
Masuko, from 2236 A.D., is a more complex version
of this archetype. She is an AI owned by the protagonist, Yotsuba,
and it is immediately obvious that her personality is not genuine
from the moment she first appears with her responses being extremely
inorganic and functional. Despite this staring him in the face,
Yotsuba continues to emotionally invest in Masuko due his desperation
for a meaningful connection and it helps reinforce the idea he has no
idea how to make them. On some level this knowledge is understood by
Yotsuba hence why he so aggressively tries to pursue the other people
in this life even to the ends of the world. Masuko is a constant
remainder throughout of his failing and shows the only connection he
can form is to something which is obedient and incapable of living
without him. The role she occupies comes from how others define her
given she is completely without agency of her own.
A Different Axis To Organics
As
might have become apparent, the synthetic nature of these Robot and
AI characters ends up being their primary distinguishing feature and
shapes how they interact and perceive the world. Not being bound in a fleshy prison gives them the ability to highlight the importance said
body has to humanity. It also offers a unique angle to explore what
intelligence and freewill mean when placed into a context with vastly
different needs and means of perceiving them. Since the way the
manifest varies wildly from game to game, it is best to look at a few
examples to get a sense of the overall shape of this trait. Aiba,
from AI: Somnium Files, treads an interesting line between organic
and machine due to her primarily acting as Date Kaname’s
replacement left eye. Visually she has a soft and squishy appearance
to match the organ she replaces while also contrasting it with her
almost alien inorganic internal workings. The obvious connection to
be drawn here is the presentation of Aiba as a part of Date and someone
without whom he is not whole, both literally and figuratively. More
broadly Aiba’s AI nature allows her to offer advice and support to
whoever she is paired with through her variety of data analysis tools
and this is shown to fundamentally shapes her understanding of the
world. This is why she needs to work alongside a human partner so
their combined wisdom can overcome the weakness of organic and
machine to create a better detective.
 |
| Aren't you the most adorable eye replacement |
One character who is complete
defined by being strings of code is Monika, from Doki Doki Literature
Club!. Her existence and much of the game’s big reveals revolve
around this twist on what she is within the confines of the world the
player is presented. Even as she plays with the rules, there remains
weight to her perception of herself and what she does to the other
characters. This lends what could have otherwise been silly fourth
wall breaking a level of power and consequence to create a tension
between her and the player. Monika knows exactly what she is and what
she is doing and is comfortable with both and she thinks and acts on
an entirely different axis from the organic player and Doki Doki
really wants this to hit home for its emotional pay off to have its
full effect. For our last example let us move back into the realm of
humanoid robots with Dorothy Haze, from VA-11 HALL-A. What
will immediately strike the player when first meeting Dorothy is the
disconnect between her mind and body with her mental age clearly been
that of adult while her body appears much younger. Her attitude
towards her physical form comes across as laissez-faire and she
treats it as a vessel rather than a fundamental part of her
existence. Talk of the modifications she has done to her body is a
light subject for her since they lack the permanence they would have for
an organic. Despite how different she from the rest of the cast, when
it comes to her relationships and interactions she is shown to be
capable of the same kindness as the rest of the cast and this helps expand the value of connections which the game pushes through
the variety of its characters.
Conclusion
In
the end Robots and AI characters are not so different from the
organic counterparts yet they are different enough to make them
perfect for exploring human nature. They can work well in the
role of metaphor for an aspect of humanity and each one can
leverage their relationship with the cast to bring out interesting
new angle to them. Playing off their inorganic nature can create
divides between them and organics which can be leveraged for plot or
emotional pay offs through this new understanding of the way thinking
and feeling can manifest. Then there are the characters who are
entirely bound by their programming and lack the freewill and these work both as exposition dumps and a
contrast with the freedom offered to the rest of the cast. Overall,
the inorganic nature of Robot and AI characters gives developers
a flexible way to hold up a mirror to the player and ask them to
examine themselves and they can make for a powerful avenue for the consideration of the human condition in a modern or
sci-fi stories.
Coffee Talk Series Reivew – Brewing Connections
Genre – Bartending, Fantasy, Cosy Play Time – About 8 hours Per Game Developer – Toge Productions Original Hibiscus & Butterfly Tokyo VNDB
On The House
Running
your own cafe and chatting with the customers as you serve them
drinks is a form of cosy fantasy focused around forming human
connections. The Coffee Talk games lean heavily into the potential of
this premise and sets about crafting a narrative space where sitting
and listening to the character’s worries is pleasant. These titles
take place in a modern day setting with fantasy races yet their
lives and troubles are surprisingly normal and their struggles form
the backbone of the story. Interacting and serving drinks is the
majority of what the player will be doing and Coffee Talk does
everything in its power to make this as engaging and impactful as
possible. Each of their life stories endears them to the player and
helps the games push its themes and ideas in an organic manner as they
come out over the course of multiple conversations. The cafe and the
people visiting are all rendered in a strong visual and auditory
style which quickly communicates who they are and makes them stick in
the memory. However, this is a series of titles which are plagued by a set
of recurring issues, from a struggle with subtly and conflict to
drink requests which can feel too vague, and its attempts to solve
these problems often end up shifting the issues to other parts of the
experience. Are these struggles between maintaining its cosy identity
and pushing the series forwards enough to weaken the fantasy? Let’s
fail to draw some latte art and find out.
Fantastical Mundanity – Narrative And Themes
Being
cosy sits at the heart of Coffee Talk’s identity and the inviting
atmosphere of the cafe and its customers do everything they can to
reinforce this tone. It plays off the inherently passive nature of
the premise, where the characters and events come to you rather than
you being the driving force, to create a slow pacing where the player
is encouraged to surrender themselves to the flow and appreciate the
interactions taking place in the current scene rather than looking to
future promises. This is supported by a web of characters and plot
threads which interact in surprising and satisfying ways as they meet
for the first time in the cafe. A lot of care has been taken to place
each character alongside others who will bring out the interesting
parts of their personalities and allows for them to grow in
meaningful ways. New relationships born from these chance encounters
form a key appeal of the narrative with the player getting to shape
their ultimate outcomes through correctly meeting their orders. By
offering the element of agency in the fundamental element, the game
can invest the player in the consequences they have helped to shape
while preventing them from become too complacent in the cosy tone.
 |
| One of the few looks at the outside work you get |
The social media app, where the player can look at what the cast have
been doing, adds another aspect of player interaction for them to
fiddle with outside of big narrative moments. It also serves the
purpose of making the cast feel like they exist beyond the confines of
the cafe so they come across as more believable individuals. All of
these elements are in service of some extremely powerful emotional
moment and pay offs in the finale which utilise the slower pacing to
get the space they need to breath and properly set the player up for
the gut punch. When the player puts down the game after the credits
roll it will be these scenes of catharsis that will stick with them
and each title in this series manges to capture its own version of
this impact.
Despite
there being some truly powerful narrative threads, there are just as
many others which meander or weakly splutter to their conclusion.
This unevenness consistently plagues the series and it is perhaps a
result of the large cast required for the amount of meshing
relationships Coffee Talk wants to engage with. A need to provide
arcs for each of these characters means some get left behind in
favour of the more interesting ones the developers clearly
put a lot of time and effort into. While the emotional impact of the
powerful moments is undeniable there exists a strange toothlessness
to them when it comes to actual conflict. There seems to be a fear
that if the cast are seen as being in conflict it will ruin the cosy
tone and on some level they are right. However, there is a different
being dramatic and destructive conflict and the weaker challenging of
beliefs style conflicts which make up most character centric
narratives. Shying way from any meaningful conflict creates a sense
of this world being a sanitised version of our own and lends it a
fake feeling.
 |
| This is just water with some mint on it... |
Then there is the series’ weird relationship with
subtly. There is a regular use of subtly through the dialogue and
character actions and it speaks to an understanding of how to sell a
theme or idea without saying it directly. Yet the developers constantly decide to have the
characters shout these ideas at the player in the most direct and unveiled
manner possible. This comes across as a lack of faith in the player’s
ability to pick up on clues and engage with the story while being
desperately afraid that its precious messages might be missed for
even a second. Ash is a good example of this trend, he is a stay
at home dad and through interacting with him the player is subtly
made to see his perspective on the role men can take in the family.
Then later on he explicitly vomits his beliefs out loud in a long
monologue despite the game having already demonstrating them and it
feels awkward while causing the scene to come to a screeching halt.
As a result it often feels like the games are preaching to the player
in a distracting and almost fourth wall breaking manner. On a higher
level, the overall structure and pacing of all three games is near
identical to the point of them somewhat blurring together. Rather
than being a strictly negative trait, this is more something a
prospective player should be aware of coming into the series. If they
like one of the games they will probably like the rest or vice verse,
but it is definitely not a series interesting in winning over new
audiences so much as sticking to what it want to be.
All Walks Of Life – Characters
As
you might imagine for a series so focused around interactions, the
characters of Coffee Talk are its strongest aspect and form much of
its appeal. They cover the full spectrum of what this fantasy society
has to offer from struggling journalists to blind musicians and it
comes together to create a patchwork picture of this diverse world.
Each one has an immediately recognisable core identity which helps
the player keep track of who they are in the sea of other characters
who enter the cafe. These are then expanded upon over the course of
their visits and as the player chats and serves drinks to them they
develop into well rounded and interesting individuals beyond their
initial archetypal introduction. Their colourful personalities mesh
together in pleasing ways where the unexpected can be born from a
chance meeting and helps push the sense of them as dynamic people who
have more going on than what the player gets to see. Only seeing a few
of the cast per day does a lot to keep them fresh, the games
regularly have characters be absent for one or two days in order to
make their presence not overstay its welcome and giving time for
developments between them to believably take place.
 |
| Even the smallest interactions are a joy |
One character who
sticks out for their weaker presentation is the protagonist who is
devoid of almost any interesting features and they are someone with
no investment or emotional connection to the world. They fit the
generic ‘nice guy’ mould and this basically removes them from
every conversation taking place as they only offer cookie cutter
reactions. There is the reveal in the first game about what they are
but this is hand waved away and never has any meaningful consequences
so feels like an excuse for their bland personality rather than
legitimate world building. What is worse about this is there are
characters in each game which are clearly the main recurring ones and
could have easily been slotted into the protagonist role, such as Vin
in Tokyo. This shows the developers are at least partly aware of this
issue and try to have another character fill this role of being the
core emotional anchor.
Coffee Shop Interiors – Visuals, Audio And Technical
The
pixel art visuals and their 90s anime inspirations craft what is the
series’ mostly consistently stunning feature. One look at a
screenshot invokes a powerful nostalgia in those who have played any
of the titles as its carefully designed characters and cafes are
laser focused on capturing the essence of the nostalgic comfort of a
good coffee. Just as the cast’s personalities are immediately
memorable so to do their visuals catch the player’s interest
through their mixture of familiar modern elements alongside the
fantasy features of their race. The cafes each present their own
vision of cosy mundanity through the assortment of decorations and
fixtures spread throughout which make it so there is always something
new to look at. Since this is the only location in each game, this
ability to continuously hold the player’s interest supports a
smooth visual experience where even in downtime it can work to
enhance the tone. Working alongside the pixel art is the lo-fi
soundtrack composed of relaxing and jazzy tunes and it is pitch perfect for
the narrative it accompanies. Each game in the series has its own
selection of new tracks to give them their own auditory identity
while still possessing the same cohesive feel across every entry. It
is difficult to overstate just how much these OSTs add to sense of
cosiness underpinning much of the series’ appeal and they are
wonderful to listen to outside of these games.
 |
| Mix and match your ingredients |
Preparing
and serving beverages offers the player their primary mechanical
means of interacting with the narrative and it characters. The act of
matching customers to their destined drink has a puzzle like
satisfaction to it and tests if the player has been keeping track of
the cast’s likes and dislikes. A small amount of artistic
personalisation is provided through the option to create latte art on
appropriate beverages and it connects the customer’s satisfaction to the player’s own work.
Each title adds its own new layer to this process of drink creation in
order to prevent it from becoming too familiar and routine so the
player must actually engage their wits rather than relying on previous knowledge. The only issues with these systems is
how some orders can be vague to the point of confusing since the game
does not show what ingredients or drinks have more abstract qualities
which some characters can ask for. Since this could be solved by
adding some keywords to drinks it the compendium to make it clear if
they match the requirement, it is not a major enough flaw to be
anything more than a slight frustration.
Conclusion
Capturing
the appeal of cosy interactions with lovable characters is what
Coffee Talk does best and over the course of the series it has slowly
developed its approach. It encourages the player to surrender to the
relaxed flow and go along with the cast’s slow development while
still being able to pack an emotional punch when needed. The pixel
art aesthetic and lo-fi soundtrack reinforce this atmosphere as they
provide enjoyable stimulation to make each moment feel fresh and
soothing. Its characters are the main appeal, they cover a wide
spectrum of this mixture of modern and fantasy people and each brings
their uniquely interesting problems to the table. Backing this up is
a robust set of beverage making mechanics to give the player a means
of influencing the narrative. However, it is not without issues
stemming from the uneven quality of its character arcs, its struggles
with introducing meaningful conflict and a flat protagonist which all
muddy the experience. Despite these weaknesses there is little doubt
about the strength of Coffee Talk’s cosy appeal and it understands
how it get the most out of its vibes and put its positive qualities front
and centre.
Verdict –
A beautiful and cosy collection of games about a cafe which
plays host to the emotionally resonant tales of its customers that stay with you long after the credits roll. Although there are
some issues with the execution of their character arcs and conflicts.
Pros-
+
Has an immersive and cosy atmosphere which helps the player sink into
the task of serving drinks and listening to stories.
+
Some extremely potent emotional moments act as the capstone to each
title and leave a memorable mark.
+
The cast are a collection of colourful and human personalities who
engage with each other in endlessly entertaining ways.
+
Excellent pixel art graphics and lo-fi OST forge a distinct
audio-visual identity.
+
The mechanics of serving drinks provides agency to the player while
also acting as a test of their memory.
Cons -
-
Character arcs are of an uneven quality with some being flat and
dull.
-
The games can sometimes be unnecessarily direct with their
presentation of ideas to the point of coming across as preachy and
lacking it subtly.
-
A protagonist who is a bland and generic ‘good guy’ archetype and
feels odd when placed next to the rest of colourful cast.
-
There are moments when the instructions of what a customer wants from
their drink can be too unclear and this leads to frustration at the
vagueness.
Best Visual Novel Releases – June 2026
As
we sit here melting under the summer sun why not look at what the
visual novel space has released before you turn into a human shaped
puddle on the floor. This has been a relatively quiet month but what
has come out showcases the dramatic breadth the medium can
offer from violent murder mystery to cute comedy. Let’s dive in and
discover which of these new releases are worth your time.
Official Releases
Cartagra
This
marks the second PC release of Cartagra, with the first being all the
way back in 2014, and it sits in a strange place when compared to its
previous iteration. On a technical level this is based on the
Japanese 2023 HD version and comes with extra layers of polish to
make the game shine on modern hardware. The majority of these changes
are tweets to the visuals to give them a face lift and shift them
from 800x600 to 1920x1080 with the audio on the soundtrack also being
improved. There are also content additions such as character endings
and the inclusion of a scenario from one of the studio's fandiscs
which give those who have already played Cartagra a motive to come back.
The issue with this release comes from the choice to alter or remove
scenes for cultural sensitivity reasons. Cartagra is an inherently
violent game which deals with sensitive topics regularly so these
changes weaken its narrative impact and they seem to have made to
appease Steam. Yet, this is still at its core the same memorable and
sometimes disturbing title and if this Steam release is your only
option then it is definitely worth your time to experience it.
Neko-Mimi Sweet Housemates 2
If
you are looking for something on the cute and wholesome end of the
spectrum then this second outing in the Neko-Mimi series might be
just what you are looking for. It picks up as the season changing
into summer with Mint and our protagonist living together surrounded
by their chaotic friends. This begins to shift when the
mysterious Kuro enters their lives and Mint is insistent on helping
her despite Kuro’s wariness of them. What follows is a
heart-warming and hilarious journey as Mint gets caught up in another
over the top mess. A short and amusing experience which plays off the
strengths of the original while not venturing too far from what made
people like it. Since it is such a simple story even those who have
not played the first game can still have a good time here.
Tavern Talk Stories: Dreamwalker
As
the successor to the D&D inspired bartending game Tavern Talk,
Dreamwalker leverages its strong foundations to create a prequel
focused on tightening up the overall experience. There is a
noticeable jump in the quality of presentation and narrative with the awkward moments which held back the original being almost
entirely absent this time round. Dreamwalker makes full use of its
fantasy setting and D&D inspirations in everything from the
absurd drinks to the quest system to the very wacky customers
themselves. This provides it with strong sense of identity which help
it stand out from the increasingly large number of bartending titles.
Its status as a prequel allows it to work both as perfect entry point
for new players and a treat for existing fans with its constant
subtle nods to the first game. Looking for a suitably cosy fantasy
adventure then Dreamwalker is guaranteed to be a good time.
Template!! An Angel's Gift
Openly
admitting your game is a collection of cliches announces proudly what kind of
experience the player is in for. Obviously this use of cliches leans
into the inherent absurdity of having so many of them back to back
and Template takes full advantage of it to go all in on being over the
top. Rather than mocking the silly nature of the cliches it uses, the
game instead reveals in them and the expectations surrounding them to
create a celebration of visual novel Rom-Com genre. This being said,
it has very few ideas to call its own and if you are not up for its
brand of comedy then there is little else to engage with. Template is
a title for those invested in this end of medium and its assumes a
knowledge of its genre while not offering anything for the
uninitiated.
Friendship And Platonic Relationships – An Anatomy Of Visual Novels
Just Friends?
The
visual novel space has a strange relationship with friendship and
other non-romantic interactions. A large swath of the medium focuses
on love and its consequences to the point at which the audience has
come to expect it from all of the titles they play. However, not all
games can or want to engage with romance so they have to set the
right expectations and pushing friendships is often how they achieve
this aim. In its most basic form platonic relationships get mixed
in with romantic ones to at least meet player expectations in part
while also allow for an examination of the wider human experience.
Another avenue it takes is being a response to player choice by
reacting to their actions or giving them a narrative playground to
explore beyond standard tales of love. Then sometimes there are
titles which want to focus on the broader strokes of the way
relationships work and so a focus on romance would undermine that
resulting in them spending more time expanding on platonic
interactions. Let’s just be friends and find out how a different
framing of relationship can dramatically change a narrative.
Exploration Of Human Relationships
Romance
is not the only form of meaningful human relationship and visual
novels hoping to express the breath of these interactions often
choose to do so through mixing in platonic bonds as a supplementary
element. These come in the form of smaller side routes or subsections
focused on characters beyond the main circle of love interests and
developing their connection with the protagonist. Since these additions
end up being significantly smaller in scope compared to the main
route, there is a tight focus on the single idea each wants to
present and they lack the dramatic nature of the romance routes.
Inadvertently this leads to the concept of a friendship being a lower
investment kind of relationship and less fraught with emotional
instability. Most titles accept this imbalance and use these routes
as a place to create an extended comedy gag or a palate cleanser from
the main narrative. This does not exclude them from engaging with the
core themes of these games from a new angle and instead it frames them
in a lighter and brighter context to form a sense of perspective on
the story’s scale. Each one provides a different insight into the
reasons and motives which exist beyond romance and they ground the love of
the main routes in the more muted emotions of a less intense
relationship.
Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!’s use of friendship
is interesting for how it both explores a wider breadth of its cast
while creating a dividing line between men and women. The platonic
routes focus on the relationships Naoe Yamato has with the other male
members of cast and the varied kinds of emotions to be found in
these dynamics. Connections are pushed through a masculine lens to
present the strange tensions in male friendships and the way they can
promote as much admiration as jealousy. All this comes through
Majikoi’s standard comedy tone in order to help take the edges off any
negative moments and they contrast the relationships between men and
between Naoe and a heroine with the later ending up being much harder for him to
handle. This not only works to present the kind of person Naoe is,
but also reinforces the group dynamics all routes play off for their
drama through the broad range of emotions it demonstrates. Majikoi’s
romance base creates an interesting issue in that all the female
routes are romantic meaning in the game’s eyes it is not possible
for a man and a women to have a friendship without it eventually
turning into love. This is not a malicious choice and is instead born
of the need to meet audience expectations and to not leave people
feeling cheated if their favourite ends up getting relegated to ‘just
friends’. Still there is much to be said for more exploration of
male friendships like these in visual novels since they offer a
chance to breathe life into a sidelined gender of secondary
characters.
 |
| Everyone has their own story to tell |
For a better handling of non-romantic female routes,
Clannad can be held up as example. Its softer form of romance, compared to the highly over the top Majikoi, is in no small part
responsible since the difference between it and friendship comes
across as smaller and thus makes friendship between genders more
reasonable. A second element is the way it has these friendships be
with characters significantly older or younger than Okazaki Tomoya
which makes the idea of romancing them not cross the player’s mind
due to being inappropriate. Into this space Clannad injects
explorations of what a relationship between age groups can be like
and how their experiences speak to a person’s growth and
development as they age. It is through this framing of the main
cast’s age the player understands the romantic drama of other
routes. This immaturity is never presented as a negative quality but
rather as a natural part of growing up and asks the player to
remember a time when they too were susceptible to being a teenager.
Direct Responsiveness
Sometimes
friendship is offered to the player as either a choice instead of
romance or as a consequence of their previous decisions. This exists
as a means of providing a sense of responsiveness from the narrative
to recognise the player’s engagement with it. A platonic outcome
can be framed in both a positive and negative manner depending on how
the game wants its characters to be viewed. In a romance centric
visual novel, friendship with a main heroine immediately comes across
as a failure state and signals to the player they have done something
wrong. Often such endings are bitter sweet in nature with the possibility
of what could have been dangled in front of the player while the
characters are not entirely unhappy and so creating an emotional
friction the player will seek to resolve. When romance occupies a
side role the option to choose a friendship appears to be a more
valid outcome since the game has not being pushing love as the
correct connection between the protagonist and the other party. Here
the aim becomes to respond to the player and create a co-authored
story where they get to leave their mark on the way it plays out. By
investing the player in this manner they can be made to care about
the broader scripted themes and outcomes since they have some part in
crafting the experience.
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| Is it for the best? |
Analogue: A Hate Story frames its choice
between romance or friendship as the ultimate outcome of the player’s
relationship with Hyun Ae. Given her negative experiences with what
others have presented as love, a romantic connection may not
ultimately be best one for her yet it is left to the
player to decide what they think the outcome should be. This is
heavily influenced by the expensive and horrifying picture of Hyun
Ae’s life prior to this point and acts as a final tracing of the
outline of the themes the game has been continuously pushing. Neither
outcome comes across as right or wrong with Analogue seeming more
interested in posing the question to get the player to react rather
than pass judgement for their choices. On the other hand we have
titles like Amagami where the friendship endings are shown as a
failure to reach a proper resolution. For it the idea of a platonic
relationship is put in the same camp as the actual bad endings of its
story and the closer an ending is to a full fledged romance the
better. These endings sit in the middle ground between the
destructively negative outcomes and the ones drenched in mutual love
and showcase a partial failure resulting from incorrect player
choices. In many ways they are a light slap on the wrist where the
emotions of the relationship between the protagonist and heroine are
partly fulfilled but in an unsatisfying manner. From here the game
pushes the player to try again and find the best resolution which
will give them the closure the friendship ending hints towards.
When Love Is Not Appropriate
Choosing
to focus on friendship as the primary meaningful relationship between
characters is often done when romance is not suitable for the topics
or circumstances surrounding the narrative. This does not exclude the
subject of love from being tackled in such titles, but rather it is
relegated to an object of discussion rather than action. Not all
stories want the messy and complex emotions brought up by romance
since it would distract from what they want their core messaging to
be. As such a more neutral kind of relationship is needed to
facilitate character interactions while not getting in the way and
friendship in its many different forms works perfectly in this role.
Platonic bonds have far less associated baggage than those focused
around love and they are instead defined by the participants in a
colourful and unique manner reflecting their individual natures. These
can be shaped in such a manner as to neatly highlight what the game
wants with precise control over when it will impact the player.
Visual novels using friendships like this tend not to have routes or
the intense focus on a single character at a time but on a wide cast
where weight of this story is less intensely fixated and instead
spread evenly among them.
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| Be friends with anyone, even a dog! |
When it comes to presenting friendships as
a core narrative thread, there are few better at it than VA-11
HALL-A. Over the course of the game showcases a variety of relationship between
the cast and Jill which both expand on their identity while also
pulling out the many different ways two people can form a meaningful
bond. These connections are slowly teased out and keep the player
invested over the long term in order to see what kinds of
interactions they might witness next. Love still comes up within
VA-11 HALL-A, mostly connected with Jill’s past, and is placed on
the same level as all the previously established relationships in
order to strip it of its magical qualities so it can be clearly seen
for the messy thing it is. It also loosely cross over into friendship
through the light flirting between characters to create an intricate
consideration of how relationships rarely fit into the rigid boxes
people choose to ascribe to them.
Conclusion
For
a medium often remembered for its tales of romance, visual novels can
handle friendship in diverse and engaging ways. When placed alongside
love, platonic relationships can be used to fully express the breadth
of human connections and provide a much needed sense of perspective to
the enamoured couples. Not all titles need to deal with the intense
emotions of romance and for them a friendship provides a flexible way
to have characters interact while presenting core themes and ideas.
Then sometimes a friendship can just be a negative outcome which
communicates to the player they have made the wrong choices and
encourages them to try again. Playing around with character
relationships can dramatically change the tone and content of a game
and how a player perceives it so even the smallest friendship can be
a powerful tool in your arsenal.
Card Battlers – Uncovering The Hybrid
Playing Your Last Card
As
one of the biggest trends within the indie video game space, it is
little surprise the Card Battler would end up being merged with visual
novels. These kind of titles use the card battles as a means of
represent the conflicts and interacts which act as the story’s
highlights. Through having the player directly engage with these key
moments the game can present an abstraction of them and push the player to
engage with the broader metaphors and themes of the narrative. In its
most basic form this means the cards and their interactions can be
representations of the character’s actions and emotions where the
player gets to act them out. Conflict can mean battles and here the
random assortment of cards drawn simulates the chaos of the situation
and underlines the tension created by the visual novel sections.
Since the cards provided to the player often represent the abilities
of the characters or the world around them, they can express the
cast’s identities through how their cards feel to play so offering
another avenue of reinforcing their personalities and the tone. How do these
different uses of Card Battlers intersect and interact with visual
novels? Let’s draw a new hand and find out what each has to offer
the other.
Emotional Symbols
Cards
hold symbolic power within human culture, such as with tarot cards,
especially since the imagery depicted on them is concentrated in a
small space and has a physical sense of presence to it. In a hybrid
they can function as a means of cleanly presenting abstract concepts to the player and chief among these are emotions or emotional
actions. These communicate the core ideas of the narrative through
play where the interactions between cards and the objective lets the player experience a simulation of dealing with those
emotions. As such it can snugly fit into the dramatic and intense
moments to do the heavy lifting and leave the space between for the
visual novel element to handle the build up and cool down. By doing
this the title can curate the pacing of the experience in a way
conducive to a character centric story aiming to put the player
firmly into the minds of the cast. The abstraction of a card system
helps form an environment where sensitive topics can be addressed
without having to confront them face on.
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| Colour and emotion are powerfully linked |
An interesting execution of
this kind of Card Battler can be found in I Was a Teenage Exocolonist
which uses its cards as a means of exploring being a teenager. All of
its cards are the simple actions and items of a teenager in this
sci-fi world and only a few hold any direction emotional symbolism
rather being mundane in nature. Instead they gain this association
with emotion through the narrative surrounding them to provide
context and enhance the challenges they are used to overcome. They often get
framed and reframed based on the how they end up being utilised
through the lens of a teenager’s wild roller-coaster of feelings
during this sensitive time in their lives. Since this is not a game
about big battles and world ending stakes, the emotions of its cast
have to do a lot of the heavy lifting so weaving them into the
mechanical side makes sense. It is even doubled down on through
the mood system being another angle of reflection for the narrative
which connects back into the Card Battler. Kumitantei: Old-School
Slaughter offers a slight more direct use of emotional cards through
its Danganronpa inspired killing game. Its use of cards is in the
argument sections of the story where the protagonist is attempting to
convince another character of something. This is already a situation
naturally high in emotion and the game doubles down on it through
each card’s colour and stylised imagery making clear the feelings
behind it. With each card played the intensity of the back and forth
comes across as the protagonist eventually pushes through the noise
to convert the other party into one willing to at least listen to the
truth.
Chaos Of Battle
Being
able to capture the messy and improvisational element of combat
through a Card Battler system is something a textual narrative like
visual novels cannot easily achieve. This is created through either
with the randomness of a card pool or the chaos of the interactions
between each card and the battle. Such titles also tend only use the Card Battler for combat and leave everything else to other systems in
order for it to provide a focused impact on the player. Having an
element of randomness through what cards the player will see each
turn works to simulate a reactive environment and encourages a looser
play style where they have to roll with the punches rather than
follow a neatly laid out plan. On the other hand if the interactions
caused by cards are pushed to the front then the chaos comes from the
need to balance them against what the enemy is doing. It forms a push
and pull between the two and the increasing difficulty the player
experiences trying to keep the two sides from overwhelming them
mirrors the pressures experienced by the cast. By doing this it
allows for a strong emotional resonance which the main visual novel
narrative can play off and so expand on the consequence to gives a
wholistic feeling to the entire work.
 |
| Controlling the battle is a constant challenge |
Battle Suit Aces is an example
of how interactions can do a lot of the heavy lifting to create this
chaos despite its relatively ordered card progression. In order to
capture the clash of mechas and monsters underpinning the narrative, there was an effort made to sell the power each possess through
strong visual effects accompanying a dynamic back and forth
between allies and enemies. This operates on two levels, the allied
units and their combos planned out by the player beforehand and then
the enemies messing these up with their own interactions and
synergies which must be worked around. Having to manage these
competing fronts creates a chaotic game state where each element has
to be considers yet all can easily spiral out of control if left
unattended. Since the visual novel presentation in Battle Suit Aces
is relatively static in nature, these battles are the only chance to
properly sell the conflicts and there is a careful bouncing back and
forth between them to keep them both engaging. There is no simpler
version of the chaos of the unknown than the Card Battler systems of
Princess Waltz. The player is dealt a random hand of numbered cards
and must play them to beat their opponents score but since their
opponent plays their cards face down the player has no idea about the total
they are trying to beat. Through these two unknowns the game can
simulate the chaos of the one vs one battles presented in the visual
novel sections while asking for logic and risk management skills to
be exercised. Just like the cast, the player must push beyond the
uncertainty with their unique skills and making reads off their
enemy’s actions.
Expressing Identity
What
cards are available and the actions they represent can give the
characters using them a sense of identity while also building a wider
feeling world carried through into the narrative. Since the player
will be spending a lot of time engaging with and executing the
strategies these cards facilitate, this is a space which organically
finds itself lodged into their mind. As such character and world
building can be weaved into them in a way which reflects the
narrative’s needs as the player's toolbox grows along with their
opposition. The resources available to the cast helps spell out the
kind of world they live in, how they view that world and what kind of
means they are willing to use to achieve victory. A character using
poison to slowly kill their enemy communicates a vastly different
kind of personality to one who uses shields to help keep themselves
and their allies alive. A world saturated by magic will have its
cards filled with spell slinging while one in a sci-fi setting might
instead offer laser guns, mechs and spaceships for the player to use.
Committing into this style of quiet and layered presentation frees
the visual novel element from the need to spend valuable time
explaining the broader strokes of the world and cast so it can focus
on the plot beats and pacing needed to keep the player engaged.
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| Clean, clear and violent |
The
majority of the previous examples of Card Battlers follow this
principle to one extent or another, even the basic Princess Waltz has
abilities to activate which serve this function, and all leverage
this added flavour to great effect. Library of Ruina showcases an interesting manifestation of this style since it is a game which leans
on its world a lot so makes for a contrasting method to the previous
titles shown here. Its unique art style coupled with the moves and
abilities represented by the cards establishes not only the context
of this world but also its tone. The cards available to each
character and the kind of fighting they engage in demonstrate details of
setting and culture in this dystopian world of steel and horror. A
broader tone is quickly established through the cards use of strong
colours and often violent imagery as they speak to the game’s
content and establish what the player can expect during their time
here. By having its mechanics create this baseline, Library of Ruina
can play on those ideas in its narrative and they provide something
to fall back onto during long periods of progression so the core through-line of the work can be maintained even in the story’s
absence.
Conclusion
The many avenues for presentation and the way it can seamlessly merge
into a visual novel narrative make card battlers a smooth second
element of a hybrid. They can represent the emotions of its themes
and characters while having the player engage with them in a very
direct fashion. Tone and identity form around how these cards
showcase the cast and world they inhabit in an understated manner. When
battles are fought the chaotic nature of their systems allow the
player to feel the back and forth of combat and never truly be in
control of the situation. By pairing a visual novel with a card
battler the narrative gains access to a new level of symbolism it can
weave in and out of as needed.
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