Sunday, February 19, 2023
Tales From A Distant Land
How
a visual novel is structured is perhaps one of the most important, but
also the least immediately obvious, element for the player. The way in
which the pieces of the narrative fit together often determines the
kind of story you are going to tell and tools available to impart
emotions and ideas. As such the choice to assume a structure based
around Episodic Stories is something worth examining to see exactly
what consequences it has on the games created within it. Over the
course of this analysis the subtleties of this approach to
storytelling for visual novels will be put on full display and also
the opportunities it offers for your own work as well as how these
features might be integrated into it.
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| Episodes offer many unique opportunities |
For
this article the idea of Episodic Stories will be tackled from two
angles, single visual novels where the structure of the game is episodic and a series of visual novels where one game is an episode of
a greater narrative. These two are distinct in their implementation but
share a lot of the design features which characterise episodic
storytelling and putting them side by side will reveal what makes
visual novels a prime medium for this style of games.
Internal Episodic Struture
When
it comes to the episodic style within a single visual novel there is
one method which utilises it in its purest form and this is the
Anthology. These games are constructed from a series of mostly self
contained episodes that have an overarching direction while not
influencing each other to any great extent. This method of narrative
presentation allows for the developer to tell a variety of tales with
differing themes and also keep a consistent vision between them
through common elements due to the structure of the visual novel
setting the player’s expectations for the isolated nature of each
one. It might not even have a set point of view character as with
Corpse Party: Book of Shadows which uses the flexible nature of the anthology format to make each of its episodes focus around
different scenarios but it also keeps the core idea of a repeating cycle
present in each one so there is a strong sense that they are all tied
together.
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| The anthology is a time tested format for a reason |
Even with a strong through line, this kind of Episodic
Structure can never truly escape the feeling it is just a collection
of pieces rather than a cohesive narrative, since its purity makes its
core elements immediately obvious to the player and they will always
have this at the back of their mind. Some games, such as Ace
Attorney, attempt to mitigate this issue with the inclusion of other
mechanics, like point and click and court room challenges, to provide
stronger connective tissue through another method of player
interaction with the story. However, even these possible aspects can
have the opposite effect by contrasting with, and thus highlighting,
the self contained nature of each episode and drawing unnecessary
attention to it.
On
the opposite extreme are the visual novels which use the episodic
structure but do not openly attempt to present it to the player and
instead blend the beginnings and endings of each story together as
best they can. In this case the episodes are generally consigned to a
longer common route where they act as tool to control the pacing of
this section and the more modular nature of this approach helps hide
any possible clunkiness in the transition into a character route. Visual
novels utilising this structure tend to belong to the Slice of Life
genre with each episode be a different scenario in the characters'
everyday lives and the space provided through it facilitates choices
that reflect only upon the present moment to mitigate the
expectations for consequences. The common route of Cafe Stella is an
excellent example of this practice as it has various self
contained episodes about things which happen at the cafe that are
blended together with a little connective tissue to form the set up
for the character routes and gives each character an episode to shine
in. The issue with this approach is how little it suits genres
outside of Slice of Life, the overall looseness of this type of
episodic structure makes the story feel like it lacks substance and
nothing of importance is happening, which is the opposite of what is
need in a more serious or more plot heavy narrative.
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| Episodes are surprisingly good at hiding other strutural elements |
By
its very nature nature episodic storytelling is repetitive, each
episode shares a similar structure with an obvious beginning, middle
and end in order to make the whole experience feel like it is a
complete whole. However, this repetition is not necessarily a
drawback for a certain kind of visual novel which makes particular
use of this feature to build up expectations in order to subvert them
later on. For these games their episodic nature gives them room to
subtly set up a pattern of events to lure the player into a false
sense of security and provide the ideas and themes that will form the
backbone of its subversion. It is a surprisingly flexible framework
as showcased by Sekien no Inganock -What a Beautiful People- which
heavily plays into the repetitive structure for the later twist while
still being able to tell engaging narratives within these restrictions
by clever and emotional writing. This is probably the hardest type of
episodic structure to use since leaning so heavily into repetition
risks boring the player before they even reach the subversion and has
to be handled with care.
External Episodic Struture
In
recent years there has been a trend for releasing shorter visual
novels as part of series of episodes within a greater world and
narrative. The reason for this shift is in part monetary, visual
novels are expensive to make while also mostly having a niche
audience to recoup the cost from and this can lead some developers
into financial problems. Creating smaller, more digestible and more
frequent releases provides a reliable stream of income for the
developer and gives the players regular doses of their favourite
stories to keep them invested in the universe. Perhaps the most
successful example of this model is Grisaia: Phantom Trigger which
has reached its eighth volume and maintains a strong fanbase. It took
the strong basis of the original Grisaia games and made a more
modular version of its core narrative structure (various girls with
issues) with fresh faces to draw in new blood. The result is a
profitable series that keeps its fans satisfied with a constant
trickle of the best aspects of the Grisaia games and keeps the series
alive.
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| Higurashi has a lot of episodes at this point |
Of
course money is not the only reason for the existence of episodic
releases for visual novels, it also offers a chance to gain the benefits of
both short and long form writing. Each individual episode is an
inherently short form exercise due to the limited space and as such
allows for a more intimate and character focused story to be told
without becoming lost in the grander narrative. On the flip-side, the
series of episodes in their totality are a long form story that
allows the developer to have more in-depth themes and plots due to
the greater amount of space available to pace them out without losing
the emotion of the individual episodes. Higurashi is a poster child
for this approach to narrative structure with each section having
been released separately and forming their self contained mysteries
which feed into the overarching mystery of the series in an engaging
feedback loop.
In Imitation Of TV Or Inherent To Visual Novels?
When
it comes to episodic storytelling the first thing most people think
of are TV shows since it is incredibility prolific in that medium due
to the need to split the viewing experience into manageable chunks.
It is clear that for many visual novels this is where they got their
ideas about how to adopt the episodic structure into their games. One
of the clearest examples of this is The Sliver Case and its sequel
which lean into detective shows both aesthetically and structurally.
To complement the grimy and noir feeling of the visuals, the games
adopts episodic elements by splitting into story into several
episodes for different characters and has each of them clearly
divided into individual narrative beats with cut-ins as if there is
going to be an advertising break which gives the player a point to
cleanly leave and come back to the game later. This imitation of of
TV undoubtedly has benefits for visual novels leaning into genres
normally covered by it but come across as strange in a medium not
limited by the same issues as it.
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| The Sliver Case really does just want to be a TV show |
Many
episodic stories in visual novels are not in imitation of TV and are
instead a variation brought about by the inherent modular nature of their
routes. Visual novels thrive in the telling of different connected
stories and the clear lines between them which often form are perfect
for dividing them into sufficient episodes to increase their
individual focus. Perhaps the strongest game to implement this idea
is Wonderful Everyday with its collection of interconnected episodes
each showcasing a different angle of the same story in a linear order
to control their impact on the player. It takes the character focus
of the standard visual novel routes and breaks it into more
digestible bits where the game can drop hints about the narrative
direction while relying on the structure itself to obscure what is
actually going on until the very end. Any medium who’s standard
structure can be easily broken down into pieces is prime territory
for episodic storytelling and visual novels are no exception to this
rule.
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| There a few game structures as memorable as this one |
As
you would expect these two approaches are not mutually exclusive
since both use a similar basis upon which to build their stories.
There are few visual novel which lean into this merger of style due
to it creating confusion in the game’s presentation and this might
prove distracting for a player who would much rather be focusing on
the narrative. However, a few games have succeed in this merger with
one example being 428: Shibuya Scramble. It openly presents its TV
influences through its use of real life photos as its primary visual
identity as well as its episodic presentation of its structure with
each one being treated like part of a TV series. This is blended with
the modular nature of visual novel routes to create a more
interconnected experience and a tighter focus on an intertwining
narrative filled with characters acting out their desires. In
combination these elements create a uniquely charming experience and
a story with a lot of wrinkles to it, but it is also clear that it is
a house of cards which could collapse if either type of structure
becomes too prominent.
Conclusion
There
is something distinctive about the ways in which visual novels have
adapted the episodic storytelling model into their structure. They at
once pay homage to their influences while also playing into the
advantages their own nature gives them with this tool. Not only is
this influence applied to single visual novels but also to entire
series of games which play up the same tricks but over a longer time
frame to keep their series alive and provide the benefits of short
and long term writing. Whether it is to hide the signs where a route
begins, betray expectations or present an anthology of individual
stories, the episodic model is here to stay within visual novels and
presents a compelling case for a the inclusion of even more free-form
styles of structure within the medium. Ultimately its use in a visual
novel comes down to how well the developer can balance its
integration with the other narrative elements they plan on utilising.
The more naturally linear your story is the less it benefits from
being broken up into episodes and instead it will kill the pacing of
the narrative. Despite this complication an episodic structure should
definitely be something you should consider the next time you start
to develop a visual novel.
