Sunday, July 9, 2023
Through The Lies And Deception
Of
all the genres Mystery is perhaps the one visual novels have the most
tools of engage with. The levels of subtly and the
precise execution needed to ensure a balance between the known and
unknown so that the player is never lost is no easy task and
demands a degree of control many games lack. At the same time they
have to be able to spin other delicate plates such as character
empathy and a natural feeling escalation to make sure none of these can come
at the cost of the core mystery. The ability of visual novels to
achieve these aims smoothly can be seen in the many types of mystery
on offer from murder mystery to death games to supernatural
happenings and with new ones popping up every day. So let’s puzzle our way
through the villain's web and find out what mystery means for visual
novels.
Subtly, Setup and Solvable Mysteries
The
most important parts of any mystery are the clues provided to the
player and the game’s ability to convey them. If they are too
obvious then the player will figure out what is going on before the
big reveal and too subtle then they may miss out on information
leading to a feeling that the mystery makes no sense. Fortunately for
visual novels, their natural narrative closeness to events opens a
space into which clues and hints can be dropped without seeming out
of place due to the way they are blended into the words and actions
of the characters and world. Not only does this include what is said, but also the way something is framed as there is a lot of
control over how something is presented to the player available to visual novels. This setup
ultimately results in a more satisfying pay off when the player find
out which of their deductions were correct while still being
surprised at the twists offered. There are few visual novels with a
more complicated central mystery than Virtue’s Last Reward yet it
makes the most out of each element to keep the player informed even
if they do not know it yet. Its clean integration of cleaver hints
into exposition and narrative beats as well as the way it makes full
use of its leanings into 3d space to convey the subtle intentions of
its cast gives the game a sense effortless intrigue to its mysteries.
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| Every interaction in Ace Attorney is a gold mine of clues and cues |
However, you don’t need a grand mystery to make use of the tools
available to visual novels as Ace Attorney shows with its individual
cases and larger than life characters. Initially it might seen to be
the furtherest thing from subtly, but upon closer examination it
reveals multiple levels for the presentation of clues. The most
obvious of these are the investigation segments and this extends
beyond the clues we are immediately presented with into the way the
game cues the player into which characters to keep an eye on through
subtle slip ups in their part. This extends into the court scenes
where how a conversation plays out often provides more information
than the words with which you are trying to trip up the culprit. In both
cases the result is an immensely satisfying reveal as the player and
game share a knowing look while the curtain falls.
Intimacy With The Detective
A
compelling and well structured mystery is nothing if the player does
not care for the person investigating it. The detective comes in
many forms from a professional to those who are forced into the role by
circumstance. They are generally the focal point of all conflict
in the narrative and by extension the mysteries. Visual novels tend
towards an intimacy centring around characters and in particular the
point of view character who in mysteries is often the detective or
their assistant. This presence inside their mind and the way it allows us
into their lives and struggles in an all consuming manner helps
create a parallel between their personal victories and their solving
of the mysteries the game’s story rotates around. Through these
bonds visual novels can create a cohesive experience and
avoid any potential issues were the mysteries seem detached from the
detective’s own struggles or the detective being uninteresting and
pushed into the background by the mysteries.
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| Detectives come in all shapes and sizes |
Despite the fact that
both Higurashi and Umineko switch between point of view characters,
they know to make sure the player is engaged with the current
detective through how much the characters has to lose if they fail and uses
paranoia and misdirection to put you into their head space. These game
series understand how to use the perspective provided by visual
novels to shape a relationship between player and the detective’s
plight which they milk for every drop it is worth. In a similar vein,
Chaos Child uses the detective perspective to misdirect, narrows their perception of the world to down to a
point and makes them clearly unreliable. Yet they are our only window
into this mystery so we have hope to piece together the truth by
closely examining their behaviour to get a sense of how they think.
This subtly moves the player into the detective’s head space and results in a very similar connection and impact to both Higurashi and
Umineko, showcasing how wide the means of applying this idea are for
visual novels.
Open Narrative Exploration
From
a higher level design perspective the structure of the narrative
space offered by visual novels and the player’s means of exploring
it contribute a lot to the medium’s compatibility with mystery
stories. The routes and winding pathways visual novel are know for
are the perfect home to hide mysteries within while still having an
exceptional degree of control over when and what is shown. Moreover
the way this open structure encourages the player to explore the
space around the mystery for clues and move towards an understanding
of both the mystery and the greater narrative they are passing
through. In doing this visual novels can provide engagement with the
player being allowed to proceed in an order decided by them and at
the same time subtly controlling their perceptions through the previously
mention methods. This leads to the mysteries permeating every level
from meta to micro which makes the experience of playing a mystery
focused visual novel an captivating affair. We can see this
practice even as far back as YU-NO with its free-form common route
and various heroine routes all feeding the player’s curiosity as to
what is around the next metaphorical corner with the teasing of the possibilities of a different path.
Emphasising this idea of structure as part of the mystery has almost
become its own subgenre of visual novels which follow in the
footsteps of games like YU-NO and maybe more influentially Ever 17
which has resulted in this design opportunity going relatively
unexplored outside this niche.
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| YU-NO loves to encourage you to explore it |
Conclusion
Few
genres require the level of technical and narrative polish to achieve
their aims that the mystery genre demands from its developers. The
delicate balance present in these games makes them a difficult
proposition for many since a single split up with how you frame your
clues can have the whole experience coming crashing down. However, it
is precisely these restriction which allow visual novels to merge
with the genre so well. This manifests in everything from its ability
to give the stories a narrative closeness which offers both a chance
to blend clues seamlessly into its scenes as well as create a bond
with the detective to the more open structure exploration that gives
a sense of investment and agency for the player to latch on to. In
combination the result is a toolset that has produced some of the
greatest mystery titles in any medium and still has space to grow as
new avenues of structural expression are developed.
