Sunday, September 17, 2023
What Shall I Be Today
There
is a leaning in visual novels to have some degree of self insert
aspect in their protagonists due to the prevalence and intensity of
first person narratives. Some of them take this to its natural conclusion by
giving the player a means of deciding parts of the character they are
going to inhabit and these manifest as customisation options. They
range from choosing the protagonist’s gender and pronoun to
directly naming them to visual elements such as clothes. Each builds
upon the foundational idea that the more control the player has over
a character the more they will project onto them and empathise with
their plight. While this might bring to mind images of dating sim
style games, there are a great variety of visual novels which
make use of this technique to achieve a similar
but distinct effect, from subversion to secondary character
reactions. How and when this customisation is presented also decides
a lot about its perception and there are many ways to bring it into
the game for differing effects. Let’s load up the character creator
and find out how visual novels use it to charm the player.
Naming Characters
By
far the most common form of player customisation is the ability to
name the protagonist in some fashion. This could be anything from
just their first name all the way up to naming everything about them
including what nickname they are called. Regardless of the extent of
the name customisation given, the effect is a sense of co-authorship
with the game and room to self insert into the protagonist you have helped
form. When you name something you impart a bit of yourself into it in
the same way a parent does when naming their child and the bond
formed is a surprisingly potent one. For visual novels, the developer
and the player are the co-authors and parents of the protagonist that
the player named and this joint venture places the player in a
supportive role cheering on the character. This method is common in
otome titles such as Collar X Malice where the developers have a set
identity for the protagonist in mind but want the player to
understand that without losing the link between player and character.
In Collar X Malice’s case the player gets to give the protagonist a
first name but the family name is set by the game as Hoshino and in
doing so makes it clear to the player what type of control over the
character they will have during the game. This manifests as the choices which decided
the ultimate fate of the protagonist, but not what type of person they
are nor how they react to the consequences of these choices. Providing
distinct divides about what the player can expect allows for these games
to avoid disappointing the player as well as giving them some agency
to help engage them.
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| And the player can be the protagonist |
On the other hand being able choose the entire
name of the protagonist let the player completely sink into the
character as a self-insert by let the game signal its intent to allow
for such a type of role-playing. Taking a look at Doki Doki
Literature Club shows how effect this can be at getting the player
immersed in the setting and how it can be used against them to
subvert expectations. Since Doki Doki plays off the tropes of romance
visual novels it was only natural it would have a nameable protagonist from
which the player can view the narrative and project onto in order to
better emphasise with the heroines. This closeness
is taken advantage of by the game when it starts to address the
player more directly and the established link formed by the
self-insert naming makes sure this does not come out of nowhere and
is instead an expansion of what the game has already established.
Either approach leans into the open relationship between game and
player in a collaborative way leading a generally amicable air around
the experience.
Choosing Gender And Pronouns
Standing
equal to naming in terms of character customisation is the ability to
choose gender and pronouns, but the effects these two have on the
visual novel differ quite a lot. Creating a protagonist who can be
any gender or use any pronoun the player desires would be an
extremely difficult task for the narratively intense medium, so
instead many developers who use this customisation element tend to
have their protagonist be silent or say as little as possible. This
way the player can fill in the gaps with the identity they have
assigned to the character. However, another angle is to have the
other characters acknowledge this choice by it bringing up in natural
conversation and having it affect the characters' view of the
protagonist. For a good example of this we should look to Analogue: A
Hate Story which gives the player agency of the protagonist’s
gender. This is particularly important given the emphasis on
traditional Korea gender roles and so the manifestation of this
viewpoint, Mute, treats the protagonist subtly differently depending
on their gender. These changes are never heavy handed and generally
exist as as slight alterations in her speech patterns or off hand
comments that she thinks of as minor but reveal to the player a lot
about her world view. Unlike with a name there is no need to
constantly remind the player of their choice in a direct manner as in
the real world the reactions of people to gender are far less
pronounced to the point of only the slightest hints existing about
how they see you.
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| Mute certainly has interesting things to say... |
Visual Customisation
The
ability to customise the appearance of characters is most
prevalent in hybrid visual novels that have an RPG or dating sim
element as their companion. This choice of secondary genre stems from
the role-playing aspect already having a presence there and allowing
the player freedom when it comes to the visual identity of their
characters. There is no stronger
element of our appearance than the clothes we wear with their striking
colours and as you can
imagine this makes them the primary means of visual customisation.
The player is often given them as unlockables that lets them treat the
characters like they are dress up dolls to express what the player
thinks these people should be or what best matches their
personalities. Just as child get attached to their favourite toy or
action figure, so too does the tool of visual customisation make the
player invested in these characters. Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side makes use of visual
customisation to help the player project onto the blank slate
protagonist so they can feel as if they are romancing the heroes by
proxy. Being able to pick out the outfit the protagonist will wear
gives the player room to conceive of the character as a person they
can relate to and who has similar tastes in both clothes and men.
Even the slightest touch of empathy can do a lot to bridge the gap
between the real and the fictional in a game so centred around it as
its key selling point.
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| Clothes make the woman? |
Conclusion
Giving
the player control over the characters in any capacity can be a scary
thing for a developer as the player could ruin their vision for the
characters. However, the advantages of this choice for certain types
of games far out way the risk of the player giving the protagonist a
stupid name. Through naming a character the player can engage in a
co-authorship of them or be able to completely sink into the role of
the protagonist which allows the developer to set their expectations
as well as create empathy. Should the game also use gender and
pronouns as customisation options then the opportunity arises to have
the other characters change their reactions based on the player’s
choice to make them feel more involved in the narrative. If that is
not enough then the developer can give up aspects of the character’s
visual identity to provide a compelling source of player investment.
Not all visual novels demand customisation and those with extremely
defined characters will not want to give up any control of them, but
the benefits are worth considering if you are creating a game with a
less defined protagonist or cast.
