Sunday, November 12, 2023
Breaking Through The Firmament
When
looking up at the stars how can one not be filled with a sense of
wonder? Since humans first stood upright we have told stories about
what lies in the expanse above our heads. In the past this would have
been the realm of gods and mythical creatures, but, now that people
can reach it, the tales have shifted into the subject of
today’s article, space sci-fi. These are narratives focus
around futuristic societies with technology beyond are own who are
capable of travelling easily from their planet to the void beyond. This can
be anywhere from a more ground depiction of having these people only
able to travel into orbit around their own planet to full blown
faster than light travel across the galaxy. For visual novels this is
not a particularly popular setting compared to the likes of the
present day or high fantasy, but what there is has a unique flare to
it that no other medium is quite capable of capturing. It is in
visual novel’s tendency towards intimacy and introspection that we
can find what makes these space sci-fi games such powerful
experiences. Let’s count down to lift off and see how visual novels
have adapted this imaginative space.
Just Above Our Heads
Choosing
to embrace space sci-fi within a setting relatively technologically
similar to our own, but just slightly further along provides some unique
opportunities to engage with our present while still holding onto the
captivating allure of the far future. By having a grounding in concepts
familiar to the player, there is less of a need to constantly explain
ideas than there would be in a setting in the more distant future and
it can avoid a lot of bloat often caused through exposition. On top
of this it can rely on our empathy for the known to build a
connection between player and characters or strengthen the identity
of the game and this is especially true if the story spends some of
its time planetside surrounded by icons and imagery close to the
present day. Visual novel’s intimacy also allows this familiarity
to extend to the cultural conventions inherent in our present world
and use this to compare and contrast with the forms of space travel avavilable for narrative purposes.
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| Policenauts is an odd game in so many ways |
Policenauts showcases
this balance through mixing astronauts with police detectives and
taking the crime drama into space. The technology in the game is only
slightly better than our own but it uses it to highlight specific
aspects of human nature and it takes on the duel role of representing
human ambitions as well as their darker aspects that cannot be
shaken off even the face of progress. It also splits its time
between the space and earth sections just as its characters do and
treads that line between them to create a believable setting which
plays up both halves to make the cast face truths about themselves
and reflect these back onto our own world. On the other end of this
side of the space sci-fi we have Soul Link. While this one is
definity closer to the more futuristic type of game, it has a relatively grounded
portrayal of the dangers of space and the
focus is around being trapped on a single spacestation. This visual novel reminds the
player that space is not all fun and games and being inside a
spaceship or station is a form of being trapped since there is no
easy way to get off and if something goes wrong it could spell your
death. Soul Link also uses its terrorists to provide a more direct
source of danger and remind the player of similar groups of people
who exist in the real world in order to make them consider the
motives of the characters involved through their own experiences.
Where No Man Has Gone Before
If the game is already set in space, it might as well go the whole way
and be set in a far future with faster than light spaceship and other
advanced technology. This is the attitude many developers take and
has resulted in this being the most common type of space sci-fi.
There are many good reasons for choosing this approach, chief among
them is how to fulfils the exploration and discovery fantasy born out
of the space race by presenting the player with mysterious and
wondrous new worlds. What a player uncovers does not need to be
exclusively exotic planets for there can be strange cultures or just
humans who are both friends and foes. The beauty of the unknown is
that anything is possible and it also creates much needed tension
within the narrative. Placed alongside a compelling cast of humans
and the not so human and the result is often a roller-coaster ride as
the characters and the player both come to terms with the
emotions and trials this journey to the stars brings. Even the large
amount of exposition this type of space sci-fi often bring is wielded
as another avenue to explore and slowly come to understand what makes
this universe tick.
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| A sense of wonder is important for space sci-fi |
For example take ALPHA-NIGHTHAWK which is a
visual novel that fully takes advantage of out
the concepts in space sci-fi to crank things up to the absurd. Here
the player will find strange spaceships, flashy mecha and people with
animal ears or full animal bodies. These choices lead to a world of
surprises to keep the player entertained and it gives the game that
sense of stepping into the unknown. In the Sunrider games we can see
a more standard use of space sci-fi in the form of the starship
captain fantasy. Rather than a simply being wondrous, space for
Sunrider is a land of adventure where the brave step forward to prove
themselves. Hence why these game focus around fighting and exploring
the ruins of a once powerful ancient civilisation. This allows the
games to leverage the space sci-fi tendency towards grand universe
spanning concepts in a more human form as a lot of the mysteries
involve the various people within the setting.
Explore Ourselves In Spaces Unknown
No
matter the nature of space sci-fi visual novels, the spirit of exploring
something unknown is always present within their narratives. This
extends beyond the obvious exploration of the strange endless void of
space and into ideas that examine the inner thoughts and
motivations of its characters. In a place as alien as space what does
it mean to be human? Its isolated nature allows visual novels to do
what they do best and emphasise the connections between people on an
intimate level by using it to create an intensity to the emotions of
its cast as they struggle through the their problems without external
help. There is an interesting design space opened by this interaction
in the form of taking a society or ideal and pushing it to its
extreme to examine what makes it tick as well as its flaws. Hate Plus
shows us what focusing in on this idea can achieve as we get to see
the fall of a vibrate culture in its isolated colony craft. There is
no escape for the characters and they are confronted with the reality
of what is happening which is made all the more personal to the
player through how it effects Mute, their AI companion. Despite being
only a series of text logs, its familiar ideas can be cleanly
examined due to the distance provided by the space sci-fi setting
since it can provide a contained area which is not a direct
reflection of our own world in order to keep as much player bias out
of the consideration as possible.
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| Text logs have never been so compelling |
Conclusion
Beyond
our blue sky is an endless black void perfect for all kinds of
imaginative stories and visual novels know just how to take advantage
of this space. It can deal with relatively low sci-fi settings where
technology is only slightly better than our own in order to explore
relevant issues in the modern world or to build an immediate
connection to a place the player is familiar with. The opposite
extreme of a high sci-fi setting and its almost fantastical
spaceships provides a sense of wonder and exploration both of the
universe but also the characters themselves. What visual novels bring
to space sci-fi is their unique intimacy and capability to deal with
complicated issues in a human manner without losing the distance from
the real world provided by the genre. The resulting balance is an
engaging take on one of the most imaginative spaces available for
video games and it still has room to grow while delivering new
masterful titles.
