Sunday, January 14, 2024
That Time of The Year
Once
a year people come together to pull pranks or other humorous activities
on each other in an effort to lighten up their lives and visual
novels have become a vessel for this practice resulting the birth of a
genre. The games which spawn from it are parodies of established
titles or series where their essence is exaggerated for comic effect
while keeping the qualities that made them so popular in the first
place. They also embrace their short form and throw away nature to
explore one shot style narratives not possible within the main
series. All of this is in service of something that is more than just
a simple joke, but instead a humorous celebration of what the games
have achieved both inside their play time and beyond to their real world
success. This analysis will consider titles which fall into the
spirit of this genre rather than simply those released in or around
April 1st since the genre has grown well beyond its
confines. Let’s subvert expectations and dive into the weird world
of the April Fools visual novel.
One Trick Pony
Being
a self contained title which exists only for a single humorous
purpose is by no means the drawback it at first appears. Choosing to
embrace the nature of a one shot offers a chance to be something a
little different from the established ideas of the series and present
a vision of an alternative path. Obviously this is played
up for comic effect but the underlying examination of what the
games mean and how they came to be, works wonders to add a nice
background texture to what is otherwise light entertainment through
the contrast with what came before. Keeping this in check is
important as the game does not want to stray too far away what drew
people to the original and while a novel concept might initially
delight, people are still here to see the something reflecting the old ideas and may lose
patience with this new angle. A short play time does a lot to
mitigate this issue through its low demand on player and it helps
make the prospect of playing something slightly different more
appealing.
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| Oh no the catboys are hot! |
Neko Para -Catboys Paradise- offers up a perfect example
of how switching things up works in this genre. It is role reversal
of the original Neko Para games with catboys instead of the original
catgirls and replacing the female character archetypes with their
male equivalents. The result is a surprisingly different feeling game
that showcases how keeping the same base concept but shifting the
characters results in something fresh. However, it never takes this
transformation particularly seriously and constantly pokes fun at
itself and at the concepts fundamental to the original games as it
points out their absurdity through this new angle. In combination
with an exaggerated version of the series’ humour, it keeps the
player engaged for its short play time and works well as the one off
title that explore what the series could have been.
The Art Of The Parody
Simply
pointing and laughing at the flaws and absurdities of the original
work is a fast way to form a disconnect with your audience who have
invested in that title. Such is the struggle of the parody, which
must balance its reliance of the original game for the source of its
humour and the dangers of taking the joke too far. The solution many
parodies have found is to find the core of what made the original
appealing and take it then refine it into its purest essence. From
this starting point they can use the inherent absurdity born from the
exaggeration caused by the refinement and play off it for comic
effect. In doing this the parody can also leverage the player’s own
love for the original since what attracted them to it is on full
display in the parody drawing a line between the old and new while offering a
similar feeling to it, albeit through a less serious lens.
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| Characters are often the best tool for the April Fools game |
Take VA-11
Hall-A KIDS for example, this spin off the cyberpunk bartending
simulator abandons most these elements in favour of what is truly
important, its characters. They are the part of the original game
people resonated with and built an attachment to rather than the world
itself, so KIDS chose to focus on them in order to draw out the core
of what made the game great. It places the cast in a school setting to
get as far away from the original as possible and allow the characters to shine
while showing off what made them fun in the first place. Through the
silliness of the shift in setting, KIDS has a somewhat whimsical tone and
plays into this by making the events the characters are involved in
be low stakes to avoid any player potentially feeling offended when
it pokes fun at the original game.
A Celebration of The Game
Comedy might be at the core of a
parody, but to leave a lasting impact it needs a form of sincerity
baked into it so the title can stand on its own. Often this involves being a
celebration of the game’s heritage rather than just its core ideas.
The path that the developers and the players have walked down together
to reach this stage is a common touching point between the two
parties and allows for a form of dialogue when used within a game. By
showing that the developer is aware of this through the aspects of the
series they include within the parody, they can transform something
which was previously only a simple joke into an appreciation of the
players for keep the series alive.
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| Knowing where you came from can help you build engaging humour |
For The
Murder
of Sonic the Hedgehog
this is created through
giving each member of
Sonic’s ensemble some screen time to snapshot why they are beloved.
It is they who best
represent the sprawling franchise Sonic has become with its toes in
many types of gameplay, narratives and consoles. The characters have been built
up over time and this results in players having many memories with them so invoking them in this
manner acts as a nod to the player that this series they love has
come a long way. This is capped off with the whole cast coming
together to defeat the threat and reach a peaceful resolution just
as they have countless times before, but here it hold a certain
nostalgia due to the prior focus on the past while still wrapping up
with a sense of future
adventures ahead for the cast. Playing into these strengths allowed
The Murder
of Sonic the Hedgehog
to be well received
beyond its status as an April Fools game and is remembered in a
positive light by Sonic fans.
Conclusion
Making
a simple joke is an easy task, but having it leave a mark in people’s
memory is quite another. The quirky visual novel genre of April Fools
games merges parody and earnestness in an established series and puts it
in a unique position. On the one hand these games are one shots by their
very nature and tend to lean into that trait in order to offer a
completely different angle on the ideas which came before.
On the other they must not make their humour and subversion come at
the expense of what player’s liked about the original or they might
become offended and lose interest. Alongside this runs an
understanding of the series' heritage shared by player and
developer alike and in turn the game is often shaped as a celebration
of what the games has achieved. Creating an April Fools visual novel
is a process which requires an excellent knowledge of both your own
titles and your audience’s expectations for them, something to keep
in mind if you plan on making your own addition to the genre.
