Sunday, January 21, 2024
Under Pressure
As
a medium visual novels lack many ways to get the player to make
split second decisions and one of the few they do have is the Timed
Choice. These are as simple as they sound, the player is presented
with a normal choice but must consider and act on it under the
pressure of a time limit. Some games show the timer ticking down
while others merely state that the clock is ticking leaving the
player in dark about how much time is left. Both offer a precious
avenue to apply stress in calculated amounts at the developer’s
discretion and can be fine tuned through the spacing between Timed
Choices or their narrative placement. Despite their utility they are
a relatively infrequent inclusion due to the inherent issues of tone
caused by stressing the player in visual novels aiming for a more
relaxed or measured experience. However, the spread of genres making
use of Timed Choices is wide with everything from horror to comedy
putting its benefits into practice for vastly different effects.
Let’s race against the clock and discover how the Timed Choice has
been used in visual novels.
Death Breathing Down Your Back
Under
pressure people are prone to making mistakes and Timed Choices can be
used to deliberately cause this reaction for the player. This is especially
effective when backed up by an atmosphere which already places a
sense of dread and foreboding onto the player and as such horror
loves this type of choice. Here it serves the purpose of making the
threat of death posed to the characters seem more immediate as the
player suddenly has to make choice in roughly the same time-frame as
the people they are playing, putting them into the character’s
shoes. It also acts as a way for the game to follow through on the
promises of a gruesome ending implied in the existence of whatever
monster or threat is stalking the halls and increase the likelihood
of the player choosing the wrong option thus witnessing said demise.
This helps create a sense of actual consequence to the choices and a
fear of failure to reinforce the tension that horror feeds off.
 |
| When every choice is a puzzle adding in a time limit creates tension |
Death
Mark showcases this approach to Timed Choices very well throughout
its entire length. The first feature to note is the relative sparsity
of this type of choice as the game want to save their impact for key
moments in order to not reduce the effectiveness of this tool or
irritate the player who might feel hounded by the game. Alongside
this is their connection to the monsters the protagonist faces, the
majority of the Timed Choices focusing around his encounters with
them and give a more direct feeling to their lethality and the odd
set of rules each is governed by. These choices form a short test to
make sure the player has been paying attention to the clues about the
monster which have been unveiled so far. This is an important role
given the way the ‘boss fights’ against the monsters rely on the
following of a proper series of actions the game has hinted at,
meaning the Timed Choices tell the player that they should be paying
attention for future events.
Think Fast
Introducing
a timing element into a scene inevitably gives it a sense of forward
momentum since the game is pushing the player for a response. In this
trait we can see another common use of the Timed Choice, providing a
feeling of action and excitement. Titles focused around the Thriller
genre love to make use of the Timed Choice as a complementary feature
for climatic moments involving life or death stakes resulting in
increased tension. In many ways this usage is similar to how other
type of games place quick time events (QTEs) in cinematics in order to
provide the player an bit of active participation even in the more passive
sections. Hybid visual novels like AI: Somnium Files often mix Timed
Choice in with QTEs due to how much they complement each other and
demand a different type of quick reflex. It also reflects the
importance the game places of narrative by demanding the player
consider the consequence of their actions even when suddenly
presented with a choice.
 |
| A ticking clock can be an exciting prospect |
For
visual novels, choices drive home the importance of certain character
actions and act as the player’s only real avenue of control meaning Timed Choices offers an extra spice to proceedings. The length of
time available to make the choice is quite long in Thrillers and it is unlikely
the player will not be able to consider the options properly. In fact
the options are often made deliberately simplistic in order to avoid
confusion since the aim here is be a form of reaction test to
encourage engagement rather than a challenging obstacle and the right
answer is thus make obvious. We can look to BUSTAFELLOWS for the
simple nature of this form of Timed Choices. Here the choices that
are presented to the player have generally been outlined in the
proceeding scene and just demand they choose rather than make a
logical deduction based on facts from elsewhere in the narrative.
Through this clear presentation it keeps its exciting tone while not
making the player feel lost or confused as the game asks them to think fast
and they gets a shot of adrenaline as the clock ticks down.
Comedy In Panic
Sometimes
the suddenness and pressure of a Time Choice can lend it a certain
absurdity which leads to laughter rather than tension. It is this
contrast which comedy visual novels tap into when they make use of
this kind of choice. They are used infrequently in order to ensure
when they do appear it is a complete surprise to catch the player off
guard and this is complemented by the out there nature of the options
presented. Often the game will not even wait the full duration of the
timer before forcing an outcome on the player with a certain comedic
timing that lends itself to making the player laugh at their own lack
of control. The contents of these choices is always of no consequence
to communicate to the player the low value of any outcome and add a
certain levity to the surrounding events. Everything is put into
making the Timed Choice a form of meta joke and points out the nature
of the medium itself. The Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai! games
provide a good example of how this is implemented in practice. Over
the entire series there have been very few Timed Choices and
they are all sprung on the player without warning in scenes where a
somewhat absurd tone has already been established to ensure they are
not too much of a shock. They are also in line with the established
brand of humour the games have put a lot of effort into cultivating
so shifting between the banal and the insane required for a Timed
Choice makes sense in this context.
 |
| Maji Koi's humour uses every trick in the book |
Conclusion
Controlling
how someone engages with a game system is always a powerful tool and
it is doubly so when it applies pressure on them. This is a feature
visual novels rarely have access to without using another gameplay
style alongside themselves and as such Timed Choices have been put to
use across the medium. Horror titles take advantage of the pressure
to instil a sense of panic and fear while paying off the promised
violence when the player makes the wrong choice. When the choices are
made simple and clear they can be put to use within a Thriller
setting to help sell the heart pumping tension in the same way QTEs
do for other games. Timed Choices have an inherent absurdity to them
due to the artificial nature of their demands and this can be played
around with for comic effect in order to get people laughing. These
different angles on the same system showcase why a single element
can provide interesting new possibilities for the presentation of
ideas and tone within visual novels.
