Sunday, February 18, 2024
The Completionist Drive
It
is human nature to want to be rewarded for our accomplishments hence
why people are so happy to get a bit of paper at the end of a
university course. Games love to tap into this emotional response
through Achievements and visual novels are no exception. Achievements
are generally used as both a system of rewarding the player and a means of
encouraging them to engage with the full range of what the game has
to offer. This is especially important for visual novels where the
space the player has to express themselves is limited so providing an
incentive to ensure they get to experience everything helps create a
well rounded title. How exactly do visual novels use Achievements to
facilitate this aim? Let’s tick off a check list and find out.
Sense Of Accomplishment
Merely
progressing through a game alone may not have the needed sense of forward momentum
as we can lose sight of how far we have come which is even more of an
issue the longer the game goes on. Hence why many visual novels makes use
of chapter or route based Achievements that trigger on certain key
milestones. This allows the player to have a proper sense of where
they are in the narrative as well as providing a pat on the back for
the effort they made to reach this point. In doing so the game
creates a positive feedback loop where the player is drip fed these
Achievements and feels incentivised to continue rather than losing
steam. Using Achievements in this manner is standard practice for
video games in general but for visual novels it holds a greater
weight than in other mediums. This is due to how extremely structured
and inflexible many of them are at their core even with all their
branching paths. As such these milestone Achievements act as one of
the only means of allowing the player to look back on their journey
through the narrative and see the path they took to get there, which
is important as a means of forming a strong impression in their
memory.
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| Overcoming a challenge and being rewarded is a powerful feeling |
Almost any visual novel could be taken as an example so let’s
pick one out of the hat. The Great Ace Attorney is entirely linear in
its structure with clearly defined cases which must be completed in
succession. The repetition inherent in the investigation and court
sections can lead to a sense of going in circles. To counteract this The Great Ace Attorney has Achievements at the end of each case to inform the player that they have
progressed in a tangible and easy to comprehend way. The slightly
disconnected nature of the Achievements prevents them from drawing
too much attention away from the ongoing events being presented which
is reinforced by the Achievements brief appearance on screen. They
exist here to acknowledge what the player has done in an obvious and
nonintrusive way that can be quickly pushed aside but still referenced
later on.
Encouraging Interaction
Not
all Achievements are given out in a linear fashion just for
progressing through the game, many of them ask the players to perform
actions outside of normal play patterns. These can be anything making
specific choices to finding hidden secrets by poking the game in ways
the player may not have initial thought of. All Achievements of this type
are an intentional effort on the part of the developers to direct
their audience towards the title in its entirety and try and prevent
them from becoming blinkered as they follow the central path. By showcase the possibilities the game can offer they can
encourage players to act beyond what is required of them even when
there is no immediate Achievement attached since a precedent has been
set for interesting content to be stowed away in these corners. Steins Gate’s phone is an excellent example of this as
there are multiple Achievements associated with it as well as it being
the primary mechanism for choices. Beyond the immediate utility it
provides is also contains small interactions through texts as well as
various customisation options. However, these are easy to ignore when
the main narrative is so gripping and they could easily be over looked in
favour of moving forwards. So the Achievements fill the gap and draw
the player’s attention back to the other features of the phone to
ensure they will not be missing any of the game’s content.
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| The phone is surprisingly complicated |
When the
visual novel in question leans more heavily into supplementary
gameplay this need for Achievements takes on an even greater
importance. One such series of games which lean into this element are
the Utawarerumono titles. Each one mixes their visual novel sections with
SRPG levels to sell the conflict of the story and this split the
player’s focus as they shift their minds between these two vastly
different types of gameplay. Here the Achievements act as a means to
prevent the player from just skimming over the SRPG sections due to
their more complicated nature and a desire to continue the story. They
do this in the same why Steins Gate does by pointing out the possible
options open during gameplay. Due to the more expansive nature of
this SRPG element it is far more effective than with the phone
example as learning the ins and outs of the system can make the
player feel smart as they overcome powerful foes through tricks they
picked up as they pursued Achievements.
Controlling Expectations
Before
the player even load up a visual novel for the first time, they are
likely to have seen its Achievements even if only in passing since
they are often shown on the game’s library page. This leaves an
initial impression on the player as to the tone and content of the
title. There are three parts which inform the player’s view of
Achievements and they are their names, the tasks required to get them
and the small pictures associated with them. Together they sell the
content of the game in a succinct manner by embodying the themes and
atmosphere of the entire experience. Let’s look at VA-11 HALL-A’s
Achievements for an example of the effect this can achieve. They
present the character focus of the game by having many of their tasks
being related to specific characters and the characters featuring
prominently on the artwork. The extensive use of humours in Achievement
names indicates the tone of the game to the player without a second
of playtime. Mentioning elements which are obviously not standard
visual novel gameplay helps the player understand what kind of game
they are in for. Achievements’ purpose from this angle is to help
set the player’s expectations for the contents of the game without
them having engaged with it at all.
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| Highlighting what people are in for is key to creating a cohesive tone |
This can work as a means of
establishing the genre and narrative density of a visual novel. Take
AI: The Somnium Files which has a lot of hidden achievements when the
title is first started and since the player can see this they are
aware that something is being hidden from them. Through this the
player comes to expect a mystery with twist and turns which could be
spoiled by the Achievements. The large number of them suggests a
dense game which will demand the player’s time and concentration.
Setting these expectations early on makes sure the player can
acclimatise to title quickly while helping them understand what the
future hold without spelling it out for them explicitly.
Conclusion
Although
the phrase ‘a sense of pride and accomplishment’ has taken on
somewhat negative connotations for many people who play games, there
is no denying how much power it has over a player when done
correctly. Achievements offer the most flexible means of utilising
this strength and it can provide the needed motivation for the player
to keep progressing through the visual novel. The way each
Achievement is put together also has a profound effect on its
perception and by extension the game as a whole which can be played
with to properly align expectations. On top of these benefits it can
shape how someone engages with the game by pointing out what is
possible within the systems of the game in order to ensure nothing is
missed. Overall it is clear why visual novels make use of both
external and internal Achievements and they should definitely be
considered when planning your own title.
