Sunday, February 11, 2024
The Dark Night Of The Soul
Dealing
with the parts of human nature we would rather not look at can be
difficult to fit into many genres due to audience expectations for
heroic tales. As such if a story wants to tackle these subjects it
needs to build its entire world and tone around them, thus was born
the Dark Fantasy. This genre takes its fantastical elements and uses
them to create an oppressive and bleak setting through which its
themes will appear as a natural extension. The fantasy elements need
not be located in entirely separate worlds to ours and they can merely be a magical layer
hidden just out of view, it just need to use these aspects to match its
intended tone. Due to the prevalence of the slice of life and romance
genres in visual novels, it is not normally a medium associated
with these grittier stories, but hidden off to the side are a wealth
of interesting Dark Fantasy tales. They make use of them same tools
which bring joy to twist in the knife and express the parts of
ourselves we do not want to see. Let’s
find out exactly how they achieve this feat and the potential
pitfalls and benefits of choosing visual novels to tell their
stories.
On A Razors Edge
When
it comes to addressing darker themes and ideas, visual novels tend to
completely embrace the player in a bleak blanket. However, this can
backfire on the game as there is a point at which the scenes become
too serious and depart from the mixed nature of our world as they
wildly galop off into unintentional parody. Just as no life is all
joy so too is it not all suffering and leaning towards either extreme
can make the player loose connection with events on screen. Their
reaction will be to laugh at how inherently absurd the bleakness is
or find its themes to be in poor taste and turn away from the title.
Both are undesirable outcomes for visual novels but it is a knifes
edge they must walk if they want to have this type of narrative. Many
attempt to mitigate this through careful spacing of the most extreme
moments so as to not overwhelm anyone in the atmosphere while still
maintaining its impact. It also serves the double purpose of
creating a thematic line through the entire work to add clarity to
the message it is presenting to the player.
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| Ummm.... I'm sure they are alright... |
An example of how to deal
with this issue well, and at the same time poorly, is How To Date A
Magical Girl!. Here the Dark Fantasy is involved in a genre shift as
the happy go lucky tone gives way to a grim reality. The subversion
is the core reason for the inclusion of the darker elements in order
to provide shock value for the change from the established status
quo. This is a double edged sword as it can alienate the player as
much as it can excite them. Direct darker themes can be a pleasant
surprise for some as they add a depth to the events beforehand and
help provide an incentive for continuing with the game in the
expectation that more are to come. They are a source of excitement
and promise about what the future holds. On the flip-side they are
also a betrayal of what the player signed up for, instead of a cute
magical girl romance they are suddenly thrust into ideas that they
may not be comfortable dealing with. This is the essence of the issue
of Dark Fantasy, by pushing boundaries it establishes its identity in a
way that is not appealing in the same universal manner as many other
genres. In this game the underlying tension here is exacerbated
through the use of it as a twist and potentially losing players as
they feel a mixture of disillusionment and disgust.
All The Evils Of The World
The
emotions and actions which define people are not always positive in
nature and it can be difficult for players to overcome their aversion
to these negative associations. Visual novels overcome this barrier
of Dark Fantasy through their tendency towards an intimate focus on
the protagonist and those around them. Rather than being something
committed by an unknown distant party it is instead someone who’s
reasons and past are known and we share the same path forwards as
them. Mixing sympathy with tragedy is key to how darker aspects of a
character’s personality can be an avenue through which the
player can relate what is happening on screen to their own
experiences and consider the way they would act in the character’s
place. This introspection is the reason visual novels and Dark
Fantasy make such a good pairing when properly executed and gives
both the room they need to explore spaces normally avoided by other
narratives in the medium.
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| This is a game which goes in some interesting directions |
Darker themes have always been the subject of
various stories throughout history and they are always troubling topics to
deal with. Full Metal Daemon Muramasa takes these topics from a Dark
Fantasy angle and asks about their value alongside a series of other
darker events. It has its protagonist tread the line between being
sympathetic and revolting to create a compelling anti-hero that makes
you want to look away but is so fascinating that you cannot.
Leveraging this basis it throws him into a morally questionable mire
of backstabbing and betrayal to see how he will react and reveal to
the player the humanity they may not be willing to accept yet exists
inside all of us. Throughout all of this it never loses sight of the
fact this is personal story about the emotions we all experience and it
prevents the bleak events from overwhelming the core messaging.
When All Is Stripped Away
Alongside
the focus on intimacy as part of a Dark Fantasy visual novel there is a
pulling apart of the emotions and motivations of the entire cast in
order to examine the base desires and drives of human action. While
the game can sometimes present these in a negative light, these motivators are
often shown in an even fashion with the characters trying to be true
to themselves regardless of if the results are not always positive for them.
Yet it does not lose sight of fact that these desires have bad
association in the mind of the player and so it creates an extreme
set of circumstances as a justification for these heightened
emotional reactions in order to prevent the player from losing their
connection to the characters. This technique is mostly confined to
important dramatic moments since it would make little sense for the
characters to be a constant state of emotional distress without
tiring themselves out and so it must be used efficiently to ensure
the believability of these outbursts is maintained.
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| Dark emotions can come in many forms |
Take Psychedelica
of the Black Butterfly which uses the confines of a mysterious
building to apply pressure on its characters through the feeling of
being trapped. Their emotional reactions immediately become more
understandable since we all have some experience of feeling
confined and how it can make you do irrational things. From this
basis it forces out the darker thoughts of its characters when they
are confronted by events and revelations which push them to their
limit. Having all of these changes being related to the
protagonist keeps them in the spotlight so the player never loses
sight of the greater picture of the narrative as well as providing an
avenue for the other characters to express how they feel in a natural
manner.
Conclusion
As
a genre Dark Fantasy tends to be overlooked in favour of lighter
themes and ideas with a broader appeal, but despite this there are
still many titles which showcase why exploring the darker elements of
our world has value. With visual novel’s love of keeping an
intimate perspective on their characters, it is only natural that a
genre so interested in their less savoury aspects would be a perfect
fit, since it can juxtapose sympathy with disgust on a personal level.
To reinforce this approach there is a careful stripping away of the
fronts the characters put up by placing them in extreme situations
and showing how they fail to properly deal with them despite their
best efforts. The one noticeable downside to Dark Fantasy is the
tightrope walk it has to perform in order to not become so serious and
depressing that it moves from believable into parody and loses the
player as it disconnects completely for reality. When properly
utilised Dark Fantasy can bring forward themes and ideas not normally
explored and allow the player to experience them in a fleshed out
fashion.
