Sunday, July 14, 2024
Pixel Hunting
Creating
a sense of immersion within a fictional world has always been one of
the greatest strengths of visual novels so it is only natural they
would end up paired with a style of gameplay about interacting with
the details of that world in the form of Adventure Games. These are
titles which involve clicking on elements of the environment in order
to solve puzzles or meet certain objectives and they use this space
to fill in the details of people’s lives to contrast with whatever
threat hangs over them. As such Adventure Games can make use of the
character centric nature of visual novels to help sell the connection
between the characters and the world they inhabit. It can leverage
this to create mysteries and puzzles which span both halves to
improve their connection to each other. There is also an aspect of
role-play found in this hybrid whereby the player gets to act out the
actions of the protagonist and fully put themselves in the character’s
position. Let’s repeatedly click on an object and find out exactly
how such a harmonious merger of gameplay element can work so well
together.
Environmental Interaction
In
its focus on the world around the player, Adventure Games present it
as tactile place filled with the objects of function and mundanity
that define our lives. As every detail of these items is presented so
they can have role in progression, they take on an intimacy by
being a physical window into this familiar yet alien place. This is
in many ways a prefect partner for visual novels due to the way they concentrate on different aspects of intimacy so, while the Adventure
Game half can handle the world, the visual novel half can deal with
the characters. Through this combination a player can be brought into
the experience and provided reasons to emotionally invest themselves
in the outcome of the journey they are being guided down. They are
shown a constant stream of empathetic ideas and people from each half
of the game which offers a variety of perspectives on their lives so
the player is on the edge of their seats waiting to see what happens
to them next. Preventing these elements from becoming emotionally
draining is the constant forward momentum provided by new areas to
explore and new drama to witness that keeps the player on a ride of
fresh experiences so they invest just enough for the desired effect
without wearing themselves out.
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| Time to start clicking everything |
The backbone of this harmony is the
way a visual novel element can easily and quickly be overlaid on top
of Adventure Game sections in order to smoothly link the narrative to
the items being examined which reinforces the connection between the
two. Last Window: The Secret of Cape Wast demonstrates how this
harmony of intimacy can be used to sell a location as lived in with
history etched into every wall. The entire game takes place in the
titular Cape West, a set of apartments containing various tenants
including our protagonist. As such the player will naturally become
familiar with the spaces within the apartments and the game uses its
Adventure Game half to have the player interact with objects they
will be know for their own lives in order to solve puzzles. This
draws parallels between the location and the player's own lives making it
easy to come to understand it as somewhere inhabited by everyday
people. The visual novel half of Last Window furthers this link
through humanising the people who live within the world built by the
Adventure Game sections. Over the course of the investigation the
player will interact with the residents and come to know this
snapshot of their lives while also getting a sense of how their
relate to the protagonist who many have as their neighbour. The
closeness afforded by the way the visual novel sections frames the
character interactions is immensely personal and supported
this sense of Cape West as a living place where people the player
knows spend their time.
Narrative As Role-play
Perhaps
the most interesting interaction present in this type of hybrid is
the way the narrative and the mechanics frame each other. Due to the
way Adventure Games promote extensive examination of the environment
it can create a sense of role-playing as the protagonist given that
these interactions are often a direct reflection of the character's actions
within the story. This is a favoured element of visual novel
integration for mystery or detective titles where engaging with clues
and crime scenes can be make a key part of both styles of play.
Leaning into this role-play provides a cohesion to the experience
such as with Danganronpa and its investigation sections. These
aspects ask the player to engage with the Adventure Game mechanics
through a narrative context which focuses their mind into the same
space as the protagonist. The act of picking through the crime scene
and interviewing suspects takes on a new emotional resonance and
draws the player into the experience through blurring the line
between the game and reality with role-play. Without the visual
novels to give a personal connection to the events surrounding the
mechanics, this role-play would be a cold affair where the player
would not be invested in the stakes of investigation and instead
merely see it as a simple puzzle to be solved.
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| Danganronpa has a great sense of place despite how silly it can get |
This extends into how
the clues gathered during the investigation are used to solve the big
mystery as can be seen in the court sections of Ace Attorney. In
these the player is asked to present this evidence to prove or
disprove the current arguments on both sides of the courtroom. These
sections are in many ways an inversion of the investigation sections
since the Adventure Game elements take a backseat to the visual novel
presentation key to providing the necessary tension, which is the
opposite emphasis of the investigation. The result is the role-play
of being an attorney in court has a decidedly more dramatic feeling
than being a detective and yet it still relies on the grounded nature
of the clues found during the detective role-play to sell a sense of
connection to a believable world. Linking the two creates a coherent
space for the player to experience two vastly different tone of the
mystery genre without either seeming out of place while letting both
halves of the hybrid show their best traits.
Puzzles On Two Levels
Presenting
the game on two levels offers an opportunity to engage the player’s
mind from different angles and help maintain interest in the long
term. To achieve this effect the two halves of a title lean into a
puzzle style element to give the player something to chew on. The
visual novel and Adventure Game aspects do this through the
time-frames they operate under in order to direct the overall
experience. Given the narrative centric nature of the visual novel,
the puzzle tends to take the form of a greater structural reveal or
long term mystery as with titles like YU-NO. Here the game presents a
mystery and then feeds the player a steady stream of clues hidden
within the story to help them construct theories on the truth. This
means that they are constantly reevaluating what they thought they
knew so there is always excitement when a new fact is shown to them.
YU-NO utilises this method by encouraging an exploration of its wide
narrative structure, time travel ideas and the way each of the routes
drops new hints as to what is going on overall and in previous and
future routes. This lends it a feeling of interconnectedness which
its Adventure Game elements can rely on to form the backbone of the
long term engagement.
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| Time to look for all the keys |
The area a visual novel aspect can fall short
is in the moment to moment sense of forward momentum and it is here
the Adventure Game half can flex its muscles. If there is one thing
that Adventure Games are good at it is have lots of small victories
as the player finds the right item or place to interact with in order
to progress. This simple loop provides just enough motivation to
continue to the next small dose of progression that it can work to
keep people moving forward. Take the Somnium sections in AI: The
Somnium Files, these are a constant parade of small rewards where
even the wrong choice for an item or place still gives some amusement
for the player such as in the form a joke. This helps
alleviate the feeling of tension provided by the time limit and
support the long term mysteries of the visual novel half of the game.
Conclusion
In
many ways the Adventure Game and the visual novel come from the same
end of the video game spectrum with a focus on a similar mechanical
tone through differing angles. They have complimentary elements of
intimacy which they hold as important to their presentation,
environmental and personal, which work well together to sell a sense
of place and this world as something close to the player’s own
experiences. Puzzles also play a large role in keeping people
invested with the two halves offering complimentary short and long
term mysteries and engagement to keep a sense of forward mementum.
Alongside all these elements there is a strong undertone of role-play
in the way the player can act out the actions of the characters both
through actions as well as the narrative which surrounds them. Adventure
Games are worth considering if you are making a visual novel, or vice
versa, due to this exceptional compatibility nature and the potential it
holds for interesting and moving titles to be made.
