Sunday, July 21, 2024
Capturing The Action
When
a visual novel wants to enhance the drama and impact of a particular
narrative beat or intimate character moment they turn to Event CGs.
These large and intricate graphics depict these key moments with a
vivid detail which the character portraits are no capable of
replicating. Each one has such a profound
effect on the player due to the infrequency of their use in the
majority of games where they only exist for those important moments
so as not to detract from the expectations set throughout the rest of
the play time. Alongside the detailed Event CGs sit those in the
super deformed style and these are one of the most impactful tool for
comedy or slice of life visual novels to sell their lighter tone.
While many CGs are shown on screen in full and simply remain there
for the entire time, some games utilise camera tricks such as zooming
and panning to breathe an extra level of dynamism into these images.
How do all these different uses of Event CGs manifest in practice?
Let’s snapshot a heroic pose and find out.
Standard Use Cases
For
the vast majority of titles, Event CGs have one common form and that
is as tools to emphasise key moments within the game. The way this is
used varies from visual novel to visual novel, but broadly the
graphic is simply presented to the player in full with some type of
impactful screen transition. This way each CG is given an immediate
presence and pushes the player towards experiencing the emotions intended
by the developer. Enhancing the emotional impact is the way the CGs
are so different from all other elements of visual presentation found
in visual novels. They are single monolithic and direct images rather
than the multiple moving parts, from portraits to particle effect,
which compose the vast majority of the game’s content. Through this
contrast a heightened sensitivity to the ideas and actions presented
in the CG can be achieved as it becomes a memorable moment of a
player’s experience of the title.
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| A first kiss is a big moment for a Romance title |
It is also an extremely flexible
framework where the developer can slot in whatever imagery they need
to express a specific moment and ensure its importance and message is
understood from the correct angle. A romance story can use them to
block out every other thought and make the focus solely on the pair
in love which titles like Giniro Haruka achieve through intimate kiss
CGs capturing the height of their emotional ride. On the opposite end
of the spectrum, a horror visual novel can provide a sense of the
impending danger and how it exists in every corner of the game’s
world as Death Mark does with its carefully framed images of its
monsters and the destruction they can cause. Almost every genre and
title can benefit from the broad expressiveness offered through this
standard use of Event CGs given its neutral and easily adaptable
nature. The only exception would be games where the entire point is
the deliberate lack of visual input and instead they want the player’s
imagination to do all the heavy lifting which is a valid approach
when used in a coherent artistic fashion.
Super Deformed CGs
It
is worth separating out and looking at the style of Event CGs
featuring super deformed characters from the rest due to their
overall different implementation. Super Deformed CGs are
fundamentally tied to a specific comedy and light hearted tone due to
their exaggerated and cute leaning presentation. As such this heavily
restricts the kind of visual novels which can utilise them and where
it is appropriate to place them to not undermine the mood of a scene.
Despite this seemingly limited usefulness, they are wide spread
throughout the medium with many being found in titles which are
otherwise entirely serious. The reason they are valued by so many
games is the way they can quickly and easily establish a moment of
downtime between the drama and action that characterises the rest of
the content. Coupled with this ability to swap tone is the flexible
appearance of these CGs. They can appear in the standard full screen
view of other Event CGs, but they can also be presented in a small
window overlaying the background and portraits already in the scene
and not obscuring them to create a link between these elements.
In this ability to shift to the needs of the developer can be seen the impact Super Deformed CGs have due to their flexibility originating
from their exaggerated nature. This means it does not have to be the
sole focus of attention and can instead be used to highlight a
broader mood without needing to be on screen for long.
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| Being cute can really help a player bond with what is happening on screen |
The 9 -nine- series provides a good example of how this
works in practice due to way it shifts smoothly from high octane
action and drama into low stakes comedy and slice of life. Here the
Super Deformed CGs acts as a dividing line between the supernatural
danger the characters face and the comfortable familiarity of their
everyday lives. Each one is used to sell value of these small moments
and frame them as something worth fighting to protect while contrasting
against the monstrous actions of those who are attempting to disrupt
them. They also work to stimulate player empathy through cute and
humorous imagery which aims to make them smile in order to give them
an emotional reason to cheer for the success of the characters. At
the same time they do not contrast too much with the rest of the
game’s narrative tones through sticking as close to the original
art style as possible and making their appearance on screen brief so
they can maintain their impact without undermining the real world
nature of the setting.
CGs As Dynamic Objects
Adding
motion to a scene can completely change the way it is perceived by
its audience. As such it should come as no surprise that Event CGs
benefit heavily from this technique due to their static
nature. This movement comes from a variety of camera tricks such as
zooming in on specific key areas of the image to match what is being
described in the narrative and slow panning across a landscape to
establish the location of the upcoming events. These offer a means
through which an Event CG can be reused in multiple contexts with
only a change in its framing and acts as a way for a game with
limited resources to get the most out of every CG it produces. While
they do provide a lot of flexibility in presentation, this dynamic
movement is not suitable for every type of visual novel and favours a
more action and drama orientated title rather than something aiming
for a subdued slice of life tone. There is also the issue of how
these camera tricks can easily be overused if the developer is not
careful and actively harm the pacing where the player feels as if
they are constantly waiting on overly flashy movements to finish rather than
actually playing the game.
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| Clashing blade and high action are always better close up |
To see this dynamic presentation in action
we can look to Tokyo Babel and in particular at its actions scenes.
Shifting camera angles and focusing in on key areas of a CG are the
primary means by which the game works to foster a feeling of
excitement in the player. Each CG utilised in this fashion has a lot
of small details which only really come to the forefront under close
examination and these are things like the elaborate forms of the character's
weapons. This makes sure the player is always visually stimulated in
a way close to what the text on screen is depicting which enhances
the kinetic feeling of narrative and the danger each character is in.
Conclusion
Nothing
in the medium has quite the same impact and utility as Event CGs
and as you would expect this means almost every title has at least
one. In their most standard form they work to emphasise key moments in
the story through the contrast they provide with the rest of the
presentational tools available for the game. By adding dynamic
elements, such as camera tricks, an Event CG can be provided a sense
of motion and excitement its otherwise static nature would not
normally allow. Supper Deformed CGs offer a more flexible and lighter
tone version of what a standard CG can do and can work wonders to
create clean divides in tone without feeling out of place. If you are
creating a visual novel you are likely already planning to include
some Event CGs, but it is worth considering how you implement them as
they can offer a lot more to your game if you are willing to put the
effort into properly using them.
