Sunday, December 8, 2024
Opening The Locked Box
Incorporating
narrative into a Puzzle Game poses challenge due to the often
abstract nature of its gameplay systems. The distinctly separate way
the player interacts with the puzzles also contributes to this
possible feeling of dissonance between the two halves. Visual novels
offer a way to alleviate this tension through bringing the
presentation of the story closer to the level of the puzzles. It
provides a framework within which the puzzles can be understood as
part of a cohesive whole where the each puzzle matters. A consistent
atmosphere of mystery helps link the two section together with the
threads of intrigue to push the player forwards. This is all brought together
into a common abstraction of their respective systems as both sit far
from the realm of realism while still having their own identity.
Let’s find the solutions and discover exactly what this hybrid
brings to the table.
Uncovering The Solution
Neither
Puzzle Games nor visual novel are bound by the idea that they have to
be realistic and instead aim to present their respective systems in
way to directly engage the player. They focus on abstracting the core
emotion and identity of the moment and turning into something which
is easy to digest while still providing enough depth to make them
feel meaningful. For Puzzle Games this mood is very specific, it
wants to create a situation where the player is forced to think about
the gameplay in front of them and carefully piece together a
solution. The visual novel takes a narrative and reduces it down to
its key elements to form a space within which characters and plot can
be addressed in concentrated expressions of humanity. This similarity
in terms of abstraction means they operate on the same level and so
it feels more natural for a Puzzle Game to move into a visual novel
section as opposed to a more realistic cutscene. It also prevents the
somewhat detached nature of puzzles or the contrived situations that
allow the puzzles to exist from being brought to the player’s
attention due to the smooth transitions between the two halves. The
more each part leans into their distinct natures, the greater the
commonality becomes and it provides some unexpected wiggle room for
designing the hybrid to achieve specific results.
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| Time to match those tiles |
To see their dynamic
in action we can look at Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of Fujisawa and
examine its design choices. Puzzles in this game take the form of tile matching gameplay which is entirely divorced from the otherwise
realistic modern day characteristics of the title. They exist in a
separate space and represent the use of the protagonist’s
supernatural powers and often accompany climatic moments in the
story. In presenting this story in a visual novel format Kotodama can
use a consistent pool of assets that compliments the puzzles through
their common 2D nature. These shared elements include the character
portraits and backgrounds, making it clear the puzzles are taking
place in the same location and against the same person as was
depicted in the visual novel story. This consistency helps cushion
what could have been a rocky transition since the 2D assets align
with the colourful tiles and create a sense of the two belonging
together where a less abstract style of narrative presentation would
have clashed with it. Bright colours and bold shapes are used throughout
the interface and general art direction of the visual novel half of
the game and they are a deliberate choice to reflect the strong colours of the
match four tiles. Alongside the exaggerated expressions of inherent
in the anime art style this hybrid can form a baseline of player
expectations for the game’s identity and ease them into the puzzles
without sacrificing the feeling of narrative cohesion. Nothing
Kotodama does with either half of its gameplay is particularly
notable compared to what other titles have achieved, but it does
showcase how a series of relatively small touches and focus can do a
lot to allow puzzles to settle within a visual novel narrative.
Consistent Mystery
Being
able to maintain a consistent tone throughout the overall experience
of a Puzzle Game is important for controlling how the player
perceives its different aspects. A visual novel element can easily
handle this requirement due to its compatibility with the mystery
genre which Puzzle Games so often lean into. This choice of genre
stems from the way a mystery narrative forms a larger scale puzzle
for the player while puzzle sections act as smaller doses of this
tone. Their similarity blends the two aspects into a coherent whole
where each part offers the same identity. The reason a visual novel
works so well as the means of story presentation for a Puzzle Game is its compatibility with the mystery genre. It can show personal
moments and clues to the mystery alongside one another in a natural
feeling manner where the higher level concepts can be brought down to
a human level. The intimate perspective offered by a visual novel is
the main reason for its ability to shift between the various moods
needed by the puzzle section in order for them to make sense within
the game’ structure. In pushing the title through the lens of a
mystery, the puzzles become part of shared ethos with the visual novel
element and from it a consistent picture of a world for which the
puzzles make sense. As a result the experience of playing the Puzzle
Game feels smooth and more believable even if it still inherently an
abstraction of reality.
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| Time to figure out the puzzle box room |
999 and Tantei Opera Milky Holmes could not
be more different from each other in terms of plot, but they both
make use of this continuous mystery element in similar ways. For 999
the sense of mystery is all consuming as it is present throughout the
dangerous situation the characters find themselves in and their lack
of understanding of why it is happening. This slow uncovering of what
is going on and how the characters can escape it is mirrored in the
increasing complexity of the puzzles and as the solutions to both
become clearer the player’s feelings of accomplishment which create a
harmonious experience. With Tantei Opera Milky Holmes the mysteries
are more individually self contained and pose little threat to the
characters since they aim to provide a light tone. These mysteries
are often paired up with an associated puzzle which needs to be
solved for the game to progress and the solution to be revealed. It
shows the player a direct line between the puzzle and the mystery in
a way they would find difficult to ignore and draws the two halves of
the game closer through this simple communication. Rather than
feeling out of place, the simple nature of the game’s structure
allows this directness to come across as a natural extension of it
where the player knows exactly where they stand and they are wrapped
in a comfortable blanket of familiar ideas and tones.
A Framework For Understanding
On
their own puzzles are just a detached gameplay system without any
inherent meaning beyond the player’s ability to solve them. It is
in their contextualisation where their power lies to make the player
feel as if they uncovering the same solutions as the characters in game.
Visual novel sections provide a simple and easy to parse framework
through which the puzzles can be understood and directed as part of
an overall flow for the game. Since this is such a vague idea it is
best to look at it through a couple of examples where the puzzles are
abstract in nature and demonstrate how this technique stops them from
feeling out of place. The tile matching gameplay of Tropical Liquor
is nothing particularly remarkable on its own with its four by three
grid offering nothing the genre has not seen before. What gives these
puzzles a memorable quality is the way they are given a romantic and
flirtatious atmosphere through the build up provided by the visual
novel sections. The tile matching is contextualised as the act of
going on a date and drinking with the girl you selected in the
narrative. It lends a certain playfulness through the somewhat silly idea
that a person can be wooed by someone’s skill at puzzles and this
keeps it feeling consistent with the light atmosphere in the rest of
the game. Murder By Numbers has a more distinct style of gameplay
where the player must solve increasingly complex grid based number
puzzles. Given the mentally demanding nature of this style of puzzle
its contextualisation shifts into a variety of discovery and mystery
solving elements where the puzzles represent the key actions of our
protagonist. Helping this along is the heavy use of the
aforementioned consistent mystery element which makes the framing of
the puzzles appear natural to the world around them.
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| It is the people around the puzzle who decide how it is understood |
Conclusion
From
the perspective of the overall cohesiveness of a puzzle game, the
hybrid with visual novels is by far the most effective merger when it
comes to lining up the narrative and the puzzles. It can form a
framework through which the puzzles can be understood and firmly
grounds them within a context that give them significance. Their
common abstract nature allows the transition between on type of
section to another feel smooth while still maintaining what makes
each interesting to engage with. A trick visual novel elements like
to use is the blending of a mystery tone into both sides of the
gameplay to create a feeling of consistency through the entire
experience. The benefits of this type of hybrid are significant where
the game wants to have its puzzles be more than simple mind benders
and instead part of a narrative whole. If you are considering
creating a puzzle game then including a visual novel element may well
elevate your title far beyond what it could achieve with just puzzles
alone.
