Sunday, March 23, 2025
Showing Is Telling
At
almost all points in a visual novel there will be some kind of text
on screen describing what is happening in the scene or showcasing dialogue. How the
characters of this text are presented deeply impacts the perception
of the game’s cast and their actions in a way that is often
incredibly subtle. Good text flows through the player’s mind
without much resistance so when alterations are made to the
established style they stand out. These changes can often be of the standard kind, things
like italics or bold text, and they are a common feature many
developers use for varying effects. Then there is the use of colour,
be it extensive or sparingly, to establish a mood, idea or person in
a way which immediately identifies it and sets it apart. On the
extreme end of the spectrum sits the special characters which stand
out from the normal text due to the fact they are often not words at
all and instead act as symbols. Let’s dip our pen and uncover how
small changes to the text can have a profound impact.
Standard Text Features
Almost
all visual novels use at least the most basic alterations during
their play time since it spices up what might otherwise be line after
line of repetitive black text. Even the smallest change can help
break the monotony and inject some much needed life into moments
where the writing has to do all the heavy lifting. It is subtle
enough to not draw an unnecessary amount of attention to any
additions yet offers enough flexibility to be worth using despite
their low overall impact on the player’s experience. The two forms
of this basic alteration which appear often are italics and bold
text and they share a similar function with key differences in how
they are perceived. Italics is used to emphasise certain words or
phrases and is often associated with the internal thoughts of the
protagonist or a character adding a texture to their spoken words.
The soft curves of italic text lend it a gentler and more implicit
nature almost as if it was a whisper in text form hence why its uses
tends towards those which favour indirect ideas. Nothing is more
indirect than when people say one thing and imply another and so
italics can underscore what might not come across in simple text form
in order to capture the subtleties of speech. This idea of being a
hidden element is played on when italics are used for a protagonist’s
internal thoughts. They are showing their most intimate and immediate
feelings, ones they will never voice out load but are key to
understanding them and what makes them act the way they do. Placing
them in italics frames the words as almost being whispered to the player
from inside the character’s mind in a deeply intimate fashion.
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| Muv-Luv's text on background approach does influence its presenation choices |
On
the other hand bold text is the visual equivalent of shouting at the
reader. There is no subtly at all to its appearance and it is
impossible for it to be ignored given how striking it is when
compared to the thin characters surrounding it. It generally
indicates key information which the game wants to ensure the player
is aware of and for it to have an immediate presence and impact. This
means that the highlighted information often has relevance to what is
currently going on rather than dropping hits for some future event.
Bold text can also be used to convey the strong emotions by making
the emotive words in the descriptions bold so they are understood as
the key experiences of the characters in that moment. When used in speech
it can underscore just how loudly a character is shouting and what
words carry the most weight providing important context for their
actions. Through small additions like these a wall of text can
be given additional meaning without having to waste space spelling it out in the text itself.
Colour And Text
Adding
a splash of colour to what would otherwise be lines of black text is
a far more of dramatic change than just making something italics and
as such the possibilities for it are also larger. This
flexibility comes from the way colours have a variety of associations
they can lend the text. Having red characters brings to mind power
and aggression while blue carries the idea of flowing and calm and
depending on what words are coloured this can be complimented or
contrasted against what is happening in the story. Some of this
depends on the culture since much of the connections related to
colour are taught, such as red being positive in relation to money in
China while the opposite is true in the west, so this makes colour a
less universal tool than the basic alteration if a developer is
aiming for a worldwide release. However, there is generally enough
commonality to make colour a useful method of adding interesting
texture to the text. For example Muv-Luv assigns each of its
characters a colour unique to them and their spoken words appear in
this colour. This serves two purposes, making it clear at a glance
who is talking and giving sense of identity to those words. Being
able to instantly know who is speaking without even reading their
name means the player is spending less time engaging with system elements
and this allows for a smooth flow from one line of text to another in
a game so focused around character dialogue and interactions. Coupled
with this change is how the character’s assigned colour reflects an
outline of what a character is like which the player is reminded of
every time they see it and it works as a way of remembering the
basic outline of who they are. Given the relatively simple and light
hearted nature of the game its cast adhere closely to their basic
outline and this makes their colours a useful shorthand of their role
in the story.
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| Even the truth can be deceptive when framed correctly |
Colour does not need to be a continuos feature and it
can instead be its rarity which can hold its influence on the player.
Umineko is a prime example of this power with its red text. It
appears infrequently and represents an absolute truth about the
mystery which often overturns both the Battler and the player’s
understanding of everything beforehand. Its vivid colour and the
violent swings accompanying it make it memorable so even before
the words have been read there is a sense of dread and anticipation
in the player’s stomach. If another colour had been chosen for this
text is would not have had the same impact due to its striking nature
when placed next to the walls of black which forms the rest of the
story. Umineko does not does not use the existing associations of red
and creates its own new ones to match its narrative needs.
Unusual Characters
Beyond
the familiar letters which make up the majority of text on screen over
the course of a title, there are some special characters and
symbols designed not to be read but instead to communicate a visual
language to the player. It allows the developer to express a vocal
trait or underlying concept without a clearly defined written form
and also it is repeatable while being self contained so can be used
whenever it is needed. Here the symbol’s shape and structure do a
lot of the heavy lifting as it can rely on the player’s established
emotional and cultural understanding of them to create the desired
effect. Probably the most well known implementations of this use of
symbols is the speech text of Berserker in Fate/Stay Night. Rather than
words his vocalisation are various types of roars and so instead of
just saying he roaring in a description or simply writing ‘roar’
in speech marks, Type Moon instead chose to use blocky shapes. The
primal nature of his roars is reflected in the way the shapes do not
have an even or consistent layout and their power is shown in the way they break
the conventions of what the player has come to expect for dialogue.
When Berserker is present these special characters make sure you
immediately understand what kind of person you are dealing with in
order to perfectly sell the mad warrior idea which the class is meant
to embody. This is not a feature many visual novels use due to it
being overly elaborate for the kind of stories they are trying to
tell and even those who do use it do so only in relation to specific
people or ideas in order to prevent any form of confusion about their
meaning.
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| Fate/Stay Night also likes to mix in colour alongside its unique symbols |
Conclusion
Given
the way visual novels tend to keep their text in standard formatting,
is it any wonder that breaking these rules has such a noticeable
impact? Even basic choices like bold and italics offer a means of
communicating simple changes in tone and adding texture to a character’s
speech due to the emphasis they provide. Utilising symbols in place
of the expected letters can push this distinctive feeling to new
heights and show a concept which would be difficult to express in
traditional words. Changing the colour of the text allows for an
expansion of what can be implied to the player in order to make
characters easily identifiable at a glance which does a lot to speed
up the flow in lighter titles. Overall, careful consideration on how
text is presented should always be at the front of a developer’s
mind and they should ask themselves if they can break away from the
monotony of textual expectations.
