Sunday, June 15, 2025
Writing Alternative History
Due
to the character centric nature of visual novels, their structures and
narratives tend to focus around individuals and do
not deviate too much from a set organisation of events common to all
routes. Routes which each offer a drastically different series of
events demand are less present in the medium and tend not to be used
in populous genres like romance and slice of life. This is due to
complex nature of having to prevent the divergent paths from openly
contradicting each other while supplying the routes with interesting
plots that are different yet believably come from the same source.
One approach these titles take is to divide the experience between
various factions and ask the player to choose one since their
competing ideologies will naturally lead to engaging conflicts. Evil
routes are a recurring way visual novels choose to create memorable
sections as it gives the player the chance to see a darker side to
the characters. Framing these as alternative futures for the
protagonist or even having them influence some kind of greater plot
does a lot to alleviate any tension between them. Let’s
dramatically change our fate and find out how all these elements come
together in practice.
Choosing A Faction
A
clean and easy way to have drastically different
routes in a visual novel is to divide them among the setting's factions. This is a far more common approach to narrative choices in
the wider gaming space through titles like Fallout and other western
RPGs since it nicely slots into their actions have consequences style
of storytelling. Since a visual novel has to rely solely on its narrative it
cannot be as free-form as these games and its extremely character
driven nature compounds this issue. As such the faction based routes
have to tread a delicate line around these limitations and it does so
by framing the factions through the characters who make them up.
Instead of simply being manifestations of competing ideologies, they are
messy groups of individuals who are all vaguely going in the same
direction even if they see their ultimate goal slightly differently.
This makes the transition into a route feel like a natural shift
within the conflict of the narrative due to the overall focus
being similar to a standard route structure. However, once inside
these factional routes the visual novel has a lot more room to make
dramatic changes to the progression of events since the competing
factions will naturally clash with one another and act upon their
ideologies. They may not quite get the ending they envision but the
characters' destinations will be completely divergent in each faction's route. It is a much larger picture style of narrative than is normal
for visual novels which can accommodate a larger cast of diverse
perspectives, but the trade off is the loss of some of the powerful intimacy
often utilised by the medium.
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| Locking heroines to specific factions makes sense within the context of their conflict |
Since there are so few examples of this
factional approach we shall focus on one notable title utilising it,
Soukoku no Arterial. The player is offered three factions too choose
from at the end of the common route, side with the angels, demons or
remain independent, and all these result in vastly different
narrative directions. There is an effort to make none of these options
appear more desirable than the others with every faction having
their own positives and negatives. In particular the player is
offered personal perspectives from each side through the members of
those groups they fight with and against which does a lot to bring
the mythical angels and demons down to a human level despite their
magical powers. An interesting thing to note about Arterial’s use
of faction routes is it still includes a heroine focus in the form of
unique endings for them with each faction being given their own
handful. They have almost no effect on the greater plot and exist as
a series of self contained events where the heroine gets more time
for character development. This is clearly an attempt to reconcile
the expectation for character based content with the grander faction
narratives and they succeeds in being a condensation of a heroine
route but lack the proper impact of a more focused experience.
Depending on how long the player takes in other parts of the game
they can go for extended periods of time without experiencing any
heroine events, so they were never going to feel impactful and instead
existing as a sideshow to the main plot.
Doing An Evil Deed
It
is common in visual novels and games in general for the protagonist
to act in an unquestionably moral good manner so an easy way to
create a memorable route is to have them do the opposite to the
normal. So was born the evil route where the player leads the cast
down a dark path as everything established in the good paths is torn
up and remade in the chaos caused by this shift in priorities. There
is an element of catharsis in being evil in a virtual space hence why
RPG’s of all stripes from Mass Effect to Fable have such elements and this is made
more meaningful through the presence of a good path. It is in the
choosing that the impact is created, in the turning away from
traditional moral good and embracing darker actions, which is
absolutely perfect for a visual novel looking to make distinct
routes. Of course what constitutes ‘evil’ in these routes varies
wildly from title to title based on the kind of experience they are
aiming for and how believable the switch to an evil course is for the
cast. The main common thread between them is how they frame the
characters’ fall within the same context and language as their good
route to balance the different tones of the two parts through
presenting them as how choices have a large impact on a character’s
perception of events.
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| Sometime what defines evil can be very subjective |
Due to the variety of ways to implement an evil
route it is difficult to find a single game to encapsulate it so
let’s cover a wider range to properly showcase it. On the fringes
there are titles like Daiteikoku and OZMAFIA!! who have evil routes
in the loosest sense where the questionable actions of the
protagonist are justifiable within the context of the story or
otherwise only vaguely considering the moral implications of their
actions. This type are using the evil element as a kind of extra
spice rather than entirely committing to it and as such the player
will not think too much about it outside of key dramatic moments.
However, it is still enough to leave a distinctive impact when
compared to more ‘good’ routes and so expands the
identity of the works. Sitting on the opposite extreme to this games
like Himegari Dungeon Meister where the protagonist is already
aligned with what would be normally considered the villains and
having an evil route is less of a surprising feature. In many ways
the good route is the part of these titles which brings in greatest
contrast since it is against what a player would expect from an
amoral character. Yet the evil route remains the more memorable
section since a good route cannot help but lean heavily into standard
and conventional right actions so becomes predictable by comparison.
There is a certain glee to be gained from watching someone evil doing
evil things in the fictional context as they get to indulge the
darker parts of our nature.
Another Time, Another Face
Beyond
the more clearly defined types of distinctive routes exist those
which can be broadly classified as alternative timeline based. This
is routes where each of them diverge noticeably from the others but
clearly exist as a cohesive part of an overarching narrative identity
while treading a line between being new and exciting and a part of
that vision. In general these are far less immediately memorable when
compared to the faction and evil types but gain a degree of coherency
needed for a game wanting to present wider themes and ideas.
Approaching the design of routes from this angle does limit just how
out there they can make the plots of each route so they have to get
inventive in order to achieve their distinctive feel. This often
leads to them being more creative in the small details than other
types of routes such as recognising or twisting character arcs or key
details from other routes within a new context. In their totality
they come together as a kind of patchwork of differences which
rewards the player for noticing the important details about how and
why events play out the way they do. The result is an overall work
where the actions of all its characters appear to be driving force of
the narrative rather than an overarching plot or threat compelling
them to act.
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| A common starting point for three very different routes |
Fate Stay Night is one title following this principle
for its routes and it slow escalates the differences over its playtime. The Fate route exists as a baseline for future
routes to build on and as such it never shakes the boat too much in
order to make the later contrast more powerful. Unlimited Blade Works
is a noticeable departure from Fate in the characters and events it
chooses to focus on. It takes previously minor characters and fleshes
them out as well as bringing conflicts where were present in Fate to
their boiling point to give a dramatic high greater than Fate’s own
climax. Then Heaven’s Feel comes along and completely rips up the
foundations of Fate and rewrites them into a story interested in the
shadowy nature of the Holy Grail War itself. It strips away the
pillars which UBW and Fate had in common in order to place Sakura and
her conflict front and centre with familiar elements remade around
this new core. However, it is still very much Fate Stay Night even
with its deviations and does not move too far away from this identity
and is instead the natural conclusion of the procession of the
narrative as it explores what drives its characters.
Conclusion
Everyone
wants their visual novel to stand out and be a memorable experience
for the player so developers try their hand at distinctive routes to
achieve this effect. Some frame the routes through the lens of
choosing a faction to support and create drastically different
narratives based on their competing values and internal conflicts.
Others present the routes as alternative possibilities and rely on a
slow expansion of the narrative space through interlocking small and
shifting details. Then on the extreme end a developer can lean into
the catharsis of being evil to create a vastly different take on
their characters where their darker side can be explored. Overall
distinctive routes are a powerful tool for a visual novel developer
but require them to be able to engage with their material in a
flexible manner and may not be appropriate for every genre or style
of story.
