Archive for November 2025
Narrator Perspectives – An Anatomy Of Visual Novels
Who Is Speaking?
One
of the foundational aspects of any media using the written word is
what person should be used, 1st, 2nd or 3rd?
This choice of narrator is especially important for visual novels
given its role in determining the intimacy of the story and the tools
it has available to it. 1st person is by far the most
common type with its simple and fixed perspective allow for player
character to tell their story while the player forms a strong sense
of investment in them. Less frequently a game will choose a 3rd
person to tell their stories and this is often done where there is
more than one core character around which the story revolves and the
emphasis on them need to be even. Once in a blue moon a 2nd
person visual novel comes along to shake things up but it is a
delicate instrument due to how odd 2nd person feels to read
outside of instructions, yet there is an undeniable distinctiveness
to it. Let’s go down the list of I, You and They, to see what each of
these looks like in the wild and why developers might choose each of
them.
I Will Tell A Tale
There
are a variety of reasons 1st person is the primary choice
for visual novel narrators and they all broadly stem from its ease of
use and personal nature. It is easy for a player to become attached
to the protagonist through this narration since they reveal their
intimate thoughts and put their humanity on display so they come
across as likeable or at least sympathetic. This is important when
dealing with genres which play off heightened emotion such as romance
or horror where being inside the head of the character gives an
immediacy to events. By being so personal
the developer can engage with the reliability of the narrator in
various ways from subtle bias to outright delusion in an obfuscated
fashion in order to have it hit the player with a greater sense of
shock and betrayal. Controlling the player’s knowledge in a
believable way is easier to implement in 1st person due to
the player understanding what it is reasonable for one person to be
able to know at any given time and the developer can use this to
their advantage to shape how the narrative progresses. Just on a
fundamental level people find it easier to write from the perspective
they live their lives and they will know exactly what the narrator
would be able to see and do at any given moment since they are like
us.
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| 1st person gives us a lot of... odd thoughts... |
With 1st person being so common in visual novels let’s
pick a couple of random examples out a hat and see to what extent
these elements are reflected in them. If there is one thing that can
be said about Shuffle! it is the way it embodies the romance visual
novels of its period. Its narrator is the fairly standard nice guy
protagonist, Tsuchimi Rin, who’s role as player stand-in makes his
narration tend towards being as nonintrusive to the self-insert
experience as possible. This tuning of the player’s experience so
as to reduce the barrier between them and the character is a key part
of why romance titles like Shuffle! tend towards 1st
person since it offers the least resistance to blending the two
together due its personal nature. Rin is not a completely flat
character otherwise the strong emotions which the genre need to sell
its climatic scenes would be lacking so he instead offers a head
space with enough room for the player to put themselves into but
still have motives related to the story. The impressions he gives of
the heroines have an important impact on the player’s initial
perception of them and while it does end up being inaccurate, as they
all have new sides to reveal, they provide an opportunity for the
developer to sell each of the girls in a desirable light. Emotional
intensity and immediacy are flexible in 1st person as can
be seen in the variety of ways Rewrite plays off the protagonist’s
limited awareness of what is going on. Kotori’s route uses his
ignorance to create a thriller where the player feels as if they are
in a middle of war they cannot begin to properly understand the scale
of. On the opposite side is Chihaya’s route with its heavy leanings
into action and the superpower nature of the setting. In using the
1st person it gains the ability to sell the power and
ferocity of the moment to moment combat and the growth of the
protagonist’s abilities through their own experiences, so making the
fantastical more relatable since their interactions mirror the
player’s own curiosity. The ability of Rewrite to play host to such
a wide spectrum of narrative types while not appearing to contradict
itself is a testament to how open 1st person is as a means
of narration and what is acceptable within it.
They Stand Above All
Upon
entering the world of the 3rd person narration there is a reduction in the number of visual novels utilising it when compared
to its 1st person counter part. The main reason for this
is likely the fact it is more difficult to handle emotional stories
when using it due to the inherent distance from events granted by
this overlooking perspective. Of course titles can still use
3rd person and be filled with high emotion scenes if the
developer is capable of adjusting where their emphasis lies and set
the player’s expectations. One of the ways it stands out is the
ability to showcase the thoughts and feelings of its entire cast in a
smooth and natural fashion which is important in titles with multiple
major characters. This avoids the problem present in 1st
person of having to grind the narrative to a stop to swap
perspectives each time it needs to express another character’s
viewpoint. Being above the events of the game offers the option
of presenting them in a grander manner since the interlocking pieces of
the story are clear as are their consequences. When this is leaned
into the far reaching influence of events can be shown and weaved
into the smaller scale struggles of the cast in a way which heightens
the stakes and emotions. There is also the option of taking it to the
opposite extreme and making the narrative as detached as possible
given it an almost historical record like feeling, but few visual
novels can properly use this form.
 |
| The use of illustrated books makes the 3rd person more distinct |
Witch on the Holy Night is a tale
of three individuals at the point when their lives intersect and each
of them shares the role of main character. Hence it is only natural it
would choose to place its narrative at equal distance from through
the use of 3rd person. While Shizuki Soujuurou is the
person the narrator obits for a good chunk of the early sections of
the game, there is a constant effort made to ensure at least one of
the other two are within shot at all times so their importance is
never lost on the player. This focus on the trio gives the title a
far more personal feel to it than it might otherwise have as there
are plenty of opportunities for them to reveal different aspects of
who they are and their relationships. Running alongside this is the
grandeur of magic which the 3rd person narrator is
constantly pushing whenever it appears in the story through elaborate
descriptions of details and a larger scale picture of their power.
Despite the personal motives for the use of magic it never stops
being a greater force which keeps its otherworldly wonder. 3rd
person narrators have a stronger historical footprint in other
mediums so utilising it within visual novels invokes those older
forms, such is the intent behind Adabana Odd Tales’ use of it. The
world is set in a realm of illustrated books and the choice of
narrator, along with the use of a brush stroke art style, invokes the
memory and legacy of those works to establish a baseline for the
story to play off. Being able to have this clear line between the two
allows it to draw upon characters and cliches established in the
player’s mind to employ as a means of creating expectations to
embrace and subvert. Since it also regularly just swaps to a story
book style of presentation which is also in the 3rd
person, it is obvious to the player how the themes and ideas of
Adabana are meant to be interpreted and this ability to shape their
perception without the ambiguity of an overly intimate perspective is
one of the core strengths of a 3rd person narrator.
You Walk Into A Bar
2nd
person is an odd and rare beast in the visual novel space due to its
instructional tone and way it distances the player from what is meant
to be their own actions. It is a style of narration which has had
some success in other types of game most notably text adventures or
other things which can trace their linage from tabletop RPGs and the
commanding voice of the GM. For an audience this use of the 2nd
person is what is mostly likely to come to mind when faced with it
and this is something a developer can play off to engage with these
experiences. It is telling then that a lot of these visual novels
invoke the authority of the GM role to create a scene directed at the
player where they get to role-play its protagonist. The way it blends
personal connection and distance is often played off to make the
player select choices they might not otherwise and retain the ability
to gut punch them when things inevitably go wrong. While not taking
as much sadistic glee in killing the player character as old school
text adventures, there is still a greater willingness to make them
suffer in overt ways then in other visual novels regardless of if things
ultimately end happily.
 |
| Look terrible things are happening to YOU |
Their limited appeal also results in this
space being filled with more experiential titles which are looking
for unique ways to express their narratives and leave a lasting
impression. One such game is BAD END THEATER with its multiple
protagonists playing nicely into its use of 2nd person.
Each of these characters is always “you” so uses the slight
disconnect from the player, since they are obvious not multiple
people, to make them more willing to experiment with the game’s
structure and see what it has to offer. At the same time the direct
view on their lives given by the 2nd person slowly endears
the player to them as the player get expose to their human struggles
and fun dynamics both while under the player’s command and from
other cast member’s viewpoints. The slight use of meta narrative
elements is also important to the choice of narrator since the way it
makes the player both an insider and an outsider already operates on
a vaguely meta level and this allow the story’s acknowledgement of
it come across as a natural extension of what has been established.
Horror is one few genres which does not mind the use of 2nd
person since the disconnect it brings can be leveraged to unsettle
the player as can be seen in It gets so lonely here. This title mixes
a core of dark fantasy with its horror elements to underpin the
twisted nature of the events it calmly explains are happening to the
protagonist. Presenting it through the use of fairy tale creatures
and motifs as a means of taking the innocence from those stories and
tricking the player with a familiar presentation from a new angle of
narration then pulling the rug out from under them. A 2nd
person description of its events lends the game a certain air of otherworldliness due to it being uncommon couple with the fantasy subject matter
and this meshes well with the strange behaviour of it characters.
Conclusion
Deciding
the type of narrator for a visual novel has a profound effect on how
it will be perceived by the player and what sort of narrative tools
will be available. 1st person is the traditional choice
for good reason as it offers a personal angle on the story while
giving the developer an easy way to control what information the
player has access to at any given moment. Selecting the 2nd
person is rare since the way it invokes an odd mix of intimate and detached feelings and its authoritative tone are only suitable for a small
number of games. On the other hand, 3rd person sits the
player completely above the events of the visual novel looking down
on its cast which it can leverage to showcase a broader picture
of events and characters alongside drawing connections with other
mediums for dramatic effect. Overall, when considering this choice
you should carefully weigh up the benefits each has to offer and what
your audience expects from similar works either to adhere or subvert
depending on your needs.
Detective Fiction – Genre Deep Dive
On The Case
From
Sherlock Holmes to Columbo, Detective Fiction has a vice like grip on
the popular consciousness so it is no surprise to find visual novels
making use of such stories. The way visual novels play into the
strengths of video games and written mediums results in a unique
blend of roleplay while still having the strong personalities key to
a good detective. When the focus is around the detective within an
officially sanctioned organisation like the police the story tends to come with
more authority for the characters and the struggles at having to
navigate red tape. Stepping into the private sector and the detective
gains a more scrappy mentality where they have to work to unearth
clues in a less direct fashion compared to their official
counterparts. Then there are characters put into the role of
detective out of no choice of their own and this lack of experience
alongside them often being directly connected to mystery they are
solving gives them a wider emotional and narrative range at the cost
of much of the detective fantasy. Let’s put on our deerstalkers and
deduce how these traits of the genre influence its presentation and
what stories it tells.
Official Police Business
Working
in an officially recognised organisation like the police or some form
of special unit gives the detective a greater degree of authority to
wield while also demanding they be accountable to regulations.
Narratively this often manifests as some elements of the police
procedural style where the characters have access to a wide range of
other professionals in various field who can provide information they
would not otherwise be able to know. Another common feature is a
fixation on the crime scene from an analytical perspective where the
detective picks over every detail of the area beyond what is
necessary to solve the case in order to sell the idea of just how
capable they are and many resources they have at their disposal. In order to
create a sense of the authority available to the detective they are
able to get access to restricted locations and make people they are
interviewing feel as if they have to talk which both feed into this
idea of the borrowed power they are wielding. Red tape is a part of
any large organisation and at some point the detective is going to
have to be shown engaging with it. The exact extent of the paper
pushing and regulation which appears depends on the extent it leans
into being a fantasy with the grounded tales tending to have more
mundane work and the action focused ones being less interested in
breaking the story’s flow to accommodate it.
 |
| Got to get all the details of the crime |
This divide between
the kinds of police detective fiction defines much of this side of
the genre in visual novels so let us look a pair of games which
exemplify each end of the spectrum. AI: Somnium Files is not a
realistic depiction of police detective work in any way with the
futuristic sci-fi tech and the special branch dedicated to use it. There
is a strong through line of drama where the Detective Fiction is a means of
presenting a complex narrative rather than an attempt to engage with
the realities of solving crime. Date Kaname never has to sit down and
do paper work and spends as much time goofing off as he does working
to the point you could be forgiven for forgetting he is in-fact in a
position of authority. Yet he does have to work within the bounds of
the police’s structure such as not being able to arrest or hold
people without evidence and this is used as a
dramatic device to build tension and tie his hands. It also acts as a
means of easily presenting him in a heroic light as he struggles to
do what is right while also balancing his role as a representative of
a group far bigger than him. Crime scene investigations is a core
aspect of AI: Somnium Files identity and over the course of the game
the player will investigate them in great detail as they try to piece
together the mystery. Here is where the appeal of the detective
fantasy is at its strongest in AI where the fragmentary clues
tantalisingly place the truth within reach, but only the detective
has ability to reach that conclusion. On the other hand CollarXMalice
is much more interested in the day to day operations of the police
despite it also have an outlandish premise. The protagonist spends a
lot of the common route performing the routine actions required of
the police from filling out paperwork to taking calls to patrolling
the streets. Through these actions the game’s world is
contextualised within a sense of normality the police are trying to
maintain despite the circumstances around them. Returning to this
normal is a key motivator for the protagonist and their mundane
actions showcase her vision of such a life which remains potent as
the antagonists attempt to take it away from her. Since she is not a
detective by position but instead circumstance, this causes the
mystery solving element of the detective to move away from the crime
scene itself and into the way each crime paints a picture of what the
antagonists are after as she works towards the truth about each
one. Being part of the police does give her access to specialists, in
a more grounded way than AI’s sci-fi magic, with the most notable
of these being Shiraishi Kageyuki of the crime lab who regularly
gives her useful information his department has gained. Everything
aims to sell the police in this setting as a believable version of
their real world equivalents and sell the lumbering nature of this
organisation which the detective belongs to.
Private Eye
A
private sector detective is free from the constraints and
responsibilities of the police but in exchange do not have access to the
professionals or the ability to pressure people for information
through their authority. This leads a lot of such detectives to be
characterised as scrappy underdogs who have to use their intelligence
and creativity to the evidence they need to solve the crime. It
pushes the super smart end of the detective fantasy where they are
utilising their cunning to pry truths out of people which they would
otherwise never speak. Having some connection to the
police is a relatively common means to get the detective the
knowledge he need, either because they were once part of the police
or through a friend on the force, yet there is careful balance here
since it could easily undercut the scrappy element of the fantasy and
so the source of the information often only reveals a limited amount
since they are bound by confidentiality. Interactions with the
criminal underworld or shady information brokers is another angle
this style of detective can bring as they tread the line between the
light and dark sides of the world in pursuit of the truth. This plays
into the more morally grey tendencies of a detective working for an
inherently selfish motive in money where their compass might lead
them to do things the player may not agree with.
 |
| Finding all those tiny clues |
As a genre this type
of detective is deal with in one of two ways, either it is treated
with the utmost seriousness and leans into the darker side of human
nature or it goes the opposite way and makes the lack of restrictions
of their activities the source of a light adventure with a free-form
structure. The Kara No Shoujo series is sits decidedly on the side of
the former with its horrific murders and generally dark tone.
Tokisaka Reiji is not initially hired to solve a murder but rather to
go undercover as a history teacher to investigate a series of
disappearances at the behest of the vice principle. This is an
important part of the narrative set up as it establishes the for hire
nature of the detective and as he pokes around to try and solve the
disappearances the player gets to see the cunning way he uses the
minimal resources he has at his disposal. His lack of detachment from
the people he interacts with and his willingness to get personally
involved in their lives marks him as a less professional and more
human version of the detective. Given the small cast of characters
this focus on them allows the game to place the horror of the murders
on a personal level where the player will witness the effects it has
on a wide spread of the cast. It also highlights how compromised the
detective is when he acts in accordance with his emotions rather than
the logic more befitting his status and this makes his struggles and
successes feel personal to him. A lighter take on the private
detective can be seen in Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands
Behind where the protagonist assumes the role after being taken in by
a more experienced detective. The young age of the protagonist allows
them to fit into the school setting where they are tasked with
investigating the disappearance of a young girl and it makes his
naivety and inexperience blend into a coming of age story which
steers clear of anything too dark for its broader target audience.
Witnessing the growth of a detective on the job is a part of the
genre this game plays heavily into as the player gets to witness the
protagonist grow and find the skills he needs to solve the mystery
and discover the spark of genius which defines him as a detective.
Following this growth is one of the main ways the narrative gets the
player invested in seeing the story to its end and gives another
emotional avenue to the mystery beyond the desire to see it solved.
It also leads to a story about building a future and is hopeful for
the people involved in contrast to the spiral downwards which defines
Kara No Shoujo.
Amateur Hour
The
final type of detective fiction is one where the detective is an
unwitting everyman who lacks any spark of deductive genius. They are
drawn into investigating the mystery when circumstances compel them
rather than as part of their profession. By the end of the story they may have picked up
the skills of the detective but they do not start out with any of
them and struggle against what is asked of them and even at the end
their abilities are something they want to never have to use again.
These detectives possess likeable and familiar traits of people the
player might meet in their day to day life giving them by far the
most grounded starting point for the genre and it tries to keep them
within this core identity so they never lose their connection to the
world they came from. Due to their origins they have no way of
accessing the information necessary to solve the mystery like other
styles of detective and instead the game adopts a contrivance, such a
some form of magic or a contained environment, in order to provide
the clues and resources need to solve the mystery. This need for a
strong justification for the detective’s engagement and ability to
solve the mystery does lead to this end of the genre tending to be
far more wacky in premise with it stretching the limits of the genre.
 |
| Naegi is an extremely over the top version of the everyman |
Danganronpa is perhaps the poster-child of how distinctive this side
of the detective genre can be in visual novels. Its detectives are
always confused participants in the death game which demands they
solve various murders with the minimal skills at their disposal.
Their deer in the headlights reactions to what is happening around
them firmly places them as an everyman who has to stand up to the
task in order to survive no matter how unsuitable they might be for
the job. Focusing on confining the cast inside a limited location to
incite the death game also serves the double purpose of ensuring the
clues the detective needs can be found despite their limited skills. Meanwhile their captor, Monokuma, serve as the specialist who can provide
the detective with information they could otherwise not know even if
they might present it in a misleading fashion. While not as comically
over the top as Danganronpa, Umineko’s use of magic in its setting
gives it a legitimate reason to be able to supply Battler with all
the details of the case from his vantage point outside of time and
space. Battler himself is the definition of an unwilling detective
when he is thrust into the role when people start being killed around
him and he raw reactions to events and way he struggles to adapt make
him start out being an everyman. Eventually he does take to his new
role as detective which is in the game’s best interest given how
much it plays of the idea of the detective and the cliché’s of Detective Fiction, but even then it is careful to keep his motives of
saving his family and friends front and centre to utilise this
contrast between actions and motive to fuel his character growth. He
is not the only detective on the case with Beatrice acting as a
detective who seeks to prove magic as the cause of the mystery as
opposed to Battler’s realistic perpetrators. The pair’s vastly
different views on events are a core part of Umineko’s appeal since
it understand the qualities of a good detective and has each of them
take on a form of this fiction to better comment and engage with its
troupes and conventions.
Conclusion
Detective
Fiction comes in all shapes and sizes within visual novels as they
try to adapt its malleable genre mysteries and strong personalities
to the stories they want to tell. Police detective narratives stress
the structures the detective is working within both in terms of the
authority it gives them and its restrictions to sell the power and
struggles it brings. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the
everyman detective is dragged into the mystery against their will and
has few resources to aid them in order to make the success of solving
the case all the sweeter. Between them is the private detective who’s
connections to the police and the underworld give them the
information they need but results in a more morally grey narrative.
As you may have noticed from the examples from each part of the genre
there is a lot of overlap between these kinds of Detective Fiction
since this approach allows these games to take the aspects they need
to tell their mysteries. Such a varied and adaptable genre is perfect
for those looking for a way to create a mystery visual novel with a
focus on a single or few deductive individuals.
Monster Girls – Character And Cliché In Visual Novels
From Myth And Mystery
Nothing
in the world of visual novels leaves quite the same immediate
impression as Monster Girls with their addition anatomy and
supernatural nature. A Monster Girl is not the same as something like
a cat girl where they have direct connection to real animals and
instead are based on monsters from myth and folklore. This often
means more dramatic changes to their appearance like with the snake
lower body of a lamia or the horse of a centaur, but they can also be
merely an otherworldly bloodline which gives monstrous personality
traits as often happens with the oni. In addition despite the title
saying Monster Girls this work will consider their male equivalent
for what it shows about how gender changes their role. On their most
basic level a Monster Girl is a monster and may well act like it
through aggressive actions which they may
not have full control over. Then there are the Monster Girls for whom
their monster characteristics are just a cute accessory to make them
stand out to the player and they rarely have any negative elements to
them in order to make them likeable. Their unusual appearance gives
them room to act as stand in for humans while still allowing for some
distance from subjects like discrimination. These characters are a
wide spectrum of body types, additional limbs and personalities so
there is quite a bit of flexibility in what roles they can fill.
Let’s escape the hoards of Monster Girls and find out how these characters have shaped and been shaped by visual novels.
The Monster Within
A
Monster Girl character does not need to have need to have any
immediately identifiable physical elements so long as their non human
nature is reflected in how people treat them and in the way it
influences their lives. This style of character has their monstrous
nature act as a sort of curse which they often have no control over
yet decides much of their life with many people coveting that power.
Since they appear human on the outside they generally do their best
to blend into normal life and dream of being left alone. Their nature has a violent and uncontrollable
undertone to it and this does not have to be just for themselves as
its effects on the people the character cares about can be vastly more
destructive. From a narrative standpoint this type of Monster Girl
reflects on the ruinous nature of our darker emotions or the desire
for ever greater power. In overcoming these internal negative traits
the characters can display a virtue and struggles through which core
themes can be displayed as well as provide a reason for the player to
root for them. One of the most common kinds of Monster Girl to get
this treatment is the oni since having some oni in a bloodline as
an excuse for magical powers is a cliché in and of itself. The
customary violent nature of an oni makes this struggle against these
darker tendencies an expected part of the process of character
growth.
 |
| It is always a problem when they start wanting your blood |
One particularly interesting example of this use of oni is in
the Hakuoki where a number of oni characters make their appearance
including the protagonist Yukimura Chizuru. What makes the oni stand
out here is the variety and flexibility of their roles for person to
person. Chizuru is obviously the oni with the largest amount of
screen time but for the most part their powers are not something
which they have to struggle but instead it falls on those around her. She is
coveted by multiple other individuals including other oni and she
reveals their less desirable sides through their pursuit of her while
also highlighting the heroic side of those who defend her which plays
well into selling the romantic interests. When she starts using her
blood to save the people she cares about is where the darker aspects
of the oni start to creep in as the suitors she uses it on are not
always able to adjust and reveal the dangerous side of the oni.
Their struggles with their declining mental state and how the Chizuru
handles their relationship works as the backbone of their arcs in the
later parts of the game and helps support the historical drama
happening around them. As rival to the suitors and the foil to
Chizuru, Kazama Chikage’s status as an oni places him in position
where he is both the best and the worst of his kind. The arrogant
superiority where he looks down at humans as inferior mirrors that
element in humanity itself and yet it is this pride which demands he
hold himself to a higher standard than many of the people around him.
Throughout the narrative he demonstrates himself to be the one
character who will stand by his values to the very end even as he
fights in open opposition to the heroes. This muddies the picture of
what it means to be an oni and further allows them to be a direct
connection to humanity and the time of chaos the cast find themselves
in.
As A Cute Trait
By
far the most common use of a Monster Girls style of character is as a
means to add distinctive traits to the cast in order to make them
stand out. Often this is the bare minium for the character to be
considered a Monster Girl and takes the form of some extra element on
their human bodies, but even then they have the ability to
conceal it the majority of the time. Functionally they are just human
characters as far as the narrative is concerned with vague nods at
their supernatural nature so it can be done in the least invasive way
possible. For this kind of Monster Girl their role rests solely in their
appeal and exotic origins as a way to spice up what might otherwise
be a standard visual novel. Take The Ditzy Demons Are in Love With
Me, if the Monster Girls were stripped of their powers the game would
just be another standard example of the romance slice of life genre.
Their personalities form the expected spectrum of moe traits from shy
to clumsy to teasing and can easily be summed up in a single sentence
which is a part of the romantic fantasy this style of story is aiming
for. However, being too similar to its peers risks it not standing
out enough to make a player consider picking it up among the sea of
other titles. So each girl was made into a different Monster Girl in
order to provide them a visual identity different from other such
characters. To its credit the game does allow some aspects of their
monstrous nature to show themselves, such as the succubi being
seductive, but it is still restrained to only positive or humours
traits that will not scare off players. The story does not reflect
this choice in any meaningful way with the conflicts and arcs being
ones where the monsters could easily have just be swapped out for
humans and nothing would change. It should be said this strategy for
using Monster Girls has broadly been successful as can be seen in the
way it has formed a subset of players who like the aesthetic changes.
 |
| Definitely a normal girl.... |
This subject comfortable brings us to the other reason the surface level
existence of a Monster Girl is used, to appeal to a fetish. Obviously
this is something far more common in eroge where it feeds into the
erotic elements of the game, but it can act as an undertone in any title
where the characters have noticeable non-human physical additions.
Unlike the use of these as a tool for cuteness, here the Monster Girl
is more tightly bound to the expectations of their race and it
closely defines the outline of their personalities. The easiest way
to see this in action is to look at the developer Eushully’s output
in its entirety and note their obsession with angels. All the angels in
their games fall under the same racial archetype, this being purity
with a layer of vaguely religious background. Each individual
character does have their own spin on it to try and not make this
cliché too obvious such as with Melodiana from Kamidori Alchemy
Meister being a kind and refined individual while Forzasleyn from
Kami no Rhapsody is serious and stubborn, yet at their core this
commonality remains. Since an angel is such a potent symbol of purity, the associated white wings and golden halo become a part of a
framework to appeal immediately to those who find such traits to be
desirable and it insures a consistent stream of predictably
attractive characters. Eushully’s consistent fixation of
angels can be applied to a lot of other titles using Monster Girls
since racial archetypes makes for an excellent shorthand for a narrative and recognisable aesthetic all in one.
Just Like You And I
Using
Monster Girls as a direct metaphor for the struggles and treatment of
people in our own world is a fairly common practice. Their mix of
human and monstrous features make them a perfect blend of being close
to the player while still having the necessary distance to allow for the player to more objectively view their
treatment and avoid any unwanted connections to real world
equivalents. Being so fantastical provides room for the edges to taken
off the darker elements that might be addressed during the game by
slotting in another lighter kind of content such as over the top
fights featuring their powers. Ayakashibito’s
monster of choice is the yokai of which Kisaragi Suzu gets the
largest amount of screen time and her treatment forms the backbone of
a lot of the title’s themes. Immediately striking is the fact she
is lacking in any physical identifies of her origin for most of the
game and looks just like a normal human girl which is a deliberate
choice made to draw a line between the her suffering and the player’s
own experiences. It also helps form a similar bond with the player as
they have with the rest of the cast and blurs the lines they define themselves
along. As such humanity’s treatment of her is reflected back onto
them as they justify their actions based on her monstrous nature and
ignore the things they have in common. Despite this undertone
Ayakashibito is not interested in making any meaningful comments on
their actions beyond a simple moral evil. Instead the story uses it
as a justification for the interpersonal conflicts and the battles
with it just acting as additional texture to their character arcs.
 |
| So begins a quest into a gentle world |
It
would not be proper to discuss about Monster Girls without bring up
Monster Girl Quest and its influential choices in character design.
It uses the non human appearances of its Monster Girls as the basis
for a narrative about discrimination and prejudice based on physical
attributes and misunderstandings making for a very simple analogy for
the real world. The complexity of the issue is not something Monster
Girl Quest is interested in tackling and so the result is a parable
about the need to not judge a person without first understanding them which is perfect from the kind of heart-warming space
the game want to provide. Sitting next to this is one of the widest
pools of different Monster Girl designs all clearly leaning into one
fetish or another to a frankly impressive degree. Neither of these
two side even acknowledge the other’s existence and it does make
the game’s messaging feel a bit confused as if two entirely
different titles were smashed together yet there is no doubt its
brand of Monster Girls has left its mark on how future visual novels
presented their versions of it even if they never reached the same level of
success.
Conclusion
Nothing
quite speaks to human nature like a Monster Girl character as they straddle the line between their twin natures and the clichés which
come with their appearances. They can function as a way to examine
the dark and uncontrollable sides of human nature through their
supernatural powers and those who covert them. How people treat them
and how the Monster Girls attempts to deal with that allow for an
exploration of discrimination and reconciliation. However, they do
not need to embody complex themes at all and can simply exist as cute
accessories to someone who is otherwise just a human or as a means of
appealing to a fetish. Being both alien and familiar gives Monster
Girls a lot of range on where they can be included and what roles
they can be given so they are worth considering when making any kind
of fantasy narrative.
Pocket Mirror: GoldenerTraum Review – Golden Hope And Young Girls
Genre – Horror, RPG Maker Play Time – 10 hours Developer – AstralShift Steam
Hold That Gold Tight
Releasing
at the tail end of the golden era of RPG Maker horror, the
original Pocket Mirror captured the best quality of games from that
time and brought them together into a well presented package. Seven
years later AstralShift released a remaster of Pocket Mirror named
GoldenerTraum which touches up the visuals and adds some new content
in order to bring it to a wider audience. It maintains the excellent
atmosphere and creeping dread alongside the characters’ riveting
journey which made the original so memorable. Those characters are
dealt with separately and given the space they need to shine and
inspire fear. Creating a visual and audio space filled with tension
and beauty was already something the original did well so the new
touches help elevate it to a new level. However, GoldenerTraum does
not solve any of the flaws of the original from unclear choices to
uneven pacing while adding in many of its own with its new content
not meshing with the old. Is this enough to undermine this classic
RPG Maker horror game? Let’s get lost in a kaleidoscopic maze of
terror and find out.
Into Fear And Loneliness – Narrative and Themes
The
one element a RPG Maker horror game needs to be successful is a
strong atmosphere with a backbone of dread since it cannot rely on
its visuals in the direct way other style of horror are able to.
Pocket Mirror takes notes from its predecessors in order to embody
their best traits while avoiding some of their common pitfalls. Dread
is used as a subtle tool with the off nature of puzzles and
interactions carrying a lot of the tonal weight. Often this manifests
in moments where characters will have the protagonist do things that
are twisted or not be upfront about the consequences of what they
want only to turn round and be confused at the protagonist’s fear. An abnormal sense of normality is
pervasive throughout as the items and scenery of a young girl’s
life take on strange forms and even in the quiet moments the player
cannot shake the feeling of wrongness. This encroachment becomes more
pronounced as the game goes on and the characters become more
openly hostile to the protagonist and this makes for suitable pacing
curve to prevent the horror from becoming too stale and predictable.
Its
characters’ journeys and how the relate to and influence the
protagonist is the main narrative driving force.
Their
unforgettable personalities and the way they can turn on the
protagonist at any moment helps make each new encounter with them
feel like a meaningful look into their minds. When combined with the
player’s ability to decide their individual fates through choices
made
along the way, it makes for a compelling motivation to push through
the fear and see the outcome of this story.
One
area Pocket Mirror is careful to not overuse is the chase sequence.
Many of its peers have a tendency to overuse this mechanic due to the
lack of other ways to directly threaten the player which might be
exciting at first but eventually results in fatigue due to the player
wanting to just get on with the game. Here
Pocket Mirror understands the need for palpable danger but uses the
chases as a means to emphasise a specific narrative beat or to shake
up the player’s expectations after a long period of their absence.
By
holding back it can get the most out of this mechanic without it and
avoid it wearing out its welcome.
A similar approach can be seen in its more
selective use of dead ends compared
to other RPG Maker horror titles. Rather
than just killing the protagonist at every minor mistake, it instead
makes its dead ending narratively appropriate and clear
telegraphs the imminent danger to
build up and pay off the tense situation. Using its tools when they are
called for a general use of subtly and implication are Pocket
Mirror’s greatest strengths and are the basis of its fear.
 |
| Be careful not to fall |
GoldenerTraum
is an odd release when it comes to Pocket Mirror’s narrative and
tone since it makes a lot of changes and additions which undermine
the strengths of the original while also failing to fix the issues it
has inherited. By far the most problematic addition is the new ending
which exemplifies the issues with the changes made by GoldenerTraum.
It is says the quiet part out load. This ending covers something
which was never the focus of the original story and was vaguely
implied through subtle clues. It is not an important element of the
story and not expanding on it did not hurt the original work. By
spelling it out for the player it removes a layer of subtly which was
the game’s greatest strength in exchange for an ending lacking in
meaningful substance. To top it all off it is also a bad ending so
lacks any proper sense of resolution and feels like it exists to
punish the player despite another bad ending already existing to
fulfil this purpose.
Beyond the ending, the other changes all roughly
follow this pattern of stripping away subtly and are damaging to
various extents. For example, the endings all now have little
illustrations which pop up after they have been completed. While they
should be a nice touch which adds another layer to presentation, they
are instead highly destructive since they spell out how the player
should interpret them. Ambiguous endings are now made black and white
removing any need for the player to engage with narrative and
undermining the horror brought about by that lack of certainty. Then
there are the problems also present in the original which the new release does
nothing to resolve. Chief among these is the imbalanced lengths of
the sections given to each character with the first one, Fleta, being
noticeable longer when compared to the others. In the original this
was likely caused by the opening hours being the first to be
developed meaning they got the most revisions and additions before
the final release. However, GoldenerTraum does nothing to address how
lopsided this can make the experience of playing the game and seems
to not be interested in fixing issues so much as making unnecessary
add-ons.
Girls With Trauma – Characters
Having
such a small cast works in Pocket Mirror’s favour since it can
spend a larger amount of time focused on their individual arc. The
game knows this is one of its strength as it is rare for there to be
more than two characters on screen to further narrow the player’s
attention. To make sure there is no competition for space each of the
main character are given their own sections of the game one after
another where they become the pivot around which the game revolves.
Their distinctive personalities and the way they offer vastly
different kind of dangers to the protagonist helps them stand out.
Felta is a bubbly and childish girl who becomes brutal and aggressive
the moment she does not get her way while Harpae is a calm and mature
person who poses a threat in the way she will smother the protagonist
in her desire to protect them. The constant tension of waiting for
the moment these characters switch and reveal their darker side
allows them a larger presence in the player’s mind and makes their
eventually resolution all the sweeter. Interacting with all these
characters is our protagonist who carefully treads the line between
the necessary vulnerability of a main character from a horror game
and the good heart needed for her actions and attitude towards others to
make sense. Pocket Mirror loves to play on her status as victim to
inspire growth in her and highlight how her unwillingness to admit
responsibility for her actions has hurt others. This makes the other
character’s a great foil to her as they are all things she is not
but wishes she could be and through their actions she is shown the
reality of how their lives are not what she imagined them to be.
 |
| Fleta is so nice until she has a tantrum |
Wonderland Of Terror – Visual, Audio and Technical
If
there was one area GoldenerTraum preforms better than its predecessor
it is in the improvements it makes to both the traditional and pixel
art. It builds upon the strong style and direction of the original to
enhance the atmosphere while bring clarity to previous muddy
elements. What this means in practice for the pixel art is that it
has a sharper resolution with more details being visible and the
movement of the characters and their expressions being easier to see.
This opens the way for a flexible use of the assets to add a layer of
control over how a scene will play out so a greater degree of visual
spectacle can be achieved during impactful moments. In terms of the
traditional artwork for the CGs and character portraits, there have
been a number of new additions throughout and many events which
previous did not have any have been given one. The overall effect of
these changes is a greater sense of immediacy to the danger and
emotion of Pocket Mirror’s world while still maintaining enough of
its mystery for these visuals to not overstay their welcome.
Improvements have also been made to the game’s soundscape primarily
through an expanded soundtrack. Since the original’s music was
already a highlight of the experience with its mix of haunting and
gentle melodies and GoldenerTraum keeps to this core identity with a
few flourishes of its own in order to add to its range of emotions.
 |
| Ever screen has a dream like quality to it |
Mechanically
Pocket Mirror is in line with its peers and does little to try and
change the gameplay formula which has worked so well for them. What
this means is, outside of the aforementioned chase sequences, a fairly inoffensive adventure game format filled with simple environmental or
inventory puzzles. This is not going to shake the boat but at the
same time it is well enough put together that the player is likely too
distracted by the story and the horror to notice the uninspired
repetition. A large mechanical issue stems from the choices where it
is regularly unclear what the player has to choose in order to get
the best endings for the cast. At times what appears to the right
option is in fact completely wrong yet the correct answers are not
consistent enough to just apply counter logic in order to find them.
This can make for a frustrating experience where the player may feel
inclined to look at a guide since they want to see the characters
they have grown to care about get the ending the deserve. On top of
this the new ending added with GoldenerTraum is only available on a
new game plus playthrough. For new players this will likely not be an
issue, but for fans who played the original and want to experience
the new content this results in two playthroughs of a game whose
content they have likely already played many times before just to get
to the stuff they paid for.
Conclusion
Embracing
the legacy of the RPG Maker horror genre places a lot of expectations on
Pocket Mirror which it comfortably meets by capturing the best of
those games. It creates an atmosphere of creeping dread where chase
sequences and jump scares are not overused while mixing in a twisted
version of a young girl’s life. Visually it takes full advantage of
its pixel art to craft a beautiful and haunting world with
GoldenerTraum further expanding it. The cast support these core
elements through their combination of vulnerability and hostility
where the player is just waiting for the other shoe to drop and each
is given the space they need to shine. However, the other changes
made by GoldenerTraum hurt the game as they undermine the subtly it
was using as part of its horror while not fixing the issues of the
original. Thankfully this damage is not severe enough to ruin what is
one of the most magical titles of its genre.
Verdict –
Captures the essence of what makes RPG Maker horror games tick
and refines it into a beautiful and unforgettable journey.
GoldenerTraum changes do muddy the waters a bit with some
questionable additions.
Pros -
+
Brings together the best aspects of the RPG Maker horror genre while
leaving behind many of its problematic elements.
+
A strong cast who invoke as much fear of them as love and this makes
for wonderfully tense interactions.
+
Beautifully haunting pixel art is accompanied by an equally powerful
soundtrack.
Cons -
-
Changes made by GoldenerTraum often result in a loss of subtly and
the horror implied by it in favour of just telling the player how
to interpret what they are seeing.
-
There are several strange design choices such a locking the new
ending behind a second playthrough and the correct choices for each
character’s good ending often being unclear.
