Sunday, November 23, 2025
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
