Sunday, March 22, 2026
Taking Snapshots
Historically
visual novels have always had a tendency to utilise Photographic
Assets for their lower cost or due to a lack of artists on the project.
Some of the stars of the medium can be pulled from this pool from
Higurashi to Tsukihime so it is no barrier to the creation of
memorable experiences, but can it actually be a benefit? Being cheap
frees the developer from the expenses associated with those assets
and may allow them to strategically spend that money elsewhere while
also removing a major barrier to entry when it comes to creating a
visual novel. If the game is already set in the real world or
adjacent to it then photos can help reinforce this idea of it being a
tale which happened just around the corner of our everyday lives.
Altering the Photographs for an artistic effect and blending them
into the pool of other assets leads to distinctive mixture of the
familiar and alien and some vastly different presentational outcomes.
Let’s take a quick picture and find out how these assets work in
practice.
Cheap Convenience
Many
of the notable titles utilising Photographs as part of their package
come from the doujin sphere. For them these assets are a reflection
of their limited budget and the skill sets of their creators. These
are people with a passion for their projects but not necessarily the
full suite of skills needed to produce a high quality product nor the
money to hire another person to do it for them. So the Photographic
Assets are a great way to side step this issue by providing an easy to
parse style of presentation, since it is just taken from real world
things the player will be familiar with. Relying on their status as
low budget games they do not have to deal with the negative
associations of this choice since expectations are adjusted
when someone chooses to pick up something made in the doujin sphere.
The quality of these titles is instead leveraged into the stories
they are telling and the interesting ways they can tell them. One of
the iconic examples of this group of games is Higurashi’s original
release which was characterised by photographic backgrounds of a real
rural village with sprites created using the developer’s limited
drawing abilities. It is obvious the photos are a cost cutting
measure where the narrative and soundscape of the work do the
majority of the heavy lifting. Despite this there is a surprising
amount of thought put into the composition and framing of each shot
used and how they can be made to serve multiple purposes, being the
backdrop for comedy one moment and horror the next. While it is not
as diverse as its drawn counterpart due to it being bound by the
real world, there is still a strong sense of the vision which
underlines the personal and intimate fear Higurashi is know for through
the way the almost idyllic images contrast with the dark emotions
they conceal just out of view.
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| These photos are functional above everything else |
In a similar vein Tsukihime’s
Photographic Assets are a product of the limited money available for
its development and is the poster child of getting a lot out of a
little. Being an urban fantasy with its mix of present day locations
and supernatural forces, primarily vampires, gives the game a greater
flexibility than an intense horror experience like Higurashi. This
frees it to be a little looser in its implementation of variety with
many backgrounds being the same image with a filter over it to try
and sell a different time of day or the idea it is another location
entirely. Tsukihime can get away with such a high level or reuse due
to the lack of emphasis it places on these asset which it instead pushes
into the character sprites and the dramatic nature of the writing. In
a higher budget title this would be a distracting for the player, but
in the doujin context it can be a core part of the experience of such
a passion project.
The Real World
Since
photos are a captured image of the real world it is only naturally
visual novels would want to take advantage of this connection to
ground their stories within reality. This approach aims to give the
emotions and ideas a means of reflecting onto the player’s own life
or creating the sense these tales are happening right now around
them. For games about the smaller and intimate moments of people’s
lives this grounding allows for the weight of characters’ actions
to be further pushed as human with all the messiness it implies. The
kind of visual novels which present this angle tend towards shorter
and focused style of experience where this connection to the real
world can be used as an effective and contained framing device.
Looking at narcissu shows a prime example of what leaning into this
angle can achieve. Its hazy presentation of its Photographic
backgrounds elicits a sense of half remember reality where the themes
can find a footing for its ideas yet remain vague enough for the
characters’ emotions to be the main source of momentum. The way the
entire game’s visuals are presented though a slit like view
contributes to a blurring of the line between the different asset
types and lets the realism of the photos bleed over into the drawn
images to further their connection to the player’s own life. Having
such a serious main driving force in the form of terminal illness
lends itself to this sense of reality given its tone and the normal
nature of locations the cast visit.
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| Embracing the photos creates a distinctive experience |
Rather than being a simple
reflection of our own lives, this grounding in reality can instead be
used to sell the idea of a story playing out in our world despite its
otherwise outlandish plot and contrivances. Such a choice aims to
emulate the benefits of live action mediums which inherently sell the
sense of their stories being real since their props and the fact their actors are
all living people the viewers will recognise as such and draw a line
between them and their own lives. 428: Shibuya Scramble is the visual
novel which embodies this approach in its totality. Almost every
asset in the game is Photographic and this gives the title a texture
which immediately makes its stand out as a story set in Shibuya. The
photos of real world locations in the ward provides a sense of place more believable than an artistic representation due to the way it
can capture the imperfections of the buildings and streets. Unlike in
many other titles using Photographic Assets, Shibuya Scramble employs
actors as its cast rather than using character sprites and they are
often in photos taken on site so forming the CGs through which the
majority of the story is told. As a thriller there is a need to keep
the increasingly dramatic plot in some sense of reality and this
complete commitment to a real place and actual people lets the player
suspend their disbelief even in the face of its many twists.
Blending In
Tone
is a major consideration when a visual novel chooses to utilise
Photographic Assets, but not every one wants the realism associated
with them. The solution these titles have found is a blending of the
photos into the overall aesthetic of the work through heavy use of
filters and merging it with drawn images. Doing so causes them to
take on an almost dream like quality where the disconnect between
their realistic presentation and the fantastical alterations made to
them fuels a sense of otherness. As such this technique is mainly
seen in games with some kind of fantasy element to play off or those which already have a
strong visual identity the photos can be integrated into since
these can get the most out of the impact it can provide. Few visual
novels can match the artistic distinctiveness of The House in Fata
Morgana so its use of Photographic Assets can demonstrate this trend.
Its striking art style is a big factor in its appeal and so
everything in the game revolves around making the most out of this
trait. To ensure the photo backgrounds do not clash with this choice
of design, they have a heavy oil paint like filter applied to them
and additional splashes of strong colour spread liberally. This
gives them a character of their own where they are a vaguer and
saturated version of reality and act like a stage upon which its cast perform
their grand play.
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| Making the blacks its core visual element leads to something more than real |
Similarly Phenomeno’s supernatural horror is
reinforced through the exaggeration of blacks in their use of colours. This
extends into its Photographic Assets where even bright day time
scenes are defined by strong contrasts between the lights and the
shadows they cast and this is even more prominent at night where the
bright colours struggle to have a presence against the overwhelming
dark. Since the connection between monsters and the dark is baked
into our psyche, every black shadow in the game has a chance to
contain the supernatural threat underpinning the story. Having this
link be through photos creates an additional sense of the dangers
being just around the corner of our lives while not pushing it too
hard since the heavy blacks make the images vague enough to be just
about anywhere.
Conclusion
Choosing
to use Photographic Assets in a visual novel has a wide array of
associations, reasons and benefits which have shaped its perception
and power over the player. Money constraints often lead to using photos as a short cut to reducing the cost of making a game so the
emphasis shifts onto the other elements to take the load off the
visuals. If they are properly blended into the rest of the assets
they can lend a memorable artistic quality and form a kind of hyper
reality to enhance the title’s overall identity. Committing to the
Photographic Assets can lend a sense of realism and place to what
otherwise might appear to be outlandish or overly emotional stories
and ground them in the player’s experiences. Overall such assets
have an interesting variety of uses and they are particularly
effective in small scale or indie titles where player expectations
allow them to shine.
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