Sunday, July 12, 2026
I Do Not Understand Your Human Emotions
Modern
sci-fi across the world has an obsession with AI and Robots so it
should come as no surprise to find numerous characters fitting this
description within visual novels. These machines are the perfect
breeding ground for complex theming around what it means to be human
and the important questions surrounding technology. Not being bound
by the expectations of a human character has led to this these
machines developing their own brand of cliches and defining aspects.
The majority of the Robots and AI in visual novels fall into the
category of being stand-ins for humanity or take an element of human
nature and isolate it for examination. Characters in this group range
from copies of living humans to machines who hide their true nature
and make for vivid spectrum of personalities. Next to these sit the
AIs who are purely functional in nature, those who might present
human mannerisms but only exist as mechanisms with nothing going on
behind their eyes. Beyond them exists a broader overarching element
of these machines stemming from their nature being fundamentally
different from ours. They are not bound to the flesh like a human is
and reflecting on this invites interesting additions to these
characters’ presentation. Let’s boot up our systems and look at
how different titles handle this archetype.
Metaphor For Humanity
By
far the most common use of Robot and AI characters is as a means of
reflecting human nature back onto the other characters and pointing
out the absurdity and beauty to be found within it. This provides a
space for the narrative to be flexible in how its cast deal with the
events around them when confronted by a vastly different yet familiar
viewpoint. It can utilise the inorganic nature of these machines to
make the singular focus of their personalities more believable and
allows for them to be slotted into the desired thematic spot. Since
they are man made constructs they end up being a mixture of their
creator’s imperfections and the cold steel of their materials and
reflect this back at those same creators. In order to fill this role
these characters tend to either be lacking emotion or have an element
of childishness and innocence to their identities. Many share a lot
in common with child characters in their inquisitiveness with a layer
of adult knowledge showing their data based nature and lending them a
slight disconnect from their organic counterparts. One style of this
character is those created from the memories or brain scan of a
person so inheriting their personality passed through the lens of
their programming and metal container. These AIs generally act as a
kind of ghost for the cast since their original is often dead which
is case the Amadeus, from Steins;Gate 0. She is a copy based on
Makise Kurisu but made from memories from before Kurisu met Okabe
which makes her artificial nature immediately apparent and her
interactions with Okabe are awkward due to the differences in what they
both remember. For Okabe, Amadeus is Kurisu’s ghost who has come
back to haunt him and he both wants to talk with her and yet fears
the guilt which weights him down. She reflects his self-loathing and
apathy back into him while constantly presenting the truth about what the real Kurisu would have wanted Okabe to do. Being digital means
she can nicely slot into the phone angle of Steins;Gate where the
main way they interact with is over the phone rather than in person
furthering the idea of her as a ghost detached from the physical
world. Overall, Amadeus, like most ‘copy’ AI’s, is more a
narrative device than a complex character and they are simple
outlines around which other characters must develop and grow rather
than having much in the way of agency themselves.
 |
| Purity and innocence define a new born machine as much as they do a child |
Another kind of
Robot, and one Key in particular is in love with, is those focused
around purity and childish innocence. Philia, from Stella of The End,
perfectly captures this approach with her boundless curiosity and
complete lack of any sense of danger. These are the traits of a child
played up to their extreme in a mechanical form which does not
experience the world in quite the same way as a human. She simulates
the needs of an organic, such as hunger and sleep, but they are obvious
not quite right since her understanding of them is filtered through
her nature. This slight disconnect is perfect for her role
in providing a reflection of humanity to a jaded Jude that he cannot
easily dismiss and brings out the caring part of him buried beneath
the scars. Unlike the previous type of machine characters, Philia
gets an arc and meaningful development where she matures out of the
innocence into a well rounded adult without losing the valuable parts
of said innocence. Our final group of characters are those who keep
their artificial nature hidden and pass as humans from the point of
view of both the player and other characters. When initially shown
Luna, from Virtue's Last Reward, the player is likely not going to
suspect her to anything more than a kind and timid woman who wants
to have the most peaceful solution possible. Only at the end of her
path, late into the game, is the truth about her mechanical nature
revealed and this reframes her actions over the course of the story in a new context. The fact she knows a lot about what is going on but
is bound to rules which prevent her from revealing this information, presents the only unquestionably good person as not human at all.
Yet there exists a contrast between her and Zero III AI in that she
ultimately chooses the people she has experienced these events even at
the cost of her own existence while Zero is completely obedient
mechanism which adheres to its programming. This works to highlight
the theming surrounding human nature by being another angle through
which the power and value of choice are presented to the player.
Functional Machine
This
kind of machine character is an odd one to talk about since their
nature as mechanisms not capable of acting outside their determined
limits results in them being more plot device than person. Often they
serve the purpose of being the mouth for exposition or a surprise
source of conflict when they are hacked by the antagonists.
Inhumanity through a lack of agency defines these characters and they
present the veneer of being sentient but this quickly collapses under
scrutiny. Their broader role is to be a contrast against the push and
pull of the human characters who shape the story so the importance
and consequences of this freedom can be put into focus. One basic
example of this kind of AI character is Anato, from Secret Agent, who
manages the running of the city. She is the quintessential functional
AI with her role within the narrative being solely based around what
utility she can offer the cast. This means she is regularly reduced
to explaining the world to the player or providing a key bit of
information a character needs so the plot can move forwards. Despite
her motherly personality, she is presented through the lens of her
nature as a bundle of programming rather than a person and has an
identity which remains entirely static while also being passive to
the cast surrounding her. This makes such characters great for this
role due to the audience’s expectation for a machine making it less
distracting for them to dump information than someone who is meant to
be a living person.
 |
| Can a connection be meaningful when the other person can never say no? |
Masuko, from 2236 A.D., is a more complex version
of this archetype. She is an AI owned by the protagonist, Yotsuba,
and it is immediately obvious that her personality is not genuine
from the moment she first appears with her responses being extremely
inorganic and functional. Despite this staring him in the face,
Yotsuba continues to emotionally invest in Masuko due his desperation
for a meaningful connection and it helps reinforce the idea he has no
idea how to make them. On some level this knowledge is understood by
Yotsuba hence why he so aggressively tries to pursue the other people
in this life even to the ends of the world. Masuko is a constant
remainder throughout of his failing and shows the only connection he
can form is to something which is obedient and incapable of living
without him. The role she occupies comes from how others define her
given she is completely without agency of her own.
A Different Axis To Organics
As
might have become apparent, the synthetic nature of these Robot and
AI characters ends up being their primary distinguishing feature and
shapes how they interact and perceive the world. Not being bound in a fleshy prison gives them the ability to highlight the importance said
body has to humanity. It also offers a unique angle to explore what
intelligence and freewill mean when placed into a context with vastly
different needs and means of perceiving them. Since the way the
manifest varies wildly from game to game, it is best to look at a few
examples to get a sense of the overall shape of this trait. Aiba,
from AI: Somnium Files, treads an interesting line between organic
and machine due to her primarily acting as Date Kaname’s
replacement left eye. Visually she has a soft and squishy appearance
to match the organ she replaces while also contrasting it with her
almost alien inorganic internal workings. The obvious connection to
be drawn here is the presentation of Aiba as a part of Date and someone
without whom he is not whole, both literally and figuratively. More
broadly Aiba’s AI nature allows her to offer advice and support to
whoever she is paired with through her variety of data analysis tools
and this is shown to fundamentally shapes her understanding of the
world. This is why she needs to work alongside a human partner so
their combined wisdom can overcome the weakness of organic and
machine to create a better detective.
 |
| Aren't you the most adorable eye replacement |
One character who is complete
defined by being strings of code is Monika, from Doki Doki Literature
Club!. Her existence and much of the game’s big reveals revolve
around this twist on what she is within the confines of the world the
player is presented. Even as she plays with the rules, there remains
weight to her perception of herself and what she does to the other
characters. This lends what could have otherwise been silly fourth
wall breaking a level of power and consequence to create a tension
between her and the player. Monika knows exactly what she is and what
she is doing and is comfortable with both and she thinks and acts on
an entirely different axis from the organic player and Doki Doki
really wants this to hit home for its emotional pay off to have its
full effect. For our last example let us move back into the realm of
humanoid robots with Dorothy Haze, from VA-11 HALL-A. What
will immediately strike the player when first meeting Dorothy is the
disconnect between her mind and body with her mental age clearly been
that of adult while her body appears much younger. Her attitude
towards her physical form comes across as laissez-faire and she
treats it as a vessel rather than a fundamental part of her
existence. Talk of the modifications she has done to her body is a
light subject for her since they lack the permanence they would have for
an organic. Despite how different she from the rest of the cast, when
it comes to her relationships and interactions she is shown to be
capable of the same kindness as the rest of the cast and this helps expand the value of connections which the game pushes through
the variety of its characters.
Conclusion
In
the end Robots and AI characters are not so different from the
organic counterparts yet they are different enough to make them
perfect for exploring human nature. They can work well in the
role of metaphor for an aspect of humanity and each one can
leverage their relationship with the cast to bring out interesting
new angle to them. Playing off their inorganic nature can create
divides between them and organics which can be leveraged for plot or
emotional pay offs through this new understanding of the way thinking
and feeling can manifest. Then there are the characters who are
entirely bound by their programming and lack the freewill and these work both as exposition dumps and a
contrast with the freedom offered to the rest of the cast. Overall,
the inorganic nature of Robot and AI characters gives developers
a flexible way to hold up a mirror to the player and ask them to
examine themselves and they can make for a powerful avenue for the consideration of the human condition in a modern or
sci-fi stories.
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