The visual novel is strange creature. It’s a quintessentially Japanese medium so that alone makes it worth mentioning on this blog but this peculiar mix of ideas and storytelling is something that I’ve heard a lot about but only recently experienced for myself. Are these things video games in the style of books, or books in the style of video games? Both? Neither? It poses interesting questions in terms of semantics too…
“Don’t mind me. I’m just playing…I mean reading…that is I’m, um, oh sod it.”
Like the duck-billed platypus, which looks like less of a supporting argument for the theory of evolution and more a product of a supreme being with a wicked sense of humour, the visual novel is an unlikely mixture of varied components. It has the text and semi-static images you’d expect from a light or graphic novel, but has an interactive element that’s akin to a simplified version of a computer game. This blend of disparate media types in turn has some interesting effects on the way you experience its style of storytelling; the logic behind it is certainly easier to explain than that of a little furry bugger that still goes to the trouble of laying eggs.
There’s a similarity between VNs and those old Choose Your Own Adventure books that sent the reader to different pages depending on the choices they made. I personally couldn’t stand them because I quickly wound up eaten by bears or zapped by aliens; in VN-speak this is the typical Bad End. It does however offer a powerful aspect of the VN’s appeal: the branching narrative.
I wrote recently about how the gameplay of the original Chaos;Head VN allegedly offers frequent choices between a dark and gory plotline or a light and fluffy one in addition the default preset. I’d also like to play the Clannad VN at some point because the side-stories that get only a few episodes or less in the anime intrigued me; as a matter of fact the Tomoyo After chapter was my favourite moment of the series so far and is something I could quite happily sit through for longer. If you want to be cynical about it, giving a number of different endings in a romance show is catering for fanboys and fangirls of more than one or two characters, which makes pretty good marketing sense. In C;H‘s case though it uses the branching narrative approach to give a split personality-type feel that fits in with the theme of the story itself.
As far as I know the VN format has yet to be put to eductional use, unless you count dating sims as demonstrations of social etiquette or something
I must admit that if I were able to have some sort of control over the tone and pacing of the C;H anime it would have been a more rewarding experience; another big plus with a VN is that if the viewer/reader/player isn’t a hardcore bookworm but is familiar with anime, manga and gaming they can basically have a novel-like experience, in the anime style AND guide the story how they see fit. This interactivity was the biggest surprise for me since I could immerse myself in the story thanks to the first-person perspective and actually *think* about the protagonist’s motivations and what the consequences of their actions would be. “What would [insert character name] do?”
I’m taking the Fate route of the Fate/Stay Night VN literally a day at a time to move along at a steady clip while working around my daily routine. An hour or so of light reading, with a bit of Einaudi or Depeche in the background is a great way to explore avenues of the story that the anime could not; perhaps I should’ve left the adaptation for afterwards but to be honest I prefer to discover new facets of the characters’ personalities and follow new events rather than lament on familiar material that appears to be missing. Either way it’s a prime example of a story that works marvellously in the VN format.
By day #7 or thereabouts we have a pretty firm handle on how the characters are fulfilling roles determined by past events or lineage, and how certain individuals are motivated by doing the right thing or rectifying (as yet unspecified) past actions. It’s ironic, really, that in a situation in which a character has been forced onto a course of action either by themselves or the influence of others it’s up to you to decide where their story goes. Is this approach a commentary on choosing your own path, or is it a more technically-determined result of interconnected storylines working better with the branching plotline?
There’s a new game we like to play, you see/a game with added reality
The reason why I’m asking is that the writer(s) of Minori, Type Moon or Key didn’t initially publish their stories in print or sell them to a television studio. They made them into interactive e-books where the plot can fly off into one of several directions, with Bad Ends keeping you on your toes about why the characters do what they do (the only hint about F/S N I can give at this stage is that selfish, cowardly and out-of-character behaviour on the part of the lead gives a Bad End that makes you glad you saved your progress first).
In the case of F/S N it’s all about inheriting something that the characters cannot escape due to inherited issues and the emotional ties they make for themselves, then presenting the story with frequent “So, what would you do here, smart arse?” when things get a bit tense. It also offers a more thorough and in-depth study of events, thoughts and feelings which enriches the world and brings the characters more to life. But my thoughts on that will have to come later.