NVL VS. ADV – An Anatomy of Visual Novels
Entry posted by Pallas_Raven in Analysis
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This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.
For visual novels, the written word is their backbone and how it is presented to the player is key to controlling their tone and pacing. Over the years the methods of presentation have been standardised into two types, ADV (ADVenture) and NVL (NoVeL). These two have become the dominate styles and are often positioned as diametric opposites in what they set out to achieve. When a developer creates a visual novel they will often exclusively use one of these two types based on if it fits their intended vision. But what is it that drives their choice and why have these two methods emerged as the dominant forces in the medium? This article will examine these two competing styles to find out what makes them tick and how you can utilise them when making your own visual novel.
ADV
In general ADV refers to a text box which only occupies as small section of the screen. It is normally located at the bottom but also can take different forms such as speech bubbles or other hovering text boxes. ADV is by far the most popular type of text presentation with over 19000 tagged games in VNDB and it can be seen as the face of the medium given how much it has become associated with visual novels.
One of the primary reasons for this popularity is the faster pace it offers. An ADV textbox can only show a few lines of text at a time which the player can quickly read before clicking to show the next lines. This means the player is always being presented with new content and encouraged to never dwell on previous lines which gives them a sense that they are rapidly and constantly progressing through the game. As such the overall pacing of the game is sped up and for games focused on action or want a less dense feeling to their narratives, the choice to use ADV makes sense. This can be further controlled to the developer’s liking through the mixture of dialogue and narration to slow or speed up the feeling of a scene. The 9-nine- series is a good example of this practice with its mixture of slice of life, suspense and action scenes demanding a shifting but brisk pace. The game’s ADV delivers this by mixing speech heavy sections with rapid descriptions of events depending on the needs of each scene. Even with these elements it can be difficult to slow the player down and make them contemplate what has occurred due to the inherent forward momentum of ADV and the lack of space it gives to what has just happened.
Complementing this faster pace is the lighter tone offered by unobstructed visuals. The smaller textbox of ADV places a greater emphasis on the backgrounds, portraits and CGs behind it and these cover the major of what the player will be seeing. As you would expect this means the visuals have to carry more of the weight in selling the narrative and is a consideration for visual novels where their art style is a big selling point as ADV allows it to shine. A focus on visuals also creates a less serious tone than NVL due to the shorter segments of text and an overall brighter feeling due to their prominence. This is the main reason slice of life and romance visual novels prefer ADV as their aim is create an enjoyable but not demanding experience for the player which they can comfortably slip in and out of and ADV provides this flexibility to the developers. One of the most prominent examples of this practice can be found in any Yuzusoft game where the lighter tone of ADV is utilised to its full effectiveness with their decorative and translucent text boxes and bright aesthetic. It is impressive to see how small changes to the colours of an interface can shift the player's perceptions of a work towards a more relaxed atmosphere.
By emphasising images through the smaller textbox of ADV, the styles of narrative told using it tend towards an external focus. What this means in practice is that these visual novels tend to have flat or self-insert protagonists with the focus being placed on the interactions between and other characters to carry the players interest. Amnesia: Memories is an extreme example of this external focus with its complete commitment to the self-insert protagonist and reliance on conversations between characters to carry the narrative weight. There is only a limited amount of introspection possible in a format which is inherently forward moving and what is present tends to be brief and supported by emotional moments with members of the core cast. This is one of the major downsides of the momentum offered by ADV, slowing things down can be difficult without killing the pacing of the overall narrative.
NVL
The approach of NVL to text and narrative presentation is in many ways the other extreme to the ADV method. It generally manifests as a single large textbox covering most of the screen, sometimes with a boarder around the edge, through which the visuals bellow can be seen even if they are partially obscured.
When a developer chooses to use NVL it is clear they want the writing to be front and centre with the player's undivided attention. This is a result of having the text take up a good portion of the screen and it changes how the player interacts with the game. The presence of more lines of text on screen at any one time creates a slower pace to the narrative since past lines linger on the screen and the player may reread them in light of the new information being presented to them. We can see this clearly in Higurashi When They Cry which utilises its tense and horror based narrative to make the player hang on each sentence for a clue and attempt to find meaning in how the lines are presented, which in turn fuels the atmosphere in a cyclical manner. A side effect of this approach is the introduction of a more demanding tone than is found in ADV due to the increased prominence of the text and the way in asks you to dwell on the complete picture each page is showing instead of just a since line. These combine to favour more narratively complex stories since these elements of NVL are often overkill for simpler tales.
One of the largest benefits to using NVL is the minute level of control it is possible gain over what text is shown as well as where and when. This gives the developer the ability to emphasise key moments by breaking from the established structure of the text and surprising the player. These can be something as simple as a single word at the centre of the screen to as complex as an entire scene presented as if it were a text chat log. Perhaps the most vivid example of this is Fate Stay Night which uses the colour, position, font and shapes available to control player perceptions with a level of finesse not possible without NVL. The ability to spice up the narrative presentation can never be underestimated and it injects life into what might otherwise be a boring wall of text. However, there is the ever present risk of overusing this trick and the temptation to show off through it must be controlled since it will rapidly become familiar and breed complacency in the player.
A major drawback of utilising NVL is way in which it pushes the visual aspects of the game into the background. By placing a large text box in front of both the background and portraits, it creates a sense of distance from them and encourages the player to consider them less important than the writing. As you would expect this means that their art styles often tend towards clearer shapes and an uncluttered visual presence since a more distinctive and loud use of colour and form would become muddied or lost under the layer of text. While this is normally worked into how the game presents itself so as to not draw attention to it, there is undeniably something lost from not being properly able to engage with the visual aspects in a more chaotic and expressive fashion.
Merging The Two Sides
So far I have been presenting ADV and NVL as if they are entirely opposite and incompatible with each other. Of course this is not true, in reality there is nothing stopping a developer from switching between the two styles depending on the needs of the scene. Do you want to have a moment of introspection then switch to NVL, or perhaps you want a fast paced actions scene then switch to ADV. Wonderful Everyday perfectly encapsulates this mixed philosophy as it weaves in and out of both styles of presentation to allow the importance of a scene or moment to be understood by the player. On top of all of this it allows for the ability to play with player expectations through establishing one of the styles as being only used for a certain character or type of scene only pull back the curtain to reveal the truth later on. The flexibility on offer is endless and can be tweaked to fit the needs of the game’s narrative, further adding to the toolbox available.
Conclusion
As with any medium there are differing approaches to presentation and none of these are necessarily better than any other, but instead offer benefits to certain genres and themes. Such is the case with the ADV vs. NVL debate. On the one side we have ADV with its tendency towards faster pacing and external focused narratives and on the other we have NVL with its introspective tendencies and more demanding tone. Of course you can combine the two in the same visual novel and play with their contrasting properties if you are willing to run the risk of confusing the player. Each one of these options is valid when used properly and allow the developer to have control over the effects of both the text and visuals in order to achieve their desired emotion or theme. In the end you will have to make the call about what you feel will work best within your visual novel and lean into what makes your chosen style tick for the best results.
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