Character Customisation – 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.
What Shall I Be Today
There is a tendency in visual novels to have some degree of self insert aspect in their protagonists due to the prevalence and intensity of first person narratives. Some of them take this to its natural conclusion by giving the player a means of deciding parts of the character they are going to inhabit and these manifest as customisation options. They range from choosing the protagonist’s gender and pronoun to directly naming them to visual elements such as clothes. Each builds upon the foundational idea that the more control the player has over a character the more they will project onto them and empathise with their plight. While this might bring to mind images of dating sim style games, there are a great variety of visual novels which make use of this technique to achieve a similar but distinct effect, from subversion to secondary character reactions. How and when this customisation is presented also decides a lot about its perception and there are many ways to bring it into the game for differing effects. Let’s load up the character creator and find out how visual novels use it to charm the player.
Naming Characters
By far the most common form of player customisation is the ability to name the protagonist in some fashion. This could be anything from just their first name all the way up to naming everything about them including what nickname they are called. Regardless of the extent of the name customisation given, the effect is a sense of co-authorship with the game and room to self insert into the protagonist you have helped form. When you name something you impart a bit of yourself into it in the same way a parent does when naming their child and the bond formed is a surprisingly potent one. For visual novels, the developer and the player are the co-authors and parents of the protagonist that the player named and this joint venture places the player in a supportive role cheering on the character. This method is common in otome titles such as Collar X Malice where the developers have a set identity for the protagonist in mind but want the player to understand that without losing the link between player and character. In Collar X Malice’s case the player gets to give the protagonist a first name but the family name is set by the game as Hoshino and in doing so makes it clear to the player what type of control over the character they will have during the game. This manifests as the choices which decided the ultimate fate of the protagonist, but not what type of person they are nor how they react to the consequences of these choices. Providing distinct divides about what the player can expect allows for these games to avoid disappointing the player as well as giving them some agency to help engage them.
Choosing Gender And Pronouns
Standing equal to naming in terms of character customisation is the ability to choose gender and pronouns, but the effects these two have on the visual novel differ quite a lot. Creating a protagonist who can be any gender or use any pronoun the player desires would be an extremely difficult task for the narratively intense medium, so instead many developers who use this customisation element tend to have their protagonist be silent or say as little as possible. This way the player can fill in the gaps with the identity they have assigned to the character. However, another angle is to have the other characters acknowledge this choice by it bringing up in natural conversation and having it affect the characters' view of the protagonist. For a good example of this we should look to Analogue: A Hate Story which gives the player agency of the protagonist’s gender. This is particularly important given the emphasis on traditional Korea gender roles and so the manifestation of this viewpoint, Mute, treats the protagonist subtly differently depending on their gender. These changes are never heavy handed and generally exist as as slight alterations in her speech patterns or off hand comments that she thinks of as minor but reveal to the player a lot about her world view. Unlike with a name there is no need to constantly remind the player of their choice in a direct manner as in the real world the reactions of people to gender are far less pronounced to the point of only the slightest hints existing about how they see you.
Visual Customisation
The ability to customise the appearance of characters is most prevalent in hybrid visual novels that have an RPG or dating sim element as their companion. This choice of secondary genre stems from the role-playing aspect already having a presence there and allowing the player freedom when it comes to the visual identity of their characters. There is no stronger element of our appearance than the clothes we wear with their striking colours and as you can imagine this makes them the primary means of visual customisation. The player is often given them as unlockables that lets them treat the characters like they are dress up dolls to express what the player thinks these people should be or what best matches their personalities. Just as child get attached to their favourite toy or action figure, so too does the tool of visual customisation make the player invested in these characters. Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side makes use of visual customisation to help the player project onto the blank slate protagonist so they can feel as if they are romancing the heroes by proxy. Being able to pick out the outfit the protagonist will wear gives the player room to conceive of the character as a person they can relate to and who has similar tastes in both clothes and men. Even the slightest touch of empathy can do a lot to bridge the gap between the real and the fictional in a game so centred around it as its key selling point.
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Conclusion
Giving the player control over the characters in any capacity can be a scary thing for a developer as the player could ruin their vision for the characters. However, the advantages of this choice for certain types of games far out way the risk of the player giving the protagonist a stupid name. Through naming a character the player can engage in a co-authorship of them or be able to completely sink into the role of the protagonist which allows the developer to set their expectations as well as create empathy. Should the game also use gender and pronouns as customisation options then the opportunity arises to have the other characters change their reactions based on the player’s choice to make them feel more involved in the narrative. If that is not enough then the developer can give up aspects of the character’s visual identity to provide a compelling source of player investment. Not all visual novels demand customisation and those with extremely defined characters will not want to give up any control of them, but the benefits are worth considering if you are creating a game with a malleable protagonist or cast.
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