Sometimes games are about the action: the entertainment that comes from shooting, blasting, racing, flying or generally doing some kind of physical movement. However, on the other end of the spectrum, games’ value can be attributed to their plot and can also introduce players to new worlds and stories.
A good dynamic for the latter of games can be defined by the balance between interactive mechanics and stories with narrative depth, though I don’t feel satisfied with the range of games the industry currently has to offer. Especially considering that the term “visual novel” is heavily associated with Japanese works, there isn’t much to go around when it comes to art styles, storytelling methods or plots coming from the West. In my experience, Japanese games that fall under this category are characteristically “railroaded” experiences, meaning they still provide limited space for player interaction and include a narrow set of choices in a closed environment.
But the genre is not limited to the Japanese industry, nor is the genre itself static — new interpretations of the visual novel should borrow previous mechanics and build gaming experiences that provide much greater levels of creativity in interactive gameplay on top of them.
Given current trends, it is much more lucrative to release another game with in-game purchases or rushed mechanics than to take the time to imagine new styles of gameplay. Perhaps I am an outlier for claiming this, but because of this, a game from the West called “Suzerain” should be treated as a rare example of a visual novel that is deeply immersive, and future success for this genre can come by drawing inspiration from it.
The premise of Suzerain is simple. As the president of an imaginary republic, you must persevere through the endless complexities and power struggles of a chaotic society while overcoming harsh political and cultural problems. Every decision you make affects the balance of power in your nation, and you must find your moral ground by interacting with the world around you. Many simulators try to emulate the hard decisions made in politics, but Suzerain is the only one that I can think of in which the experience feels decisively human. I feel that I am living an imaginary life while playing the game, and every decision made within its interactive design makes the experience personal.
On a different note, games that are, technically speaking, not visual novels can still bring an element of creativity into the industry in the West. The most famous example of good narrative being coupled with interesting gameplay is Disco Elysium. Without stretching the definitions too much, this is one of the works from the past years that has introduced new ideas about what visual novels can achieve.
The most excellent part about the storytelling in Disco Elysium is its very human way of approaching the complex setting it is based on. The player begins with no memory, no sense of purpose and no identity, finding the need to invent their own as the dialogue progresses and ascribe meaning to a chaotic world. There is still an eventual end we march toward, and barring the slight variations on the different endings, the way the story concludes is as inevitable as death itself.
This aspect of its story somehow makes me feel like Disco Elysium is an allegory for life itself — while death is inevitable, the choices we make can still define the time we have. Disco Elysium has the potential to reach such a level of complexity in its narrative effectively because the depth of storytelling is always the priority — the experience is distinct from other conventional genres because the story of the game is “your” life story and the purpose of the game is to discover how you specifically choose to see the stories of the world around you.
One thing that made writing this article both exciting and frustrating was this same situation with visual novels — there aren’t many unique ones out there. That is why it is worth paying attention to these two games that have made a name for themselves, primarily because of how much potential they have from a game design point. Their reviews always have the same type of “What other games are like this?” and “Why aren’t there more games like this?” comments by players. The lack of experimentation by the industry until now is at odds with the untapped potential of games beyond mere entertainment and toward creative art. Conventional action and combat genres have a solidified audience in mainstream gaming due to their longtime popularity and physicality, but studios with creative vision must now cross the boundaries of the unknown and experiment with telling stories and interactive story features.
Game design that differs both from the railroaded style of narration in Japan and the greedy mass production of content in the West provides a new frontier for expression with a clear demand. I would be very interested in new games that offer an immersive, interactive storytelling experience that comes with unique mechanics. Since visual novels are good at emphasizing the depths of a fictional story, this can be a new direction to look at. There simply needs to be an incentive or a push for more content in creative writing, which could be the beginning of a new style of game development altogether.
Deniz Gulay is a sophomore double-majoring in history and Russian.
Views expressed in the opinions pages represent the opinions of the columnists. The only piece that represents the view of the Pipe Dream Editorial Board is the staff editorial.