VN Architecture (part 4)

In addition to possible endings related to your mission in the Star Legation, the ending will also reflect the relationship choices you have made with two of the female characters in the game. Throughout the story you will interact with them at different, predetermined points and as you do, the way they feel about you will be affected. You can be strictly professional with your dialogue choices, or you can try to get to know them better, sharing more personal details or even choose to flirt romantically. Although the Star Legation is not a dating sim and is not focused on romance, the context of the story and the protagonist's character do both allow for relationships developing with two of the female characters. If you choose to pursue a deeper relationship with someone, new background and story information will be uncovered. If you manage to develop a romantic, emotional bond, the ending art of the game will change to reflect that.

VN Architecture (part 3)

Personally, I prefer immersion in a game, especially when the story is engaging and the characters are believable. I don’t like seeing some kind of graphical status indication appear during conversations or events, and I don’t even like having a way to check on that through a menu or sub-screen of some type. In my opinion, it is important to maintain the “suspension of disbelief” just like it is done when watching a movie or TV show. If you are reminded that you are playing a game with fiddly menus and onscreen options, I think it pulls you out of the immersion to a degree and can distract from your full emotional involvement in the story. As a result, the Star Legation does not have a fancy onscreen message bar—it is merely a shadowed area so that you can more easily read the dialogue text. I have also chosen to reduce all onscreen graphical user interface down to a single icon in the lower right of the screen. When you click that icon, a menu screen will appear so you can save, familiarize yourself with other key commands (such as a quick save key, skip text key, etc.) My main goal is for you to lose yourself in the story like you would in a book.

VN Architecture (part 2)

In a number of instances throughout the Star Legation visual novel, there will be opportunities to fail, and some of those failures will result in a “Game Over” because you can no longer achieve the main objective of the game, or because your choice actually resulted in death. Of course, you can always reload from previous saves and try again with different choices. However, sometimes your previous choices even earlier than that might have farther-reaching effects than you realized. Near the last third of the game, many of the choices you have made earlier will be put to the test, as the type of relationships you have built will determine how characters will behave at a rather crucial moment in the story. I have not included any way for the player to track this during the game, nor have I indicated when such a choice might affect a relationship—it’s all very organic and I don’t want to disrupt the natural flow of character interaction…

VN Architecture (part 1)

I officially finished writing the story for the Star Legation visual novel! Last week, late Monday night, I finished the epilogues for each of the final endings you can earn, if you survive to the end of the game. For a while, I’ve been mistakenly referring to the best ending possible as the “True Ending,” a term I’ve heard used for VN’s a lot. However, when I looked into it, I realized that True Ending means something entirely different. The True Ending is reserved for a type of VN that requires you to go through each route of the game, unlocking new information with each route, and you can only achieve the True Ending once you’ve gone through all the other routes. This is also considered to be the platonic, no-romance ending of a VN. There is a best ending in the Star Legation visual novel, but it won't require multiple playthroughs to earn—you can achieve it the first time through, if you make the right choices. There isn't one single path to the best ending, but there are a lot of divergent paths that will prevent you from earning it if you aren't careful...

What is it about JRPG’s? (part 5)

In my opinion, I prefer JRPG's to Western RPG's, most of the time. There are a number of reasons, but regarding open-world vs. linear story-telling, my vote is for JRPG's because I like feeling that the game is moving forward with purpose. Open-sandbox RPG's can certainly be fun, and many of them do have incredible stories to tell. I just don't like wandering around doing side quests, aimlessly exploring, and grinding to level up without any pressing incentive to do so. JRPG's, on the other hand, give me a sense of urgency, and essentially force me to level up through random battles as I move from one area to another towards the next story objective. I like feeling like I'm making progress through a story while spending time with the different characters in my group as we journey together--I prefer solo gaming, but I don't necessarily like for my game character to be all alone. To me, JRPG's are more immersive because I feel like the story is carrying me forward, rather than Western RPG's where I feel a lack of urgency with the story, as it is left up to me to decide when I want to get around to pursuing it. The lack of an urgent story may be the problem itself, because I feel less invested and involved in something ongoing. Not only does the linear fashion of a JRPG provide that, but interactions with the other characters in my group also remind me that we're all on an epic journey seeking to solve a quest together.

What is it about JRPG’s? (part 4)

Combat in JRPG's has somewhat of a reputation that can almost be described as a stigma. Early JRPG giants like the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games involved repetitive combat that has often been described as "grinding." Moving through the game world between story segments was usually broken up every 8 to 10 seconds by an unavoidable random battle encounter, though more recent JRPG's sometimes allow for you to navigate around battle encounters to avoid them. Battles provide a fun distraction from the main story and feel like progress when, after each battle, a display indicates how much new experience and wealth you have accumulated. Leveling up itself becomes a motivator, because new items and unlocked abilities keep battle fresh and allow for new tactics and customization options. The level of player involvement with this aspect of the game is much more active and is part of the necessary balance with the somewhat passive experience of enjoying the story. However, these battles feel more like definitive progress, because they are usually a means towards moving forward in the story—travel from point A to B and the story will unfold with a new chapter. In open-world RPG's, however, sometimes hours can be spent in random combat while wandering around, and unless the player decides to pursue the main story line intentionally, the game can become what the player makes it. Why, then, is the JRPG formula still so successful? My theories, tomorrow...

What is it about JRPG’s? (part 3)

JRPG's have been influenced somewhat by Western RPG's, with one example being the optional quests presented alongside the main storyline. This itself blurs the line between the two genres because the strength of the JRPG is the main story. If too much time can be spent away from the main storyline, an RPG tends to more easily become judged by the sum of its parts. Is the combat system fun? Is there enough item variety? How interesting and involved is the crafting system? Are the abilities learned upon leveling worthwhile and fun to use? All of these factors are standards in the RPG genre, but a JRPG feels less and less like a JRPG if these elements become more of a focus than the story. In a JRPG, the story and cast of characters is the focal point throughout the game, balanced with a type of combat model that can ultimately make or break the game...