Case Study: Higurashi When They Cry

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At first glance, the village of Hinamizawa seems like a peaceful place.

Despite being one of Japan’s most popular visual novel games, Higurashi When They Cry has a very important difference that sets it apart from the rest of the genre. Unlike normal visual novels, which feature complex branching path stories, Higurashi is one of the rare games that uses fully traditional storytelling (for a more detailed look at the visual novel genre and its storytelling methods, see Chapter 9).

As a visual novel, Higurashi’s story is told primarily via pages of text, like a book written in the first person. However, the text is displayed atop background images of the main character’s current location and also features illustrations of the other characters, along with sound effects and a full musical score, making the story far more of an audiovisual experience than an ordinary novel. The player’s only form of interaction is clicking the mouse to advance the text, clearly separating it from other visual novels in which the player takes a much more active role in the story.

Higurashi spans eight separate games (or story arcs), which were released individually over the course of four years. It went on to become a major hit in Japan, spawning novels, comics, an animated TV series, multiple live-action movies, and several ports and spin-off games, along with a wide assortment of merchandise. However, like almost all visual novels, Higurashi wasn’t released outside Japan, though both the anime (cartoon) and manga (comic) were translated and released in the United States. Recently, however, the original Higurashi games were finally made available in English by the European company MangaGamer, allowing the English-speaking world to experience the story the way it was meant to be told.

Set in Japan in the mid 1980s, Higurashi follows teenager Keiichi Maebara, whose family recently left behind the hustle and bustle of Tokyo to move to the quiet mountain village of Hinamizawa. Keiichi quickly finds himself growing fond of his new life and becomes good friends with four of the girls in his school: the highly competitive Mion, the friendly and helpful Rena, the crafty Satoko, and the cute and resourceful Rika. The five of them make up the school’s “unbeatable” club and are constantly challenging each other in all manner of crazy games and activities. Higurashi’s first arc, Onikakushi (which can be translated as Spirited Away by Demons), begins innocently enough, with Keiichi and his friends engaging in a series of enjoyable activities as the village’s annual Watanagashi festival draws near. These early chapters serve as an introduction to Keiichi, the girls, and the village itself, and are a lot of fun to read due to the likable characters and amusing situations they find themselves in. However, Hinamizawa isn’t quite the tranquil place that it seems. Things begin to go wrong when Keiichi learns that for the past four years, on the night of Watanagashi, one person has turned up dead and another has mysteriously disappeared shortly thereafter. Supposedly, all the crimes have been solved and the timing was just a coincidence. However, when visiting photographer Tomitake is discovered the night of the festival with his throat scratched out, the series of murders and rumors about the mysterious curse of Oyashiro are suddenly much harder to ignore. Determined to learn more about Tomitake’s death, Keiichi ends up in over his head when his friends start acting strangely and he finds himself being shadowed by an unknown presence. To make matters worse, he becomes the victim of several near-fatal attacks, all designed to seem like simple accidents but hinting at a much darker intent.

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The village and its inhabitants harbor many dark secrets.

I won’t say what happens next, but Keiichi’s story doesn’t end well and leaves a lot of unanswered questions. In a very interesting twist, rather than continue the story where it left off, the second and third arc cover the exact same period of time – immediately before and after the Watanagashi festival. However, events play out differently each time, leading to new but just as tragic outcomes, with the fourth arc acting as both a prequel and epilogue to the others. Throughout this portion of the story, the player is faced with a myriad of mysteries, few of which are answered, and begins to learn of Hinamizawa’s dark past. Because of this, the first four arcs are known as question arcs and the remaining four (referred to as Higurashi Kai) are answer arcs. The answer arcs continue to retell the story but break away from Keiichi, getting into the heads of the other characters in order to slowly explain the truth behind the murders and strange events of the first four chapters, eventually tying them together into a final epic conclusion to the bloody cycle that shrouds Hinamizawa.

Featuring likable characters that are far more than they first appear, a chilling series of murders, and a complex web of dark secrets and mysteries designed to keep players guessing right up until the end, Higurashi contains one of the most interesting and engaging mystery/suspense stories I’ve ever read, with the art, sound, and music adding quite a lot to the experience. But, despite that, I have a problem calling it a game. With no interaction beyond advancing the text, Higurashi is entirely lacking in both interactive and game-like elements. Even the writer admits it, saying the “game” lies in trying to figure out the answers to the story’s many mysteries before they’re revealed in the later arcs. Although puzzling over the events in each subsequent arc is fun, and something I myself spent many hours doing, the same can be done with any book and in no way allows the player to interact directly with Hinamizawa or its inhabitants. So although Higurashi may be an excellent visual novel, it’s mostly certainly not a visual novel game.

Case Study: FINAL FANTASY X

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FINAL FANTASY X’s hero, Tidus, finds himself pulled into a new and dangerous world. © Square Enix, Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Square’s famous FINAL FANTASY series is known for its complex storylines and well-developed characters – and its PlayStation 2 debut was no exception. As was expected of Square, FINAL FANTASY X featured some of the best graphics of its time, a memorable musical score, and many new gameplay innovations (including a more strategic battle system, the ability to switch out party members mid-battle, and the removal of traditional character levels in favor of the new Sphere Grid system). It was also the first FINAL FANTASY game to feature voice acting, with fully spoken dialog for all the major characters. Though die-hard fans of the series’ earlier entries tend to prefer FINAL FANTASY VI or FINAL FANTASY VII, FINAL FANTASY X became the favorite of many of the newer generation of FINAL FANTASY fans and was also the first game in the series to receive a true sequel (FINAL FANTASY X-2).

FINAL FANTASY X starts in the futuristic city of Zanarkand. The main character, Tidus, is the young star player of the Zanarkand Abes blitzball team, but despite his fame, he can’t seem to escape from the shadow of his father, who disappeared years before. However, when a giant monster destroys the city, Tidus awakens to find himself in Spira, a world far different from his own. People in Spira shun technology and instead rely on summoners (humans with the ability to summon and control magical beasts known as aeons) to protect them from attacks by Sin, the same monster that destroyed Tidus’s home. Lost and unsure of how to return to his own world, Tidus falls in with Yuna, the daughter of the former high summoner, and her companions on a journey to gain the aid of the aeons and defeat Sin once more. Unsurprisingly, there’s far more to the role of Sin and the summoners than they realize and the truth about Spira, Zanarkand, the aeons, and even Tidus’s father rocks their beliefs and convictions to the core, causing a drastic shift in the nature and goals of their journey and culminating in one of the series’ most emotional endings to date. In addition, Tidus’s narration throughout much of the game adds an interesting perspective to the events, explaining his thoughts and motivations during each stage of the journey.

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The bond between Tidus and Yuna grows gradually throughout the game. © Square Enix, Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Like all the main series FINAL FANTASY games (and most of the spin-offs), FINAL FANTASY X uses interactive traditional storytelling. The main story itself is fixed and the same events always happen in the same order, though the player’s actions can cause some minor modifications to the plot. For example, in one scene, when they break off into pairs, Tidus will be put with the character he’s been the friendliest with. However, these changes amount to, at most, some very slight changes in dialog and have no real bearing on the progression or outcome of the story as a whole. But that doesn’t mean that the player is just an observer. Outside important story scenes, he or she is given a considerable amount of freedom. Naturally, the player is in complete control during battles and is free to fight and develop his party as he pleases, but that’s only the beginning. Despite being one of the more linear FINAL FANTASY games, FINAL FANTASY X still allows the player to travel to and explore a variety of places (some of which make no appearance in the main story). As the player is doing this, he can power up the heroes and learn more about the world, characters, and backstory by talking to NPCs, finding lost video spheres recorded long ago by Tidus’s father, and participating in a large variety of optional quests. Some of these activities have almost no bearing on the main plot and merely give a little more information about Spira and its inhabitants; others provide the answers to some lingering questions that are asked but never answered over the course of the main story.

Despite the player’s lack of control over the story itself, the freedom the player has throughout the rest of the game clearly separates FINAL FANTASY X’s interactive traditional story from the fully traditional stories of books and movies. It also provides a strong illusion of control by giving the player an important role to play and the freedom to perform that role in many different ways. So although the plot itself remains the same, each player’s experiences in the world of Spira are different and unique.

Case Study: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

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Solid Snake has aged significantly since his last outing.

Metal Gear Solid 4 didn’t become the final game in the Metal Gear series as was originally intended (though all later releases have so far taken place earlier in the series’ fictional timeline), but its release brought to a close the story that had stretched through the rest of the series (aside from Metal Gear Solid Ghost Babel and Metal Gear Ac!d, spin-off titles with their own continuities) from Naked Snake’s defeat of The Boss in MGS3, through his own defeat in MG and MG2, and onward through Solid Snake and Raiden’s adventures in MGS and MGS2. When it was released, MGS4 impressed gamers not only with its highly detailed graphics and revamped control system, but also with the way it expertly tied up the myriads of mysteries and loose ends from past games in a way that both made sense and provided a satisfying and emotional conclusion to the story – something that many fans, myself included, had thought to be nearly impossible.

With the exception of the first MGS, which had a multiple-ending story, the series has always used interactive traditional storytelling to great effect. Though the series is occasionally derided for its long cut-scenes, it is frequently praised for its cinematic action scenes, long conversations between characters, and top-quality voice acting, which all serve an important purpose: causing the players to truly care about the characters, their goals, and their motivations. The graphics quality in MGS4 further upped the ante, showing the characters’ body language and subtle facial shifts far better than ever before, making for one of the most emotional stories in gaming and a frequently cited example of a game that can make people cry.

Set a few years after the events of MGS2, Snake is now an old man, due to a flaw in his genetics that has caused his body to suddenly and rapidly age. As Snake has changed, so has the world. Seemingly channeling the spirit of Snake’s brother Liquid, Revolver Ocelot has created a series of private military corporations – armies for hire that are willing to serve whoever will pay. The use of emotion-suppressing nano machines has made these soldiers fearless and loyal: the perfect warriors. War has become a business, and business is good. Though still on the search for Ocelot and the shadowy group known as The Patriots, with Raiden missing and Snake’s body rapidly deteriorating, he and Otacon have reached a dead end. However, when Ocelot resurfaces, Snake returns to the battlefield one last time to put an end to things once and for all. Snake’s final mission features many interesting characters, both old and new, and reveals the shocking truth behind mysteries including Big Boss’s defection, Ocelot’s goals, and the identity of The Patriots.

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Metal Gear Solid 4 has a very diverse cast of characters, new and old.

Like previous MG games, MGS4 plays to the strengths of interactive traditional storytelling. Although the story scenes are scripted, unchangeable, and, with a couple of exceptions, noninteractive, this allows them to be done in a highly cinematic style that highlights the intense and breathtaking events. The story also features many shocking and emotional moments of the sort that are extremely hard to create when using more interactive and player-driven storytelling styles. (We’ll discuss the reasons for that throughout the upcoming chapters.)

However, despite the unchanging and linear nature of the story, players have a significant amount of control and freedom available to them during the rest of the game, even more so than in the rest of the series. The story guides Snake through a series of war-torn battlefields but provides him with an endless variety of ways to pass through them. Stealth has always been Snake’s specialty; he can choose to use his natural abilities and new camouflage technology to try to slip by unseen. But he can also take a more aggressive role, silently dispatching guards with a wide variety of weapons or distracting them through other means. Unlike the areas in previous MG games, which generally had only one path, the environments in MGS4 are large and varied, providing many possible routes, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Several areas also feature pitched battles between Liquid’s soldiers and local freedom fighters. Although sneaking past them is always an option, players can also choose to aid the locals in their fight, allowing them to push forward, open new paths, and clear areas of enemy combatants. Or, if the player chooses, he or she can act as a lone wolf, dispatching soldiers on both sides of the conflict and taking their equipment to aid him in future battles.

This high degree of freedom in the gameplay makes each player’s experience unique and allows for considerable experimentation and replay value while still providing the kind of deep, twisting, and tightly controlled narrative that fans of the series love. There are many games on the market that provide good examples of how to tell an interactive traditional story, but from its haunting opening to its tearful conclusion, MGS4 is certainly one of the finest.

Case Study: FINAL FANTASY VII

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Cloud and Sephiroth are still famous figures among gamers. © Square Enix, Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

As I mentioned in Chapter 2, FINAL FANTASY VII is a very important title in the history of games and game storytelling. Not only did it elevate console RPGs from a niche market in the United States to one of the most popular genres in existence, but it also showed both gamers and game developers outside Japan that a good story could both define a game and attract a significant audience. The explosion of RPGs and story-focused games of all types that followed brought stories – which were before often considered to be one of the less important elements of games – to the forefront in the eyes of many developers and gamers.

But what made FINAL FANTASY VII so popular that the industry as a whole had to stand up and take notice? Was it the state-of-the-art graphics and amazing FMVs, or perhaps Square’s massive multimillion-dollar marketing campaign? Clearly not. Those factors no doubt helped to get it in the public eye and convinced gamers unfamiliar with the FINAL FANTASY series to give it a try, contributing to the strong sales during its first weeks; however, those elements can’t account for the way it continued to dominate sales charts for months after its initial release, its enduring popularity, or the sheer amount of praise lavished upon it by the gaming press both back then and now. Its excellent musical score and solid gameplay were also only small parts of the puzzle. FINAL FANTASY VII’s greatest strengths, and the reasons for its immense popularity (which has led to multiple sequels and prequels, along with an endless stream of fan requests for a full remake), are its characters and story.

FINAL FANTASY VII starts in Midgar, a massive city run by the Shinra Corporation. From its beginnings as a simple power company, Shinra grew rapidly, taking over other industries and eventually the government itself. Though most people seem content with Shinra rule, rumors abound of a darker side to the company involving highly questionable experiments and power plants that suck the very life force from the planet. Cloud, a mercenary and former member of Shinra’s elite Soldier division, has been hired by the guerilla group Avalanche to help destroy Shinra’s mako energy plants and bring down the company. Despite his childhood friend Tifa being a member of Avalanche, Cloud is only in it for the money and has no interest in the group’s ideals. But a series of events – including a chance encounter with the flower girl Aerith (spelled Aeris in the original release), the destruction of a large section of Midgar, and the sudden reappearance of the legendary soldier Sephiroth (who destroyed Cloud and Tifa’s home town five years before) – give him a new purpose. The story is rife with surprising twists and revelations, including the extent of Shinra’s twisted experiments, Sephiroth’s plans, and the truth about Cloud’s memories and the events of five years ago.

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Aerith’s death shocked and saddened millions of players. © Square Enix, Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

I discussed a few of these elements in earlier chapters, such as the unique way FINAL FANTASY VII uses the old amnesia cliché to set up a series of fascinating twists late in the game, but there’s more to the story than just the big reveals. What’s most important is the characters. Each of Cloud’s companions, from the sweet flower girl Aerith to the wolf-like creature known as Red XIII, has his or her own detailed backstory, well-developed personality, and reason for joining Cloud on his quest. The stories of their lives are interwoven throughout the main narrative, and their conversations – both serious and casual – clearly reflect their different beliefs and personalities. The steady and well-directed flow of events helps keep players engaged and wrapped up in the story, with every town and dungeon bringing about new information and developments. Even enemies such as the group of Turk agents who pursue Cloud’s party feature well-defined personalities and relationships.

Sephiroth is exceptionally well done and has become both one of the most loved and hated villains in gaming history. Instantly recognizable, with his black cape, flowing silver hair, and impossibly long sword, the former Shinra Soldier First Class was once hailed as a hero but turned against not only Shinra but the world itself when he discovered the truth about his origins. This important event, shown as a playable flashback through Cloud’s eyes, does an excellent job of demonstrating Sephiroth’s power and his rapid descent into madness. At first he seems redeemable and even a possible ally against Shinra, but his focus on world destruction and his hand in Aerith’s death (an event frequently called one of the most emotional moments in gaming) earned him the eternal hatred of not only the game’s heroes but many of its players as well.

Like the rest of the series, FINAL FANTASY VII shows what is truly great about interactive traditional stories. Excellent pacing, a diverse cast of fully developed characters, emotional high-impact scenes, and a deep twisting plot revealed gradually over the course of a grand adventure – all elements that become increasingly difficult to create in the more highly interactive styles of storytelling – take center stage to create a game whose impact on its players and the industry as a whole can’t be overestimated.

Case Study:  Arc the Lad II

Though originally released in Japan in 1996, it wasn’t until 2002 that Arc the Lad II was brought to the United States as part of Working Designs’ Arc the Lad Collection. Picking up shortly after the ending of Arc the Lad, Arc II greatly expands on the first game’s world, story, and gameplay and completes the storyline that it began. It’s even one of the rare sequels that allows players to directly import their party from the first game, retaining all of their characters’ levels and items.

The first part of the story focuses on Elc, a bounty hunter and warrior for hire. He and his friend and fellow hunter, Shu, end up on the wrong side of a dangerous group of people when trying to protect Lieza, a girl with the ability to talk to monsters, and end up on the run. As it turns out, Elc, Lieza, Shu, and the friends and companions they meet along the way all have reasons to fight against the evil empire of Romalia. This common ground leads them to eventually meet and join up with Arc and his allies from the first game as they set out to stop Romalia’s ambitions and prevent its leader from releasing an ancient evil being known as The Dark One, which was sealed away long ago.

The vastly improved gameplay, long quest, and numerous optional missions available at the various hunter offices scattered throughout the world are all significant improvements over the first Arc. The story received a similar improvement. Arc II features a large cast of characters, all of whom have their own detailed backstory and optional quests, and the main plot itself is very long and detailed, featuring far fewer clichéd moments than in the first game. Arc and Elc’s journey is a massive tale that has them traveling all over the world, freeing people from Romalia’s rule, seeking out allies, and tracking down and defeating Romalia’s top generals. There are many shockingly dark twists along the way, making for a very serious and mature story that would easily take several pages to adequately summarize.

The place where Arc II unfortunately stumbles is its ending. As I said before, Arc and Elc’s goal is both to stop Romalia from taking over the world and prevent the release of The Dark One. As it turns out, however, Romalia’s leader is surprisingly intelligent. Unlike most villains, who are certain that they can control whatever unstoppable evil force was sealed away long ago by people much more powerful than they are, he fully realizes that releasing The Dark One would be a very bad idea and is instead content to carefully siphon its power to strengthen his own forces. Unfortunately, when Arc’s party breaks into his throne room (having penetrated his final stronghold and defeated his last and strongest followers), he understandably panics and decides that releasing The Dark One is his only hope. Upon release, The Dark One immediately kills Kukuru (Arc’s girlfriend), and its very presence triggers a devastating series of natural disasters that go on to destroy a significant portion of the world, killing most of the people the player spent hours and hours helping and befriending throughout the course of the game. If that wasn’t bad enough, upon defeating The Dark One, Arc and his friends discover that it can’t be fully destroyed and will recover soon unless Arc sacrifices his own life to seal it away. A pretty tragic ending, right? Well, actually it’s not quite over yet. Once the seal is restored, Romalia’s fortress naturally starts to collapse, prompting the usual clichéd escape scene. But said escape doesn’t go so well. Though the surviving heroes do manage to get out alive, one is seriously injured in the process, suffering permanent brain damage. In the end, though the heroes technically won, it certainly doesn’t feel anything like a victory.

Now I’m not saying that games need to have happy endings. Several games we’ve already discussed (CRISIS CORE – FINAL FANTASY VII, Metal Gear Solid 3 & 4, and FINAL FANTASY X) feature endings that certainly can’t be summed up by saying “and they all lived happily ever after.” However, their endings all leave the player with a sense of accomplishment and the knowledge that although some terrible sacrifices were made, the heroes completed what they set out to do and made the world a better place because of it. Arc II’s ending, however, tends to leave players feeling like almost everything they did was a waste. Yes, they helped and freed a lot of people, but in the end most of those people were killed, rendering all the players’ hard work pointless. Even worse, the destruction of the world and the deaths of Arc and Kukuru are entirely the heroes’ (and by extension, the player’s) fault. If they hadn’t stormed in to stop Romalia’s leader from releasing The Dark One, he never would have done so in the first place. Although life under a tyrannical ruler certainly isn’t great, most people would probably agree that it would be preferable to destroying over half of the world. In the end, it’s quite clear that things probably would have turned out much better if Arc and the others did things a bit differently or even decided to go home and forget about Romalia entirely. And the last thing you want players to feel after more than 50 hours of gameplay is that things would have been better off had they done nothing at all.

Arc II’s ending could have worked as the bad ending in a multiple-ending story or even made for a workable (though rather depressing) ending to an interactive traditional story if the result felt inevitable, rather than being the heroes’ and player’s fault. And therein lies interactive traditional storytelling’s biggest weakness. Without any branches or choices to be made, a single poorly written section can significantly detract from or even entirely ruin an otherwise good story.