Which of these 2 scenarios sound more interesting?

[AlceX]

Heya, I'm in the process of making my first VN, but I can't decide which of these 2 scenarios is best. The theme of the story is memory-changing, and the ideas are as follow:

• A young man discovers the ability to change people's memories, but things quickly spiral out of control as he uses it for his own benefit.
• A professional memory-changer decides to retire; to do so, he must erase himself from the minds of everyone he's ever worked with.

What do you think? (if you feel like it, you can also answer this poll) Thanks in advance!

[plainviewer]

You've got to learn to make up your own mind if you want to grow into a successful writer. Write to express, not to impress. If a story gets made only because x amount of people said they liked an idea, then how much of the story are you really writing at that point?

Since you sound conflicted, my advice to you is to put these ideas on hold. Invent scenario three and work with that. Creativity is a process. Meaning you need some trial and error before you can make any final decisions.

[Katy133]

Instead of telling you which one I think you should do, I’m going to try to bridge the gap between your mind and mine, and tell you why I think either/both ideas are worth exploring and making into a game.

I’d rather do this, than outright tell you what to do, because 1) We are different developers with different tastes, and 2) Often with storytelling, it’s about the presentation, rather than the concept (compare The Fairy Tale Police Department vs. The Wolf Among Us. Same concept, very different presentation).

• A young man discovers the ability to change people's memories, but things quickly spiral out of control as he uses it for his own benefit.

Let me explain the potential I can gather from this description.

- This is a “decent into darkness” archetypal story: These stories can be very interesting to write, because it requires the author to explore questions like, “How do good people become bad?” and “Is power inherently bad?”

- The character goes through a drastic arc: Relating to the above point, the character could start off as a very nice person (a hero), and slowly, progressively become morally corrupt.

- This could be a tragedy: Tragedies are very hard to do well, but if you are able to write one well, and give it a satisfying ending, it will be very memorable to the audience. Personally, every well-written tragedy I’ve read I remember well, even if the work in question was something I read ages ago. JesuOtaku gives a very good discussion on writing tragedy in her Madoka Magica Review video.

- Who does this man entrust his secret to?: If he does find a confidant, his relationship with them is bound to be incredibly strong. It would also most likely be tested at some point (and the secret-keeper either passes the test, accidentally fail the test, or outright betray the man).

- This is one of the few story type that warrants the protagonist dying: And if they do die, by what cause? By their confidant? By an enemy they’ve made? By an abstract force of nature? Ultimately, the protagonist would be killed by himself, as it is his actions that drive the plot, and therefore, the ending.

• A professional memory-changer decides to retire; to do so, he must erase himself from the minds of everyone he's ever worked with.

- This story has a retiring protagonist: This implies that the protagonist is of a mature/elderly age, which I like the idea of because protagonists in visual novels (and visual media in general) are usually young. Very rarely elderly. Even when it’s more likely/realistic for a character to be mature (the job the protagonist has requires a lot of experience, etc). That really makes this idea stand out, because of all the untapped potential there is to writing an elderly protagonist. People tend to have different motivations and a different state of mind depending on their age (even with the same person at various ages). How does making the character elderly effect the story, the character, and how people react to the main character?

- There is a strong theme of relationships: The protagonist is basically severing every relationship he’s ever had with another human being. That also has potential for tragedy (or a bittersweet ending at the very least). Imagine how isolating that would be for an individual? To have no one know you from Adam? This would include family members (which could include parents, siblings, partner, and children, etc.), friends, people who looked up to him as a mentor/hero, past coworkers, people he was romantically involved with, and rivals. Imagine each “memory change scene” in the story where the protagonist finds a person who knows him, think back to the times they’d had together, and then proceed to wipe/alter all those memories?

- The description’s implication that the story’s society has an organised memory-changer organisation: He’s a “professional” memory-changer, so, is he working alone, or is he part of an organisation?

- Does the man change his mind by the end of the story?: Is there a twist of some sort? Does he meet someone along his journey who helps him, and then, realising he’s made friends with this person, decides against wiping their memory of them. Or maybe, for the friend’s safety, be forced to save/protect them by erasing their memories of him? (Again, bittersweet ending potential.)

- There is potential for choice-based gameplay puzzles/mechanics: The player may have to help the protagonist achieve his goal through dialogue/action choices (and possibly puzzles).


I really like these concepts. If you decide to go through with them, please feel free to PM me anytime. I’d love to act as a writing consultant if you need to bounce off ideas with someone.

[Godline]

• A professional memory-changer decides to retire; to do so, he must erase himself from the minds of everyone he's ever worked with.

Why does this remind me of Inception? ^^

[AlceX]

@plainviewer To be completely honest, I already had mostly decided on which idea I was going to work on before making the poll, although I chose it mainly for practical reasons. I really like your idea of a third scenario though, I'll think about that.

@Katy133 Thanks a ton for your detailed analysis! Really got me thinking. I'll be sure to send you an overview of the story when I have one.

@Godline Perhaps because it was one of my inspirations :p

[SundownKid]

I like the second one simply because the main character is more unique and interesting. He doesn't get his powers randomly, he worked to obtain them, so it will be a more engaging hook to see how he does his job and how he will get away with his plan.

[Mad Harlequin]

@plainviewer To be completely honest, I already had mostly decided on which idea I was going to work on before making the poll, although I chose it mainly for practical reasons. I really like your idea of a third scenario though, I'll think about that.

I hesitated to post here for a while because I didn't know if voting in this poll would be a subtle encouragement of indecisiveness, but now that I know you've generally decided, I feel less guilty about giving my opinion of your scenarios.

I like #2. Katy's contribution took care of some of the reasons for me, but I love the idea of a story about someone who's giving up power instead of going mad with it. And it's about a "professional memory-changer." (I'm reminded of The Giver a bit.)

[AlceX]

Cool, thanks for your opinions.

I had mostly decided on #2 partly because it was more unique than #1, but the main, practical reason I prefer #2 is that I want to make a shortish VN. I felt that if I did #1, I would have to go slow and carefully to properly show the descent from a normal life to a chaotic mess. With #2, it'd probably be easier for me to jump right into the action and leave more of the exposition for flashbacks and such.