[PJ] A little troubled - perspectives (not visual)

[Yang Sei Fu]

Since my novel version is obviously written in 3rd person perspective, should the VN version also be in 3rd person?

As far as I know, only minori's "Bittersweet Fools" used 3rd person perspective.

So which one should I use?

(For those who don't know...)
1st person:
As I woke up, the door to the room creaked open.

3rd person:
As Shou woke up, the door to his room creaked open.

[rioka]

I recommend keeping it in 3rd person POV. When you switch to 1st person:
1. The feel of the novel and the visual novel will be different.
2. You'll have to put up with some major editing. As in your example, you'll have to fix all your sentences into the respective proper POV.
3. You'll have to put up the extra time to do the editing, and considering the scope of your novel, ...
4. You'll also have to go over your editing to make sure there is no typos, grammer errors, and so forth.

So, KISS, and stick to 3rd person unless you have the time to expend.

[PyTom]

I seem to recall that Crescendo is told in the third person.

I personally think it's better to tell a visual novel in the first person. I think that the conceit is that the player _is_ the POV character, and first person will make the player more comfortable controlling the POV character's actions.

In the third person case, you get to say what someone else does... which is a bit weirder. You do get perspective on what the other characters are thinking, but that can probably cut both ways.

[rioka]

True, most people used to VNs would expect 1st person but you know, all the Choose-Your-Adventure books I've ever read was in 3rd person and I never had any qualms about the POV. A player/reader of 3rd person POV can think of him or herself as a shoulder angel guiding the character... ^_~
Either way, a player or reader becomes immersed in the story and either assumes the role of the main character (1st person) or shares it (3rd person).

Yes, being in 3rd person means that the reader may read another character's mind but the author may exclude that ability and could even mask the originator of the thoughts (common trick in mysteries) if desired.

1st POV is one of the things I mean to challenge in ren'ai games one day. Everything is in "I" and quite too repetitive for my tastes. lol But that's for another day... ^_^

[mikey]

It will depend on what YOU want the game to be. I would not limit myself to an exact copy - with the 1st person there are new possibilities like the others said. Personally, I really like to see when you can feel that an adaptation has a vision - War and Peace has many adaptations, and it's nice to see not everyone tries to make it as close to the original as possible but some just pick out their favorite elements and explore them more. It can be seen as a love story or as a war story, to various degrees - so you have to know what elements of the story you want to concentrate on and then use the better-suited form I'd say.

[RedSlash]

It would depend on how you want to present your story. I think 1st person gives you the feeling that you ARE that character that you are playing, whereas 3rd person is kinda of like you standing aside watching the characters play out the story. I personally prefer the 1st person POV, because atleast it feels like the girls are talking to me, and not to some other guy.