Horror visual novels?

[Nebi]

I like bittersweet endings. Bittersweet endings are closer in line with our nature, I feel. A mix of content and sadness - or am I just an overly sentimental person?

Giving false hope is a technique that could work really well! Instead of being a horror story, how about churning out a cruel story? By cruel I mean cruel for the reader, that is. Keep giving them false hope over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and...

...yeah. :D *wipes drool* (am I a masochist?)

My own project is proceeding at a turtle-like pace, but it's still on the back of my mind. It will have a dark atmosphere and style, but not quite horror. The feeling of horror or rather, abhorrence, can be subtly nurtured in the right circumstances. No one necessarily needs to die. Losing a limb can be quite horrific, if it was very important to the person. Or all their limbs. Yeah. :D *drools*

I read the caption of a photo posted on a news website today. It read, "Khin San Win, 28,(on the left, with her mother) fell into madness after cyclone Nargis killed her two sons. After being abandoned by her husband, she is living alone in a small hut built by her brother and spends her days sitting idle and speaking incoherent words." I did not see madness when I examined the face in the picture, but it disturbed me greatly somewhere very deep in my being. It goes a little beyond tragedy to perhaps sympathy and then unsettling.

[LVUER]

...yeah. *wipes drool* (am I a masochist?)

Nope, I think you are a sadist ^_^

[Wintermoon]

Winning is not always surviving, but surviving sure feels like a winner ^_^

Actually, if I survive and all of my friends die, then I don't feel like I've won at all. If I survive and save all of my friends, sure, that counts as winning - but if nobody dies (or if only people to whom I have no emotional attachment die), is it still horror?

[LVUER]

Of course it sucks when everyone dies. It also sucks when only our friends (even more, our GF/BF). But the most sucker is when we (the protagonist) die.

It's a different story if it happens in real life, but we're talking about game/story. At the very least the protagonist deserve to survive. Unless in that game, the protagonist is another sucker who sacrifice his own friends, never care about his/everyone's survival, etc. Then he should die (yeah, like Makoto, heheheh).

[Mirena (lazy mode)]

I don't agree with entirely happy endings.

Of course, it's relieving when everyone survives in the end. But someone's death can make for a great emotional impact if done right. Or, to put it in a different way, happy endings don't make me cry. Happy endings generally result in a stupid smile plastered across my face, but bittersweet endings actually make me think. I don't think that everyone should die, but it shouldn't be just like before either.

It's also possible to couple survival with something disadvantageous if you really don't want to kill someone off. Like a bigger injury, consequences of previous actions, etc.

[kuroi]

You know what? Enough talk! I'm gonna make a horror game and I'm gonna do it now! Who wants in on this?

[LVUER]

It's allright if lots of people die. Heck, even a whole country is dead, I don't care, as long as the protagonist is survived.

What I want to avoid is bittersweet ending (even worse, sad ending).

You know what? Enough talk! I'm gonna make a horror game and I'm gonna do it now! Who wants in on this?

BTW, you haven't give us anything yet about game. Horror visual novel is in my waiting to do project list, though I don't know when I'm going begin to make one ^_^ (so much to do, so little time).

[Nebi]

It's alright if lots of people die. Heck, even a whole country is dead, I don't care, as long as the protagonist is survived.

:(

You see, that would also be a bittersweet ending. What point is there for the protagonist to live if the rest of the country is dead?

but if nobody dies (or if only people to whom I have no emotional attachment die), is it still horror?

Let's say that nobody dies. But no one else recognizes you. Or, everyone in the world hates you. Or, someone you were chasing after, someone that you and only you knew was a danger to others, escaped. Or, nobody dies just yet, but your final action will eventually lead to the deaths of everyone you know. Or, after overcoming many obstacles, you finally escape a cycle of torment - only to find yourself in another one. The horror is palpable.

There are authors who specialize in these kinds of tales - where nobody dies but the ending sends shivers up your spine. The Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine, for example. Stephen King is good at that too. I like how those stories make you feel good, then crush your good feelings with a plot twist that makes you feel as though all good things are ephemeral. :D

[N0UGHTS]

There are authors who specialize in these kinds of tales - where nobody dies but the ending sends shivers up your spine. The Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine, for example. Stephen King is good at that too. I like how those stories make you feel good, then crush your good feelings with a plot twist that makes you feel as though all good things are ephemeral.

...Goosebumps? Made you feel good, but then sent shivers up your spine? And Stephen King too?

Personally, I don't feel any spine-tingling sensations when I read horror novels. It just feels good to read something interesting.

The thing about trying to make a horror VN is getting that sense of fear into the player. When someone plays a scary FPS they're actually in a place that gives them the creeps. Like, "That corner Jesus Christ," "[expletive] it's in the air conditioning system!" "Run, dammit, run! Run faster!" And the player is actually running (in the game). With a VN, you can't really do that. You just read and make choices every now and then... Sure, there are graphics, but it's not the same sense of immersion. It's not like actually running from something and locking yourself in a closet, waiting them out. No, it's just clicking and watching what happens... And even if the images were actually animated (because moving alien-mutant-human creatures with flailing appendages are much scarier than static images of said creatures), it's still not the same since you're not actually controlling how far the player is to that thing, you know?

[Nebi]

Fear and horror complement one another. Horror can also be imagined and magnified by the viewer. Carefully crafted words can be used effectively to evoke horror. If someone emailed me and told me in plain language that one of my close relatives died, I would be horrified. In such circumstances I do not have to be physically present or be in a state of fear. Old wives' tales, folklore, and superstition could induce a child to feel horror by words alone.

Some of us may be more susceptible because of our fear threshold. Reading the daily news, for example, sends a chill up my spine on occasion because of the subject. Suicide bombers, for one, or what happened on September 11th. Horror can be conveyed in many ways - in silence, even - but its effectiveness depends on the individuals mental tolerance.

First person shooters rely more on fear than horror, I feel. Fear of death. The thrill and adrenaline of evading death brings us back to our baser instincts such as the fight or flight response. While I suppose one could feel horrified by some of the things happening in the game, I would have to challenge whether what you see on screen is more powerful than what is imagined in the mind.

[LVUER]

Speaking of Horror,
what is the differences between "normal" horror and "psychological" horror?

I think one of the first psychological horror movie is "The Ring".

[papillon]

Psychological horror, afaik, is more caught up in the emotions of the protagonist and less on just killing people in horrible ways to make the audience jump. Slow building tension instead of GOTCHA!... More likely for the viewer, to some extent, to understand and sympathise with a character who later does something horrible. Which adds an extra layer of creepiness, as you begin to wonder if you are capable of doing horrible things...

[delta]

Psychological horror: Silent Hill.
Regular horror: Resident Evil.

[azureXtwilight]

Anybody knows a VN horror game without monsters? I'd like to see horror without the sudden appearance of slimy creatures, I've seen most of them. Do you think we can be frightened without their appearance? Just curious. XD

[AlphaProspector]

You might wanna try that little VN called La Divinna Commedia (or something similar). It's horror without the monsters.

Obviously, you have Higurashi but in there humans are the worst of the monsters.