Weaving a mystery

[Hazel]

This is a question more generally on the subject of romance / plot balance, or more accurately genre / subgenre balance.

With a game advertised as a romance, I would assume most players choose a route based on who appeals to them most, and that a lot of players have no interest in trying out every route. If the overarching plot is the same, how much can you "split" the mystery between routes? Will players get frustrated because they got an "incomplete" mystery resolution? Or will doing the opposite make routing seem redundant?

I realize there must be as many answers as there are writers, but I'm interested in hearing different POVs.

[Mammon]

Don't underestimate completionism, plenty of people will play all romance routes regardless. However, assuming it's not, most writers tend to either make the plot and romance entangled but never mixing so that any romance can play alongside the story. The plot will be the same, but the person suddenly stepping in if you got the romance down, or not and you'll get a bad end, is different. Much like the same CG with a different layer for each LI the same goes for the writing portion of it. Alternatively, there can be a non-romance route where you find out about the mystery and the romance routes don't do it and can instead focus stronger on the romance. This, unlike the first example, allows you to diverge the stories between LI's whereas the first method usually forces a set formula of moments and events.

[TheJerminator15]

On the contrary, most players like to complete things, especially in these types of games where the plot is broken down into routes. Does everyone have a best girl? Yup, but they usually finish all the routes anyway.

Honestly i depends on how you want to approach your story and the execution of it. Some designers purposefully only implement parts of the overarching narrative into each route so that you play every single one to get the full picture and piece the puzzle together. And a number of these games are recognised in quite a positive light.

If it's a romance game, then your main focus should be on the romance and relationships, not the plot. You could have the same goal/overarching plot for every route as long as you get the romance right as is the case in many VNs. Most writers will tend to have the plots entagled with the romance but also keep them as separate as possible, with it only typically being pertinent during events which include CGs.

Alternatively, you could do a mixture of the two with the same overarching plot but it being approached very diferently in each route with each girl. Or, as Mammon said, have a non-romance/"true" route where the mysteries are resolved properly, which is the case in Rewrite with the Moon and Terra arcs.

[Zelan]

With a game advertised as a romance, I would assume most players choose a route based on who appeals to them most, and that a lot of players have no interest in trying out every route. If the overarching plot is the same, how much can you "split" the mystery between routes? Will players get frustrated because they got an "incomplete" mystery resolution? Or will doing the opposite make routing seem redundant?

First of all, seconding what the two above me said about completionism. I can't speak for everyone, but I like to play every route, get every ending, unlock every CG, all that jazz.

Second, if your game is set up the way that you described, I wouldn't advertise it as a romance game. I'd advise it as a mystery with romantic elements. The question is less "how should I structure my game to fit this advertising" and more "how should I advertise a game of this structure."

[YonYonYon]

I'm that person who turns on their complectionism only if they like the game. So, i don't like it when the game gives a subpar experience and then teases me with "the true ending" as if I need to play all these boring stuff to get to the great game. What I'm trying to say, make your routes complete and satisfying on their own, even if they don't truly solve the mystery.

And I'd advise to have a sharp focus on the genre of your game. If you want to write mystery, write mystery with a bit of romantic elements. If you want to write romance, focus on romance. Your focus will determine the execution which is pretty much the most important thing.

Don't want to throw shade, but the SoulSet game was the example of the murky focus. The story presented itself as a mystery game with sprinkles of romance, but the characters just dicked around, romancing. All the mystery was made of not telling the info, coincidences, non foreshadowed events, and bickering. I guess if you'll see the true end, everything will make sense. But if you want to unlock the true ending, you gotta play other four routes and search for clues, and one of them is unlocked if you find enough clues in other three, and I didn't understand if two of them even had clues or not. Like, if there weren't any clues, these two routes are completely redundant in the mystery game.

If it was just a romance game in a kinda mysterious setting, I'd be completely satisfied with it. All the focus on character interactions would be justified. Right now it's kind of a mess; it takes a lot of work to unlock the true ending and the mystery doesn't feel grand enough to solve it.

The better example of an overarching plot would be Cafe 0: Sleeping Beast. It is presented as a mystery game and it does let you try to solve the mystery. You gotta repeat the game several times and find the clues; it's a lot of work, but I can get behind it mechanically. There is some romance, but doesn't take the spotlight, so it doesn't feel extra.

[Drew]

I'm that person who turns on their complectionism only if they like the game. So, i don't like it when the game gives a subpar experience and then teases me with "the true ending" as if I need to play all these boring stuff to get to the great game. What I'm trying to say, make your routes complete and satisfying on their own, even if they don't truly solve the mystery.

And I'd advise to have a sharp focus on the genre of your game. If you want to write mystery, write mystery with a bit of romantic elements. If you want to write romance, focus on romance. Your focus will determine the execution which is pretty much the most important thing.

I'd strongly agree with all of that. There are plenty of games with character's that for various reasons you wouldn't want to play through their routes. If people have to in order to get the full ending; that doesn't give them much room to play their own character.

I think games also need to respect player's time, it's a bit different for a visual novel as they're shorter overall but getting together the time to play a game can be hard. Personally It might take me a month or more to play 10+ hrs of a game as my free time is scarce.

And yes, setting out with a clear idea of the narrative is probably going to give you a better finished product. Focusing a story on romance or the mystery elements means that you can spend your time/resources on getting the right atmosphere and feel rather than having demands pulling in too many directions.

If you're keen on ensuring each route is fresh, or unique even, then each route could represent the events from a different perspective and reactions, both those of the NPCs and the MC.

[Hazel]

I don't think I made myself properly understood, but the replies are very illuminating all the same.

[Drew]

I don't think I made myself properly understood, but the replies are very illuminating all the same.

Ha - sorry

What were you thinking about instead?

[Jain]

When it comes to splitting the mystery between routes, depending on what the mystery is, you could have the characters unearth different information and have it lead them to different possible conclusions.

The trick of it to me, would be making the mystery flexible enough to allow for multiple interpretations, and make it so they are all valid. Sprinkle each with juuust enough doubt so that the player/reader is still hungry for the answers to those unanswered questions that are explored in greater detail in other paths.

[Drew]

When it comes to splitting the mystery between routes, depending on what the mystery is, you could have the characters unearth different information and have it lead them to different possible conclusions.

The trick of it to me, would be making the mystery flexible enough to allow for multiple interpretations, and make it so they are all valid. Sprinkle each with juuust enough doubt so that the player/reader is still hungry for the answers to those unanswered questions that are explored in greater detail in other paths.

That kind of approach can work, but when writing anything involving mystery (where the mystery as a device is of equal or greater prominence than the story) you have to be careful not to be invalidating player agency and the point of the mystery. If the 'right answer' becomes the answer of the route you chose then your actions and thoughts as a player are less valid, because there isn't a 'truth' to be worked towards. If the story is significantly more important than the mystery (as a device) then it matters less because you're then always trying to tell the 'best' story.

If the player influences actions by choosing a route to lead to different conclusions, then that's different. But if the player's action change events that are precursors to that action, that's something to be careful with.

[hoihoisoi]

Well, if you want to split a mystery plot into several romance routes, it is pretty doable as long as you 'layer' your mystery properly. A fan of the mystery genre myself, I find that writing a mystery is kind of like constructing a crepe cake where you pile up one fact on top of the other until it finally is high enough for you to reveal the entire cake itself. Now, for a single linear story line for mystery, this is easier to do since you're leading the player on a single line of logic until the big reveal, but if you're going to be splitting it into several different routes then I guess you should construct the cake slightly differently.

My recommendation is to follow a format like this: The cake you will be trying to construct will have 4 separate parts to it, the base, the middle, the top and the finishing(Icing on the cake).

The base, is the general outline of the mystery itself, basically it's the general facts of the case that should span all routes. The characters all have to agree that there is something going on behind the scenes and to a certain extent, they are interested/fearful/curious what that mystery might be about. At the beginning of all character routes, this base should be explored from the perspective of the romanced characters. To note however, if your story touches on this before it branches out into the respective character routes, you can kind of skip this part I guess. But it depends how you want to write it out.

The middle, on the other hand are some facts of the case that will only be revealed to some characters and not all. These facts can be shared between one or more characters but not everyone. Meaning, this will leave some routes out in the dark about the potential key items to explaining part of the mystery.

The top, would be critical facts that could potentially break the case, only to be revealed at the end of each character route. Essentially, by combining all of these at the end of all the routes, the player should be extremely close to cracking the case by himself. At the end of each route, there should at least be one or two critical facts presented that solves something of significance about the 'base' or 'middle' of the mystery. For an example, these critical facts should reveal something about the holy triad of mysteries: Who Dunnit, How Dunnit or Why Dunnit. But it depends on your script.

The finishing (Icing on the cake), is where after finishing all character routes, a separate 'final' route should be written to culminate all facts together learned through all the romanced routes to reach a satisfying ending where the whole mystery is finally revealed. You may also choose for the player to never be able to solve the mystery just by completing all romanced routes by hiding away the biggest 'missing link' that will only be revealed on this final route.

That's how I would cut the cake in terms of structuring the mystery I guess. But if your concern is about players only being interested in the romance portion of it and not in the mystery, then you're probably going to have to write a pretty solid mystery plot. For me, the mystery behind will almost always beat the romance portion. (i.e. Umineko Naku Koro ni, Hoshizora no Memoria, Ever17 and G-Senjou no Maou) and I usually play through all routes merely to end the mystery portion of the game rather to satisfy romancing the heroine that I find most appealing. But then again, it's different from person to person I guess.

Overall, just write a really solid mystery plot, sprinkle it around all the routes and make sure that at the end of each romanced route, you are sure that if the player doesn't solve the mystery as a whole, they will feel incomplete somewhere deep down inside. If you can write up something like that, you should be able to get your general audience to finish every route, just to satisfy their curiosity. It's also to note that even if you want to do it that way, you can't forget that each romance route should be solid all by itself, meaning that you have to satisfy both a solid mystery plot overall and a solid romance plot for each romanceble character.

Hope this helps you out a wee bit. Good luck out there!