Multiple Protagonists in Visual Novels. Thoughts?

[LinovaA]

My friend and I were talking on the phone the other day, and he came up with a mechanic that isn't used very often in visual novels as far as we know. Having the ability to choose your protagonist, to choose what lens you wanna see the story through. While yes, there are a few notable examples of multiple protagonists, it just doesn't seem like it is used very often. Now we both realized how long such a thing would take in order for it to be done right, but we found the concept really cool nonetheless. We had been discussing a project we might wanna try starting someday in the future, and he had ended up coming up with this.

I feel like it would add a lot to a story, and seeing things from different perspectives could open the doors for adding layers of depth to it. While yes, there are already visual novels that switch perspectives in-game every so often (Rewrite, Coμ, etc), it wouldn't be the same as seeing the entire thing through another's eyes. Again, I think this would have to be done with care, and would really only work in certain stories, but in the cases where it would work, I feel like it would add a huge amount of depth. Personally, I always loved those moments in ANY video game where I got to play as someone other than the protagonist.

What I am really wondering is what your guys' thoughts on this are? Is it a viable way to flesh out a story and deepen its meaning, is it simply just too much work for not enough pay off, or does it really just depend on the story?

[burnt_offering]

Have you read I/O? They pull it off pretty magnificently there, but I imagine that takes a lot of work.

[Katy133]

Blink & Caution by Tim Wynne-Jones is very good (it has two protagonists). What the book does is have one chapter in Blink's second-person narration, and the next chapter in Caution's third-person narration, and so on.

[Zetsubou]

I think it would have to be a really good VN to warrant playing the game multiple times through multiple characters' POVs.
I'm not saying I wouldn't play it... but to go through an entire game more than once, it's gotta offer substantial replay value.

Personally, I prefer to just see the occasional scene or dialogue through another character's eyes. That way you can get an outside perspective, learn more about what's going on, etc. without having to play multiple times.

[Tyrantauranox]

Check out Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, AKA "When They Cry". At some points, the entire story is retold from the perspectives of different characters involved. There's no super-detective to figure everything out and expose it to you, so you have to solve the mystery by seeing it through different eyes.

[Laniessa]

EVN-wise, Winter Wolves does this with Roommates, I think! Completely different personalities. They can even romance each other.

Other than that, I'm thinking of Persona 3 Portable, where you can choose between a male or female protagonist, and they take the role of each other, rather than co-existing. It's interesting to see the differences though.

[Rossfellow]

Corpse Party uses multiple protagonists, each taking turns narrating the story.

[melelisun]

This would definitely be cool and it sounds like some other visual novels have done it. As you've pointed out though, it will take a lot of work, since it's pretty much writing two different visual novels (depending on how different the characters sound).