Multiple Protagonists in Visual Novels. Thoughts?
Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 10:50 am
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?
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?