The role of writing in Visual Novels

[Auro-Cyanide]

People are often quick to remind everyone of the 'visual' aspect of visual novels, but we all know 'novel' is the other half of that equation.

So what roles does writing play in VNs? How important is it? What should it focus on as a part of it's role? What aspects of writing do you consider most important for communication? What do you do/think needs to be done to create good writing in a VN context? What is GOOD writing to you?

I'm generally into visual art, so my approuch to writing is instinctual at best, horribly wrong at worst. So, ah, take my opinion with a grain of salt and potentially discard anything that I say in regards to technicalities.

In general, art reels people in and the writing will keep them there. Writing can have difficulty gaining attention because humans are naturally visual creatures and it can take significantly more effort and time to look over words than it is to look over a picture. As such, feedback can be hard to get and some mediocre writing can have boosted appeal when accompanied by art. (Seriosuly, humans and shiny things).

However, as has been discussed in regards to Katawa Shojo, writing plays a huge role in VNs and I would claim that role becomes greater the longer the VN is. VNs are story based and lack the high levels of interaction other games have. The story is key to keeping a player reading and being involved. Players shouldn't even be aware of the time inbetween choices and interaction because they should be engrossed in the story. There is a saying: Bad design is everywhere, good design is invisible. I think this applies to writing as well. The best type of writing is the writing you don't even notice you are reading.

Good writing for me is a number of things, a number of styles, a number of tones. But for me it always, always draws me into the story. When I read something I'm really involved in, the story is alive. Everything flows and is natural, I can visually imagine everything without even thinking about it. It is balanced, it knows when to be detailed and when the reader doesn't need to know. It paints the world and the characters. It's not a chore to read, you don't skim or skip bits, you just soak it all in.

I'm sure many people will have a much more indepth view on writing, so I look forward to it.

[DaFool]

To me, good writing can either the following:
1.) a style which I like
or
2.) conveys events/situations/characters that I like

For 1.), the writer really needs to be some English major of some kind, and have lots of practice. It can also be that the style is technically praised, but not my thing.

For 2.) the writer doesn't even really need to know English all that well, as long as the description is enough to convey the relevant information. Most JVNs fall under 2.) I could care crap about the accuracy of the translation, as long as it doesn't have severe grammatical errors. Does it have cute girls, is steampunk, and isn't too long? I'm in.

But regardless, I dislike pointlessly long-winded narratives. If the narration is only describing what is so evident in the accompanying picture, the writing is just being redundant.

Remember though, I come mainly from the JRPG fandom, where it's just conversations for the most part. The actual 'narration' is taken care of by in-game 3D cutscenes and FMVs for the most part.

[Angra Mainyu]

[Jake]

[Archer]

[Jake]

[Angra Mainyu]

[DaFool]

[Archer]

[Jake]