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5 Ways to Improve Your Visual Novel

5 Ways to Improve Your Visual Novel Working on a visual novel, or "VN?" Well, you may not be considering how you can change your VN from a pile of messy writing to a masterpiece. There will be spoilers for numerous games in this article, but if you're looking for tips you can't help studying others. 1: Don't play the cliche, or at least play it well. This one might be obvious, but it's important to state anyway. Too often do I see visual novels which strive to be a "perfect trope" as I like to call it. These novels cherry-pick the exact hooks needed to make a product clamber to otakus like flies on, well... you get the point. Take the very popular series from recent years, the Sakura series. Seen as a staple of the genre in recent years, the Sakura series is essentially a toned-down eroge (or erotic game). With its flashy and explicit art and lack of substantial plot, the games attract a strange crowd and have thus gained a certain reputation.

Why We Love the Characters in Dark Souls

The Dark Souls series is well-known for its strenuous gameplay and incredibly hard to understand lore. There's also a special charm to the Dark Souls series that isn't acknowledged, but it's a very important part of what makes Dark Souls so unique and lovable. A big part of this is all the well designed characters, along with their writing respectably. My personal favorite example of wondrous character writing in the Dark Souls mythos is Lucatiel of Mirrah. The player encountered Lucatiel in Dark Souls 2 and at first she hides her true identity. Later on she tells you that she traveled to the area to search for her brother, but came in contact with the same wasting condition that affects much of Drangleic, the setting of Dark Souls 2. After Lucatiel helps you on your journey, she eventually disappears, succumbing to the hollowing disease. At some point, you do encounter Lucatiel's brother, who fights you as he's not much more than a soulless adversary. Lucati

Why Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel's Story Falls Flat and How It Could've Been Better [SPOILERS]

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!, released in 2014, is set chronologically between the games Borderlands and Borderlands 2. When it was released, it was under slight controversy because of the differences between it and it's predecessor, Borderlands 2. Borderlands: TPS was produced by the Australian subdivision of 2K, the Borderlands series publisher. Since 2K is American, there is a large difference between the values of the studios. Most notably is the fact that the setting of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is more or less Australia in space. What went wrong? This wouldn't be that bad if not for 2K Australia's determination for making the game as Australian as possible. But the game's blatant Australian-ism isn't what does it in, no. I believe the problem lies in the story and the lack of uniqueness and memorability. See, since BL:TPS is set between the first two games, it's seen as a side story, a spinoff of sorts, not a part of the real series. This,

How Half-Life Creates a Hidden Multiverse [SPOILERS]

If you played Half-Life and Half-Life 2 without fully grasping the entire plot, I don't blame you. There's a lot to take in. Not the least of which is the massive multiverse in which the games take place. It's very easy to miss, but in fact both games' main antagonists come from elsewhere in this multiverse. In the first Half-Life, the main antagonist, the Nihilanth, is actually running from the main antagonist of Half-Life 2 during the events of the game. The Nihilanth is the last of its kind, hunted to extinction by the Combine, the antagonists of Half-Life 2. The Combine are essentially inter-dimensional conquerors whom enslave entire species and drain entire planets of their resources. Half-Life starts the series as a simple alien-themed FPS, but with the introduction of Half-Life 2 the series quickly evolves into a massive story about the inhabitants of Earth fighting back against inter-dimensional forces. The plot in these games are fairly subtle, probabl

How Splatoon's Dark Secrets Creates the Illusion of Lore [SPOILERS]

Splatoon. A game about squirt gun battles, right? Wrong. Or is it? Splatoon's sunken scrolls, the source of almost all of Splatoon's lore, is often passed up by the majority of the player base. These collectable scrolls document many things: the most notable of which is the possibility of Splatoon being set in a post-apocalyptic Earth. These scrolls make the writing really deep, right? That's how it works? Well, you're right. Or wrong. Or right? I'm confused. The truth is, really, is that these scrolls serve as nothing more than collectables, not writing. Instead, these collectables provide the illusion of a deep, immersive world. While the contents of the scrolls are dark, and even considered "deep," they are subjective. This fact means that the scrolls themselves only provide an idea of what Splatoon's lore might be. That isn't a bad thing, however. Splatoon's bright, bubbly, colorful aesthetic is the most iconic thi

How the Borderlands Series Does Diversity Right

Borderlands (2009), Borderlands 2 (2012), and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (2014) are games known mainly for their combat and their humor, but there is a third aspect that goes unrecognized: its writing. There are two fantastic elements to the writing in the Borderlands series: the lore, and the characters. In this article we'll be talking about the latter: the characters and their diversity. The characters in Borderlands are some of the most diverse in modern gaming. From Sir (Alistair) Hammerlock, a disabled gay man who hates his older sister; Zer0, an assassin for hire whose true identity, species, even his name, is completely unknown; to Krieg, whose mental state is, well, unordinary. Hell, there's even an enemy class comprised entirely of "midgets." And yet, throughout the series, none of the gratuitous diversity feels out of place. In this day and age of shoehorning and pandering, how do they manage to do it right? First is the topic of visual storytelli