A Narrative Lens, Examining the narrative of games. Options

[WanderingWordsmi...]

Okay, so, uh... I'm just gonna go ahead and post this because this forum looks like the right place to put it.

For a little while now I've been running a small blog on the Extra Curricular forums dedicated to studying narrative in games, especially looking at good examples of a well-connected narrative that is reflected in gameplay as well as the plot of the game. I figured I'd share it with you guys, too.

So without further ado, here's the first ramble of 'A Narrative Lens'.

Ramble the First: Narrative in the Land of Fighting Games (Character in BlazBlue)

So, I think I'll start this off with the game I've been wasting hours on recently; BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend. I'm a huge fan of the series for more than just the tuned combat system. I'm also incredibly interested in how it weaves the visual novel and fighting genres together, and how it expresses the identity of each character on both sides of that coin.

As a demonstration, I'm going to take a look at one of the central characters in the series - Noel Vermillion.

(By the way, I'm going to try and keep spoilers to a minimum, but as you probably know, this is kind of impossible. Secondly, I'll be using the numeric keypad legend that most online forums use when discussing movesets. It's not hard to grasp - just look at the numeric keypad on your keyboard to get a rough idea of the directional inputs.)

When Noel's introduced in Calamity Trigger - the preceding game - Noel is revealed to be an awkward First Lieutenant in the Novus Orbis Librarium with hardly any confidence in herself or her abilities. She's abused by her commanding officer, Jin Kisaragi, reacts especially badly to slights against her intelligence (a la Ragna's taunting), and adores cute things to the point of it being paralyzing for her. She wields the Nox Nyctores 'Arcus Diabolus: Bolverk' in battle and has been dispatched to the central setting of the game in order to retrieve her commanding officer after his desertion. The story of Continuum Shift isn't entirely important at this point, as her character is what I'm focussing on, but it's important to note that Bolverk is revealed to suppress her emotions when in action, putting her into a sort of trance whilst she fights, and that Bolverk has been with her since an early age.

Now, we all know the adage 'show, don't tell', and the parallel adage in game design 'do, don't show', and here is where I think BlazBlue shines in terms of narrative. It doesn't leave any of those facts out when considering Noel's moveset or animations in the fighting side of things, and I'll sift through each point I'm trying to make in turn.

First off, her animations. Noel's standing animation can be seen here:


It's fairly obvious from the outset that Noel's insecurities show through the mask of Bolverk's control here - her right arm is crossed over her body, her left is kept close to her side, her feet point slightly inwards, and her body is turned slightly away from her opponent. This persists when she's moving, too - walking backwards, Noel crosses both arms tightly over her chest, and only ever removes them from that style of posture when back-stepping.
Bolverk's control can also be seen, as she somersaults around with any of her moving jump arcs, keeps almost impossibly low when dashing, and the near-total determination that's evident on her face. When that control is released at the end of a fight, her match victory animations frequently see her fall to her knees, staring at the ground as she bewails her reluctance to fight her friends (such as with Tsubaki) or highlights her insecurities about her body (with Taokaka).

A special mention also deserves to go to her taunting animation, which, all things considered, isn't really a taunt. Her beret simply slips over her eyes and she quickly corrects it, with a panicked cry of 'Ahh! I can't see!'.

Onto her moveset, and this is where things get really interesting. Noel very rarely uses her body in the actual fight, by punching or kicking. In fact, as I ran through her moveset, she has three standard attacks (5A, 6A, and 2B), two Drive attacks (6D, and during Chain Revolver 6B), and one special attack (623D during a Drive combo) where she uses her body. This ignores her throw, and the special attack 'Type IX: Muzzle Flitter', but even adding those in that makes for eight attacks out of her entire moveset where she actually makes body-to-body contact with her opponent. In every other attack, she uses Bolverk either physically - such as with a standing B attack - or by firing it - such as with any C attack or her special 'Type XI: Optic Barrel'. This further emphasises her reliance on Bolverk during fights, as nary a moment goes by in a battle where she isn't using it.

With regards to her special moves, Bolverk's control over Noel is also stressed. All of the inputs for her special attacks are incredibly simple, with the only notable exceptions being 'Type VI: Spring Raid' (the aforementioned 623D attack), and the Distortion Drive 'Zero-gun: Fenrir', which requires the input 632146D. Even her Astral Heat 'Valkyrie Veil', which with some characters are notoriously difficult to execute - such as Hazama's, which requires an input of 1632143D - is a fairly simple 214214C. The simplicity of her inputs enhances the narrative-side of her personality, as Bolverk's control over her body would naturally imply that she moves and fights with almost superhuman grace.

Even her voice wasn't left out of this. During fights Noel flits between a haunting monotone as she rolls off the Chain Revolver combos, listing each attack calmly as she tears her opponents apart, to a desperate cry for aid or shout of frustration, such as when she cries 'Fenrir, don't fail me!' when executing the 'Zero-gun: Fenrir' Distortion Drive, or 'Please let this land!' when using 'Type XI: Optic Barrel' against Ragna. The only time she shouts with any certainty is when Noel hides behind her title and station as an NOL officer, such as her cry of 'This is a... major violation!' when using 'Zero-gun: Fenrir' against Sector Seven agent Iron Tager. As mentioned before, her insecurities also glare in her victory cries, which are very rarely triumphant.

Phew. I think I'll stop there. As you can see, Arc System Works paid very close attention to Noel's character when considering her in both the visual novel side of the game, and in the fighting side of it. They ensured that her character would shine through in every moment the player spends with her, and they did this with the rest of the cast, too. I was going to go into Iron Tager's character to make a good contrast, but I think that's enough for one forum post.

I hope you enjoyed this little study into the impact of BlazBlue's mechanics on its narrative. If you have any feedback, then please let me know - I definitely want to know if you guys love or hate this thing.

'Till next time!
WanderingWordsmith.

[WanderingWordsmi...]

Hello, forum people!

I'm just gonna dive straight in here. As always, spoiler alert; this time for a book, as well as a game.

Ramble the Third: Nelly, I am... Ragna? (Byronic Heroes in Games)

The Byronic hero is a character popularized by Lord Byron. The character is 'mad, bad, and dangerous to know', as his lover Lady Lamb is quoted as saying. Wikipedia describes the Byronic hero as 'idealized, but flawed', but there are several traits that a typical Byronic hero will display that makes them fit in. If it was just any old flaw, then many characters could be considered to be Byronic heroes without actually, well... being one. So to start, let's define a Byronic hero and look at a very popular example in literature.

A few of the traits that are displayed by the Byronic hero include arrogance, cunning, cynicism, a disrespect for most social institutions or norms - including military rank or privilege - moodiness, emotional instability, a troubled past, and intelligence or some manner of sophistication. They're also normally seductive, or at least sexually attractive, self-critical or self-destructive, and they're generally treated as an exile or an outcast, if they aren't actually one.

I'm sure you can all think of a hand of Byronic characters, or at least characters that display these traits, but for the sake of length I'm gonna use one character as a damn-near archetypal example of the Byronic hero; Heathcliff, from Emily Brontë's only novel Wuthering Heights.
So, Heathcliff. Troubled past? Well, he was found on the streets of Liverpool and the childhood documented in the novel isn't very pleasing. He's abused on the first day of his arrival, and is abused near-constantly by his adoptive brother Hindley, so check.
Moodiness? A lot of the novel, especially the first part, describes him as a violent and short-fused child or man, and his demeanour certainly doesn't brighten after his return to Wuthering Heights, so check.
Sophistication? After his return, Heathcliff is revealed to have made some considerable wealth in his absence, and has taken on many respectable mannerisms despite his violent streak. Definitely a check.
Arrogance? I think his speech about why Catherine chose Linton over him speaks for itself.
There are many, many more examples of the other traits, but as mentioned in the prefacing note, I don't want to bore your socks off with a wall of text.

Heathcliff, therefore, is a very typical example of the Byronic hero, but what about video game characters? Are there Byronic heroes in games, and what would that actually mean for them?

The evolution of characters as whole, as I'm sure you're aware, spans a very long time, and video games have only been around for a short period of said time. The expectations of characters changed from the idealized 'Mary Sue'-esque heroes of classic novels and the Byronic hero, which E. M. Forster called 'flat' characters in his Aspects of the novel, to more fleshed out, convention-defying webs of personalities, goals, drives and ambitions, which Forster calls 'round' characters. Nowadays, the archetypes of the romantic hero, the Byronic hero, the antihero etc. are used to colour an audience's expectations of a character, which are then either met or challenged as the plot progresses. This, coupled with how the narrative is presented and the character's interaction with the cast and their reactions to events, creates drama. Using specifically the Byronic hero, the traits they exhibit don't necessarily endear them to an audience; whether they conform or defy these expectations cements them in the audience's mind as someone to cheer for. Think back to Heathcliff and consider all of his actions - does his love for Catherine really justify the hate and the abuse we've seen him deliver? Personally, I don't think it does, even if he is the central protagonist. His past and his personality never glued him to me.
Obviously, characters are dealt with as we encounter them. I'm sure many of you support Heathcliff because you witnessed the abuse he suffered, instead of spiting it for his actions in the second half, but I digress.

In video games, character archetypes serve very much the same function, especially in more recent titles. If you've played the Assassin's Creed titles, think about how the traits of a Byronic hero might relate to the character of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, Assassin and revolutionary of the Assassin Brotherhood.
Ezio displays many Byronic traits over his lengthy time in the spotlight of the franchise, especially during his time in Assassin's Creed II. However, it's interesting to consider that he didn't start out as one - rather, he developed into one after the execution of his father and brothers.
In the opening segment of the game, Ezio is the outgoing, slightly rebellious, but ultimately good-natured middle brother of the Auditore family. He's confident, sexually active and attractive.

However, following the execution of his family, Ezio is forced into the life of an Assassin, exiled by people he trusted for a crime neither he nor his late father committed. He becomes obsessed with revenge, and during his formative time as an Assassin, learns to adapt, develops an aversion to institutions and those who belong to them, as he learns more about the Templars, and becomes incredibly critical of his inability to save his family. Here, the Byronic traits weren't used to set up Ezio's character; they were used to defy the expectations of the people who played Assassin's Creed II by allowing us an opportunity to see how this new Ezio melds with the Ezio of his happier times, creating depth and room for emotional investment.

These traits also set him up for development in Brotherhood and Revelations, too. Ezio's arrogance following his victory over Rodrigo Borgia allows him to experience loss and develop into a more stalwart, resolved leader of the Assassins, and his continuing fight leads to a world-weariness in the early stages of Revelations, that allows him to gain one last insight into his life and ignite the spark he possessed when we first met him as a young adult.

On a completely unrelated note, I find it beautiful how we've only known Ezio for a hand of years, but in those years we've experience his entire life.

That's me done for this lengthy ramble on the Byronic hero in games. I hope you enjoyed it.

WanderingWordsmith

P.S. Discussion idea! Have you guys come across Byronic heroes in your time with games? If so, how do you think that affected your experience? Have you ever considered using this archetype in your productions? Answer these questions or add your own in replies.