From Hypertext to Hyperdimension Neptunia:
The Future of VR Visual Novels.
The potentials of new technologies for branching-path narrative games.
Rebecca Crawford, PhD Candidate
School of Animation,
University of Ulster,
5-51 York St, Belfast BT15 1ED
crawford-r15@ulster.ac.uk
Abstract— Visual Novels (VNs) have recently begun to attract
attention in the West, thanks to various successful Kickstarter
localization campaigns. However, few visual novels have
experimented with VR technologies, despite the fact visual novels
replicate VR via psychological manipulation. In VNs users have their
feelings toyed with, as opposed to their senses. This suggests that
there is something about this multi-linear, text-based genre that
cannot translate into VR, despite VR’s immersive potential.
Moreover, despite being a roleplay game (RPG) that gives the player
power over potential endings, visual novels have yet to effectively
exploit VR’s storytelling capabilities. While the failed Kickstarter
campaign for Angels & Demigods contrasts the successful campaign
of the acclaimed ‘interactive’ VR ‘visual novel’ narrative game
Technolust, it suggests that VR can be used to tell immersive stories
but potentially not with the traditional visual novel format.
Successfully crowdfunded visual novels like 㸺/reality㸼deal with
VR themes in their narratives, while Japanese roleplay games
(JRPGs) with VN elements are set in fictional VR worlds, like Sword
Art Online Hollow Fragment. This suggests that visual novel fans are
intrigued by fictional VR settings and are open to the potential of VR.
Interactive fiction and hypertext attracted attention at the latter
end of the 20th century for their potential storytelling capabilities, but
were criticised for their flimsy narratives. While these multi-linear
stories remain in the forms of competitions, these genres were
replaced by video games with better graphics and storytelling. Other
branching-path narratives continue to reappear in various modern
formats like children’s books, games, television, content streaming,
hypercomics and visual novels. They also have the potential to
appear in VR stories. As interactivity has become more important in
art in other areas, freeware software like Twine(https://twinery.org/)
and Ren’Py(www.renpy.org) allow for the development of modern
interactive Fiction (IF) by programmers, writers, artists and
developers. Visual novels - often created using Unity or Ren’Py - are
text and image based games that involve user agency, IF/branching-
path narratives and anime/manga-like character sprites. Visual novel
games like Angels & Demigods experiment with VR and IF in their
exploration of text and graphic storytelling. While spin-off titles,
from games with visual novel elements, like Cyber Danganronpa
VR: The Class Trial and Megadimension Neptunia VIIR have taken
978-1-5386-4494-2/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
Dr Yuanyuan Chen
School of Animation,
University of Ulster,
5-51 York St, Belfast BT15 1ED
yuanyuan.chen@ulster.ac.uk
advantage of the form, with emphasis on gameplay over visual novel
story elements in their VR content.
For developers to potentially exploit VR, the visual novel will
need to be more flexible in its form. Instead of relying on 2D sprites
with extremely limited animation and static backgrounds, visual
novels should be more open to 3D worlds and animated characters. In
a similar manner to how digital comics have adapted from print to
include animation in webtoons or comics apps - like MadeFire
Motion Books - VR visual novels will need to use more animation
and interactivity in their design. If they fail to do so, just like IF and
hypertext, visual novels will be replaced by other games that
successfully adapt to advances in technology.
Keywords— visual;novel;hypertext; animation;branching;path;
narrative;VR;hyperdimension;neptunia;JRPG; digital; storytelling;
VN; manga; comic;megadimension; anime; danganronpa; sword;
art;online
I. INTRODUCTION.
Visual novels - often created using software like Unity
(https://unity3d.com/) or Ren’Py (www.renpy.org) - are text
and image based story games that involve branching-path
narratives[1], 2D characters on 2D backdrops with text boxes
underneath, and manga-stylized character sprites[2]. In this
paper, I will begin by looking briefly at other branching path
narratives before discussing crowdfunding’s and anime’s
relationship with VR and visual novels, the medium’s existing
use of VR, and how visual novels could use VR more
effectively.
II METHODOLOGY.
When researching this topic, various sources in both Japanese
and English were investigated, as many of the games cited are
either of Japanese or Western origin. This research uses
narratology and ludology to interrogate the strengths and
weaknesses of narrative in games like visual novels,
gamebooks, VR, Interactive Fiction (IF) and hypertext. As I
compare the failures of hypertext and IF to the potential of
more contemporary digital branching path narratives, I draw
from key texts on hypertext while also turning to more recent
writings on game narratives. I will also analyze various games
as case studies, in relation to relevant literature on ludology.
III. BRANCHING PATH NARRATIVES, IF AND HYPERTEXTS.
Traditionally, all stories have a set beginning middle and end,
according to the plot structure defined in Aristotle’s
Poetics[3]. In defiance of this, branching path narratives are
stories with the potential for multiple beginnings, middles and
ends[1]. This structure has appeared in various print and
digital stories, over the years. In print, writers like B.S.
Johnston explored the potential of multi-linear narratives with
The Unfortunates[4]; a series of pamphlets that could be
shuffled and read in any order, and still maintain coherency.
Choose-your-own adventure books, stories that involve pages
of narrative intersected with choices, emerged with Packard’s
The Cave of Time[5]. These books contained multiple endings
that could be enjoyed by readers, who were motivated to
return to the book to seek out a happier ending. As the reader
of the book has a goal - much like the player of a game - this
genre is also known as a gamebook.
While print toyed with gamebooks, digital stories emerged
that allowed for explorations of branching path narratives on
the computer. MIT researchers in the 1970s invented Zork, a
text-based Interactive Fiction (IF) game where your choices
affected the outcome[6]. Hypertext was another form of
narrative that emerged; coined by Ted Nelson in 1965, the
term refers to hyperlinks on a computer that divert the reader
to other pages of text[7]. Also known as erodic literature,
hypertexts like Gray Matters [8] use images with embedded
links that bring up pop-up windows that reveal sections of
narrative. As George Landow [9] pointed out in 2006,
hypertext fiction negates traditional Aristotelian ideas of a
three-act plot structure, with the story being experienced
differently by each reader. This means that a reader of a
hypertext may be more empowered than readers of a print
narrative, simply because they can make their own passage
through a text [10].
Despite their potential, hypertexts and IF eventually faded
into relative obscurity in the 21st century. This was due to
inherent weaknesses in their narratives. Problems with IF
included restrictions on actions encoded into the game, which
frustrated players [11]. Hypertexts and gamebooks are also
fraught with problems. As part of an experiment, in 2001
Landow[10] created a hypertext which involved linking
words, images and text in a digital collage, to prove a
connection between the two forms. The collage-like writing of
hypertexts and gamebooks inevitably makes them weaker
stories than linear alternatives. Their fragmentary style of
writing, and the general inability of the characters involved to
reflect upon their actions, made them fail to reach the same
levels of narrative depth as literary fiction[12].
While IF remains in the forms of competitions[13] and
hypertexts lurk in digital archives [14], [15] story games like
these were eventually replaced by video games with better
graphics and more developed narratives [16]. Despite having
more focus on narrative and a generally non-linear gameplay
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experience, many contemporary video games do not use a
branching path narrative structure. One of the most common
methods of storytelling in many contemporary video games is
“the string of pearls”, a method where gameplay is interlaced
with “pearls” of cut scenes, giving the illusion of interactivity
in a linear story [17, pp. 298–9]. Nevertheless, branching-path
narratives continue to reappear in various formats like
children’s books[18], television[19], content streaming [20],
hypercomics[21] and some video games [22]–[24]. One type
of video game that implements a branching path narrative as
its central feature is the visual novel [25]. Emerging in 1983
with The Portopia Serial Murder Case [26], these games,
despite their branching-path narrative structure, have not faced
the same fate as hypertext and IF. However, the scenario
writer of the Danganronpa visual novel series Kazutaka
Kodaka fears that if they do not change - to include things like
more gameplay - they will also be fated to be forgotten and
not maintain popularity[27]. Thus, visual novels require more
flexibility to their form if they are to survive as a video game
genre.
IV. VISUAL NOVELS, ANIME FANDOM AND VR.
Branching path narratives can be found in many games but
some of the best examples can be found in visual novels. For
instance, games like Steins;Gate 0 have six different endings
and two main story branches. The success of many visual
novels has also lead to anime adaptions [2]. The nature of these
games means that anime based on multi-linear visual novels,
like Steins;Gate, may choose to have more than one final
episode.
The increased localization of some visual novels, in recent
years, reveals a rising interest in this primarily Japanese art
form. The process of localizing Japanese into English takes
considerable time [28], as not only must text be translated, but
sometimes whole lines of dialogue or visuals must be adapted
[29]. For instance, visual novels like Chaos;Head [30], were
released in 2008, and never officially localized, while its sequel
Chaos;Child[31], released in 2014, was localized into English
in 2017[32]. Fate/Stay Night[33], released in 2004, was
another title that was never officially translated, whereas
Fate/Extella[34] was released in 2016 and localized in 2017.
The visual novel Steins;Gate[35] was released in 2009 and was
not officially localized until 2013[36]. Its sequel Steins;Gate
0[37] was released in late 2015 and officially localized in
2016[38]. Evidently, quicker localization, or evidence of any
localization efforts compared to previous titles, reveals a trend
in favour of the product.
Initial responses to imported visual novels in the early
2000s were mixed[39]. However, successful Kickstarter
funded translations further suggest that the English market is
becoming more open to this form of narrative game. Games
like Muvluv [40] earned $1,255,444 out of a $250,000 goal
,while CLANNAD [41] reached $541,161 out of a $140,000
goal and the Grisaia [42] trilogy of games had $475,255
donated out of a $160,000 goal. Some suggest funders are led
by the same mindset as charitable donators[43], others believe
that they are encouraged by a rewards scheme to give more
money [44]. Whatever the reasons behind their donations, the
act of donation itself reflects an interest in the product.
Whether this is because of the extensive anime, manga and
Japanese pop culture fandom overseas[45], or an increased
interest in branching-path narrative games, visual novels are
beginning to become more readily available for purchase by
English speaking consumers.
As well as localizations, and the development of VR
headsets like the Occulus rift[46], Kickstarter has also aided
with the development of original English language visual
novels. However, these have met with varying degrees of
success. The first full VR visual novel Angels & Demigods
[47]only made $2,617 out of their $24,000 goal, while
</reality>[48] - a non-VR visual novel about VR - reached
slightly over their $6,000 goal. Both Western produced visual
novels use manga-style character sprites and sci-fi settings,
both are available on Steam, however only the latter was fully
funded.
Visual novels may lead to anime adaptations, hence it is
unsurprising that many anime fans are also fans of visual
novels [2]. Yet, despite the failure of funders to back the first
VR visual novel, anime and manga fans are not necessarily
opposed to VR. In fact, anime like Log Horizon,.hack//Roots
and Sword Art Online are all set in fictional VR universes,
while anime films like Ancien and the Magic Tablet involve
characters using VR headsets. In an interview Oculus Rift
founder - and anime fan - Palmer Lucky suggested that Sword
Art Online’s original broadcasting run, which occurred around
the same time as the Occulus Rift’s Kickstarter application,
may have helped backers become more open to the potential of
VR [49]. Sword Art Online, similar to anime like .hack.//Roots
and Log Horizon, is a series about characters trapped in a VR
game. The franchise has led to several spin-off games on PS
Vita and PS4, also available in English, where players take on
the roles of characters playing VR games inside the fictional
Sword Art Online universe. These games also contain extensive
segments of narrative; around 50% of the game is a visual
novel. However, a complete VR game has yet to be made. IBM
has toyed with the franchise and created a short demo called
Sword Art Online: The Beginning[50], while Fove has worked
to create a demo where the user can spend time with the
character Asuna. Nevertheless, neither demo involves narrative
or visual novel elements. A special event was held to publicise
the movie Sword Art Online Ordinal Scale - a film that
involved AR and VR settings - where individuals could use a
Fove Zero and experience quality time with the character
Asuna in VR[51]. This suggests that the anime industry is
aware of an interest in VR in its audience and is looking for
ways to exploit it. Therefore, the lack of interest from Western
Kickstarter backers, who are also potential fans of anime, in
producing a VR visual novel is surprising. This suggests either
a bias towards visual novels produced only in Japan, or a
scepticism about the visual novel form in VR.
V. VR VISUAL NOVELS
Despite their immersive first-person viewpoint, which has been
compared to a VR experience for a player’s emotions[39],
there are few visual novels that utilise VR. However, there is
one VR visual novel; a game that attempts to reproduce the
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typical visual novel interface in VR. The VR visual novel
Angels & Demigods uses mainly 2D stationary, unanimated
sprites and backgrounds and text that appears in message boxes
at the bottom of the screen. Utilising a branching path
narrative, the game also has multiple endings. There are no
minigames and the only game-like activity involves making
decisions in response to the menu choices that appear onscreen.
Altogether, the combined use of these features is very in
keeping with many non-VR visual novels.
While the background occasionally changes to match
dialogue, the static natures of the 2D sprites and backgrounds
makes the player very aware of the fictionality of Angels &
Demigods. While fiction does not need to replicate reality in its
totality, the setting of the story must appropriate some of our
expectations based on real-world knowledge[52]. In the real-
world, when we look around ourselves, the objects we see are
not two dimensional. We may accept flatness on a screen
because screens are flat objects, and what we see on screen is
not meant to represent our normal vision, but flatness in VR
destroys immersion. Becoming too aware of the 2D world
reduces the suspension of disbelief for the player, which can be
catastrophic for the narrative, as immersion is an important part
of the experience of VR[53]. Games do not need a story to be
fun[54] but VR games do need good visuals to be enjoyable
[53]. Utilising 2D graphics and no minigames, Angels &
Demigods is an unappealing VR game. This inevitably lead to
its failure to appeal to funders, despite the crowdfunding of
other visual novels. The fact that it is a non-Japanese title that
was not built on a pre-existing franchise is also a disadvantage
to the game. Other narrative VR games and visual novels have
met success on the same crowdfunding platform, suggesting
that funders are not opposed to narrative VR games or non-
Japanese visual novels. For instance, Technolust, which made
over double its CA$30,000 goal on Kickstarter, is an example
of a successfully funded VR narrative game.
Despite the fact it does not have features like static
backgrounds, 2D artwork or text boxes delivering narrative,
Technolust describes itself as an “interactive visual novel” [55].
The game involves walking around the map, completing mini
arcade games and fetching articles to continue the narrative.
Evidently, video game characters reflect the substance of their
fictional world. This is similar to how people reflect their
environments in real life [52]. Thus, the characters, NPCs and
background of the game supply the player with worldbuilding
in a way that allows the user an understanding of the setting
without them having to read a description. Instead of quest
icons or text boxes, instructions are given to the user via voices
from other characters, monitors and NPCs. These methods are
a more effective storytelling technique, showing rather than
just telling, compared to the sole use of text boxes in Angels &
Demigods.
The game is self-aware, beginning with a segment where
the player is inside a VR world, and warning them about
motion sickness. When disembodied voices in the VR world
later tell you of the struggles of creatures and creations that are
not made of real matter, the player is very aware that they are a
real person playing a virtual game inside a virtual game. Its
cyberpunk edginess, with its dirty streets and neon signs, is
also a familiar backdrop for players. There is little need for
extensive worldbuilding; if the player has seen Bladerunner,
the Fifth Element or Running Man they are acquainted with this
retro-future. The use of 3D sprites and backgrounds also makes
the experience more immersive than Angels & Demigods. This
means that the game can successfully get away with these
fourth wall breaking comments, because its visuals are
satisfactory enough that the player is willing to entirely
suspend disbelief.
Moreover, immersion experiences must be clear, or else the
fictional world will fall apart during the player’s first step into
the game [6]. While Technolust starts in a VR world inside a
VR game, it quickly shifts the player into the ‘real’ world and
provides a valid in-game reason for the shift in environment.
The contrast between the desaturated reality of the non-VR
world of the game, and the neon VR world, easily separates the
two for the player’s comprehension. Minigames, set in the
neon coloured spaces, are usually played from the third-person
perspective as opposed to the first-person experience of the
main game. This further differentiates the two fictional worlds.
The more effort a gamer puts into their gameplay, the more
time it takes to complete, and the likelier they will find
themselves drawn in by the ending they have worked so hard to
achieve [56]. Technolust is a short title and a rather easy game
to complete. Its ending is unsatisfactory because, despite the
promise of interactivity supplied by the VR headset and
interactions with objects in the game, your actions are
incapable of influencing the ending. Unlike many visual
novels, for instance Steins;Gate 0 which has around 40 hours
of story, Technolust is under two hours long. Combining the
branching path narratives of visual novels with the potential
graphics and gameplay of a game like Technolust could
produce a game that has complexity and depth in its narrative
and characters, as well as being a graphically satisfactory VR
experience.
Some Japanese adventure games with visual novel elements
have also released demos or games with VR features.
Megadimension Neptunia VIIR is a remastered re-release of an
adventure game with extensive visual novel elements; the latest
in a series of Hyperdimension Neptunia games. Its VR
elements are additional scenes, which involve spending quality
time with the characters of the main game. The VR section of
the game allows the player to choose their favourite character
and spend time talking with her in a large room in the ‘real’
world; a space quite unlike the fantasy settings of the game.
This differentiates the VR environment from the main portion
of the game. It gives it a different world and narrative from the
main game; keeping the two narratives separate, for the sake of
the player’s coherency. Upon selecting the VR option in the
main menu of the game, the user picks a 2D sprite. When the
player first enters the VR room they are confronted with a 3D
version of a character on a 3D background, which normally
only appears during cut-scenes or during dungeon crawling
gameplay; in previous titles, visual novel narrative sections
consistently use 2D characters on 2D backgrounds. This also
differentiates it from the main visual novel sections of the
game, as the game favours providing the user with a 3D
environment. During the conversation, the player can agree or
disagree with certain statements, shaking or nodding their head,
which will influence the dialogue being said. Thus, instead of
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menu choices, the game uses body language to influence
narrative. Text boxes appear only to give instruction; instead of
acting like subtitles to the voice acting, which occurs with the
visual novel scenes in the main game. The use of body
language to influence narrative is something that could be
pursued elsewhere in VR narrative games.
Cyberdanganronpa VR: The Class Trial is a demo of a
game which is a VR version of a class trial from Danganronpa
Trigger Happy Havoc; a visual novel that uses minigames
interspersed with large sections of visual novel narrative. As
well as using animated scenes, 2D artwork is primarily used in
the original game. However, the demo makes use of entirely
3D settings and artwork. Using 3D artwork instead of 2D
allows the player to examine the characters from different
angles, instead of producing characters that look like 2D cut
outs; as popularized in the main game, which calls this style of
sprites 2.5D. It also makes the characters animated attacks on
the sentences in the centre of the room more comprehensible
for the player.
Text is a large part of the visual novel content of this game
as well as its minigame elements. Nevertheless, this demo
rejects the use of text boxes to deliver narrative. Instead of text
boxes, instructions in a speech bubble are delivered via
monitors which extend downwards from the ceiling. During the
debate sentences - which normally appear on screen alongside
panels of character reactions - appear in the centre of the debate
room. Characters break or interact with the sentences as the
player attempts to uncover who is lying. Normally, these
statements appear in panels, but having characters leap into the
foray and break up sentences is more engaging for the player
than simply watching the sentences appear in front of static
character sprites. The player is then invited to shoot the false
phrases, in a comparable manner to the minigame in the
original. The use of a minigame keeps it from being a passive
experience for the player.
An alternative to the standard text box can be observed in
the non-VR visual novel </reality> which has sections where,
in keeping with the fictional VR MMO segments, a chat box
appears and displays dialogue. This chat box replicates the sort
of in-game chat used in Massively Multiplayer Online Role
Playing Games (MMORPGs) like World of Warcraft. The
character interactions in these chat boxes use acronyms and
emoticons in a manner that supplies the user with
worldbuilding in a more credible way. Future VR narrative
games could potentially utilise chat boxes to reveal exposition
in this manner.
To prevent visual novels falling into the same disregard as
hypertext and IF, they must be willing to adapt their features to
fit the possibilities given by the latest developments in
technology. Adapting to technologies is nothing new.
Traditionally, comics are 2D, static printed stories. However,
animated comic apps like Madefire Motionbooks and LINE
Webtoon allow for a fresher, more interactive visual narrative
reading experience that defies typical comic structure; thanks
to their use of animation and panels. If comics can change
when shifting from print to digital, there is nothing to stop
visual novels from adapting their features to suit VR.
 VI. CONCLUSION
Ultimately, VR visual novels should aim to use 3D
backgrounds and characters, instead of the 2D art of VR games
like Angels & Demigods. VR visual novels must not rely too
much on text boxes to deliver narrative, unless these text boxes
can be credibly explained in the fictional world. The use of
minigames in Cyberdanganronpa VR and Technolust are also
features that can keep players interested, as completing
challenges rewards them with more information about the plot.
The ability to influence the conversation in Megadimension
Neptunia VIIR and Angels & Demigods is a feature of the
visual novel that should be brought into more VR narrative
games to fully exploit the potentials of interactivity in the
medium. Future VR visual novels cannot fall into the same trap
as Angels & Demigods; merely replicating features of the
visual novel form, instead of adapting them. They should make
use of 3D art, minimalist amounts of text, minigames and a
branching-path story, to fully emerge as a successful narrative
game.
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