Technical difficulties strike again! So, despite downloading [Text] A Summer Story and allowing it to take up all the memory it could on my already crammed I5 core gaming laptop (a full 10 minute download time) I was unable to open anything but the 'Read Me' page which chose Internet Explorer to only open a Help options webpage. There was never an interface that popped up. Instead, I watched a playthrough video of [Text] A Summer Story on YouTube by ItsDomHere so I would have something to blog about.
Though these visual novels may have began in Japan they have been around in contemporary phone games for years. As a mobile gamer I play The Sims Freeplay and The Sims Mobile allot, both games featuring in game prizes for watching an ad for the Ap 'Episodes.' In this ap you can download and earn rewards to play any number of your choice of user generated 'interactive visual stories.' You can even write your own. Admittedly, I have downloaded the ap and experienced high school as a teenage alien or relived my first day of college with a crazy roommate. (These advertisements, which I assume somehow utilize Facebook Pixel to see my customer profile so they can target my ads with lesbian story lines, lie because I have yet to find a single one in this ap so I'm convinced its queer-baiting.) I do tend to lose patience with games like these. I feel there are either too many choices and not enough story or there is too much story and not enough choice opportunities to fully engage me. These (perhaps inexperienced) novelists miss the flow of the narrative arc, spending too much time in the rising action that by the time they get to the climax they have lost the audience's interest. I am tempted to try and write my own visual novel in this ap just to have a better understanding of what the limitations of the technology itself on the story.
Anyway, back to [Text] A Summer Story. If I were sitting down to this story as a 'visual novel' with no intention to interact with it whatsoever- thinking of it more as a movie where, instead of captions, I am reading the story overlaid on stagnant settings-then this achieved my vision. If I am expecting to interfacing with the story in a meaningful way, however, where I can fully envision my own character and am immersed with the other characters within the setting then I was disappointed. I understand that the point of view was an artistic choice which the interface was then built around. By looking at the unmoving walls of the subway terminal and the train seats in the opening scenes it is assumed to be from first person/your (Maya's) perspective. I feel that this literary perspective, instead of enhancing the story through showcasing the setting, hindered it. Where technology can and has done so much for this type of storytelling a stagnant background that you are presumed to be looking at which does not change as you 'move about the cabin' was not the right literary choice to draw the audience in if this is the ideal in visual storytelling.
The only things moving in this 'kinetic novel' was the text, which seems to be what the author wanted to showcase, as the letters type themselves out through stream of consciousness. Though lacking in Faulkner-esque literary appeal, this style still achieves the literary intent of putting the audience in the main character's thoughts, perhaps taking it up a notch by occurring in the audience's mind as it is thought through word per minute type. The only 'gameplay' was choosing what line of text to respond to dialogue with. Though this mode of play is common in video games, it is not the only input you have as a player. These conversations are interspersed with button mashing action, whereas, in this story choosing from small amounts of text is your only 'gameplay' input. This text triggered allot of one liners that built up Maya's characterization helping the audience to understand she is a typical teenager annoyed at her mother's helicoptering, but is still a kind enough daughter to reply. We also see some of her insecurities as she beats herself up for texting a mystery boy who she thinks is a wrong number but it turns out has her uncle's phone.
Most of the action or inciting incidents in the story occur via text message, communicating with other characters via instant message moves the story along with 'big reveals' like who is on the other line that isn't Maya's uncle. I find this mode of storytelling a bit of a cheat, though, I understand if animation was a limitation typing in a message profile is certainly easier than animating the other characters into the story. The only visual characterization for the other characters then are their 'profile pictures' which are inanimate objects like flowers and houses. This does not help us envision the characters themselves, but perhaps alludes to something about their character and what they value. There are even pictures alluded to in the dialogue that Maya is receiving of other characters, but these photos are never put up on the screen like the ones of the setting are. This lack of characterization through visual means requires the audience to rely entirely on their literary responses and Maya's reaction to these messages. This characterizes Takesi (mystery boy) as a typical teenage boy, seeming to court Maya in the contemporary form of being the first text message on her phone when she wakes up. Her uncle is ever only spoken about in third person with Maya relating to her mother after having interacted with him.
I feel that Bryan Alexander, like me, would be able to appreciate the artistic literary decisions made by Sakevisual, though, I think he also has reasonable expectations of the form or technology capabilities that it is built into. Just like gameplay is built to perform within each individual gaming system, computer programs and creation tools must be utilized to the best of that technology's ability to tell the most compelling story. In that way I feel Alexander would agree that many of the decisions made by Sakevisual hindered the reader from being fully drawn into [Text] A Summer Story. I do not feel that maintaining an air of mystery was effective for the storytelling if that was even the reasoning behind many of these stylistic choices. The writing was okay, though it was pretty plain dialogue. I feel that the characterization was the only mildly effective aspect of this visual novel. The writer threw in some old school IM emojis that helped us believe Maya was a teenage girl. I would have appreciated more engaging or animated settings if that is all I was supposed to be viewing as a reader. This style of visual novel may not be my cup of tea, but I might give Episodes another download for the sake of argument. I'd certainly tell Mr. Alexander to limit his expectations of [Text] A Summer Story if he's had any run in with 'Episodes' or similar visual storytelling technology.
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