Trope Talk: Death Games

In my research leading up to this game, I played a bunch of VNs, watched a bunch of anime based on VNs, basically soaked myself in what the VN-lovin’ community digs. Not to make sure I deliver on every single trope they love, but to see what parts I personally love and want to carry forward into my own game.

Here’s one that didn’t make the cut: the Death Game trope. Fun for 99 dudes dropping on an island looking for guns, not so fun when you want to tell a narrative tale, in my view.

The Hunger Games. Virtue’s Last Reward. X:1999. Fate. Danganronpa. The Saw movies. Battle Royale. Highlander, even… start with one large cast of characters, force them to fight each other to the death until only one remains. A perfect engine for generating endless “NOOOO!” moments by the cast and the fans. And totally not my bag.

It can be done right, mind you. Highlander did it by only knocking off one likeable character alongside a bunch of mooks or jerks, and the likeable character was the standard issue Doomed Father Figure, so that’s fine. But what I don’t like about this trope is when the entire cast are likeable, fun, and exciting characters… and they die off just to ramp up the despair, leaving behind big gaping holes in the ensemble just for the sake of yanking at heartstrings. It’s like the author grabbing you by the hair and rubbing your face in all the teen angst, screaming “ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!?”

My go-to example of when this trope burns me is Danganronpa. I thought “This game is spectacularly popular, it’ll be great research material!” and I’d completely checked out after episode two. Why? Because they took one of the only characters I really related to and liked and killed that character off before any sort of character arc could be completed for them. (Compounded by more stupidity when another character overcomplicating the crime scene for the literal lulz against all common sense, but that’s “Professor Laytoning the Plot” and that’s for another blog post.) Once that character I loved was gone from the ensemble we were left with a bunch of peeps I either loathed or didn’t really care about, and well, all my motivation to keep playing went out the window.

It’d be like watching the Captain America: Civil War, except they actually kill each other and the cast gets whittled down until it’s just Hawkeye and Vision and Hawkeye wins. (No offense to any Hawkeye or Vision fans, but.) Once the parts you loved about an ensemble cast are gone, who cares what happens next?

Now, obviously, a visual novel about working in an arcade wasn’t going to end up being a Death Game. Not exactly a perfect fit. But adding one more visual novel to the pile which DOESN’T rely on this trope, well, that helps my cause of promoting the sort of stories I’d want to read. While Death Game stories will likely always be popular, if I can provide an alternative for people like me who want something where you can really relish in the ensemble cast and dig in deep without worrying about losing your favorites… I’m happy to provide.

Join us next week for either some actual game developer nuts and bolts or more tropes and writing theory, whichever suits me at the moment.