All My Talk Of Taking Action, These Words Were Never True.
I've started playing Night in the Woods! It strikes me as ideal for a Higurashi AU: small towns, dark secrets, the 'outsider' (although Mae is technically returning to Possum Springs) and the group of friends who already belong to the town. Perhaps fortunately, my ability to write this is limited by the fact that I haven't yet experienced the last few Higurashi instalments. (Come on, official translators!)
I probably won't write Night in the Woods fanfiction, to be honest. I really struggle with writing characters if I don't know what their voices sound like, so I rarely write for unvoiced canons.
Choosing which characters to spend time with is pretty stressful. Here's the problem: videogame logic dictates that you should choose the character you want to focus on and just spend time with them at every opportunity. Games are often set up to give you the most satisfying payoff if you pick a goal and stick to it, because then the game will recognise, 'Oh, this player wants a better relationship with Bea; let's channel them into the "bonding with Bea" plotline.' Real-world friendship logic, meanwhile, dictates that you should divide your time between your friends, rather than focusing on one to the exclusion of the others; in real life, if you spend all your time with Bea, Gregg is going to start feeling abandoned. I don't know which sort of logic this game is operating on!
(To be honest, this was an issue that barely crossed my mind in Oxenfree, because I was so invested in Alex and Jonas's stepsibling relationship. Screw everyone else; I was absolutely going to spend all my time with Jonas. And Ren did end up feeling a bit abandoned, but, hey, I had a great relationship with my stepbrother, so I didn't care! Sorry, Ren.)
I'm trying to go with what feels right without worrying about it too much. Bea and I had a horrible conversation yesterday; I suppose today I should spend time with her and try to make amends. Gregg's lonely because his boyfriend's out of town; I'll visit him today.
But everything we end up doing is so antisocial! I don't want to beat up a car with a baseball bat! I DON'T WANT TO SHOPLIFT OR TALK BEA INTO SHOPLIFTING, GAME, DON'T MAKE ME DO THIS. But no; apparently I cannot prevent Mae from being a bad influence. I do like characters who make relentlessly terrible decisions, but I become distressed when I'm playing a game that makes me carry out their terrible decisions!
(I did enjoy the 'spraying passers-by with the fish fountain bit'. That was another bit that made me go 'NO, MAE, THIS IS A BAD IDEA' at first, but seeing Bea's progression from 'oh, my God, what are you doing?????' to uncontrollable laughter made me smile.)
There was one point where I got stuck and had to look up how to progress online, because the solution was so clearly a bad idea that it would never have occurred to me to try it. JUST JAM YOUR PAW INTO THE ELECTRICITY, IT'LL BE FINE.
So far the game feels a little slow - nothing's really happened in terms of plot - but I suppose that makes sense; you're playing a drifting, directionless young adult in a dying town, and playing through day after day of nothing in particular happening helps to convey that sense of drifting. The dialogue is fun enough to keep it interesting. I really like all of Mae's silly doodles in her notebook, and the playful undertone of her relationship with her parents.
My favourite part so far is when you discover that Selmers is a poet:
My heart is
A dankness
But when I see you
I feel a thankness.
When I feel
A blueness
All I need
Is a youness.
'That's very romantic.'
'It's about my horse.'
'Oh.'
'We're just friends.'
I probably won't write Night in the Woods fanfiction, to be honest. I really struggle with writing characters if I don't know what their voices sound like, so I rarely write for unvoiced canons.
Choosing which characters to spend time with is pretty stressful. Here's the problem: videogame logic dictates that you should choose the character you want to focus on and just spend time with them at every opportunity. Games are often set up to give you the most satisfying payoff if you pick a goal and stick to it, because then the game will recognise, 'Oh, this player wants a better relationship with Bea; let's channel them into the "bonding with Bea" plotline.' Real-world friendship logic, meanwhile, dictates that you should divide your time between your friends, rather than focusing on one to the exclusion of the others; in real life, if you spend all your time with Bea, Gregg is going to start feeling abandoned. I don't know which sort of logic this game is operating on!
(To be honest, this was an issue that barely crossed my mind in Oxenfree, because I was so invested in Alex and Jonas's stepsibling relationship. Screw everyone else; I was absolutely going to spend all my time with Jonas. And Ren did end up feeling a bit abandoned, but, hey, I had a great relationship with my stepbrother, so I didn't care! Sorry, Ren.)
I'm trying to go with what feels right without worrying about it too much. Bea and I had a horrible conversation yesterday; I suppose today I should spend time with her and try to make amends. Gregg's lonely because his boyfriend's out of town; I'll visit him today.
But everything we end up doing is so antisocial! I don't want to beat up a car with a baseball bat! I DON'T WANT TO SHOPLIFT OR TALK BEA INTO SHOPLIFTING, GAME, DON'T MAKE ME DO THIS. But no; apparently I cannot prevent Mae from being a bad influence. I do like characters who make relentlessly terrible decisions, but I become distressed when I'm playing a game that makes me carry out their terrible decisions!
(I did enjoy the 'spraying passers-by with the fish fountain bit'. That was another bit that made me go 'NO, MAE, THIS IS A BAD IDEA' at first, but seeing Bea's progression from 'oh, my God, what are you doing?????' to uncontrollable laughter made me smile.)
There was one point where I got stuck and had to look up how to progress online, because the solution was so clearly a bad idea that it would never have occurred to me to try it. JUST JAM YOUR PAW INTO THE ELECTRICITY, IT'LL BE FINE.
So far the game feels a little slow - nothing's really happened in terms of plot - but I suppose that makes sense; you're playing a drifting, directionless young adult in a dying town, and playing through day after day of nothing in particular happening helps to convey that sense of drifting. The dialogue is fun enough to keep it interesting. I really like all of Mae's silly doodles in her notebook, and the playful undertone of her relationship with her parents.
My favourite part so far is when you discover that Selmers is a poet:
My heart is
A dankness
But when I see you
I feel a thankness.
When I feel
A blueness
All I need
Is a youness.
'That's very romantic.'
'It's about my horse.'
'Oh.'
'We're just friends.'