![]() In more traditional forms, this separates important characters that drive the overall plot from unimportant ones. However, storytellers and game designers should remember the fact that not all characters are created equal. It felt like an afterthought to justify her behaviour (which is a shame, I generally like and relate to tomboy and/or androgynous characters). Min Seo’s POV in Butterfly Soup also didn’t have any memorable gamelike elements and her narrative characterisation felt forced from writing in abusive parents as a backstory. I otherwise enjoy her Indiana Jones-like design. In EverWing, poor Sophie has only been sent for timed quests simply because she does them twice as quickly and didn’t have anything useful to add to the main gameplay. So where does this leave the other characters in both games? After all, not every character will be a favourite, and eventually relegated to doing menial tasks if the game calls for it. This makes for a more relatable and interesting character to play as. Diya, in turn, has her heroic archetype rounded off from her limitations and weakness from the way the visual novel limits player agency. The contrast of being able to look around the entire school - and not being denied what to interact with save for the dead ends - help to characterise and contrast Diya and Akarsha. To contrast this lack of choice, the players are given free agency to look through the school grounds when playing as the free-spirited cloud cuckoolander Akarsha, who had to look for Diya and Min Seo before their baseball match. Stripping off agency from approaching others cements the fact that this is Diya’s main weakness that she would eventually learn to grow out of, alongside her coming out as gay arc. The false options presented usually has something to do with Diya having to interact with another person or a bunch of people. Is this the face of someone who suffers from extreme social anxiety? Not only does the lore back up the fact that she has foresight and a means to strike out on her own, her in-game abilities where she doubles the coins you take with you after a round also fittingly rounds up that salesman - cough, alchemist - part of her. She has the voice of a sleazy car salesman and comes with an individualistic, perfectionist streak. Lily on the other hand has a more fun and interesting portrayal. Admittedly, I am personally not too fond of plain heroes and would rather have a sidekick, anti-hero or anti-villain as a favourite (Zuko from Avatar, anyone?) ![]() Like most vanilla hero archetypes, she doesn’t exactly have a memorable trait associated with her, other than being the player’s first character and carrying a signature sword according to the game’s lore. Since she’s readily available, she’s the easiest and cheapest character to upgrade until the players have enough XP and coins to unlock the other guardians. Thus, it had me thinking about how mixing character tropes for mechanical and narrative purposes can be an effective way of making characters interesting & appealing for players.įor starters in EverWing, Alice is the typical heroic character with no additional mechanical bonuses. While some people may choose in-game favourites based on their playstyle, some may also end up relating to characters more because of their archetype or personality. But as I settle into a playstyle where I have a favourite character to blast monsters with (Lily is best girl - for now) I started thinking more about how each one of the characters, and by extension most games with fleshed-out female character narratives, have a distinct look, voice, and their complementing game mechanic. Recently, I’ve become quite the fan of EverWing for its ability to integrate action mechanics with casual game elements. Let’s look at Everwing and Butterfly Soup, two games with different approaches to characters. With the gaming medium, the development of character archetypes would have an additional dimension because of its interactive element. We’re in an era where girls can enjoy varied representations of other girls with wildly differing personalities or archetypes.
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