I really enjoy Filmento’s Film Perfection and Anatomy of a Failure YouTube series. Which made me want to do something similar, but for writing instead of films. Educational dissection of written gold, if you will. And what better way to begin than by taking a look at the visual novel game, Love Esquire.
Seriously?
The Story
At first glance, Love Esquire might seem like your average ridiculous visual novel with cute girls you try to boink, and honestly, that was what I bought the game for in the first place. But like my favourite visual novel of all time – Clannad – Love Esquire planted itself in my memory not with sex, but character.
You play as a young and newly minted squire being shipped out to a very deadly war. With only 4 months to go before an expected death by stabbing, you set out to bed one of 5 girls to lose your virginity card. With me so far? Cool.
In dating sims such as these, you try to remember information about each character. Their likes and dislikes, their personalities, and the places they go. A bad dating sims play these out like statistics and dole them out in conversations like data for you to remember.
A good one such as Love Esquire makes the character memorable. So instead of remembering information, you remember people. And even after finishing the game, I can bring them up in memory the same way I do with people in my life.
To Remember a character
There’s a character in Love Esquire called Giselle, and she’s a nurse that works with drugs. And the first thing you notice about her is that she speaks in short phrases.
Every time I interact with her in her own scene or in the background of another’s, this form of speech doesn’t change. I remember her quickly, and it’s constantly reinforced. She’s weird. She’s to-the-point practical. And that just happens to be her gift preference. I remember that not because it’s her data, but because it’s in her character. It’s how she interacts with the world.
An even better example of this idea would be the following amazing character.
Mooo~!
This is Bessy. She’s a cow. Throughout the entire game, she has but one line. She is lovable, gentle, loyal, and kind to everyone, even though the only thing she does in the game is give milk and roam as a background sprite that moos.
But when characters see her, they compliment her. When you gift her milk to others, they love it. She’s your most reliable source of an in-game item, so when something bad happens to her, you’re heartbroken at the loss of your loyal pet cow.
She was given a character and personality, not through lines, actions, or even scenes. She simply interacted with the world and the world with it. You remember her as she’s a part of your life.
Bad Interaction
Why is it that when someone mentions a character such as Cedric Diggory we remember him as brave, loyal, and honest. But with Edward what’s his name we get, uh… something hot, sparkly vampire, love Bella something?
It’s because with Cedric, every time the character enters a scene, we learn something new about him. He’s being humble in popularity. He’s repaying his debt to Harry. He fights Voldemort. And when he’s not, he affects the lives of those around him. They cheer him, talk behind his back, and mourn his death.
With Edward, you don’t sense the difference. He’s only in the minds of a few characters, and his actions don’t shape his world around, but rather, just the mind of one girl. When he’s not there, he’s just… not there.
Sure, there are expositions, but in between in each line of description, there must be a character. A character that regardless of being there, interacts with the world and makes the universe they’re in more alive.
A character that interacts is a character that’s memorable.
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