Spoilers for 999, Virtue's Last Reward, and Ever17 ahead.
Virtue's Last Reward is essentially "Ever17-lite." Instead of being surprised by the big twists, I kept thinking "this again?" There is exactly one point in the game where I was surprised -- and that was just because it turned out that they were on the moon the whole time. That reveal was kind of clever. The other twists? They weren't clever. They weren't satisfying. To see why, let's take a look what the other games did right.
Ever17
What is the twist?
One of the protagonists looks into a mirror to find out that he doesn't recognize the image in the mirror. We don't, either. The significance of "we aren't who we think we are" is twofold: first, obviously, we thought we knew who we were playing as this entire time. Most important, however, is the revelation that this character is not somebody who can possibly exist in the game according to our current understanding of the game's rules. This reveal puts into question everything we thought we knew about the story so far. We are shown through Takeshi's perspective what The Kid is supposed to look like. Now, we have somebody ELSE calling themselves "The Kid", someone who everyone ELSE acknowledges as "The Kid". This image does not match our expectation of what "The Kid" is supposed to look like and, furthermore, seemingly violates one of the fundamental rules of the game: that there are only 6 people allowed on LeMU.
How does the game frame the narrative to allow for the twist to happen?
The first scene of the game establishes the setting for us. The underwater theme park LeMU begins collapsing and a few visitors are trapped. We are rapidly shown scenes of the collapse from two perspectives: one of Takeshi and one of "The Kid." Both perspectives seem to be describing events describing the collapse of LeMU, so we are tricked into believing that both perspectives are actually happening at the same time. Of course, we discover that these two perspectives are actually happening 17 years apart. In short, the narrative structure of the prologue intentionally frames the scenario incorrectly.
What's really clever is that this is the only instance of narrative fuckery in the entire game (save for Coco's route, where the reveals happen). The story occurs in a strictly linear fashion after you select your character. The game doesn't keep throwing confusion at you (unless you're really clever and can identify the incongruencies between the two common routes). The game only needs to trick you once: at the very beginning of the story, the part where we piece together the scenario!
What are the character motivations for the plot?
The characters piece this plot together so that they can rescue Takeshi and Coco from the depths of the ocean. This works because we already care about Takeshi and Coco -- we've spent 20-30 hours with these characters already! There's tension because we want them to survive. It works because we are emotionally invested in the characters.
999
What is the twist?
We thought that we were playing as Junpei, but we were really playing as June influencing Junpei from the past.
How does the game frame the narrative to allow for the twist to happen?
The twist is largely similar to Ever17's, but the "trick" is different (and still clever!). The trick lies in the nature of the Nintendo DS: two screens both show text, but we are led to believe that the bottom text describes events in limited third-person perspective while the top screen describes dialogue and first-person narration. This is a very natural way to understand how the game is presenting information to you --- but it's wrong! The bottom text belongs to June, who ultimately is an observer but is still invested in Junpei's happenings. What's pretty masterful about this twist is that, fundamentally, it relies on the console itself, not the medium or the narrative.
What are the character motivations for the plot? The characters produce this plot in order to save June in the past. Again, this works because we care about June. Our motivations are aligned because we want to see her survive.
VLR
What is the twist?
The protagonist is old instead of young. This questions our perception of the narrator and the setting -- namely "when" the events are happening.
How does the game frame the narrative to allow for the twist to happen?
The protagonist told us through flashbacks that he was young. The "trick" here is just textbook "unreliable narrator." This is a big step down from the previous stories. Additionally, it tries to shoehorn the Blick Winkel character in the last ten minutes of the game, which is only a cliffhanger if you've never played E17.
What are the character motivations for the plot?
Again, the plot was constructed by characters in the game in order to save other human beings. My biggest problem here is that I just don't give a shit about those human beings. Who are they? Why do I care? I've never seen them before. There's no reason for me to care because these characters don't appear on-screen. It's reminiscent of a "saving the world" plot, but worse because we don't even get to SEE the world we're saving!
Presumably, there was this virus that wiped out most of humanity and we ultimately want to save some people down there. Great. This is noble, but I don't have ANY emotional connection to ANYBODY "down there." This point fails simply because it never gave me the opportunity to give a shit.
Ever17
What is the twist?
One of the protagonists looks into a mirror to find out that he doesn't recognize the image in the mirror. We don't, either. The significance of "we aren't who we think we are" is twofold: first, obviously, we thought we knew who we were playing as this entire time. Most important, however, is the revelation that this character is not somebody who can possibly exist in the game according to our current understanding of the game's rules. This reveal puts into question everything we thought we knew about the story so far. We are shown through Takeshi's perspective what The Kid is supposed to look like. Now, we have somebody ELSE calling themselves "The Kid", someone who everyone ELSE acknowledges as "The Kid". This image does not match our expectation of what "The Kid" is supposed to look like and, furthermore, seemingly violates one of the fundamental rules of the game: that there are only 6 people allowed on LeMU.
How does the game frame the narrative to allow for the twist to happen?
The first scene of the game establishes the setting for us. The underwater theme park LeMU begins collapsing and a few visitors are trapped. We are rapidly shown scenes of the collapse from two perspectives: one of Takeshi and one of "The Kid." Both perspectives seem to be describing events describing the collapse of LeMU, so we are tricked into believing that both perspectives are actually happening at the same time. Of course, we discover that these two perspectives are actually happening 17 years apart. In short, the narrative structure of the prologue intentionally frames the scenario incorrectly.
What's really clever is that this is the only instance of narrative fuckery in the entire game (save for Coco's route, where the reveals happen). The story occurs in a strictly linear fashion after you select your character. The game doesn't keep throwing confusion at you (unless you're really clever and can identify the incongruencies between the two common routes). The game only needs to trick you once: at the very beginning of the story, the part where we piece together the scenario!
What are the character motivations for the plot?
The characters piece this plot together so that they can rescue Takeshi and Coco from the depths of the ocean. This works because we already care about Takeshi and Coco -- we've spent 20-30 hours with these characters already! There's tension because we want them to survive. It works because we are emotionally invested in the characters.
999
What is the twist?
We thought that we were playing as Junpei, but we were really playing as June influencing Junpei from the past.
How does the game frame the narrative to allow for the twist to happen?
The twist is largely similar to Ever17's, but the "trick" is different (and still clever!). The trick lies in the nature of the Nintendo DS: two screens both show text, but we are led to believe that the bottom text describes events in limited third-person perspective while the top screen describes dialogue and first-person narration. This is a very natural way to understand how the game is presenting information to you --- but it's wrong! The bottom text belongs to June, who ultimately is an observer but is still invested in Junpei's happenings. What's pretty masterful about this twist is that, fundamentally, it relies on the console itself, not the medium or the narrative.
What are the character motivations for the plot? The characters produce this plot in order to save June in the past. Again, this works because we care about June. Our motivations are aligned because we want to see her survive.
VLR
What is the twist?
The protagonist is old instead of young. This questions our perception of the narrator and the setting -- namely "when" the events are happening.
How does the game frame the narrative to allow for the twist to happen?
The protagonist told us through flashbacks that he was young. The "trick" here is just textbook "unreliable narrator." This is a big step down from the previous stories. Additionally, it tries to shoehorn the Blick Winkel character in the last ten minutes of the game, which is only a cliffhanger if you've never played E17.
What are the character motivations for the plot?
Again, the plot was constructed by characters in the game in order to save other human beings. My biggest problem here is that I just don't give a shit about those human beings. Who are they? Why do I care? I've never seen them before. There's no reason for me to care because these characters don't appear on-screen. It's reminiscent of a "saving the world" plot, but worse because we don't even get to SEE the world we're saving!
Presumably, there was this virus that wiped out most of humanity and we ultimately want to save some people down there. Great. This is noble, but I don't have ANY emotional connection to ANYBODY "down there." This point fails simply because it never gave me the opportunity to give a shit.
So what's the problem with VLR, then?
TL;DR: All of these games rely on their plot twists. E17 and 999's twists are clever and defy simple "trope" classification - they're groundbreaking and change the way we view our understanding of the medium's narrative patterns. VLR's plot twist is like E17's if you removed all creativity from it. The "cool" elements of VLR are less good versions of things that E17 and 999 did really well.
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