So begins the second (larger) batch of stories from fatesplits, consisting of Haruhi Suzumiya, Sailor Moon, Rosario + Vampire and To Love Ru. In this case we start off with a tale in which Haruhi becomes interested in dating sims and inadvertantly alters reality to accomodate her new fascination! Let's talk about how this could be best represented in the first episode.
The first scene seems rather obvious to me. Kyon observes Haruhi laughing at some handheld game she's playing. She mocks the genre a little, and says that she finds it fun because it's so unrealistic. Which should send some warning bells off in Kyon's head, but something probably distracts him right about then.
The next morning everyone is interacting with him by way of text options, including some that he'd never normally select. What's more his attempts to travel around feel unnatural, as though he's teleporting from place to place and is only capably of seeing limited areas around him. Not only that, but he can only interact with one person at a time! And none of the other SOS members seem to think anything is strange at all!
Eventually the penny drops, and Kyon tries to work out how to make Haruhi end the game and return the world to normal.
How does this sound to everyone else? Do you have any suggestions for how this could work? I'd be very interested in hearing your ideas.
Ahh. More literal than I expected! I was most picturing galge/eroge scenarios occurring with obvious decision points popping up when talking to people. And it's clearly all of that, but much more as well. I like it.
ReplyDeleteThe World God Only Knows is an obvious resource for coming up with reasonably authentic dating sim scenarios, but perhaps drawing on some of the major galge/eroge works directly for inspiration would be worthwhile? I'm thinking of stuff like Clannad (one of my favorite anime series ever, by the way), School Days (a killer—literally—deconstruction of the genre), Sakura Wars, Tokimeki Memorial, To Heart, Little Busters!, Kanon, and so on. Do you have any familiarity with any of those or similar games, be it through anime or manga adaptations or just reading about them online?
One more specific point: I envision Kyon's cell phone becoming the driving force in his life, pretty much determining what he'll do from one scene to the next based on the messages he receives. (Cell phones have become a central component in most dating sim scenarios, sometimes even utilizing the player's real-life phone for texts and whatnot. Well, Japan technically uses mobile email rather than SMS, but you know what I mean.)
Oh, I should really add one key detail. These games aren't considered beaten just by hooking up with one girl. You've gotta clear every route, after all! And that includes good ends, bad ends, "true" ends…not done it's 100% explored. That would certainly add yet another wrinkle to Kyon's experience, tes?
ReplyDeleteWell there are different generas of Ero games, so wouldn't it be interisting if each girl in his life had a different fetish for their "game?"
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