why you should play Night in the Woods · 10:22pm Aug 30th, 2018
A while ago, Horizon claimed that playing 80 Days could make you a better writer. And he backed it up by buying copies for people, as well as hosting a fanfiction crossover contest.
Well I... can't do the last two.
But I can do the first part! I think Night in the Woods shares some similar territory there.
Does Autumn really begin on September 21? In east Asia, it's traditionally early August. Or does it begin on Labor Day? I dunno.
NitW is the most autumn-y game ever, a slice of life full of wabi-sabi, but with scary happenings at the same time. Though at first glance I was reluctant to play it for two reasons...
1. It's a game where all you do is talk to NPCs and examine objects until the story decides to advance. Practically a visual novel. I usually avoid these types of games because they rely entirely on dialogue, but they're rarely have interesting writing to support that limited gameplay. Buuuuut, NitW has such carefully written characters each with interesting lives and perspectives, even I wanted to keep talking to them forever. Dialogue is charming and fun here, as it should be in a text-heavy game.
2. Is this a mumblecore story? I guess, it kinda is. Aimless 20 year olds, snarky and aloof. Usually those films have no real message or point, they're just trying to be stylish and hip. But NitW does have the wisdom to show that these characters can be immature and make horrible mistakes. It has a lot of sympathy and care for all of its characters, even those that appear unpleasant. I think NitW does have an important story to tell.
It might be fair to point out that me and some friends were evenly divided on whether the climax of the story worked or not. I personally thought it was great, but I can see why others thought it failed. Aside from that, everyone loved the slice of life parts of the story.
Luckily, that's all I want to talk about here. There's so many great things the game does right, with the art and music and pacing, as well as the story's themes, but I just want to focus on the non-spoilers. The moments of the game that are completely aimless and pointless, because they make all the difference.
There's an optional moment early on where you can talk with a friend, who tells you he's been planning to do a certain something. You're given an option for how your character responds to this.
- When?
- Since when?
I like how just one word changes the whole meaning here. But don't worry, the answer to one question will lead to the other, so you're not missing anything. It's not an important question, it has 0 consequences in this linear story segment, so the game isn't really giving you a meaningful choice.
Here's another one. Someone asks you what you think of your hometown now that you're revisiting it.
- It's changed.
- It's the same.
It ultimately doesn't matter which one you pick. There's no reward, no goal, no stakes. You're not trying to convince an NPC to do what you want, or react in a way that gives you important clues for your mission. The game just wants you to take a moment to consider both options, and choose which one you think would be more interesting.
This is kind of what I was grasping at in 80 Days, where there's sometimes clearly telegraphed major decisions (go to this city or that?) but lots of inconsequential choices such as when you kill time exploring a city or riding a train.
Though sometimes, what you think was an harmless choice can surprise you by having a major impact, good or bad. And I think those moments are made all the more special as well as true to life. This is a slight tangent, but I think it's an interesting technique that goes back to Earthbound, an RPG that constantly gave you sidequests with no point or material reward, such as finding sesame seeds in a desert. Right then you may feel annoyed at having wasted your time, but after the adventure's over you'll probably recall those moments fondly for how strange they were.
One of the themes of 80 Days is that Phileas Fogg only cares about the goal, and doesn't seem to enjoy traveling much. He can hardly take care of himself or speak other languages. You, as Passepartout ("go everywhere"), get to talk to locals, explore cities, go on strange diversions. I think you're meant to enjoy the game by living in the moment - enjoy the journey, not the destination! (the actual game mechanics of traveling were kinda janky anyway)
This is why I think Papers, Please is a work of art. If major events happened every day, they wouldn't be as special. Instead, the game puts you in the steady rhythm of a repetitive paperwork job, and you have to keep alert for important characters passing by so you don't miss them. Or, you truly feel shocked when a violent attack happens and interrupts your shift.
(Maybe, in theory, open-world games do this too? At least in Star Control II, most of the planets you explore aren't special, just another stop for gathering minerals. But that makes the planets that do have important items or interactive aliens stand out even more as meaningful discoveries. I haven't played enough Open World games to tell if they all do this consistently....)
Night in the Woods doesn't really do this (or does it? maybe I'm trying to lower your guard), but it is a gentle game about finding beauty in aimless wandering, and the rhythms of day to day life (albeit a character with no job). The spooky story feels all the more disturbing when it collides into the mundane world you've been appreciating.
So by removing all the stakes that are normally found in a game, those conversational choices above really matter. You stop role-playing, you stop thinking of them as branching paths in a game.... you're free to stop for a moment, and think in terms of building a story.
Which word choice should go next? Which retort would make the scene funnier to you? The unsaid options might stick in your mind just as strongly as the one you did choose, and feel like part of the story too, because you had to consider them.
It forces you to think like you're the writer, not the player.
no guarantees though. I mean I played it, and look at my writing lately. 
What I liked the most about the game is how the small characters are affected by you.
If you talk to Selmers every day, she shows up at the poetry society in the library.
Listening to her dorky poems gives her the courage to share a more personal poem.
If you talk to Lori and Mr. Chazokov often, they along with Selmers show up at the church.
These are small characters that unlike Bea or Gregg, you don’t hang out with that much longer.
But if you choose to spend a few minutes with them, you change their actions later in the game.
The Weird Autumn update had a few extra things line going to scavenge thrash in the sewers.
Hanging out with the ferry man does not do much, even though it takes up 20 minutes at least.
You can talk to other smaller characters like Germ, who has more plot relevance, but it is all optional.
Most people just choose either Bea or Gregg for their routes, but you can hang out with others, that while not relevant to the plot, serve a purpose.
My favorite is when you convince two older musicians to play together. You are lead to believe you are hooking them up, but they ate not interested.
They don’t want to date; they just want to play music together. So much for fate and star crossed lovers.
Another small thing that I liked is that you can either make a really nasty dinner with Bea, or a good one.
The dialogue change based on how much her dad enjoyed the ingredients you picked at the super market.
It takes a lot of exploration to get the most out of the small characters. But unlike Gregg or Bea’s hang outs, you can get them all with just a single route.
The hardest thing in the game is getting the windmill notes. They are in places you have to reach being really good at jumping and landing just right.
Fuck those jumps.
Night in the Woods is such a good game.
And beautifully described here, Haze. I need to find time to play it again this fall.
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well I didn't want to spoil it all