The Rashomon Effect in Vagrant Story
How to provide unique experiences in video games with a story told by contradictory perspectives of different characters
If narrative designers want to tell a story about a particular event through different character perspectives, each with a different version of the facts, and none of them is necessarily the “correct version”, how could video game media be used to convey this experience?
Have you ever noticed that it is sometimes impossible to know for sure what happened in a certain event? As an example, consider the following case:
Suppose there is an alleged car accident on a certain night and an alleged victim who was found in the middle of the street. She finds herself in a hospital after losing consciousness before noticing what had befallen her, as she herself reported. Suppose further that it is known that a driver passed by with his car, and that he would have had a lot of beer that night, but that he claimed he didn’t remember anything, and there is no evidence to incriminate him.
Finally, suppose there were two witnesses to the accident, but one of them claims that they only saw the driver, not anyone being run over. The other one saw the vehicle pass and run over the alleged victim, but it happened so fast that it seemed to them that there was someone else in the car other than the drunk man mentioned above.
If there is no other evidence for what happened, it would be possible to interview the four people involved and never reach a conclusion of what really happened. Each could have an incompatible version of the events that followed. It is not known whether they speak the truth or not, and perhaps one cannot be sure what happened even though everyone was genuinely trying to tell the truth.
This phenomenon is called the “Rashomon effect”, named after Akira Kurosawa’s movie Rashomon (1950). The film is known for a plot device that involves various characters providing subjective, alternative, and contradictory versions of the same incident.
This type of phenomenon occurs in the real world and is studied in areas such as psychology, sociology, and history. It also occurs in artistic works, such as in detective novels or in films such as Virumaandi (2004), by Kamal Haasan, which deals with a controversial death penalty case.
The Rashomon effect is also explored in video games, and, due to the interactive potential of this medium, they can create very interesting storyline experiences. In this essay, we will especially study the case of Vagrant Story (2000), directed by Yasumi Matsuno and whose narrative was also written by Matsuno in partnership with Jun Akiyama.
Two applications of the Rashomon effect in video games
There are two ways to apply the Rashomon effect to video game storylines. The first way is to implement the phenomenon from an external point of view, through a relationship between the script and the game mechanics. Where the player finds himself as the decipherer of a mysterious event, experiencing it from someone else’s point of view, this analyzes the accounts of characters who supposedly witnessed, each in their own way, the referred event.
The second way is to implement the phenomenon in the script from an internal point of view, through a narrative fragmentation. In this case, the player finds himself hostage to the Rashomon effect, experiencing it from the point of view of one or more characters witnessing an event mysterious within the plot.
Perhaps the games most remembered for Rashomon effect applications are those from the Ace Attorney series, naturally because the gameplay is based on legal defense and investigation of criminal cases through the search for material evidence, reports, or cross-examination of witnesses.
Generally speaking, in the cases of Ace Attorney, it is possible to reach a conclusion about what actually happened in an event, thus gradually dissolving the dissonant elements in the case, which are just apparent contradictions. This kind of effect in video games, therefore, is more like pseudo-Rashomon.
On the other hand, there are video games that try to implement the Rashomon effect from an internal point of view of the plot, where the player is one of those involved in the mystery case. The event finds itself torn between the protagonist and other characters, and even the part of the protagonist’s own account is opaque and difficult to understand if observed in isolation. One of the games that do an excellent job provoking this type of effect is Vagrant Story, developed and published by Square.
The plot premise of Vagrant Story
In a narrative, first of all, there needs to be a suitable format to cause the player/viewer/reader to have the Rashomon effect. Written by Yasumi Matsuno, Vagrant Story’s script, from the point of view of its format, was based on two premises:
- Fragmentation
- Ambiguity
That is, the plot should: (1) be arranged in such a way that its content was cut into parts and spread out in a heterogeneous way throughout the plot; and (2) the conjunction of these parts should result in different plausible interpretations for the course of events in the game.
Both premises were stated by Matsuno, according to the Ultimania guide (1999), with the following terms (translation available in shmuplations):
There was one thing I knew I didn’t want. Even though we were always going to tell a complete story, I didn’t want to draw the conclusion for players. I wanted to make a game where, from all the different experiences you have as the player/protagonist, you create the conclusion — what it all means — for yourself. I thought we’d try a more fragmentary approach this time, where players are simply presented with bits of information and they have to weave it together into a narrative themselves.
These two premises seem to have two main motivations. First, as stated in the same interview, Matsuno realized that these premises contributed to the experience of a “suspense drama”, which was the style that the author wanted to give to the work.
Second, these premises were the author’s way of communicating a personal experience. How information and facts can change drastically depending on who is transmitting them and, above all, how everyone tends to interpret things in a way that is more favorable to them in a situation. This was said by Matsuno:
For Vagrant Story, I had experienced personally the way in which information and facts can change so dramatically depending on who is conveying that information… everyone interprets things in a way that is most favorable to their own circumstances. This time, I wanted that to be more than just a simple theme — I wanted the very structure of the story to reflect that idea.
The narrative design of Matsuno e Akiyama
To put these premises into practice, Matsuno and Hiroshi Minagawa developed a cinematographic approach, as did Metal Gear Solid — to such an extent that the project was initially called “Metal Gear Shock” — for the art direction and for the dark and the ruinous city of Leá Monde, inspired by the medieval architecture of Saint-Émilion, a city in the south of France.
According to an interview (1999) between Kojima and Matsuno, both directors have in common a strong inspiration in cinema for the game’s plot to be focused on creating remarkable situations, taking advantage of what the concept of scenarios is capable of providing. As Kojima stated
game direction is more about creating situations that draw players in emotionally, and about creating atmosphere. I could tell Matsuno was someone who could do that.
In this way, many scenes in Vagrant Story take advantage, for example, of the Gothic style of stained glass to generate contemplation with the contrast between color and gloom. They also take advantage of the lack of medieval artificial lighting indoors to emphasize the outline of the characters.
All this contributes to an aura of mystery in moments that involve decontextualized dialogues or new characters that have yet to be decoded in the great puzzle of the game’s narrative.
But the serious architectural and cinematic style is not only used to give color to the plot, but also to give it a voice. The wide empty spaces of buildings, for example, are used to showcase the echo of footsteps, metallic sounds of movement of armored characters, etc. This is in the service of suspense, of the mystery that surrounds the characters’ thoughts and speeches.
In line with this, Hitoshi Sakimoto’s soundtrack prioritizes sound effects and atmospheric sounds in general like wind, moaning, bonfire crackling, etc. The musical timbres are usually of strings with unremarkable melodies, but tense, inconstant and subtle, with frequent dissonance, usually in a minor key and sometimes with atonal phrases.
To match this visual style, the characters in Vagrant Story are designed to have a dark fantasy tone combined with serious realism. In addition, they have traces of the Gothic style captured by Akihiko Yoshida in the way he draws slender characters with big hands.
In this sense, the overall visual style of the game tends to form a consistent experience of threat and uncertainty, a “triangular” type of scenario-character harmony, as Chris Solarski calls it, in Interactive Stories and Video Game Art: A Storytelling Framework for Game Design (2017).
Ashley’s memoirs and Leá’Monde’s shattered history
Leá Monde (The Dark City) and protagonist Ashley Riot are two puzzles that accompany the player of Vagrant Story from the beginning of the game to the post-game. Even after knowing what they are, the player will end with many questions about the relationship between them. In this topic, we’ll see how these questions are posed, but avoid giving further spoilers about the plot.
On the one hand, Leá Monde is a city with more than 2000 years of history within the Ivalice (a world where other Square Enix games are also set, such as Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy XII). On the other hand, Ashley Riot is one of the most powerful Riskbreakers of the Valendia Knights of the Peace (VKP), and, as a member of the Dangerous Criminal Task Force, Ashley is conditioned to follow the orders of the VKP unquestioningly.
The key to the relationship between the character and the city is Ashley’s curiosity. At first, the protagonist was called upon to investigate Duke Bardoba’s involvement in the Cult Müllenkamp, as well as why the Church is hunting the leader of that cult, Sydney Losstarot.
Sydney tells Ashley things about Leá Monde, and gradually the protagonist becomes interested in her and investigates his past, even without orders to do so. In Ashley’s trajectory, not only will the player discover more about the game world’s past (involving aristocracy, religion, civil war and a dark, mystical power), but also the character’s own past.
There are two sources for information on Ashley’s past: other characters and, most importantly, Ashley’s own memories. It turns out that each character in the plot has their own interests, and they are not always trustworthy. Furthermore, it is said that Ashley’s memories may have been manipulated by VKP into becoming one of its members.
As Matsuno commented in a Vagrant Story Ultimania interview (1999), the question of whether the protagonist’s memories are true or not is part of the ambiguous tone of the narrative of Vagrant Story. Furthermore, the memories appear as flashbacks at different moments in the plot, contributing to the experience of decoding an enigmatic and fragmented story.
I thought we’d try a more fragmentary approach this time, where players are simply presented with bits of information and they have to weave it together into a narrative themselves. In that sense, the question of whether Ashley’s memories are true or not — that is something I didn’t want to give an answer to, I just wanted to tell the tale.
But the motivation to “hide” from the player the “real” version of the past is not only external, as a method of storytelling, but also internal. It reflects the mood of the character, Ashley, who needs to make decisions ahead of uncertainty about who he is and who, exactly, he is fighting.
Character-player relationship and the Rashomon effect
In an investigation narrative in a video game, a tacit pact is established between the player and the work in such a way as to expect it to present a problem, the possible answer options, and the means to find the correct option between these.
However, the Rashomon effect consists of not complying with the conclusion of the pact, leaving more than one likely option for the answer to the problem. But this is not because of the writer’s imprecision, but because a plot is written in such a way that the player is convinced that, under those circumstances, it would in fact be impossible to know the answer.
This is the case with Ashley. Under the circumstances of the plot, it seems impossible for him to come to know for sure about his past, so the player doesn’t have enough information to discover the truth either. Vagrant Story provides a connection between player and protagonist, who start to share the same curiosity about the past and the same tension of distrust towards the institutions and NPCs of that world.
In Final Fantasy Tactics, although there is a protagonist, Ramza, several important characters in the plot are controlled by the player and accompany him on his journey. In Vagrant Story there is a deep experience centered on the perception of only one character.
In this contrast, Final Fantasy Tactics provides an outside, “above-view” experience of the plot that unfolds with multiple characters, while Vagrant Story provides an internal experience, viewed from within the plot by a single character, Ashley.
The battle system of what we can call a quasi-action RPG adjusts to a unique character in a way that is both tactical and dynamic. The art direction and soundtrack emphasize the suspense, the mood of the protagonist’s curiosity, and the mystery of the plot.
The script, finally, unfolds in a puzzle of uncertain memories, scattered dialogues, and characters very well motivated in the reasons why one opposes the other. And in all of this Ashley is the final piece that can fit in more than one place in the puzzle.
Vagrant Story, thus, provides a unique, deep, and engaging experience of the Rashomon effect. It shows the potential of video games to cause this effect using very well-selected resources from other arts (such as Architecture and Cinema) and combining them into a coherent gameplay proposal.
