Now that I\u2019ve talked about visual novels in general, it\u2019s time to focus on Aurora\u2019s Nightmare in particular.<\/p>\n
Aurora\u2019s Nightmare takes place in the idyllic world of Lucerna, which is home to a race of winged humans known as Angellus.\u00a0 The main character, Ars, is a young man who works as a research scientist alongside his fianc\u00e9, Tristitia (Tia for short), and their childhood friend, Aurora.\u00a0 However, while Lucerna may seem like calm peaceful world on the outside, it harbors a number of mysteries and dark secrets.\u00a0 As for what truths will be uncovered and how the three friends will react to them, well that depends on what decisions the player makes.<\/p>\n
Now, that\u2019s only the barest summary of the plot, but I\u2019ll be talking about the characters, setting, and other story elements in far more depth in future posts.\u00a0 I keep trying to assign a genre to Aurora\u2019s Nightmare, but I\u2019m never quite satisfied with my choice.\u00a0 The best I can come up with is fantasy\/suspense. \u00a0But it\u2019s hardly a heavy fantasy setting (no swords, magic, dungeons, or dragons), and the level of technology could put it more in sci-fi territory.\u00a0 On the other hand, there\u2019s no space travel, laser guns, or androids.\u00a0 In fact, there\u2019s not all that much of a focus on technology in general, which is why I lean a bit more towards fantasy.\u00a0 As for the suspense\u2026\u00a0 Well, I\u2019ll discuss the specifics in the future.\u00a0 There was a point when I wanted to call AN a fantasy\/horror story but, now that I have the full plot more or less planned out, I don\u2019t think it goes far enough to be true horror (and horror isn\u2019t really my style anyway).\u00a0 However, I do aim to create a rather tense and dark atmosphere throughout much of the story, which is why I settled on suspense.\u00a0 With all that said, as with many visual novels, romance and the relationships between the characters play a very important role as well.\u00a0 But that\u2019s another thing we\u2019ll talk about more in the future\u2026<\/p>\n
As for the general gameplay, visual novels vary quite a bit in terms of the number of decisions the player gets to make and how much of an impact they have on the plot.\u00a0 Some visual novels may only give the player one or two choices throughout the entire game, while others could have dozens.\u00a0 Of all the visual novels I\u2019ve played, my favorite is Type Moon\u2019s Fate\/Stay Night (unfortunately, there\u2019s no official English release, but there is a good translation patch available, and some of the adaptations and spin-offs have been released in the US).\u00a0 And it\u2019s really the single biggest inspiration for Aurora\u2019s Nightmare (though more from a structural standpoint than a story one).\u00a0 I could spend quite a while talking about what I like about Fate\u2019s plot and characters, but another thing that really sticks out is how the story and decisions are structured.\u00a0 Fate gives the player a lot of choices, far more than in most visual novels.\u00a0 Some only affect a single scene, others change the story entirely.\u00a0 Sometimes the outcome of a choice is immediately obvious, others it may not be until much later that you realize just how important it was.\u00a0 Fate also has quite a lot of endings.\u00a0 There are five full endings and dozens of bad endings which the player runs into if his choices lead to the main character\u2019s untimely death or an unrecoverable failure.<\/p>\n
Similarly, Aurora\u2019s Nightmare will feature three significantly different paths that the story can go down, depending on the player\u2019s choices, each with a number of other decisions along the way.\u00a0 Each path will feature two main endings and a number of bad endings.\u00a0 Fortunately, there will be lots of available save files and a way to quickly skip over sections you\u2019ve already read so you can quickly and easily go back and try different choices.\u00a0 All in all, I\u2019m expecting Aurora\u2019s Nightmare to require around 20 hours (for a non-speed reader, at least) to clear all three of the main story paths.\u00a0 But that\u2019s just a rough estimate.\u00a0 Until the script is finished, it\u2019s really hard to say for sure.\u00a0 It could really end up anywhere in the 15 \u2013 40 range.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Now that I\u2019ve talked about visual novels in general, it\u2019s time to focus on Aurora\u2019s Nightmare in particular. Aurora\u2019s Nightmare takes place in the idyllic world of Lucerna, which is home to a race of winged humans known as Angellus.\u00a0 The main character, Ars, is a young man who works as a research scientist alongside … Continue reading Repost – Aurora’s Nightmare: A Brief Introduction<\/span>