PEGBRJE: The Novelist
The struggles never stop, no matter where one runs.
The Novelist is a narrative decision making title made by Orthogonal Games, an indie studio founded by Kent Hudson. Players are a spirit living within a coastal villa, watching in silence as three new faces arrive to rent the place as a cottage for the summer. As the proverbial guest in their own home, players will watch and witness certain events that befall upon this family, consisting of a novelist Dan, his wife and painter Linda and their son Tommy. They are in a constant impasse during these events, unable to find a solution and unwilling to take firm action; perhaps this ‘impartial’ spirit can assist.
The Novelist is a game of listening and reading, not of action and excitement. There’s not much a spirit can do, but perhaps it can influence the upcoming decision. Players will be given the ‘scenario’ at the beginning of the day, an inkling of the dilemma that has befallen upon the three, and may look for clues as to what precisely is going on. This is done by eavesdropping on small talk interactions, reading their minds and finding clues in multiple forms scattered throughout the house. These can be pictures, diary entries, letters received — the spirit essentially has to snoop to understand. There’s also the ability to peer into a recent memory of each family member, uncovering even more information. Each family member has a set amount of ‘clues’, and upon finding all of them reading their mind will give the final clue in the form of a blue word in a phrase. This blue word is an object of some kind, and links to what each family member is hoping to decide upon to solve their current issue, and is the spirit’s only way of helping. See, spirits cannot talk, but they can influence decisions by leaving subtle clues such as whispering a suggestion to Dan whilst he sleeps.
How the spirit gets around to finding these clues depends completely on the difficulty that players set for themselves. In Stealth mode, players being a ghost registers for the family and causes them to freak out; too much exposure leads to a restart of the level. To avoid detection, the spirit can possess light fixtures throughout the house, acting as a rapid movement ability to traverse the house as well as a distraction to the family so that they can get into certain rooms. In Story mode, the spirit can still possess lights but has less of a need to besides speed thanks to the permanent inability for the family to see them. I’ll admit, I did the game on story mode for I felt that the strength of this title would be in its personal decision making, rather than the stealth decision making. For what it’s worth, I did go back and try Stealth and it does add a layer of difficulty thanks to the constant fear of being spotted. But to me, that’s not the main focus. What drew me in was the promise of a story based on decision making, and is it so beautifully mundane that it felt too real — and I don’t even have a child or a wife.
Each member of this family of three is struggling with their own hardships, compounding from those that drove them to come to this villa to escape and those that are created by doing so. Dan is a struggling novelist (hence the title), beset by writer’s block at every turn and unable to bring his scattered thoughts together to create a coherent narrative. Hounded by his editor, he hoped that this escape would be exactly what he needed, but in truth it simply shifts the problem to a different location. Linda, a previous painter, is worried about the strain that Dan’s work is putting on both Tommy and their marriage as both seem to be slipping into depths seemingly unredeemable. She had hoped the retreat would help both and reconnect her with her craft, but just like Dan she finds herself constantly distracted and torn in different directions. Both constantly struggle with self doubt, wondering if they can truly continue down the path that they have forged, knowing that this retreat needs to fix something or else they may not be together for much longer. This doesn’t even begin to cover how Tommy feels, he who looks up to his father as an icon of words while struggling to learn the fundamentals of reading and writing. He feels isolated from those that he holds above all, as both his parents struggle with their internal conflict and leave him alone to fend for himself. Couple that with his rough start to the previous school year and he’s not in any better shape than the rest.
With three pulling in their direction, the spirit may be a fly on the wall but able to alter the entire direction of each of them with a single whisper. Seems terrifying, doesn’t it, to be the arbiter of their fate. Fret not, there is a mild assist in the form of the ‘compromise’. If players are able to the entire set of clues of more than one person, there will be the ability to interact with those items again during the night phase on top of the lore books that materialize to learn more about the manor. This gives the compromise less impact, but still gives it some influence on the events rather than just leaving them in the cold. The main decision made will still be the focal point, but just as it suggests the compromise will keep the second party at least satisfied for the time being; however, as we all know, compromises cannot be the only decision made for a person forever.
These choices, these compromises, they all permanently effect the house itself as items will be moved or altered depending on what is altered and what happens in the world itself, and these decisions hurt. The next paragraph is extremely spoiler heavy, so I’d advice not reading it if you haven’t played at least once.
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The Novelist, at the pinnacle of its story telling, will tell players more about themselves than they may be wanting to admit. In a move I wasn’t expecting, I saw myself as much too similar to Dan throughout the story, albeit with much less ‘fame and success’. A man stuck in a rut, knowing that failure would lead to the likelihood of giving up on his dreams completely and succumbing to a less-than-ideal career path. Even still, he tried his best to stick it through, writing as much as possible while juggling his responsibilities to his family even though he knew they were eroding his ability to write.
In case this wasn’t obvious, I utterly sacked Dan.
Oh sure, I did my best to help him here and there, finding his book, going fishing or getting a campfire, but rarely were any of these the ‘focal’ decision; they were compromises. I couldn’t bring myself to dedicate all of Dan’s time to his book when his marriage was so close yet so far, with Linda struggling with her own ambitions and troubles and Tommy utterly devastated the time I accidentally didn’t take him up on his free coupon (seriously, I misread that so bad). Even when I did dedicate a decision to Dan, even then I felt as if he wasn’t happy with the result and I was left miserable that I had let down his family. Everything I tried, nothing was ever going to help the spiral that was Dan’s career. Even at the end, when I had the chance to get him his teaching position, I couldn’t bring myself to do it, so I had to watch as he slowly lost his book, his career, and his hope.
That hurt, and I was the one who did it. I don’t necessarily regret it, for the happiness that he was able to achieve for his family was more than worth it, but the reminder of his lost career stung hard. To be knowingly on the decline, to be stuck and know that there may no ‘win’ and yet still choose against himself is hard, and I’d be lying to say that I didn’t feel guilty for making Dan do so. Yet at the same time, the spirit does not make decisions for the family; only suggestions. These are all possibilities that Dan had thought of and made the active choice to do so. I keep telling myself that, anyway. Makes me feel better.
My only complaint, if I can call it that, is in the mild whiplash that I received after being informed that Dan had given up on everything to hop from job to job only to be informed a few panels later that Dan and Linda lived essentially as honeymooners for the rest of their lives. To have his soul crushed yet somehow live with Linda in utter bliss felt like such a bizarre disconnect of narrative that it felt impossible; and yet, what did I know? I’m not really that experienced in marriage. Was it possible to achieve this power of being in complete bliss while still finding a lack of satisfaction with a current career? To be so sad yet so utterly content? This question will haunt me for as long as this game remains in my mind.
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When I started today, I was certain that I would get through this title and move on to the next with no problems. I haven’t been this wrong in a long time, and I’m utterly terrified to try The Novelist again for fear of finding out what may happen in other paths. It’s a love letter to the utter dismay that is adult decision making, putting the weight of the choice on one’s shoulders and making the call to bear the consequences. Sure, there are a few decisions that I found a bit questionable, but even those choices felt real in their unpredictability. Sometimes life comes at you fast and you have absolutely no way of knowing what may happen from such a simple choice. Sometimes it will turn out well, other times it will destroy everything you’ve built.
I wish you well on your decision making, and hopefully you can find something about yourself on the way.
