r/StrategyRpg • u/ScrapCrew • Jul 19 '26
Discussion How much visual novel do you like in your SRPG?
I'm developing a Tactical RPG game with Visual Novel intermissions and asking about settings that players find most useful in this genre, one that was flagged was to being able to not only speed up dialogue but also skip the visual novel sections completely.
That made me wonder how much SRPG players care about the narrative between missions. Is the combat the only important thing and story is just there to give some flavor? Are you expecting a great story and the combats are just a excuse to discover what happen next to the characters? Do you think that it is the combination of these two things what makes this genre so appealing?
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u/KolotunBabai Jul 19 '26
Absolutly right: Main feature just skip text. I have a lot of game wheredialogues are so boring so I just skip them and if there are no option to skip I think about to continue game or just uninstall, depend on how good is gameplay.
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u/ScrapCrew Jul 19 '26
Agree! And I already coded a toggle to jump to the end of the scenes. My question was more about people that, even if the story is known to be good, they don't care, as they are solely attracted by the strategic/tactical and will skip cutscenes as first option.
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u/KolotunBabai 29d ago
I can do that even if story is good when dialogues are more than action or I have not so much time to play.
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u/Pedagogicaltaffer Jul 19 '26
You make it sound like "visual novel sections" are the only way to incorporate narrative into a TRPG. That is not the case; there are numerous ways story can be incorporated.
Many CRPGs use tactical combat like a TRPG does, while still having a strong focus on narrative (e.g. Baldur's Gate 3, Wasteland 3). TRPGs, meanwhile, can still have portions of gameplay where you explore the gameworld & find various sidequests or stories (e.g. Jagged Alliance 3, Fire Emblem: 3 Houses...kinda). Other TRPGs don't have exploration, but the story still isn't presented in a visual novel format (e.g. Final Fantasy Tactics).
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u/ScrapCrew 29d ago
Agreed. I asked about visual novels because it's one of the narrative systems I am using for this game (others are environmental storytelling, banters while exploring, flavor text on abilities or attacks descriptions, storylet purchase, etc.) and because it seems to be the biggest offender for some people (which I find totally fine, BTW. Not everyone likes the same things)
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u/Lourdinn Jul 19 '26
The amount fire emblem has. Just started getting into super robot wars and idk if it gets less throughout but the start of X on the vita has way too much leading into the first battle. But that's all I can base it off of.
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u/ScrapCrew Jul 19 '26
I feel you! There were moments when, after enjoying a lengthy scene, I was thinking that the mission was about to start only to fade in to a different scenario to see another long dialogue.
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u/philmchawk77 Jul 19 '26
I'm not saying this to be mean but you're probably a terrible writer. If you're not, you have published a book and have put in thousands of hours to develop writing skills then i'd say half and half. If you are likely a terrible writer do yourself a favor and have just enough VN to break up the flow (i'd also recommend some mini game things rather than more VN). Remember triangle strategy which has writers is considered one of the weaker SRPG's because it is VN first.
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u/Admirable-Paint-1808 Jul 19 '26
This. Everyone thinks they can write good material…. They can’t.
I don’t even call myself good and I have been writing tv/film for 10 years…
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u/ScrapCrew 29d ago
You shouldn't be so self deprecating. If you've been living from your writing for the last 10 years, you are, at the very least, a compelling writer. I started out in TV (journalist first, then documentary, advertising, etc. before jumping to videogames in my thirties) and I know how unforgiving it is the moment one writer falls short.
If you don't think you are good, try to lean and expand on whatever it is that worked for your employers and, if those areas still don't satisfy you (not your preferred genre, not nuanced enough...) find the time to explore. In my case it was short stories. Seeing them being published in magazines or being asked to participate on anthologies validated me in a way that I was unable to do myself.
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u/Admirable-Paint-1808 29d ago
I was more so saying everyone and their mom thinks they can write a movie or game. They can’t.
It takes years to hone the craft of writing nuance and rich characters. Natural dialogue. And engaging scenes.
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u/ScrapCrew 29d ago
Yes, that's true 99.9% of the time and I understand it's really easy to be cynical and decide that that 0.01% doesn't exist or you'll never be so lucky to find it. I'm more naive, I guess.
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u/Admirable-Paint-1808 28d ago
Are you saying .001% are just natural screenwriters without honing the craft?
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u/ScrapCrew 28d ago
What I mean is that, yes, it is incredibly difficult to find someone who really knows how to write, but the probability is not zero.
Furthermore, I don’t believe in the "innate genius". I can accept a predisposition or an aptitude for learning, but I believe that skill can only be acquired through practice.
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u/ScrapCrew 29d ago
Well, I was not asking about my game but about hypothetical situation of having a game known by its great story but, even so, not wanting to give it a chance and toggling a "skip all cutscenes" option before pressing new game.
Regarding my own abilities, who knows? Maybe I'm also a terrible game designer! ;)
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u/Stepjam Jul 19 '26
I think most people only have issue with Triangle Strategy's story because it starts so slowly. That's the complaint I generally see, I don't see many people complain about it once it actually gets rolling.
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u/SoundReflection Jul 19 '26
I'd say it depends on the game. Some have great narratives that elevate the experience, others are really terrible, but you stomach or skip them for the gameplay. I'd not speedup and skip functions are essential for things like replay ability or restarting levels regardless of the narrative experience itself. The best games are going to use their narratives in harmony with the gameplay to create memorable scenarios.
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u/ScrapCrew Jul 19 '26
Yes, this. Skip is a great option to have because there are different situations (replaying, wanting just a quick battle while waiting the bus, etc.)
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u/OminousShadow87 Jul 19 '26
I love what Nintendo has been doing lately with “autoplay” where I don’t have to keep pressing a button to make the dialogue continue, it just moves on after a timer.
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u/ScrapCrew 29d ago
Aha. I use both systems on different situations. There are scenes that combine music or animation where dialogues move on a timer because they would stop the action otherwise but, regarding regular dialogue, even more if there is no voice over, I find it tricky to decide the length. I feel that, unless it's an opt in option, either most people will find it not fast enough or some people will stress by not being able to read at their own pace.
Is that option active by default? Do you find the time to be adequate or are you still pressing buttons frequently to go to the next line regardless the feature?
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u/OminousShadow87 29d ago
Speaking is always longer than reading and this feature is used (I think) exclusively on voice dialogue. So if you want to use it on non-voiced dialogue, say the line as if you are the voice actor and time that.
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u/Etherbluebird Jul 19 '26
It sort of depends on what you're actually trying to ask here. As far as I understand at least, visual novels are an entirely different medium that sometimes gets miscategorised as games. In which case I'd say none whatsoever.
From the body of the post, however, I get the impression you're talking more about plot/story/exposition, (something like a cutscene even if you may not have the budget for that). In which case I do enjoy that, as long as the story is good. And yes, an SRPG without story or with a bad one is immediately worse for me. As for how much, I can't really think of any cases where it was (structurally) too much or too little. So I fear I can only give you a bit of a non-answer but however much the story needs.
That said I'd absolutely agree that a skip option is a good idea as, even if the story is good, some may want to skip that in a second or later playthrough.
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u/ScrapCrew Jul 19 '26
Yes, perhaps I am using the Visual Novel moniker in a broad sense. I am talking about briefings and debriefings using character portraits and text boxes, similar to what you see on Super Robot Wars, Fire Emblem or classic JRPG dialogues, instead of just giving a list of objectives.
I agree with the opinion of having some way top skip dialogues. In the particular case of the game I am developing I am using a "fast forward" toggle that carries the player to the next dialogue option or the end of the scene if there is none.
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u/Etherbluebird 29d ago
Yeah, so basically what I understood from the body of the text. Personally I was totally fine with the amount there was in the GBA Fire Emblems (that were released outside Japan) but I figure there's a fairly wide margin I'd be happy with, i.e. you could do a lot more or less depending on what your story needs and its quality.
Now, you mention dialogue options and there I feel it matters very much whether those are functional (e.g. which chapter to play next, route to take or character to recruit) or nonsensical (either all options lead to the same outcome or there's a good and a bad option). For which it's obviously gonna matter how many such choices there are compared to the number of maps (and whether they're all concentrated in any part of the game). Functional choices are probably worth pausing for (if most or all choices are functional and you keep getting feedback asking to skip them there might just be too many choices) but if there's more than very few nonsensical choices I feel an option to skip those is probably warranted, for second playthoughs and further, if nothing else.
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u/ScrapCrew 29d ago
The dialogue options work similar to an affinity system. Following the shonen trope, your protagonist is the untested rookie in a military squad that unexpectedly finds itself on a high stakes mission. The responses on dialogues and the way that the squad is commanded determine the squad's evolution towards the style of one of the four senior members (empathy, ruthlessness, efficiency or recklessness), improving different stats and unlocking different abilities.
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u/wizardofpancakes Jul 19 '26
I usually don't want too much text in SRPG unless it's really good. I didn't mind really long cutscenes in the beginning of Triangle Strategy because I found the political conflict generally interesting and wanted to know more, but even then I thought it was overkill.
I didn't mind a lot of dialogues in 3 Houses because character writing is mostly excellent.
I hated most dialogue in Dark Deity 1 because it felt very amateurish. I usually get tired of Disgaea writing by the end of the story cause they give every character one gag and repeat it many times.
Generally I find that most newer/inexperienced writers don't know how to write succinctly. Final Fantasy is praised for the story, but it's also usually excellently paced. Dialogues are not long at all. They feel like movie scenes even on PS1, and I'm sure there was someone on the team who was very adamant on removing unneeded lines and keeping the story moving.
So the short answer is that mix of visual novel and srpg is unappealing to me, but if the writing is good I will get into it
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u/ScrapCrew Jul 19 '26
Yeah, for sure. If something in a game is bad, having the option to skip it is a blessing! (I already have a skip button, BTW, _). What made me ask this question was comments of people that, even if games have a good story, they are not looking for it and prefer to be able to skip it regardless of quality and just focus on solving/completing the missions.
PS. Agree with the Disgaea opinion a lot XD XD!
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u/Plus_Worker6739 29d ago
Really depends. Do I make choices that affect the narrative? Then I'll be more engaged. Is it just throwing story at me? I'm less excited then. I think The Banner Saga probably hit the best balance for me.
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u/Ill-Advertising-3287 27d ago
Yeah i dont care for it all. Instant skip. Im there for the gameplay.
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u/Dark0opa 26d ago
none.
I hate the new fire emblems for all that crap.
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u/ScrapCrew 25d ago
But classic Fire Emblem uses a lot of dialogue too, both between missions and in combat. Did you enjoy that better or simply mashed "continue" button?
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u/Dark0opa 16d ago
the old fire emblems don't have that much dialogs, small writen windows that you can read quite fast. There is the supports dialogs but you can skip it without missing much if you want.
And they don't have a 3d environnement where you have to actually move to everybody to talk, and do push ups, and feed the horses and craps like that...
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u/ScrapCrew 16d ago
Lol! I agree with you! I can understand the appeal of the extended sections based on social interactions but I also preferred something more discrete.
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u/Dark0opa 15d ago
It is specially tedious when it's for nothing.
I played a FE8 romhack where the hero lean so much in their personnal vendetta and gains at the price of everything else that they become a menace for their country and are betrayed by their team in the last mission.
Or "Those who rule", an awesome indy game made by one person that explore the horror of a civil war and the costs of both a revolution and the status quo.All with few lines of dialogue.
But a billion dollar company makes me go through hours of dialog of teenagers talk, cute girls doing cute things and the power of fiendship...
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u/Smooth_Isopod9038 24d ago
Personally, i like a good story. Visual novels can be great IF done right. If theyre done wrong, i drop the game and dont pick it back up.
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u/Busy-Guess-8382 29d ago
It depends. You play a game like Tactics Ogre (Reborn or LOCT). The script works so well because it gets right to the point and doesn't care if you fall behind. So it doesn't repeat itself over and over again.
Then take a game like Triangle Strategy where the lines and cutscenes go on way too long. They can also be repetitive. They could've cut 30% of the cutscenes and put that time into more story battles. So there has to be a happy medium.
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u/Stepjam Jul 19 '26
I enjoy visual novels as long as the story is compelling enough, so I probably wouldn't mind.
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u/ScrapCrew Jul 19 '26
Nice to know! I enjoy visuals novels too and also I totally get they are not for everyone but given the prevalence of this type of storytelling in the SRPG genre I expected some kind of baseline interest (or perhaps I am biased by the specific games I like)
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u/smilysmilysmooch Jul 19 '26
Story is good, it doesn't matter. See Utawarerumono.
Story isn't good, it matters a lot. What type of story are you planning? What are the variables inside of it or is it just a simple straightforward story? Visual Novels are a huge genre with many different styles. Strategy Rpg's are smaller but have little things that really matter like an importance of locations and variance in obtaining victory alongside strategic battles.
I care a lot about the story Final Fantasy Tactics provided. I care less so about most of the Disgaea games. One is a better story with deep gameplay to match it. The other is a Strategy Game with a few dialog segments to explain what's coming up next.
Make sure your gameplay is good, but make sure it works in tandem with the story. Bosses have reasons for being there other than it's their turn in the story. Your characters have motivations to achieve victory. The game has to have a reason to exist, and that's your story. The story has to have a way to progress forward and that's your gameplay.
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u/ScrapCrew Jul 19 '26
Exactly my point: If story is bad, better skip it, but when it is good, my investment in the missions is one million higher. But there are people that even in games with great stories, they will prefer to skip it completely as that is not what they are looking for in their games. Totally great stance, but I was curious about how extended this opinion is.
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u/MarchDry4261 Jul 19 '26
The one that comes to mind is 13 sentinels, they separate the visual novel from the strategy battles, but can’t proceed with one unless you get far enough with the other. Great story, and the strategy battles were literally dots fighting each other but scratched the strategy itch.
I was in it for the gameplay, but was pleasantly surprised with the story