Sound design in visual novels

[Clephas]

Mmm... the level of importance of sound effects is actually fairly dependent on the concept of the VN in question.  With action VNs, it tends to be rather high, but with moege, it tends to not be prioritized all that much.  To be honest, most moege just reuse the same set of sound effects (quite literally) and the results tend to be rather predictable.  As for usage... the most effective usage I've seen has been in ichaicha scenes that aren't H-scenes, where the protagonist hugs the heroine and the like (for moege of course).  With action games, the sound of meat being sliced, the clash of weapons, etc. are all important and tend to get used prolifically. 

 

Example of the sound-effects creating atmosphere

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr1r529_2Vs

 

Example of battle sound effects, lol.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA-cqk7XbKs

[Darklord Rooke]

In my opinion sound effects, whether recorded and delivered to the reader aurally or described in the prose, are far more important than music when trying to create an atmosphere. Books are quite capable of producing a tangible atmosphere without any music at all, by describing sound effects in the prose. On the other hand you'll completely fail at producing an atmosphere with music alone.

[Clephas]

There are a few - very few - VN companies that didn't place much importance on music a decade ago.  Nitroplus was one of them.  Take Jingai Makyou, for example.  The music in that game is incredibly simple and very little effort was put into using it, because the visuals and the actual language of the story were just that good... but the fact remains that a better musical accompaniment would have enhanced the game greatly. 

 

There really is no way in which you might say any one factor defines a VN, in most cases.  Exceptions like Hapymaher, which will probably be remembered for its music much more than its actual story (though the story is good as well), really are the exceptions to the rule.  Generally speaking, my first concern is always the writing, with everything else in the VN, including the visuals, meant to enhance it, present it in a more interesting fashion. 

 

So, which is more important?  Neither.  Music is the 'star' of the audio of a given VN, but the voices and sound-effects are supporting actors and the backstage members.  All are important, but the music and voices are inevitably going to get more attention.  Does this weaken the importance of good sound-effects?  No.

 

My main reason for raving about the music direction is because it is increasingly becoming a weakness in all games, not just VNs.  A VN-maker has 6 ingredients to work with: The writing, the visuals, the voice-actors, the music, the sound-effects, and the actual VN system.  Now, like in cooking, how you use the ingredients you have and how high of quality they are determine the final result.  If you ignore any individual aspect of a VN, you are wasting the capabilities of the medium. 

[Vokoca]

There are a few - very few - VN companies that didn't place much importance on music a decade ago.  Nitroplus was one of them.  Take Jingai Makyou, for example.  The music in that game is incredibly simple and very little effort was put into using it, because the visuals and the actual language of the story were just that good... but the fact remains that a better musical accompaniment would have enhanced the game greatly. 

Really? That's very interesting, considering the more recent Nitro+ titles had not just great music, but nice emphasis on sound effects as well. The production overall was above a lot of the other VNs I've read... some companies do change a lot, I suppose.

[Clephas]

Mmm... it is more like the limits of the system that Nitroplus used back then also put limits on what they could do.  Take a look at the sound for a lot of the games that are considered 'classics' from early last decade and before the turn of the century.  Generally speaking, if they put serious effort into one aspect of the VN, some other aspect suffered.  Jingai Makyou had excellent visuals for the time and a ton of text... but apparently the actual system they used for the game itself had certain limitations...

 

I know, this was already the era of the PS2... but actual VN system development is very slow.  Most just reuse systems that were developed five or six years ago (almost half of all the VNs I've played have used Kirikiri).  The same was the case back then, for the most part.  The result was that the systems they were using couldn't quite handle everything they might have wanted to do, not to mention that budgets for VNs with serious story weren't nearly as high as they are now.  If you have the choice between hiring a great artist and a great music director, which will you choose?  lol. 

 

Gekkou no Carnevale also suffers from musical deficiencies.  In exchange, it has ridiculously high visual values for the character art, for the time.  However, Nitroplus's early games weren't nearly as reliant on music as later VNs became. 

[InvertMouse]

I would say that music is more important to most players than sound effects. If the sound effects are bad, we'll complain about it. If it's good, it'll just not be discussed. Too much of it can definitely get annoying, especially when they're really loud. Hate it when that happens (>O<)!