Bonjam everyone! This is Aifos coming to you alive from the Strawberry Battlefield! And omigosh, these strawberries are delicious!
Ribbon’s Sarcastic Black Cat: “Sheesh, that title’s a mouthful. Was our title writer on break or something?”
I’d like to see you come up with something better..
Ribbon’s Cat: “What, want me to write the posts, now, too?”
Oh! The post! I almost forgot!
Ribbon’s Cat: “What are we gonna do with you..?”
*ahem*
Generally speaking, when we play games we don’t think things like “I am going to press B, which will signal the game to make my character roll out of the way, and then I’ll press X which will signal the game for him to swing his sword”. Instead, we usually think something like “I’m gonna roll out of the way, then swing my sword”. This phenomena of putting ourselves in our character’s shoes is called “photokinesthetic projection”..
At least, that’s what Extra Credits called it.
In any case, as an interactive medium, this phenomena is all over games. We view our characters as us, and whether that’s as simple as just thinking “I’m gonna roll out of the way” or as intense as shouting “For all the kitties in Catpital City, you meowst fall!”, I’m sure we all do this to some extent.
In many RPGs, though, (and a couple other games) we don’t control just [i]one[/i] character, though, and I noticed as I was playing through one, this photokinesthetic projection only actually applied to a single character in my party, at least to any great extent, and aside from them I felt more like I was issuing commands to my party members, rather than playing as them. And that simply made me curious as to how this is for other people! So, here’s my-
Ribbon’s Cat: “Aifos, I feel like you’re not using that phrase right.”
What? Photokinesthetic projection? Pish posh, of course I am!
[b][u]Tl;dr? Here’s my point![/u][/b]
We all walk in the shoes of the video game characters we play as, but in the case a game has you playing as several characters at once, who does this phenomena apply to?
My answer:
[spoiler]Generally, it’s whoever’s leading the party.
In some games, like Paper Mario: TTYD, or Child of Light, where you comtrol a particular character in the overworld, being Mario or Aurora respectively, it tends to be them, for obvious reasons. (and because of this it feels really weird when I switch Aurora out in battle..)
However, then there are games like Pokémon, where your party are all stowed away in their Pokéballs when not in combat. In this case, it usually tends to be whichever Pokémon is at the head of my party, usually being my starter.
But the one I found most interesting are the Shadow Pokémon games, and Steven Universe: Save the Light. The former of which uses a double battle format so there is no leading Pokémon, but a leading pair. In the latter’s case, you can switch between characters in the overworld at will
In these cases, it tends to be whichever character is my lead attacker. In SU:StL, this was Connie, because beserk Connie is op, but the more interesting one is Pokémon XD, where it was my Gardevior named Gehrman. The reason that’s interesting is because Gehrman was actually the 3rd spot in my party, meaning he was never out in the lead, and yet it still felt like I was playing as Gehrman, issuing commands to the other Pokémon.[/spoiler]
But that’s all for now, folks! Jambuhbye!
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1 ReplyTypically the main character/party leader. Just feels like the thing to default to I guess.