Dev Journal June 2023

And now the final bit of business slipping in while I have the moment this month's journal. Today I'll be talking a little bit about Zaina and Davis.

Both characters were originally written as explorations of grief and loss, obviously with Zaina the loss of a romantic partner and with Davis the loss of an old friend, even without the additional grief of his death the realization that somebody who's been your constant companion a majority of your life is actually kind of a shit person and that you've reached a point where you may not be able to keep them in your life anymore. The latter is a pretty common experience I feel, I think we've all had somebody like that. 

Zaina and Davis are also just important to Valentine as two people who had huge impacts in his life. While yes they've both died I still want them to feel like characters in their own right. Certainly we see small bits of it in flashbacks, but I still wanted to give them time to breathe as well.

Because AVNs are a visual medium, characters talking to themselves to can a bit boring, especially if they're somewhat introspective. Fortunately for me there was a ready made solution.  Having people speak to imagined apparitions as foils has been a longstanding trope in media and if the shoe fits than damn it I'm going to use it. 

Obviously we know that dead aren't really speaking to Valentine, and obviously he's aware of it himself, but it allows for them to be characters in their own ways. Davis gets mad if you pursue Vi, Zaina has a protective streak towards Valentine. However because of this you enter unreliable narrator territory, Davis and Zaina aren't real, they appear and act as Valentine wants/remembers them being. This plays into the game element of the whole thing. They're typical "Angel and Devil" trope fare. But not so dramatic.

I tend to personally think of them as "The person I could be, and the person I don't want to be. Valentine idealizes the time he spent with Zaina, he liked who he was at the time she was in his life, whereas the Davis he's currently remembering comes from a point in time when he was somebody he didn't like all that much. While Val is in general a nicer person he has significant self hate towards certain parts of his life, to him Davis represents these parts. Depending on the choices you make you end up having more interaction with one or the either. It's my arty farty bullshit way of visually representing where your choices might lead. You'll see one or the other more often depending.

Now I know some people might now be worried they've somehow done things wrong, but I want you to get that out of your head. Something that's important to remember is that when it comes to this in particular there are very few "wrong" answers. Just different, there very well may be situations where being more like Davis is advantageous, honestly I just want you to make the choices you think work. And bond with whatever ghost buddy you want, I think they both have fun things to say.

Eventually though I suspect that our friendly ghosts will eventually fade away, once their business is concluded.  But until then I'd advise you to pay attention to some of the things they say. They're your subconscious after all and they pick up on things...

Cue spooky music.

Thanks as always for your support.

Sláinte!