Analysis narrative role of using first-person perspective in What Remains of Edith Finch based on player psychology

Introduction

In selecting Camera views for games with a strong narrative, first-person games will focus more on portraying the scene to attract players. However, the protagonist's actions in other Camera views could distract players from the environmental narrative. Therefore, the first-person perspective will have a stronger sense of immersion for players, which means the emotional impact on the player will also be more significant. This essay will focus on the video game "What Remains of Edith Finch" to summarize two different narrative experiences using first-person.

Death is a complex topic for many people to accept. In traditional games, it is usually necessary to keep the protagonist from dying for the player to win the game. In What Remains of Edith Finch, the player needs to experience the death process of every member of the Finch family through different ways of interaction, i.e., experiencing the death process of the protagonist. According to one of its creators, Ian, hopes to create a metagame with a death theme instead of creating a horror game. Also, from the perspective of flow in games, the experience of the game will be affected by the challenge. Too intense challenges and psychological pressure for the player could have side effects. Therefore, for a non-horror game with the theme of death, how to let players' psychological pressure of the fear of death and the player's game experience complement each other becomes a point worth discussing. Although What Remains of Edith Finch is a first-person linear narrative game, it uses other camera perspectives, like third-person, in many parts. This game uses first-person techniques cleverly to maintain its unique seriousness and alleviate the psychological pressure of death on the player.

Build seriousness into the game by taking advantage of first-person

The first-person section appears after the third-person section, taking Lewis' story as an example：

In Lewis' story, the player takes on the role of Lewis, who performs repetitive fish-cutting work in a factory and later dies because he dives into his mental world and mistakenly puts his head under the gate knife. According to the theory in The Tribulations of Adventure Games: Integrating Story into Simulation Through Performance: Embedded stories relate to the pre-history of the game and the player's history. According to the early narration, the realistic style appears in the protagonist's real world, while the comic style appears in the protagonist's spiritual world. Moreover, the real-world scene is always accompanied by the first-person viewpoints, and the protagonist's spiritual world is shown from other camera viewpoints. Hence, players can feel that the game distinguishes between real and virtual storylines through different camera viewpoints, which means Lewis's first-person viewpoint shows the real-world storyline. Therefore, the appearance of virtual images shown in first-person perspective at the end implies Lewis' insane mental state. With his insane mental state, the beautiful and fantastic coronation images are isomorphic to the act of being beheaded in first-person perspective. Based on the strong sense of immersion brought about by the first-person, the extreme happiness visual information received by the player and the psychological substitution of being executed interacts with each other to create an absurd seriousness.

The first-person section appears in front of the third-person section, taking Barbara's story as an example:

In Barbara's story, players play the role of Barbara, who is famous for her screams. Players would experience the process before being eaten by Barbara's fans through different storyboard perspectives in a comic book format. A total of nine interactable storyboards appear in this story, each in the first person. At the same time, other perspectives' storyboards, such as the boyfriend's prank and the monster surrounding Barbara at the end, are shown as plot displays. According to the structural properties in traditional narratives, the first-person subplot appears in a structure that is between the three essential plot structures that take over, i.e., the beginning, the climax, and the end. According to the logic of the soundtrack that most first-person appear with Halloween, the purpose of using the first-person perspective in this story is to accumulate players' tension and improve the narrative's credibility. Compared to the overall magical realism tone of the game, the game did not present the reality part by scene settings or narratives at the end of the story. However, the first-person emotional padding has brought the player ultimately into Barbara's perspective, through which the player's psychological and cognitive level will automatically rationalize the unreality part into reality.

Release players' psychological pressure by exploiting the limitations of the first person

Using vertigo to balance players' psychological stress, take Calvin's story as an example:

In Calvin's story, the player needs to play as Calvin and experience the first-person story of a young boy who dreams of becoming an astronaut and falls to his death because he swings too high on a swing. In this story, the player only needs to move the mouse back and forth to be able to swing up. Because of the first-person perspective, most players believe this is also one of the most dizzying levels that game developers need to avoid. However, this part of vertigo instead promotes the acceptance of the player for this level. According to the book "Dopamine Nation Finding Balance In The Age Of Indulgence," addictive research shows that the human body, in pain and discomfort, will automatically release dopamine to regulate the body's balance. Therefore, when players feel dizzy and out of control when riding a roller coaster, the body will produce dopamine to make people feel happy. Similarly, when players feel vertigo in first-person games, but also secrete much dopamine. At this point, the euphoria somewhat distracts players from the focus on death, allowing players to experience Calvin's story without being overly affected by fear.

Conclusions

Using first-person in What Remains of Edith Finch, whether it is the accumulation of seriousness of the game or the release of the player's play pressure, from the perspective of the player's interactive experience, creates more possibilities for the first-person linear game narrative experience.

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② Fernández-Vara, C. The Tribulations of Adventure Games: Integrating Story Into Simulation Through Performance. Doctoral Thesis. Georgia Institute of Technology (2009).

③ Lembke, A. (1967). Dopamine nation: Finding balance in the age of indulgence. [New York, New York]: Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.