S3: Non-Verbal Narrative
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons employs non-verbal communication in a powerful way.
"when you say nothing at all đ - me gustas cuando callas đ€..." by talourcera is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, released 2013, Developed by Starbreeze Studios, available on PC, consoles, Switch, and Mobile devices. You simultaneously control two characters from an isometric camera perspective. You navigate them through the world and interact with objects to solve puzzles and progress through the narrative.
Two young men explore the village together, alongside each other, their proximity communicating that they are a collaborative entity, not just two people. The villagers likely know that they are brothers, not just because they look alike, but due to the fraternal nature of the elder brother towards the younger.
This is appreciated. The locals have enough ruffians milling about and disrupting their hard work. To have another ill-behaved youth slouching about is not needed. No, it is good to see the older brother stand in as a parental figure. To bring a bit of seriousness to things. The younger brother's lack of discipline was shared with too many of the village's youths. Itâs a shame, really.
This scene remains with me more than two years after playing Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, despite the fact that the game doesnât feature a single word of spoken dialog or written exposition. There is a bit of gibberish to help convey tone and emotion, but every aspect of the narrative is conveyed purely through the performance of the two characters.
In an age where all-too-often I find myself quickly reading the subtitles and hitting the skip button to navigate the story, Brothers exclusively utilizes Non-Verbal Narrative to tell a story that is engaging, respects my time (and modern attention span), and is deeply emotional.
You see the two characters demonstrate this in pivotal plot moments, but more delightfully as you explore the levels. For example, early in the game you are traversing a small, bustling village. Many items throughout the world can be interacted with by either brother. The older brother, who is more serious and focused on their important quest, might simply examine a caged bird. The carefree, silly, youthful younger brother might gleefully open the door to the cage, freeing the bird.
In another instance, the older brother might evaluate a tool for its functional utility, while the younger brother jokes about. The personality of the protagonists are stamped on every item in the world.
Iâm playing the polar opposite of this clever environmental puzzle narrative adventure currently - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. It leverages cinematic scenes, interactive conversations, scrolls and books filled with written text, overheard dialog from extras in the environment, spoken mutterings of the protagonist, and even narrated loading screens. It is awash in words (and monsters). I do not think it would work if it followed the path of Brothers per se, but it illuminates the beauty of the more spartan execution.
It also makes me desire a more spartan version of The Witcher experience, though perhaps that is precisely what Elden Ring delivered to the world?
My pitch will be simple. Brothers is a fervent, orthodox example of âshow, donât tellâ (SDT). This mantra is so important to storytelling and so oft mentioned that it almost completes a rotation into cliche. But, imagine if at the beginning of Star Wars: A New Hope, an imperial officer said âYou should speak up, lest you anger Lord Vader. He is very mean.â That isnât what happens. He chokes a dude with the Force as effortlessly as I drink coffee. Woah. That dude is very mean.
Most obviously, SDT is native to the medium of video games, which are overwhelmingly visual and interactive in nature. It is even more important than this principle in film, as interactivity means the entity representing the playerâs choices must demonstrate the choice.
If you press a button, something must happen to indicate the game is functioning.
The second consideration is that SDT forces the designer to renounce subtlety. There is undoubtedly an earlier execution of the characters that could not be conveyed purely through Non-Verbal Narrative. Something that likely required a narrator or text to provide context due to the complexity and subtlety of the first revision. Instead, the studio crafted rich, accessible, intuitive characters in the shipping version of this game that were overtly themselves. Characters whose motivations and quirks were clear, at no detriment to the narrative.
If you were to make a non-verbal gesture around your partner, they would likely know your meaning entirely, because they know you. Without the benefit of years of courtship, designers need to do the same. In Brothers, you will regularly see the older brother express impatience and frustration with the younger brotherâs antics. You see the younger brother straighten up. Without a single word spoken, you understand their dynamic.
Thirdly, because humans are creatures who process the world primarily through our vision, it is very likely that a visual moment is better imprinted on our minds than one said or written. As an exercise, if I were to say Minas Tirith to you, I suspect you see Orlando Bloom and Ian McKellen, because you saw them in a movie.
A minor, but important point, is that SDT focuses on an action to which we can relate and respond, not a passive moment mentioned or presumed. If I were telling a friend about my day, I might improve my story, even at the expense of the precise truth, by using the words âI sawâ instead of âI heard.â The action (the verb!) is what draws us in here, not the topic or premise.
Note: As I write this, I am reminded how games often begin a moment of exposition with narration, then transition to you playing the character being described. It is a great use of the mediumâs ability to put you in the shoes of the character, to show, not tell, and to give you agency over the story.
If you combine a lack of subtlety with an overt visual execution, the potion is quite potent. You can use these to convey Big Five Personality Traits, or the Five Love Languages, or simply what somebody thinks of a particular bowl of soup. This is cheating slightly, as dialog was used to provide context, but I posit that your favorite sitcom is likely still funny without sound due to the over-the-top acting. Sitcoms are basically accessible archetypes reacting to stimuli in humorous ways, right?
Finally, and potentially most importantly, when you only show, you leave room for the player to complete the narrative. You make them an active partner. You do not merely leave room, in fact, but you invite them explicitly to complete the Mad Lib of your game. This isnât valuable for everyone, but it is critical for many. It sparks the imagination, leaves room for community interpretation and debate, and provides one more facet of agency in a medium literally defined by interaction.
The One Cool Thing
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons embodies âshow, donât tellâ so aggressively it doesnât merely favor the former, but eliminates the latter. It uses Non-Verbal Narrative to make the experience more interactive, less subtle, more memorable, and more imaginative.
If sitcoms are accessible archetypes reacting to stimuli in humorous ways, how many games would benefit from accessible archetypes reacting to a crisis in ways that align with the tone of the game?
I think for such a situation to work it requires a disciplined, focused experience. It requires clear characters and a robust environment to repeatedly remind the player of their traits. But, in many cases, these are good things.
I smile, fold my arms, and lean back. I donât need to say another word. Iâm waiting and you know what is on my mind.
Preview for Next Time
This season will explore several narrative themes. Our next stop is a rickety, abandoned house in the woods, formerly inhabited by a rather eccentric family. I am writing about What Remains of Edith Finch and I invite you to join me!
Edited by Joshua Buergel