Introduction: About Dear Esther
Dear Esther is a narrative-driven exploration game developed by The Chinese Room. It is available on PC, PlayStation 4, IOS, and Xbox One. The game is designed for mature audiences who appreciate slow-paced, world exploration storytelling. It appeals to players interested in emotional narratives rather than traditional gameplay mechanics. The game has minimal interaction and is focused on evocative environments and poetic narration. At its core, Dear Esther invites players to explore an island, gaining fragmented chunks of narrative that reveal a larger story about Esther’s death. In this blog, I will look at how walking tells a story in Dear Esther, and touch on the role of violence in this game. Lastly, I will finish with a small overview bringing my ideas together.
Dear Esther: How does walking tell a Story?
In Dear Esther, the design mechanic of walking leverages primarily two types of narrative strategies to tell its story: Embedded and Emergent. Additionally, there are elements in the game that strengthen these narrative strategies.
Embedded Narrative
The game is designed so that the player triggers these narrated chunks of information as they encounter new landmarks. These narrated fragments tell an embedded story. For example, when you start the game it opens up with (See image below) “Dear Esther, I sometimes feel as if you’ve given birth to this island.” This opening line reveals to the player that they are on an island, and it gives us a character—Esther. These elements are part of a traditional story. Walking is the driving mechanic that allows the player to gain more information about the embedded story. Since this game is story-driven, the game reads the fragments out loud and the player cannot skip or speed up these fragments. These elements strengthen the embedded story because it forces the player to slow down and immerse themselves in these chunks. However, one aspect that could be improved is the difficulty of remembering all the narrative fragments. A possible solution would be to include a feature that allows players to revisit the fragments they have collected. Another was that a player can lose progress if the chapter is not complete when they exit the game, which slows down the game too much and can make the player feel frustrated repeating actions. In the second image below, we can see that it lets the player know that they will lose progress. One solution could be to let the player save wherever they are on the island.
Image 1: Opening Fragment
Image 2: Losing Progress
Emergent Narrative
Although there is an embedded story, the player can walk around the island at their own discretion. Meaning that the story is nonlinear, and allows the player in some way create their own story. Additionally, the embedded story is not necessarily the complete story. Dear Esther, was designed so that the player can simultaneously create their own interpretation of the fragmented pieces revealed and from the environment. For example, one the fragmented chunks talks about Lot. From this small piece of information the player can begin to characterize the narrator. One of the interpretations could be that this narrator is religious, or perhaps not at all. Regardless, the element of these fragments that are triggered from walking can allow the player to create their own interpretations of the characters from this story. Moving more central to the argument, the walking mechanic allows the player to wander their environment which is full of emergent narratives. For example, in the beginning, it is not yet revealed who the narrator is. That gives the player room to create their own story about who the narrator is from walking around. When the player explores the home (Image 1), we can see paint buckets. When the player enters the cave we can see more drawings on the wall (Image 2). These elements from the environment can reveal that perhaps the narrator was an artist, or mentally unstable, or both. In short, The walking mechanic was designed in way that the players create their own story as they are free to walk wherever they want.
Image 1: Buckets of paint at the abandoned home
Image 2: Paintings in Cave
Dear Esther: The Role of Violence (TW Suicide)
Violence is not explicitly shown in Dear Esther, but still contains strong emotional themes like death, grief, and suicide. For example, in the final scene of Dear Esther, the narrator after walking the player through his grief commits suicide but doesn’t fully show it. It ends rather with looking at the island once more. I believe that the lack of violence that is shown makes the game stronger because the story is about about grief, self-discovery, and guilt. Although is is not explicitly said the narrator is assumed to have killed Esther as a result form drunk driving. These topics are heavy, but they are not shown in the game which I appreciated. This is because when I have played violent games, they evoke negative feelings for me because they show gory images. Dear Esther, is not like that and the story is still well written without having those explicit scenes about Esther’s death, or the players suicide at the end. Below are some images from the end that I found on Youtube because I did not play the whole game through.
Image 1: Ending fragment
Image 2: Ending Scene
Conclusion: Connecting it all Together
In summary, Dear Esther utilizes walking to tell its story about grief, allowing the player to create its own emerging interpretation from the embedded story. It tells a tragic story without violence, but rather through its environment that can only be accessed through its walking mechanic.
