It is said that food
is a universal language, and why wouldn't it be? After all, every
living creature needs to eat to stave off death, if nothing else. But
more than that, sharing a meal with other people is often a great way
to socialize and form connections. Within the scope of my real life
relationships, most of were forged, in part, while eating together.
From the high school cafeteria to a night out at a restaurant, most
people can readily recall eating out with friends and family. So then
why is it that an activity as normal as dining with other people so
rarely depicted in video games?
While I was in the
middle of my playthrough of Bravely Second, I noticed that there were
a plethora of scenes where the party got together and not only ate as
a group, but talked about the various delicacies of the towns they
visited. At first, I thought it was weird that such a small detail
stood out to me. The more I pondered it, the more I realized that
such scenes stood out because aside from the previous
game and the Persona franchise there aren’t many other games
where protagonists just eat together. That’s a shame, because there
is so much potential in those little interactions for both character
and world-building.
It is true that a
lot of games utilize food in some way. Food is often used as a
restorative item, like in Bioshock: Infinite, Fallout 3, and most
survival games. However, food is frequently just something that the
protagonist consumes for the enjoyment. In games like these, food is
purely utilitarian. Players eat only to increase numbers. While there
is certainly simulationist value in that, the more social aspects of
dining aren't depicted in games as much.
And those social
elements of dining can be valuable tools in the designer’s tool
belt. Just like in real life, having characters eat together can
serve as a catalyst for conversation. In Bravely Second, many
dungeons will offer a point where players can set up camp and rest.
Though the game incentivizes them by fully healing party HP/MP, they
also show completely optional scenes where party members chat with
each other -- often over a meal.
These scenes
involve the cast opening up to each other about things going on in
their lives and what kind of things they've seen on their journey.
One scene in a dungeon crawling with ghosts and zombies has lead
character Yew (Yes, “you”) Geneolgia lamenting his fear of
ghosts. This fear is so great that his shoulders and back have become
sore after all the tensing and crunching caused by wandering the
halls of the under. With the ice on the topic broken, the others open
up to share some of their fears and how (or if) they've learned ways
to deal with them.
Persona 4 also has
examples of this type uses dining as a venue for character
interaction. Over the course of the game, the Investigation Team is
often shown eating together, making idle small talk. Sometimes they
talk about the latest developments in the homicide case, but often
the subject will be things like upcoming exams, school trips, and
other such mundane events. Seeing how each person in the group reacts
to something like an upcoming exam can be a great window into their
life. Watching Yosuke cringe at the prospect while Yukiko takes it in
full stride tells me more than someone else calling them an idiot and
a genius respectively. It isn’t necessary to have this conversation
over a group meal, but having the party eat together makes it much
easier to naturally have these moments.
Even if the party
doesn't directly talk about themselves, often the kinds of foods they
prefer can reveal a lot about them. In fiction, each culinary palate
has a number of stereotypes classically associated with it. Writers
can and will use these as shortcuts to tell their audiences more
about the cast without having to waste time with exposition. Even if
you don't think about them, you're probably at least aware of their
presence. If I mentioned that Edea, one of the party members in
Bravely Second, puts ketchup on many of the foods she eats, and
prefers to eat extremely sweet or extraordinarily spicy foods, then
you probably have an image of someone with an intense personality.
Like the foods she eats, she tends toward the extreme in the her
actions and reactions. Even if the game didn't show much of Edea
outside of the scenes where the party dines together, this
information could be gleaned just from her tastes.
Similarly, Persona
4 makes use of this narrative technique, but not quite in the same
way. Generally, the better you are at cooking in Persona 4, the more
self-reliant you are. People like the protagonist and Nanako, whose
parents are rarely around, are able to cook so well that the others
are left in awe at their culinary skill. Yet characters like Yukiko
and Chie, who aren’t so self-reliant, are the worst cooks in the
group, and their fellows will often go to great lengths to avoid
consuming their “Mystery Food X”. Party members like Rise and
Naoto, who tend to be fairly lonely even if interact with others
regularly, tow a middle line in cooking skill. Rise can generally
cook, but tends to overly spice and Naoto only knows enough to be
able to follow instructions on the back of pre-packaged foods.
Regardless, their skill at preparing great tasting food and their
friends’ reactions to it reveal much about their home lives.
It feels strange
pointing out the way writers can use the act of eating to tell us
more about the teams they create, but examples are so few and far in
between that I am compelled to do so. It’s easy to for a writer to
just have a character tell their audience about themselves and the
world around them. At the same time, it is one of the least engaging
ways to present such information. I present this use of group dining
as only one possible alternative to keep exposition to a minimum
while still allowing for character and world-building. There are
countless other ways to achieve the same end. I advocate exploring
and making use of them as well.
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