Content Research - Is violence/combat acceptable within the game?
Previously I had carried out audience research by looking at the different PEGI ratings to see which the games that are labeled with the different age rating mean. From this, I found that "Very mild forms of violence (implied, non-detailed, or non-realistic violence) are acceptable for a game with a PEGI 7 rating" (PEGI, 2017). From this, I then went onto look at some examples of PEGI 7 games and looked at the different forms and amounts of violence that said games included. After this, I decided that our own game would include violence.
However, upon getting to the point of writing the script of the game, I wondered whether a section of the story, being the conflict later on against other human characters, would be unacceptable.
Because of this, I decided to look into some PEGI 7 games that include fights against humanoid enemies/characters (with the use of somewhat realistic weapons) and ended up finding some of the older/previous Zelda games.
Most of the Zelda games I have looked into have consisted of the newer games of the series, such as 'Breath of the Wild' and 'Ocarina of Time' (well, counting it as newer as it was remastered), which both have a PEGI rating of 12 (meaning the target audience is still acceptable for our game, but the game itself isn't completely acceptable). However, for this task, I ended up looking at two games from the series that are PEGI 7, being 'A Link Between Worlds' and 'Wind Waker'.
To begin with, I planned to play the games if possible, but if not, watch the gameplay of the videos. After watching some gameplay I noticed that the majority of the monsters were creatures or monsters, but there were a few enemies that made use of more humanoid models/features.
Some of these enemies were a type of enemy called 'minions' (these being the more commonly encountered enemies), and some of them were actual bosses.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (Nintendo, 2013)
During the course of this game, there are a number of enemies that have also been present in the other games. Many of the enemies are that appear in the game are monsters or creatures, but some are human.
Some of the first enemies that appear in the game (especially in/around Hyrule and Lorule castle) are soldier enemies. These enemies are humans (most likely) clad in armour. The enemies are different due to the weapons they use. The weapons consist of bows, chains, javelins, spears, and bombs. These enemies then have two variants for Hyrule and Lorule.
These enemies can be defeated by the player using a multitude of weapons, but the main way to defeat these enemies is to hit them with a sword or a bow.
(Zelda Wiki, 2013)
'A Link Between Worlds' also included another human/humanoid enemy. This was one of the bosses of the game, the main antagonist (of this individual game), Yuga. The fight with this character involves this enemy phasing into the walls to reposition himself, and then jumping into three separate corners (two being enemy soldiers in disguise), to fire magic at the player. To defeat him during this fight, the player must successfully hit the real Yuga with the weapons available to the player, which mainly consists of slashing Yuga with a sword until he's defeated.
However, although there are realistic weapons and humanoid enemies, the game is still PEGI 7. This is most likely due to the cartoon art style, and the absence of any sort of blood or gore, making the violence itself more fantasy like (as it's not a reflection of real life violence), therefore being acceptable for a younger audience.
(YouTube, 2016)
(Zelda Wiki, 2013)
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (Nintendo, 2002)
Like the previous game that I just looked into and talked about, 'Wind Waker' is another Zelda game that has a PEGI 7 rating.
This game had a range of enemies, but a lot more of the enemies were creature or monsters, with only a few humanoid enemies.
The enemies that are humanoid within this game are, once again, the soldier type of enemies (called 'Darknuts' in the Japanese version). However, in this game, there are fewer types, and they have a different look.
There are a few versions of this enemy, however, one of which is a mini-boss called the 'Mighty Darknut'.
This mini-boss is somewhat unique, however, as to defeat it, the player is required to jump over the attacks of the enemy, to then hit a weak point of the enemy to deal damage (which is different to most enemies which can be blocked with a shield and then defeated by spamming with a sword). Although this mechanic of jumping over attacks is commonly used in this game, it is unique as it isn't commonly used in the other games.
(Zelda Wiki, 2013)
Another humanoid enemy is the main boss of the game, who is also the main and reoccurring boss of the Zelda series, Ganon/Ganondorf. This character is from a human race in Hyrule known as the Gerudo.
During the boss fight of this game, Ganondorf appears in his human form. During the final fight of the game, he dual wields a sword to fight the player and slashes violently to hurt link/the player.
The player must overcome this be defending against these attacks, and then slashing back with the Master Sword.
The fight ends with Link/the player, impaling the skull of the antagonist with the Mater Sword, turning him to stone. I was surprised to see this as the game is PEGI 7, but I assume that due to the cartoon art style and complete absence of gore, this amount of violence is acceptable.
(Youtube, 2013)
(Zelda Wiki, 2015)
Research Evaluation
After carrying out the research into these two games (in addition to the other research I have carried out), I feel more confident that my story will be acceptable for my audience, and the rating of PEGI 7.
I feel that this is mainly because during my research I have seen a range of violence in different games, and I feel as though the main area of violence that I was worried about for our game (being fighting other humans with weapons) is actually acceptable within a PEGI 7 game, which I now know thanks to looking at the violence in the two Zelda games looked at above.
However, this type of violence is only acceptable due to the art style and lack of gore (otherwise in 'Wind Waker', impaling Ganon's head with a sword would be rather bloody and disturbing).
Although for our game, we are planning to exclude gore, and also make use of a cartoonish art style, meaning that this type of violence (use of somewhat realistic weapons) will be acceptable.