Metacharacters can help add a bit of surprise to your story and even some comedy but what is a meta-character? Metacharacters are characters that are very self-aware no matter what medium they are in. A big example of this is Deadpool. The character of Deadpool knows that he is in a film and that in turn adds a lot of comedic potential for the character and something audiences may have not seen before within a film. These characters can add a lot of surprise and suspense. This is something that has been fairly new within film and TV but has been around for quite a bit of time and has had time to grow within the gaming medium.

Examples of these types of characters in video games would be Monika from Doki Doki Literature Club. In this game, you play a guy that is persisted to join the school's literature club by his best friend Sayori. He meets three other girls called Natsuki, Yuri, and Monika. The game starts off being a romance visual novel but then slowly turns into a psychological horror game. Once this shift between the two genres happens you find out that Monika is self-aware.

A game that inspired Doki Doki Literature Was a game called Me and You And Her. The difference between this game and Doki Doki Literature Club was that the self-aware elements were a big part of the plot of You and Me And Her being that Aoi knows that she is part of the game and in You and Me And Her. In You and Me And Her, you meet two girls named Aoi and Miyuki. After finishing Miyuki’s storyline and you move on to Aoi’s storyline where it is revealed that Miyuki is self-aware as well.