I wish I had more to say about this one but honestly, within the few days that have passed since completing it most of my immediate memories have come and passed. It's a shame that I feel the way I do about ONE. because I'm actually a really big fan of Kanon. In fact, I think I'm a stronger defender of the early Jun Maeda material in that game than most, but Jesus Christ is his writing here rough.

Hisaya's routes are generally solid enough - I think it's universally agreed upon that Misaki is the strongest route here, close enough in quality to the lesser Kanon routes that I almost wish it had been held off and implemented into that release. Mio's route is at best pleasant and inoffensive but truly just passable. Akane's is heartfelt if a little substanceless. Frankly, the less said about Nagamori and Shiina's routes, the better. Nanase is a lesser version of every tsundere route in every Key game that would come to pass. Literally why is Shun's route even here?

The biggest problem with ONE. is protagonist Kohei, who frankly isn't really a character so much as a set of reactions to fit whatever tone the author wants for the individual route at hand. His personality is so baseless and flexible that you never get the feeling that he's consistent across these stories. It becomes hard to care about or get emotionally invested in his experiences in the overarching narrative because there's not much tangible about Kohei Orihara as a person. The melodrama of ONE. doesn't feel like overarching character arcs for its heroines, so much as plot beats that happen, are addressed, and discarded thereafter.

Frankly I don't understand what the purpose of this remake (really bordering on remaster as very little was actually remade beyond the visual and musical assets) was if they weren't going to address how shallow the vast majority of the stories within are. It's at least halfway interesting as a historical piece, in which you can trace the ideas for a myriad of later Key works, most especially Kanon, CLANNAD, and Angel Beats!, but that's about all it has going on in current day. That would fine if this was discussing the original 1998 release, but as a remake this essentially fails the purpose of remaking a visual novel. If my opinion is worth anything to you - Misaki and Akane's routes are legitimately worth your time, and the rest... do what you want. You're not missing much.

One is a bad visual novel. I carried a lot of excitement going into this with my love for Jun Maeda and the beautiful art, but this has easily been one of the worst experiences I have had with a visual novel ever. It checks all the boxes of a cliche and boring visual novel: poorly developed and archetypical heroines, boring main character with a vague attempt at character depth, short routes that end before they feel like they've accomplished anything. The Nagamori route is one of the most baffling parts of a work I have experienced, the incoherence behind Kohei's character is in full display as he alternates between a Kotarou-esque goofball to an abomination. Never before have I desperate wished for the heroines to stay as far away from a main character as possible because he was such a piece of shit. It makes Maeda's later works all the more impressive seeing just how low his start was with the routes he worked on. Misaki was the best part of the game and maybe the only route which I would consider quality. I lean towards the positive side of the spectrum with Akane's as well, as Kohei is at his best (for his standards) there. Mio's route was a bore that had potential but ultimately contented itself with mediocrity and Nanase's was about the same. I reached my breaking point with the unbearable slog that was Shiina's route. Why we needed a route with a crybaby child-minded middle schooler who has weird romantic implications with Kohei is beyond me. I'm still kind of shellshocked by how bad this was, genuinely an absolutely miserable experience.

A really beautiful looking remake. Like jaw-dropping at times.
I actually had no idea this was related to Key in any way, I didn't even know Jun Maeda wrote most of it until after I started. After seeing Sumii (an actual Sunohara clone) and the general vibe, I began to piece it together.
So, the story. The nicest way I could put it is that it was very obvious this was one of Jun Maeda's earlier works.
I see much of the foundation in this game that he managed to capitalize on in later Key works, but this was overall very weak. Annoyingly ambiguous serious scenes that often seem out of place, Kohei's almost bipolar characterization makes early routes unsatisfying (especially Nagamori's).
Once I realized what HAPPENING to Kohei, stuff is easier to swallow, but I still never really LIKED it. I don't think anything in this game was realized to its full potential. Misaki's route was easily my favorite route and girl, which had an amazing theme of accepting your lot in life and finding beauty that you never thought was there.
The theming of the whole game is its strongest point (well, aside from the insanely adorable characters), but like I said, disappointing in that it doesn't quite feel complete.

However, I enjoyed it enough thanks to me being a sucker for cute girls and the indescribable Key-like atmosphere it provides.

This is an excellent remake of the original game. The remade art, music and voice acting are incredible and much improved over the original. The only aspect of this game that remains unchanged is the script, which is functionally identical to how it was written in 1998, except for removing all H-content (an improvement, especially to Mayu's route). Sadly, This is to the game's detriment as it means all the flaws with the original story remain. This is particularly evident in Mizuka's route, where Kouhei's inconsistent characterization is at its worst. Sadly, the English translation also had many minor spelling and grammatical errors.

This is still a great remake; however, it is worth playing for anyone curious about the Key team's earlier works.