This review contains spoilers
I read a lot of visual novels and specifically enjoy games like this one a lot, but One Night Stand didn't click with me. ONS is one of those VN games that can be beaten in about 5-10 minutes, but gives the player a lot of choices so multiple playthroughs are encouraged
Sadly, I just felt like there wasn't much content and after 2-3 playthroughs, it felt like 85% was skipping stuff I'd seen before and 15% was new interactions. The game basically has a few different moments that the player has to arrive at, with choices changing things in between those moments so the whole thing gets repetitive fast. It also didn't help that skipping text just felt kinda sluggish and I think the game was freezing up slightly? There's 27 achievements so there's a lot of replaying and it was just a bit a tedious, to be honest
My other issue is that the game doesn't really know what it wants to do? For example, there's a really interesting brief plot point where you find out the girl has two IDs with two different names but this seemingly goes nowhere and you cannot learn anything about it? All that can happen is, [spoiler]the girl will get mad and kick you out if you bring it up[/spoiler] so I just don't really see the point of it being included (which is a shame because I actually felt very invested in this mystery). There also doesn't seem to be any opportunities to find out why the girl is sick either so it feels like not much is explored at all
I would very much recommend any game by Angela He if you're looking for something like this
Sadly, I just felt like there wasn't much content and after 2-3 playthroughs, it felt like 85% was skipping stuff I'd seen before and 15% was new interactions. The game basically has a few different moments that the player has to arrive at, with choices changing things in between those moments so the whole thing gets repetitive fast. It also didn't help that skipping text just felt kinda sluggish and I think the game was freezing up slightly? There's 27 achievements so there's a lot of replaying and it was just a bit a tedious, to be honest
My other issue is that the game doesn't really know what it wants to do? For example, there's a really interesting brief plot point where you find out the girl has two IDs with two different names but this seemingly goes nowhere and you cannot learn anything about it? All that can happen is, [spoiler]the girl will get mad and kick you out if you bring it up[/spoiler] so I just don't really see the point of it being included (which is a shame because I actually felt very invested in this mystery). There also doesn't seem to be any opportunities to find out why the girl is sick either so it feels like not much is explored at all
I would very much recommend any game by Angela He if you're looking for something like this
For 0.67p on Steam, it's not a bad deal.
Decent game with a lovely artstyle. But through my playthroughs, me and Robin have only ever been friends or never seen each other again.
I wonder if this reflect later on in my adult life.
Decent game with a lovely artstyle. But through my playthroughs, me and Robin have only ever been friends or never seen each other again.
I wonder if this reflect later on in my adult life.
Platinum # 49
Focuses on the awkwardness of depicting a post hookup hangover where both neither person can remember much about the previous night, giving a portrayal of sex and interaction that wouldn't normally be a focus in games (or be a weird pervert stealing underwear and running out of the house in a pair of panties after admiring yourself in the bedroom mirror). Very short but the things that you interact with can change dialogue or how you interact with other things. Nice character artwork and motion.
I remember seeing One Night Stand at one of the conferences at E3 and thinking it looked great. The type of game is right up my wheelhouse and I was oblivious that it had already been released on Steam. So this game is a bit of a cheat because it wasn’t in my backlog, but purchased when it came out on consoles a few weeks ago.
One Night Stand won’t take long to experience the first time through, but it does have multiple endings based on the actions performed and conversations. Most of the time you will see the same dialogue and animations over and over again with any differences reliant on the decisions made. This makes multiple playthroughs a little rough since it is a short game and having it play out pretty similarly time and time again doesn’t work in its favor.
Also, as someone who has never had a one night stand (much less a drunken forgotten one), I can’t comment on the accuracy of the awkwardness of waking up next to someone you don’t know. The game does a good job though of putting things in place to either split the room or try and hang in there for something more lasting; however the problem comes into knowing how one wants to proceed in the conversation but the game going slightly off-base with where you think it would take you.
The animation though is what helps it stand out from other games. It’s not super detailed but the way it moves reminds me of the “Take On Me” music video by A-ha though it isn’t a one-for-one comparison. However, much like the dialogue, it will be a lot of the same animation as the game is replayed although it never became as grating as the dialogue would after 14 different attempts at the good ending.
One Night Stand won’t blow the socks off anyone but fortunately the low asking price may offset any irks about the replayability and repetitive nature of the game. But if you’re looking for a quick point-and-click visual novel of sorts, this is one worth giving a shot.
One Night Stand won’t take long to experience the first time through, but it does have multiple endings based on the actions performed and conversations. Most of the time you will see the same dialogue and animations over and over again with any differences reliant on the decisions made. This makes multiple playthroughs a little rough since it is a short game and having it play out pretty similarly time and time again doesn’t work in its favor.
Also, as someone who has never had a one night stand (much less a drunken forgotten one), I can’t comment on the accuracy of the awkwardness of waking up next to someone you don’t know. The game does a good job though of putting things in place to either split the room or try and hang in there for something more lasting; however the problem comes into knowing how one wants to proceed in the conversation but the game going slightly off-base with where you think it would take you.
The animation though is what helps it stand out from other games. It’s not super detailed but the way it moves reminds me of the “Take On Me” music video by A-ha though it isn’t a one-for-one comparison. However, much like the dialogue, it will be a lot of the same animation as the game is replayed although it never became as grating as the dialogue would after 14 different attempts at the good ending.
One Night Stand won’t blow the socks off anyone but fortunately the low asking price may offset any irks about the replayability and repetitive nature of the game. But if you’re looking for a quick point-and-click visual novel of sorts, this is one worth giving a shot.
I really feel like without the replayability this would make a very nice short game, and it doesn't only give you the option to replay it, but it also encourages you to do so, which is unfortunate
This could've been a good piece on the consequences of your actions, but it just ends up being about the what-ifs
This could've been a good piece on the consequences of your actions, but it just ends up being about the what-ifs
Pretty average. The first couple play throughs were fun discovering different endings, but then I was over it. Thank God for the walk through. Made this easy to 100%... otherwise I would've taken me days.
This review contains spoilers
It's remarkable just how bad I felt about myself after seeing the last of One Night Stand's twelve endings. Each brief playthrough starts the same way: you wake up with a hangover and no memories of the previous night. You're in an unfamiliar bedroom with a naked stranger next to you.
I assume most people will approach the first playthrough much like I did, by acting it out roughly like I would have done in real life. For what it's worth, I was pretty much honest with the stranger and made awkward but sincere attempts to make conversation and learn more about her - and how we ended up together. We ended up hugging and parting on mostly good terms.
Then the game asks me how this could have ended differently.
Now, I'm not generally one for multiple playthroughs, especially not in games where making choices are the main form of interaction. I tend to treat such games almost like morality plays or little tests for myself, truly letting myself sink into the situation and dealing with it honestly. Approaching these types of stories in terms of 100%ing them would take some of the value out of my personal experience. This is why I'm never going to play the Genocide Route in Undertale, or why I'm not keen on replaying Disco Elysium - two of my all-time favourite games. Exploring all the #content of a game just to see it all doesn't necessarily make for a richer experience than the one you get by just following your own path.
With all that said... could this have gone differently? Something about the restrained brevity of One Night Stand, along with the lovely hand-drawn rotoscoped art and naturalistic writing, made me curious to at least explore more alternatives.
And it was here where I started playing One Night Stand properly. Because I don't think One Night Stand is a game asking the player to consider how they would act after waking up next to a stranger in bed - it's a game about being a manipulative asshole.
The majority of the game's endings require you to act like a colossal douchebag and do both horrendous and criminal things to an innocent stranger. Some are over-the-top awful, like stealing her underwear (you can either do this stealthily or confront her while wearing nothing but her own panties). Others are more insidious, most of which require you to look through her personal belongings. You dig through her wallet, her drawers, you mess with her stuff, you look at her laptop and read her messages.
In most cases you get an ending that most would classify as "bad", but the game itself does not make any distinctions. All routes are as valid, whether you sneak out while she's doubled over the toilet, if she throws you out in the nude, or if you part as friends. The point isn't whether individual endings are Good or Bad - the game is putting you in the mindset of a manipulator.
One Night Stand makes you act like a horrible person, and it took me a while to even notice. After all, most games treat invasions of privacy as alternately harmless or necessary evils - a way to gather information. In One Night Stand, your character makes the goal clear that you need to find out this girl's name before she realises that you've forgotten. So naturally, peeking through her wallet is fine, right? Well, it turns out she doesn't remember your name either, and she's totally understanding that last night is blurry in your mind. The entire premise, as defined by your protagonist, is pointless, and you've acted horribly to resolve it.
The narrative conceit of One Night Stand tricks you into thinking that you are acting as yourself, while making you actually step into the mind of a protagonist that is clearly self-serving and manipulative - sometimes to a criminal degree. Even if you do everything "right" and get the "best" ending, you've more than likely done so by betraying an innocent person's trust multiple times.
When you've finally 100%ed the game and seen all endings, you get a text message. It's from your friend, whose messages woke you up in the first place. At first he was pissed off that you bailed on him last night, especially since you were the one who convinced him to stand up his date to hang out with you. This time he's even more angry, because it turns out that date was Robin - the girl whose house you've just left.
This is the game's ultimate punchline. There was no "best" ending, there is no canon golden ending where your character and Robin end up in a sweet, loving relationship, because you are horrible. All of the endings are canon because all of them represent actions your character - and by extension the player controlling them - were willing to take.
The game put me in the shoes of a villain and made the worst actions seem if not reasonable then at least defendable, given that these are just branching paths stretching out from one what-if crossroads. But this final denouement makes it clear that you were playing an abuser all along.
With this final sucker punch, Kinmoku manages to do what so many games try and fail to achieve: make me feel guilty. Because I realised that what I was doing was manipulating somebody in order to get close to them. I was effectively stalking them, prying into their personal life, going through their belongings, exploiting their vulnerability in order to get closer to them. And I felt awful, way worse than The Last of Us' "don't you feel bad about killing all the people we made you kill" schtick ever did.
One Night Stand is an intimate story and it's exactly because of the small scope that it manages to construct such a powerful tale of control and exploitation. It makes you empathise with the most banal of evil, and sympathise with those who become their victims.
I assume most people will approach the first playthrough much like I did, by acting it out roughly like I would have done in real life. For what it's worth, I was pretty much honest with the stranger and made awkward but sincere attempts to make conversation and learn more about her - and how we ended up together. We ended up hugging and parting on mostly good terms.
Then the game asks me how this could have ended differently.
Now, I'm not generally one for multiple playthroughs, especially not in games where making choices are the main form of interaction. I tend to treat such games almost like morality plays or little tests for myself, truly letting myself sink into the situation and dealing with it honestly. Approaching these types of stories in terms of 100%ing them would take some of the value out of my personal experience. This is why I'm never going to play the Genocide Route in Undertale, or why I'm not keen on replaying Disco Elysium - two of my all-time favourite games. Exploring all the #content of a game just to see it all doesn't necessarily make for a richer experience than the one you get by just following your own path.
With all that said... could this have gone differently? Something about the restrained brevity of One Night Stand, along with the lovely hand-drawn rotoscoped art and naturalistic writing, made me curious to at least explore more alternatives.
And it was here where I started playing One Night Stand properly. Because I don't think One Night Stand is a game asking the player to consider how they would act after waking up next to a stranger in bed - it's a game about being a manipulative asshole.
The majority of the game's endings require you to act like a colossal douchebag and do both horrendous and criminal things to an innocent stranger. Some are over-the-top awful, like stealing her underwear (you can either do this stealthily or confront her while wearing nothing but her own panties). Others are more insidious, most of which require you to look through her personal belongings. You dig through her wallet, her drawers, you mess with her stuff, you look at her laptop and read her messages.
In most cases you get an ending that most would classify as "bad", but the game itself does not make any distinctions. All routes are as valid, whether you sneak out while she's doubled over the toilet, if she throws you out in the nude, or if you part as friends. The point isn't whether individual endings are Good or Bad - the game is putting you in the mindset of a manipulator.
One Night Stand makes you act like a horrible person, and it took me a while to even notice. After all, most games treat invasions of privacy as alternately harmless or necessary evils - a way to gather information. In One Night Stand, your character makes the goal clear that you need to find out this girl's name before she realises that you've forgotten. So naturally, peeking through her wallet is fine, right? Well, it turns out she doesn't remember your name either, and she's totally understanding that last night is blurry in your mind. The entire premise, as defined by your protagonist, is pointless, and you've acted horribly to resolve it.
The narrative conceit of One Night Stand tricks you into thinking that you are acting as yourself, while making you actually step into the mind of a protagonist that is clearly self-serving and manipulative - sometimes to a criminal degree. Even if you do everything "right" and get the "best" ending, you've more than likely done so by betraying an innocent person's trust multiple times.
When you've finally 100%ed the game and seen all endings, you get a text message. It's from your friend, whose messages woke you up in the first place. At first he was pissed off that you bailed on him last night, especially since you were the one who convinced him to stand up his date to hang out with you. This time he's even more angry, because it turns out that date was Robin - the girl whose house you've just left.
This is the game's ultimate punchline. There was no "best" ending, there is no canon golden ending where your character and Robin end up in a sweet, loving relationship, because you are horrible. All of the endings are canon because all of them represent actions your character - and by extension the player controlling them - were willing to take.
The game put me in the shoes of a villain and made the worst actions seem if not reasonable then at least defendable, given that these are just branching paths stretching out from one what-if crossroads. But this final denouement makes it clear that you were playing an abuser all along.
With this final sucker punch, Kinmoku manages to do what so many games try and fail to achieve: make me feel guilty. Because I realised that what I was doing was manipulating somebody in order to get close to them. I was effectively stalking them, prying into their personal life, going through their belongings, exploiting their vulnerability in order to get closer to them. And I felt awful, way worse than The Last of Us' "don't you feel bad about killing all the people we made you kill" schtick ever did.
One Night Stand is an intimate story and it's exactly because of the small scope that it manages to construct such a powerful tale of control and exploitation. It makes you empathise with the most banal of evil, and sympathise with those who become their victims.
Beautyfull, but empty.
Very quick game and not a lot of depth involved. Completed the first “story” in like 20 minutes, so this was very disappointing.
cringe
Any game that lets you sneak out of someone's house while wearing their underwear gets at least 2 stars from me.