I always feel bad with games like these, I feel compelled to apologize to this fictional woman for actively choosing the bad options so that I could see her not have fun for that one last ending...

One Night, Hot Springs (or "one night, hot springs") is a game I stumbled across just yesterday, and was immediately interested in. I looked it up, found it on Steam for [[wow]] zero dollars! and added it to my library to install later that night to play through it once I woke up the next day. Given my recent discoveries over the past several months, I've found it all the more valuable to read and understand more transgender stories, to take in other experiences, even if they might be written from different countries and/or cultures.

With such a difficult and personal topic as this, there comes a lot of discomfort. It's hard to place yourself anywhere, to know where you belong, or if you will at all. It's hard to introduce yourself to people without overthinking things, you're never sure if they'll accept or understand what you mean, and it's just as hard to try and explain everything in a way that won't dwell on more bad feelings. It's hard to give honest answers to even the closest people you know, because all in all, the whole process dwells on uncertainty. These things take time to get used to, and discovering yourself is never easy. Interestingly, I think that's about the most I could resonate with this game. The discomfort and inability to speak wholeheartedly.

It's painful sometimes. It takes a lot to go out of your comfort zone, and it can take a lot out of someone when things go wrong. It's understandable that, to some, the easy way out would be to simply avoid those scenarios altogether, prevent them from happening. Sometimes it feels easier to keep some things to yourself, rather than suffer the potential consequences of "burdening" someone else with your struggles and memories. Lord knows I've done the same for long enough, and still do so more often that I'd like to admit. But that won't get anyone anywhere. Nothing comes from airing your speech into the void for no one but yourself, or repressing them to maintain an atmosphere. The good part comes from finally letting it out, and finding the right ones that are willing to stick by you after the fact.

I can't say I relate to everything of this story. I had my realizations after I had already graduated and cut off everyone I knew I would be uncomfortable staying around. Naturally, there also comes the cultural differences between school uniforms, school structures in general, and uh... hot springs. But what's there is there, and I always appreciate knowing that there is common ground between folk. I can understand and feel the difficulties of introducing myself or being introduced to new faces, no matter their pre-existing relationships with those I already know. I can understand and feel the doubt and guilt that might stem from expressing trouble or discontent. I can understand and feel the discomfort from having to conform for society or legality's sake. No matter how short ONHS might have been, I will always appreciate a space to see and resonate with another's life.

Find your friends, and hold them close. Find yourself, and hold that even closer. With time, things will get better. Comfortability comes from experimentation, not being afraid to try and grow, and I think a powerful step in that direction is valuing and taking the experiences of those like yourself to heart. Thank you.

Every now and then I come back to this game and I am instantly reminded of how much fun it is to experience.

OlliOlli World really excels in its creativity and originality in the skateboarding game genre. The art style is so vibrant, and the endless combinations for its character customization is something I really adore.

I think that it does a great job at building a really intuitive trick system, and I imagine this is what makes the game so accessible to players who may not have any care for skateboarding at all. It leans it's players into its mechanics but then does not shy away from providing the challenge that makes them want to keep playing.

This is one of those level based games that make you WANT to ace and master it, rather than just get to the finish line. the level design and trick system creates opportunity for endless re-playability and it is for these reasons that I always find myself coming back.

The narrative is cute but nothing that deep, overall this game just excels at being FUN. If you are looking for something to play for the week I highly recommend giving this a try. Another bonus is that the soundtrack is great. :)

I abandoned this game and tried to review it on here before it officially released

It feels like a very uninspired game. All the mechanics and gameplay you have seen before. Farming similar to Stardew Valley, characters you can talk to for puddle-deep personalities and give gifts like in Stardew Valley, even crafting like every game made after 2012, including Stardew Valley but somehow worse. The movement even feels taken from Breath of the Wild (the entire beginning is just the Shrine of Ressurection) but with how barren and empty the world is, you’ll honestly forget you can even climb walls or paraglide.
The game bottlenecks your pace with time-waster mechanics like leveling and a serverwide day-night cycle that acts more of an inconvenience with NPCs and stores closing off to go to bed because it’s very hard being a computer working a digital job. Nothing comes out at night to make it worth exploring, or if they do, it’s too subtle to even notice; it’s just a block of time that the game becomes less enjoyable.

This is a little rant, but the characters in this game are the most bland thing I have ever felt in a game. You have the shy nerd who underestimates herself, the edgy lone wolf who acts tough and distant but really has a soft side, or a gentle giant robot who doesn’t fully understand humans but tries her best to coexist. You’ve seen these characters as like 1-time quest givers in 100 other games. Mixed in with every single person going “hohoho I’m so glad I met you stranger, here’s a bunch of items, go do my quest now” puts you in a constant loop of meeting new characters who just feel like a chore checklist. That’s another thing, the whole plot is your are some weird outsider who is so interesting but the race of people that you encounter are just purple humans?? They think we don’t have generic grasslands like New Zealand?? I guarantee in 3 years you will not be able to name a single one of these characters, they will have no lasting impression on you.

The online also feels completely pointless, all you can really do is talk in a server chat and you can all chop down a tree that requires more than 1 person, that’s it as far as being a community game goes. You can invite people into your farm but you can’t do anything, just look at the dollhouse you made and go “that’s pretty.” It’s also an online only game so you have to be logged in to even play, just to do a bunch of things all by yourself.

Picking up this game felt more like adding another list of chores for you to add to your every day than it did to feel good while unwinding from a real day’s work by playing. I played from when the beta opened up until it’s first event where you had to grind for literal days to get exclusive items only available during it and I really didn’t get an impression that I would want to come back even if they improved the game, it just feels bland to its core.