Release Date: 20/10/2016
Played On: Win
Available On: Lin / Mac / PSV / Win
Time Played: 1h 57m
Progress: Completed All Endings (with guide after second run)
Developer: Kinmoku
Publisher: Kinmoku
Normally I wouldn't bother talking about a visual novel, as most of them follow the same kind of format. The only things that generally matter for me in the genre, are whether the story is interesting enough, and if the art is any good. In fact, I think the latter might be all it takes to get me interested.
In a lot of ways, One Night Stand is a typical visual novel with everything you'd expect to find. The story is relatively short, but along the way there are choices and interactions that will change the outcome of the plot. However, don't be fooled as you'll still be spending most of your time reading a story and seeing how it all plays out.
Thus, without giving too much away, the story goes something like this: You wake up one morning with a hangover, only to find that you're not in your own bed. Pretty soon you discover a girl sleeping beside you, and that you have clearly hooked up for a one night stand. What follows are the awkward and revealing events that happen immediately after waking up in a stranger's house.
The next short while is filled with uncomfortable conversations and desperate moments of discover, as you try to piece together what happened the night before. On top of that, you have to figure out who this stranger is that you seemed to have spent the night with. It's an interesting enough premise, but how far anyone can engage with the story will severely depend on one's own experiences in similar circumstances.
As you get to know each other, it's clear that One Night Stand is trying to make a point about how we might relate to each other as people caught in an awkward situation. The dialogue is sheepish and polite at first, eventually delving into more detailed subjects and opinions. At times it feels fluid and authentically conversational, but sometimes it gets a bit formulaic as the game tries to hit each plot point.
This is kind of where I started losing touch with the narrative in One Night Stand, as there were a few times where I wasn't quite sure what was happening. On my first playthrough, I selected dialogue choices that I would probably have chosen in a real scenario. I tried to be honest and polite, but eventually reached a ‘bad’ ending, as my responses weren't up to par. I'll be happy to admit that I might not know what I'm doing, but I'll also add that personal experience has lead me to the ‘honest and polite’ theory that often seems to be the best policy.
After trying a few different approaches and witnessing a few variations on the branching narrative, I decided to load up a guide and see everything I'd missed. With a bunch of different endings, you'd have to be more dedicated than I am to see them all naturally, so the guide was a nice shortcut. Except, it didn't make me any happier about my original outcome.
The thing is that in between dialogue choices, you're given the opportunity to look around the room and investigate various objects. Your new friend has to keep ducking out of the room for numerous reasons, so you get the chance to inspect a couple of items at a time. What you choose to interact with will influence the following dialogue options and what subsequent branches are available to you. Of course, there are more objects than you have time to inspect, so multiple playthroughs are a must if you want to see them all.
What really took me out of my immersion though, was the necessity to snoop into areas I never would have poked around in. There's a wallet on the bedside table full of ID cards and the like, as well as a laptop on the dresser that can be opened and explored. These kind of things reveal a lot of information about the girl you're talking to, which in turn leads to some ‘better’ outcomes. Apparently the game wants you to know that you'd do better with a girl if you snoop through all her stuff and then lie about knowing bits of information and having the same interests.
It seemed a bit off-putting at first and as I continued to unlock each ending, it felt plain wrong. In one branch, I managed to discover some personal information that was none of my business, and the game rewarded me with an insight on how to talk to the girl. To say that it felt creepy and sleezy is putting it lightly, even if it's a prescribed outcome.
However, there are some branches to the story that make decent points about bad behaviour as well. For instance, in one variation you have the ability to sneakily take a photo of the naked girl and upload it to the internet. Of course, it goes viral and all of her friends start talking about it so she finds out and you get thrown out of the house. It's nice to see that some bad behaviour will get punished after all.
Despite what the game wants you to think about the girl and your interactions with her, the biggest complications I encountered were from the inherent limitations of the game. At the end of the day there will only ever be a finite number of dialogue choices to pick from, while real life is much more nuanced and diverse. While the game wants you to experience the different ways that a scenario can play out, it kills its own message by not always playing out in a way that makes sense.
The divide between the actions that bring positive outcomes and those that bring negative ones, isn't always clear. Perhaps that's part of the point being made in the story, as life is often shades of grey and murky at best. However, there are obviously bad actions like going through a stranger's belongings, that are rewarded with extra insights and the ability to lie about shared hobbies and interests. It might not seem like much of a problem to some, but it really prevented me from enjoying the game as much I thought I could have.
In fact, my overall experience with One Night Stand was a positive one. It's the reason I'm even writing about a visual novel in the first place, as it offers something that others in the genre often fail to do. Even with questionable branching and outcomes, the best thing the game does is make you think about a real world scenario and the different ways that it could play out.
No doubt we've all had those moments in time that we sometimes wonder about and imagine how they could have been different. I know I'm constantly assessing different scenarios to try and learn how things could have gone another way. It's an essential part of social growth and something that teaches us how to avoid the mistakes we've made. In this way, One Night Stand succeeds at getting the discourse flowing and putting these considerations in our head.
I've long wanted a visual novel (or any game for that matter) to truly astound me in the branching possibilities. I often imagine a near-infinite web of possibilities and outcomes that can barely be experienced even with multiple playthroughs. Of course, this imaginary game would be monumental in scale and nearly impossible to build, no matter how intriguing the concept could be.
Hence, when I get frustrated with One Night Stand's lack of diversity and nuance in its branching narrative, it's with the understanding that there's not a lot to be done about it. In fact, I'd say that in the realm of visual novels, this one does a pretty good job of obfuscating some pathways that aren't easily determined.
The mix between dialogue choices and objects to inspect is a great way to confuse the player a little and make the mental map too messy to follow. At least for me it felt complex enough that it was hard to follow, but simple enough to kind of know what's going on and why options became available.
This is where the strength of One Night Stand begins to raise its head, as the story that's being told shows signs of care and deliberate implementation. While I didn't agree with some of the outcomes, it's hard to miss that the game has been made with a clear purpose in mind. In a genre dominated by poorly written sexual fantasies, One Night Stand makes its mark as a unique and clever take.
Dialogue is written well and at its best, feels like a natural and authentic conversation. There are a few moments of excellent lines and responses that are familiar and honest, which is probably the greatest compliment I could pay the game. At its best, this is a genuine reproduction of a socially fraught situation, with believable characters and dialogue. It's a shame that it's not always at its best, but we've already gone over that.
I mentioned at the top that visual novels need a good story, but they also need some interesting art to support the words. After all, if I want a good story I have a whole bookshelf of novels waiting to be read, so funnily enough, I want something more 'visual' out of a visual novel. In this area, One Night Stand excels.
There's the typical interface of a first person perspective looking at the person you're talking to, along with auto scroll, skip, and everything else you'd expect in the genre. The aesthetic style is a simple hand-drawn one featuring a monochromatic palette, which helps enhance the plot's meandering and surreal tone. However, the real treat in One Night Stand is the short animations that show up between bouts of dialogue.
It's not uncommon to include slight animations in a visual novel, as characters blinking and shifting their pose can add a lot of life to interactions. One Night Stand uses more animations than most other visual novels I've played, which is a welcomed way to give its leading character some much needed presence. There's something subtly beautiful about seeing a character turn and walk away, instead of simply fade out. In a way it seems more human and realistic than a simple sprite disappearing on screen.
What's more, the animations all seem to be using some kind of rotoscoping technique, as the motions and movements are excellently nuanced. At times it almost feels like a full motion video, but the cartoonish character on screen has clearly been drawn that way.
It mustn't be understated how much of a difference small details make in animations, as we are very good at picking up tiny changes in body language and posture. Most of us probably don't notice anything from moment to moment, but it's coded in our firmware that we are very good at recognising natural human behaviours. It's why most animation can always been picked as artificial, even in the some of the most sophisticated examples.
With that in mind, the animations in One Night Stand are beautifully executed. Yes it's clear that they're artificial as the sprites are obviously drawn, and there are only a few visible frames per movement. What makes it stand out is that attention to detail, which makes me think of rotoscoping or some other technique where real footage is traced to create a more natural sequence.
However it's achieved, the visuals in One Night Stand are often its strongest feature for me. Even when the dialogue tree went in directions that seemed a bit off, I was interested to see if I'd be treated to a new scene along the way. Thankfully there are a few different scenes that are worth checking out and experiencing.
Ultimately I'm glad that I played One Night Stand and took the time to go through the alternate paths available. While I didn't agree or connect with the narrative in every instance, I like how it encouraged me to take a step back and think about how the situation could have played out in a real scenario.
The nice thing is that I don't believe you need to have any personal experience with the social interactions of the game to be able to get something out of it. In fact you might to well if you've never encountered such a scenario before, as you won't have a good (or bad) idea about how it played out in your own real life experience.
One Night Stand is definitely an interesting take on the genre with a fantastic aesthetic and animation style. I'm still hoping to see the dream game of unlimited choice manifest itself someday, but for now we'll just have to be content with the unavoidable limitations of the genre. At least there are fresh, fascinating takes like this one to sink our teeth into.