Let me start off with this: There's no real connection between these games-- or at least, there's no connection as to why I played them back-to-back. Simply put: Both games have really lovely turn-of-the-century visual novel art that drew me in and really lovely character design. However... A lot of my praise rests solely on that.
Ideally, I'd like to keep my reviews to one thing at a time, but I feel as though both games had very similar failings as to keeping my attention and are part of my rare "did not finish" club. I'm someone who looooves completion in a game; Even if it's not a 100% of every achievement, I'd at least like to see most important route variations. Both of these games... Well, I couldn't make it through two whole routes in either.
What was bad? What was the good? I'll discuss them seperately and in order of which I played.
IMPORTANT CONTENT NOTE: The topics of pedophilia and rape come up later in discussing these games. Pet death, familial death and incest are also mentioned. Please take caution before reading further! There are also a lot of spoilers ahead; These will not be tagged.
1998 -- 1.5 / 10 *DNF
One on the surface feels like the typical game you think of when you play a visual novel– It’s set in a high school with graduating students. You play as a guy named Kouhei and you meet various girls and learn about their lives and stories, including your childhood friend, a tsundere transfer student, a quiet girl and a few more.
I think part of One’s relevance is tied to the team behind it. The game is produced by Tactics, a sub-label of Nexton. However, the Tactics team would later form what’s known as Key– A.K.A., one of the most well-known visual novel studios, producing hits such as Clannad, Air, Kanon and Little Busters. This includes lead writer, Jun Maeda, who worked on all of these.
Hitting play, you’re greeted by incredibly charming art (done by Itaru Hinoue, who also went on to be part of Key). The musical compositions are incredibly welcoming and well done as well– Genuinely, one track, “A Sea Roaring Afternoon” is such an easy listen, I put it on while typing this up. This really sets course on a game you think will be such a delight and hell, even if it’s not great, it’ll be a fun ride.
... Right?
L->R: Nagamori, Nanase, Misaki ; Mio, Mayu, Akane
Before I get ahead of myself, I want to introduce the love interests, since that’s the main core of the storyline. Genuinely, I think they’re all incredibly charming (sans one, who should not have been one to begin with). The version I have, they’re all voice acted and I think the VAs did a great job overall.
The “main” girl by virtue of being childhood friends with the protagonist is Nagamori. She’s incredibly sweet and fills that archetype really well. From what I did see of her, there’s no real glaring issues with her... Except the fact she’s way too lenient on Kouhei and his... Well, I’ll get to that.
Then we have recent transfer, Nanase. She fits a bit of a tsundere role... Well, that I believe is her purpose. However, I use the term tsundere lightly, because I feel it leans more into “she’s not a tsundere, she just fucking hates you”, and it should’ve stayed that way.
Then, there's upperclassman Misaki, a girl who’s blind and a bit of a prankster. I think it was really cool to have not one but two disabled characters and not patronize them (at least in the bits I played with their dialogue). Apparently, her route is really good and the best in the game, but I didn't get arouind to it for reasons later to come up.
We also have Mio, a hard of hearing girl who communicates with a notebook. She’s a bit of a scaredy cat but is part of the theater club.
Then the girl who’s route I did finish– Akane. She fits that “quiet aloof beauty” type of character. We see her acting strangely, waiting on rainy days in an empty lot. We find out the reason why she’s waiting is for a childhood friend who vanished from that spot. She eventually gets visited by another childhood friend but even seems a bit cold to her. She refuses to placate Kouhei and often rejects him and his advances... Which becomes very uncomfortable later on, but I’ll get to that as I discuss him.
Lastly, and certainly never should’ve been, we have Mayu. Mayu is probably the 2nd worst thing about this game. She’s a middle schooler who’s ferret has recently died. Now, if red flags are not going off, they should be. The protagonist is 17 going on 18... And yes, a choice is a middle schooler. Now, this is already bad, but it’s made worse by the fact she does not act like a middle schooler. She acts like she’s a 5 year old, barely talking in coherent sentences and often giving 1 word answers. I’ll give her this– her voice actor went crazy on her lines... By making her the most fucking annoying love interest I think I’ve ever had the displeasure of interacting with. Genuinely, I think I’d take 1000 Morimuras from TMGS1 over her any day... I mean, for one thing, least he’s an age appropriate love interest.
This all being said, Mayu is still probably 5% of what makes this unfinishable to me (I didn't realize you could actually fully skip her inclusion!).
L->R: I wish I could've forgotten Mayu was in this whole damned game
No, the supreme honor of that other 95% goes to the main character himself, Kouhei Orihara.
On paper, Kouhei is your average male love interest in a dating sim. He has no parents, so he lives with his aunt who’s never around. He has a dark past... And that’s about it. I’ll get to his dark past later, but it literally affects nothing in the route I played.
If things were just that, I’d be able to forgive the game. I’ve played games with protagonists I’ve hated before (YU-NO comes to mind)... But Kouhei takes the piece of shit cake. He’s incredibly malicious to everyone around him and most of his actions see the female love interests suffering or being uncomfortable. He sexually harrasses people to no end and there’s apparently a part in Nagamori’s route where he tries to get her raped by a stranger– not to mention in Akane’s route, she denies his advances sexually at a point but he continues, making it an incredibly gross sexual scene (not that any of the surrounding was good either, but it makes it worse).
I don’t believe there’s a single good thing I can say about this guy. I can’t even say, “Oh well, he did X,Y, and Z, so he’s at least comple–” No. Nothing. I hate him so much. His personality makes this game unplayable. It’s noticeable early on how badly he treats his childhood friend and then it just gets worse as you subject more girls to him and his perversions.
She should've gotten with Nanase, actually.
I will now interject there’s a part of the story that I’ve neglected to mention. In fact, it really... Does jack shit overall because it doesn’t do much of anything and feels shoehorned in because they thought a typical dating sim would be too boring. That’s the place known as The External World.
What is The Eternal World? I don’t fucking know. The easiest way I can explain it is that it's in Kouhei’s mind palace but also real. This seems to barely have an effect on the plot until later and the bulk of it feels like an excuse to try and make the protagonist sound deeper than he is and add in some flowery language. It does come into play at least at the end of Akane’s route... But first I need to talk about Kouhei’s dead family.
Should've gotten with her childhood friend instead of that LOSER
Let me set the scene: You’re me. You’ve played once over, got no ending. Second time, you’re using a guide, you’re on Akane’s route. You’re miserable and hating Kouhei the entire time. You’ve gone on a few miserable dates and made love and then suddenly Kouhei is like “I’m disappearing from the world no one remembers me”. This is aided by things like Nagamori, who always wakes up Kouhei, not coming by and his aunt putting his things from his room out in the rain. Instead of thinking to try and stop this Kouhei is like “Okay well guess I’ll dissappear”.
So he starts disappearing and eventually Akane finds him and gets mad at him because this same thing happened to her childhood friend and she doesn’t want to relive that trauma. She's crying, trying to hold onto his memory as it’s fading rapidly. He disappears and then...
Boom! We’re hit with his backstory out of the blue. This is not to Akane, but purely to the viewer. We learn he never had a dad and his mom worked. He had a little sister he was kind of an asshole to but also tries to frame it as he was good to her (I am a younger sister, I know your shit Kouhei. You can’t get past me.). His sister gets sick and hospitalized and we don’t really get a name to her illness, but you can make a few educated guesses. His mom’s only other real inclusion is a throw away line about her attending sermons. Yada yada, his sister dies. Apparently the voice he’s been hearing in the Eternal World is hers but genuinely it does nothing for anything and I don’t even care to think about what symbolism they were reaching for because it’s stupid as hell.
Again, this whole backstory? Never mentioned again this route and as I see it, does nothing to serve the plot. Why was this included? Maybe there’s something not clicking with me. Maybe it’s to make Kouhei seem more justified in his asshole behavior. I don’t know, genuinely I hate him so much I can’t bother to find out.
Either way– end of Akane’s route, he magically comes back into existence like nothing happened, except he and Akane know. That’s it. Nothing else worth noting after that and it just seems like the day-to-day life they had before is resumed. Given how much I hated him, I think he should've stayed gone.
Again, I could probably excuse a lot of this... If Kouhei wasn’t such a horrible main character and ruins every scene he’s in.
Again, I could probably excuse a lot of this... If Kouhei wasn’t such a horrible main character and ruins every scene he’s in.
This game is listed on VNDB as around 21 hours. I’d argue I’ve spent around 7-8 on it. If I ever decide to pick this game up again and add onto this review, I will... But for the foreseeable future, this game is too painful to enjoy the positives that are there.
2001 -- 2.5 / 10 *DNF
I picked up Snow right after ONE. I thought it was a perfect time because it was right before a massive winter storm that saw snow sticking on the ground for over a week. Going in, all I could think was, "Well, it can't be as bad as ONE"... And I was right!
Let me get the obvious out of the way: Aesthetically, Snow is absolutely gorgeous. The attention to detail in the CGs and the sprites are amazing. Genuinely I think the snow texturing they got in some scenes (it falling down as you play!) is such a cool choice and it stands out. I also really like the fact that in scenes where you lift up a character, for example, the little girl Ouka, you get a view that shows that off rather than her just standing in front of you. Really amazing work in reguards to the artistry.
I do really like the start to Snow in terms of plot. You’re a guy named Kanata who on his way to the village to help out at his cousin’s (Tsumugi) rural inn got struck by a rockslide and pronounced dead. You get saved by a girl (named Ouka) and you have to convince her and other people for a bit that you’re not actually a ghost, all while at your own funeral. After that, you help Tsumugi with the more arduous tasks at the inn for barely any money at all, while fraternizing and becoming familiar with the town.
The game has an enforced playing order, making you pick either Sumino or Asahi first. I preferred Sumino’s design, so I went with her. Most of my experience was just on her route, so I want to quickly talk about the other characters first.
The main route options; Clockwise: Shigure, Sumino, Ouka, Mysterious girl, Meiko, Asashi.
Let me start with the main character: Kanata. Overall, I have little issue with him. He's your run-of-the-mill type of guy on the nicer side (... Mostly. We'll get to that.). He has some memory loss stuff going on, barely remembering people he met years back. Nothing much to say on him.
Asashi barely showed up in the route that I was doing; All she did was go around yelling about wanting Kanata and hating Sumino.
I really liked Meiko when I saw her. She's a really fun character and I wish she was an immediate romance option... Though to be honest, I'm always routing for childhood friend yuri; She's Sumino's childhood friend and the daughter of the local doctor (who is also a great character.)
There's also Ouka and her cat, Shamon. She's like 5 and thank the gods that the dev team did not give her a romance route-- It's purely platonic. In fact, what I did see of her I overall liked once things eased more (She started off saying... Weird shit about her underwear which was Not pleasant to sit through.) She's some sort of orphan and talks in an antiquated way. Genuinely a really fun character once you get past the initial rocky start.
The other 2 main "routes" are Shigure and a Mysterious girl. I only ever saw Shigure once and never saw the Mysterious Girl, but I do like both their designs. Not really anything to say about them.
I should mention here that this game had a really fun supporting cast. Meiko's dad was probably my favorite, but I did like Tsumugi a lot too. I would've liked her a lot more if she didn't fall into the weird trap of every other woman in the game (attracted to Kanata... Her cousin...). When things weren't weird, she was genuinely enjoyable. Sumino's mom was also really a nice breath of fresh air, especially during Sumino's route.
Sumino's route.
Sumino fills the trope of a childhood friend character with a bit more meat to the shared backstory. As you interact with her, you remember you came to the village 10 years ago for an unspecified period and met her. While there and as a child, you promised to marry her. She has not forgotten this.
Sumino is a character that sits in a weird spot for me. On one hand, I think her design is gorgeous and I love a childhood friend-to-lover visual novel plot. I also like how she’s an artist and she brings a fun dynamic especially around characters like her mom or her best friend, Meiko. She’s a sweet character overall!
However... There’s also a lot of downsides. For one... I’m so sorry to her voice actress, but holy shit her voice was incredibly grating. I got flashbacks to Mayu from ONE because she kept crying and sobbing over every little thing and that made the whole affair of wooing her quite unappealing. It feels absolutely hair-trigger at times and I don’t like those types of characters in visual novels because I just don’t tend to like immense immaturity.
I also really don’t like how she just seems to put everything she likes to the side (namely art) and hardcore focuses on being Kanata’s bride. I really dislike quick romance routes in games and everything feels breakneck in this. How you go from vaguely remembering she exists to gearing up for marriage in less than 3 weeks really is not appealing. Hearing that she and her mom had to leave the inn when taking care of guests to go wedding dress fitting also really... Is a sour note. I realize this is a certain type that someone out there must like, but it just does absolutely nothing for me.
I do appreciate how she keeps up with her best friend, Meiko, though! I was worried she’d be completely side-lined by the story.
... I also absolutely hate the NSFW scenes involving her. They're incredibly uncomfortable and at one point I just skipped them. I don’t like the feeling of forcing her to do stuff (one involves forcing her to do anal with no prep and just hurting her??). It just put me heavily off of a game I was enjoying up until those scenes. Doing research after... I’m not super surprised ⅔ of the games made before this one by the same studio were heavily assault focused.
Towards the last ⅓ of her route, Sumino starts having memory issues. IMO this is done really... Badly. She’s always been airheaded but somehow her symptoms go from 0 to 100 within the span of a couple of days, to the point where she one day randomly forgets what she was just doing 2 seconds ago to getting lost and forgetting where she even is. The suddenness of the whole thing feels so unrealistic, that when it comes to a head... I just kind of am left feeling nothing about the situation. It does get revealed she has some sort of intense progressive dementia but again it just... Feels so out of the blue it’s hard to feel a big emotional connection beyond “that sucks.”
The whole latter part of the route I spent speeding through because it kept pissing me off and was not fun to sit through in the least. Like I said before, I didn’t even have an emotional tie keeping me grounded to the story so it just felt like dredging through... Well, Snow.
The last portion where Kanata takes her to the dress shop while she's getting a worse and worse fever is probably some of the most annoying plot writing in this whole route. The ending with her and Ouka... I have a feeling maybe it’ll be something more in perhaps Ouka’s route or something? I guess the implication is they all died which... Again, given the lack of build up feels really null and void of anything. Ouka disappeared halfway through this route anyway.
This whole route put a sour taste in my mouth. After finishing it, a new mode unlocked called "Legend Mode". I was hopeful this one couldn't possibly be as bad... Right?
Legend Mode
So, this is a step away from the main game and it kind of throws you into it. It’s some time before the snow has swept through Ryujin village and focuses around a pair of siblings born from a priest, Older brother Hakuou and younger sister Housen. You “play” as Hakuou (as there are no choices in this route, but it is from his POV).
TLDR– The village was attacked by bandits for worshiping Ryujin-sama and their parents were killed when Hakuou was 5 years old. The pair of siblings were saved by 2 Ryujin and sent to live in a shrine that was linked to their father and now have come back to restore Ryujin shrine. The villagers haven’t done shit with it because they’re afraid of bandits coming by again– ... Which personally, I don’t really understand, especially given the fact it’s probably been at least 10-15 years between incidences and it doesn’t seem like bandits are coming by nightly to see. It might be some cultural thing it’s harkening too that I’m missing... Or it’s just truly not explained.
... Also hey why the weird bro-con stuff from Housen. I don't have anywhere else to put it but there's a weird amount of it all things considered-- even more than the weird throwaway stuff from Tsumugi.
Anyway, the general gist is that the siblings are going to get the village to start worshipping the Ryujin-sama again and everyone eventually does so and are set for a festival coming up. During this time, a monster from a painting is set loose... And it’s a bunny. This was mentioned in the main plot but didn’t have much in the way of importance with Sumino’s route. Anyway, it all becomes kind of obvious seeing the rabbit what’s going on with that. (Spoiler: It's Asashi.)
... And this route becomes tedious with Kikka. Kikka is one of the Ryujin who comes down, obviously having some relation to Sumino. Perfect. Great. This is just what I wanted. Maybe it’s because I was tired of Sumino from her route but she pisses me off a lot. It’s hard to find her clingy ways cute because it feels like absolutely no substance behind it. Her voice is also as annoying and she whines maybe even more than Sumino so that doesn’t help in the slightest.
I really think there are some good bones here if they were not written for a cishet male audiencen. Maybe it’s just me, but I hate when everyone suddenly falls for the very bland MC... And this starts happening. Like 2 days into this, then Kikka’s sister, who atp is only called Ryujin-sama, ALSO falls for the MC because he... Heard her faint and woke her up. This is ontop of Housen and Kikka... And my guess is proto-Asashi as well.
I’m going to be so real right now: It’s boring. It’s really boring. I think the general idea of it is fine, but holy shit the romance makes it feel like quicksand. It’s to the point that I looked up a video of it to determine how much longer I had on it after putting in probably around 2 hours... And it seemed roughly 1 ½ - 2hrs left to go. At this point, I think I’d rather cut losses here and move onto something that I vibe with better. Like ONE, I’d like to think I’d revisit it someday and play more routes. If that time comes, I’ll edit this whole thing (or write a new entry, idk) and reasses. For now... I can’t do this anymore it’s become painful.
Both of these games had a similar flaw in that the writing just... Did not do anything for me. Personally I just really do not vibe with games meant for guys where the girls auto-fall in love with the protag. I could excuse it if not for other weird shit popping up though. I think in the case of Snow it started to feel repetitive and even though I wasn't at the end of the Legend route, I could see where it was going and I just couldn't sit down and take it any longer, especially thinking about other visual novels I wanna play.
I hate to leave off on a solely negative note on these games. Genuinely I think there's a lot of artistic beauty to be had in them and it's a shame the writing really just made it hard to get through.
5:00pm .. .. // 02.19.2026