One Night Stand (2016)

One Night Stand, developed by Kinmoku, is a 2016 interactive visual novel that simulates the morning after a one night stand. Our character is hungover and naked in an unknown bed and room, next to an unknown girl with no recollection of what happened the night before. One Night Stand is also a 2017 Independent Game Award nominee for Excellence in Narrative. It is currently available on Steam.

Interactive visual novels are stories told in a choose your own adventure format. Upon closer inspection, visual novels, more commonly abbreviated as VNs, are plentiful across all platforms. Some have reigned in plenty of success like Steins Gate on Playstation consoles which has a sequel on its way. Then we have all lengths of different indie VN experiences on Steam from free one shots to kinetic to some like these ones which are more interactive and choice-based. Talking about VN is similar to looking at a book. Our focus is the storytelling: Whether it is immersive and believable. It usually is in first person narrative and begs the question of whether it creates a bond with our character and what choices we want them to make? One Night Stand ticks all the boxes of an immersive and interactive environment. Some events won’t make a difference but there are others that will dictate the path to one of the twelve endings to discover. One choice can change what happens. Aside from twelve endings to unlock, there is also a myriad of achievements. Some of them are downright hilarious. If you have played it, you probably already know what we’re  talking about. If not, we don’t want to ruin your experience.

This leads us to the next level of interaction. Our character can examine many of the items in the room with his own analysis. These items will open up another conversation arc that we can further talk with our lady friend to create a bond. However, the choice is up to the player whether to pursue the conversation more. Technically, the option to go home is always available within certain limits. This makes for a flexible and realistic situation and each playthrough gains further knowledge especially when our character has woken up with no recollection of the night before or even the girl’s name. It helps creates immersion and believability as well as a goal. The story is still predetermined based on the combination of our choices but it makes for a flexible situation and see which endings are good or bad.

Another great addition is the art style that Kinmoku uses for One Night Stand. It looks like pencil sketches, very similar to games like Nintendo DS’s Hotel Dusk 215. Adding in the objective to find a way to leave or decide to learn more about this girl adds extra layers and depth, giving us a chance to make our personal choice especially in the first run. The fact that we also have an objective to not only learn more but try to figure out her name creates a clever twist.

Overall, One Night Stand delivers on many fronts from its hand-drawn visuals to its flexible conversation arcs and multiple endings and achievements. All this adds together in a beautiful package that encourages its players to dive in over and over again to uncover more. While One Night Stand is a short game for one playthrough, its ability to truly make our choices feel meaningful while telling an intriguing story of a one night stand morning after experience will garner interest to try to discover the other endings, giving it a lot of replayability value.

Score: 4/5

Lost Girl’s Diary (2016)

Lost Girl’s Diary, developed by Russian developer SmoleVN, is a visual novel that uses its colorful characters to share a collection of ghost stories told by friends that get together on an evening together.

Lost Girl’s Diary is a roughly one hour story session with a group of friends who are waiting for the strike of midnight to summon the Queen of Spades. As they wait, they decide to share their scary stories with each other. Most of the girls know each other’s stories but the two guys, Stas and Styopa who join in, don’t. Made by Russian developer SmoleVN, they use the character, Queen of Spades, inspired by a popular story by Alexander Pushkin which has supernatural themes about human greed. Think about this like a campfire story telling session among friends and this is what you are experiencing.

Visual novels are a curious experience. You never quite know what to expect. While they are frequently in the casual gaming category, Lost Girl’s Diary is not a gaming experience but more of a viewing experience with clicking to progress the story and read the next passage. The focus then turns to the story, the characters, and the environment. Luckily, there is not a lack of colorful characters in Lost Girl’s Diary. In fact, the characters are of various age groups and these girls are quiet and stylish, sporty and flirty, even grounded and mature, add in the younger little girl cutesy and they have it all covered in personality. Plus, there are also two guys that show up and they are quite distinct as well.

The story component is definitely very fun more than scary. It won’t have the spine-tingling, looking over your shoulder feeling but the way they tell the story and the character they build are much scarier than they probably will turn out to be. Perhaps a younger audience will find more intrigue in it. Especially with the added visuals of the characters on screen as the story progresses. Another perk of reading a visual novel which Lost Girl’s Diary highlights well is having suitable sound effects and music in the background to accompany it. While most stories are purely fun and won’t have lingering nightmares, the music does have a eerie feeling at times creating an engaging environment.

If you are looking for an interactive experience, Lost Girl’s Diary will not fit the bill. However, as fun story moments with some intermissions between stories (aka chapters) among these charming characters, even the storytelling and language they use, this is quite a treat. If you are looking for an actual scare, this may mildly be more suitable for a younger audience. However, it could make for a nice family fun reading night. The atmosphere sometimes looms with dark and eerie music in the background to build the mood but the stories always have a fun little twist.

Lost Girl’s Diary was released on Steam as a free game in March 2016.

You can watch Kim’s full playthrough here.

Once Upon a Hallow’s Eve (2016)

Released on Halloween 2016 by Visual-Wordplay, Once Upon a Hallow’s Eve is a visual novel about a girl who goes away with friends on Halloween. On the way, a minor landslide knocks her out and when she wakes up, she finds her way to a mansion and meets three brothers with a secret.

Once Upon a Hallow’s Eve is a short story set on Halloween with only four characters: Cara Lee, our female protagonist that gets lost and finds her way to the mansion and the three brothers: eldest Viktor, middle Vonn and youngest Vern. While at first reluctant to take her in, they all lost track of time as she stays at the mansion while she recovers from the injuries caused by the landslide and trekking through the forest. Cara feels odd that the brothers, particularly Vonn is so against her presence. She also eventually realizes that they are hiding the fact as to why the mysterious events from the constant rainstorm outside to the voices in the house that she hears and the lack of desire to take her back to the village. They hold secrets and Cara needs to find a way through the choices available to get the answers.

For those not familiar with what visual novels entails, they are a more interactive reading experience. There are pictures and animations along with music to build the story and ambiance. Many like Once Upon a Hallow’s Eve will also let the readers guide the story by giving them choices along the way. These choices will determine which ending you wind up with. For the most dedicated and immersed experiences, it will encourage the player to go back and try to get the other endings. Our playthrough of Once Upon a Hallow’s Eve yielded a not so good ending near the beginning but the final result was the “Good Ending”. The variety of ending adds to the story, making the choices matter. In this case, the story was simple but still gave the ending reveal enough to make us go through a few options in our mind before getting the answer.

The story here may not offer anything too innovative. The characters are a little hit and miss. Cara is our main protagonist and we play as her and make decisions for her. However, she is also a rather self-centred character that doesn’t make for pleasant feelings as we read her dialogue. She’s rather full of herself commenting on her beauty and attraction, for example. There are characters with quiet personalities that really can’t shine through who they really are rather than attributing to the fact that they are shy. Other characters, such as Vonn, creates the slight obstacle and Viktor is none other than the nice guy. Perhaps, our version reaped that from our choices. We also don’t know how many endings we could end up with. This story is quick and to the point, perhaps a little too rushed that it could benefit from a little more meat.

Visual novel adventures are plentiful on all platforms. Visual Wordplay has put out quite a few of them on mobile and PC. This is our first time venturing into one of their works. While there are flaws in this visual novel and it does suffer a little from being rushed and not giving some events a little more attention, it still holds a charm. Our choices do matter and the wrong choices can have consequences. That already builds a stronger connection from the player to the story. Plus, the art is also quite appealing. There is some fun and merit here despite having a character that makes it a little hard to like at the beginning.

Once Upon a Hallow’s Eve is available for free on itch.io and Android.

Score: 3.5/5