ONE. Reviews

ONE is best known for being one of the earliest VNs written by the creative team that would go on to form Key/VisualArts, and going by my experience of the story, the magic was there from the very beginning. All the biggest strengths of Key's writing are apparent here. Compelling characters, a lovely and distinctive art direction, and a story tailor-made to make you choke up. If you're a fan of dramatic VNs, and especially if you're a fan of Key's work, this is a must-buy in my book. That said, there are aspects of the story and writing that are dated and controversial by today's standards, and not without reason. [spoiler]As other reviews may have mentioned, Kohei's behavior can get rather problematic in certain routes, especially Nagamori and Shiina's. To do Nagamori's route, you need to push Kohei into being a douche at certain points until he crashes out and attempts to do something that is, by his own admission, unconscionable. In the 90s, you could still get away with writing something of this nature while still keeping the leading man sympathetic, but in the modern day, people are much less forgiving about abusers getting such redemption arcs. Shiina's route also has some scenes that resemble grooming to an uncomfortable degree, and it's only thanks to the ending reaffirming Kohei's good intentions that I was able to look past all that.[/spoiler] Then again, debates about certain aspects of Japanese media, especially those written so long ago, do often get a little heated, and nothing in the story fully soured my experience of the overall product. The people behind Key came out swinging right out of the gate with this VN, and it's a wonderful milestone in the genre's history, and a strong storyline in its own right.