Looks like it’s another one of those rare occasions readers where a game not only finds a way to sneak into my heart, but bursts out and surprises me with sheer wonder and excitement. My organs may be lying all over the place and I’m probably dead by then, but at least I died knowing an interesting event happened that day. Ignoring those starting sentences, I want to talk to you about a game you absolutely need to play right now. Slamming the keyboard from just typing that alone. Doesn’t matter if you’re at work, have crying kids in the background, or being held hostage. Just… listen to what I’m about to say. The last two days have been spent playing a little RPG Maker which you may have heard about already called OneShot. If not then you may have seen the purple haired cat girl with a big hat in the picture above. If not then at least you’ve seen her now. Doesn’t she look cute? If you answered “no” then I’m sorry to say you probably don’t have a soul and you need some revaluation. Fiery iron Fred will meet you in two hours. The intro is full of more jokes than usual, huh? OneShot is one of those games that is short, but sweet. It doesn’t have much content and what serves as gameplay is very little. What is there is brilliant though and this has to be some of the most emotional stuff I’ve experienced in a very long time. It's a truly special product made by a small passionate team of creators and it’s a darn shame that it took me this long to finally try it out. Please, please play OneShot if you haven’t. This review won’t dive deep into spoilers, because the game is best experienced going in blind. Yes, it’s one of those games like Outer Wilds, Inscription, and Return of The Obra Dinn where the high points work best when you have no knowledge in your data banks. Anyways, what is Oneshot and how come I’m freaking out about it all of a sudden? We might as well start somewhere, but in case you haven’t noticed I’ll try to keep this review short as possible.
OneShot was developed by Eliza Velasques and Casey Gu for the PC as a short narrative driven adventure game running on the RPG Maker engine. It was originally intended as free software, but their project blew up bigger than expected and soon OneShot became a cult hit within a few weeks. They soon began work on an updated version which would contain extra content, and behold the final version is available on the Steam marketplace. With the accumulated review score average sitting at ninety-eight percent. Which means OneShot falls within a small percentage of games to achieve over ninety-seven percent and above. The creators stated they wanted OneShot to approach a dark tone, but have an enlightening theme within it. It would tell a journey full of hope, but it wouldn’t be so depressing that the tone would overshadow the theme. They needed to strike the balance lying in between and luckily they did so. The hope of their dying world would take on the shape of a lightbulb projecting a brilliant glow, and a cute character would walk across carrying said object while encountering other quirky folks. This was the concept for OneShot and it stretched out to become a full product. The development cycle was rocky though as stretching OneShot to be an even larger game proved to be difficult and content had to be cut for the final release. They did get OneShot around late 2016 and luckily it stuck the landing. OneShot wasn’t a huge success at launch, but was a huge standout among other RPG Maker games available in the market. Accumulating an even larger following and still being mentioned to this very day. It’s great to see huge success from simple beginnings. That’s why I love independent developers so much, because it doesn’t take much for them to surprise you. Today I want to talk about OneShot and why it deserves your attention. Let’s carry the sun towards the skies so that it may shine.
Story
Our story follows Niko, a small purple haired cat kid wearing a huge hat, waking up to find herself within a cold wooden house that has been left completely abandoned. The floorboards are all scratched up and nothing seems to be working, but Niko manages to navigate her way through the house and make it to the basement where she finds a huge lightbulb lying on the ground. Upon picking up the lightbulb it glows and she’s now able to see what lies around the house. One of the peculiar objects in the house is a door in the shape of the lightbulb she is holding, and by asserting the lightbulb Niko finally exits the house. Instead of ending up in a place of familiarization, Niko finds herself within another empty building. She steps outside and begins marching through a cold barren wasteland only to then encounter a short robot wearing a robe. She identifies Niko as the “Messiah” and the lightbulb she is carrying is actually the son of his world. A longtime ago the sun shone brilliantly over the lands in the highest tower, but one day the sun went out and the land began to slowly die. The earth began to fall apart, power began to run out, and the inhabitants panicked as the evacuation plan was initiated. There was a prophecy though that a savior would come bearing a replacement sun. If a savior were to show up then any inhabitants must guide the savior in any sort of way. The savior wasn’t the only one coming along to fulfill the prophecy though. A being from another world would watch the savior from afar and give them the commands on where to go next. A god to the people, but in this case it’s you watching from your computer. The prophecy must be fulfilled.
Niko finds the adventure to be stressful and wishes to go home, but it is then told to us the only way for Niko to return to her homeworld is to fulfill her journey and replace the broken sun of the world. Spreading hope and happiness across whatever is left, and fixing the problems which now plague the world. Niko quickly adjusts to your presence and together you make haste. You’ll encounter strangers, friends, and even stranger friends who will help you towards your goal to save the land. There aren’t any monsters, but there will be trials which stand in your way. Niko shall save the world, but another presence is watching from afar. One of the only beings within the fading world aware that you are helping Niko fulfill her duty as the “Messiah”.
Gameplay
The gameplay of OneShot really isn’t all that much compared to other RPG Maker games. Gosh darn Undertale had more interactive gameplay than this. There is no combat whatsoever, and it is impossible for the main character to fail any problems. You mainly just walk around, interact with characters and objects, and try to solve puzzles which are provided. Not much stuff, but that doesn’t mean OneShot is a terribly designed game. It's a brilliantly designed game actually and it harkens back to the design of classic puzzle adventures on the PC. Where total control was placed onto the player and they had to pay attention to dialogue and clues instead of the game writing it down in a journal and pointing them towards the right direction with a giant arrow. Pretty sure the devs listed The Secret of Monkey Island as an influence.
You are given complete freedom on where you want to go and the game isn’t stopping. Okay, maybe the game does stop you at times, but it often gives good hints on what you could possibly do to solve the puzzle. It’s a vague description, but it’s something you’ll have to deal with. The solutions to each problem are quite unique in that you won’t expect them, but they aren’t so nonsensical that you don’t even know what to do. Areas aren’t so large that you get confused where you are going and they can be fully explored within a matter of seconds. You can even open up the menu and fast travel to locations you’ve been before. Your inventory can be opened as well to see items you currently have at the moment, and some will have to be combined together to further progress puzzles. Each region you venture through are divided into biomes with their own inhabitants and they never last too long. The story chugs along at a consistent pace and you never get too much of one area. Other than that there really isn’t much else to discuss. The gameplay is simple, but easy to grasp your head around. I never really played a traditional puzzle adventure game and the ones I do own have been collecting dust for months now. OneShot may be my gateway into the genre and I’m now pretty excited for what may come next. Hopefully you can bring Niko home.
Thoughts
OneShot is a brilliantly told adventure from beginning to end, and an absolute recommendation in my book. There really isn’t much to complain about, and any flaws I can point out are mainly just nitpicks. I’d also feel really bad for nitpicking at it, because this is a passion project that can only be achieved by those with good intentions and hearts getting ready to burst like my organs at the beginning of this review. OneShot is just that good and is now up there as one of my favorite independent games of all time. May as well discuss what it does brilliantly well.
The game respects the player’s knowledge, but never punishes them too much. You are allowed to take your time, dink around in areas as long as you want, and any clues given towards puzzles are enough for the player to decipher from just exploring and playing the game. If OneShot were a person then it would be a loving grandmother rewarding you for doing chores around the house by baking you a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies. Anyone can pick up OneShot with ease and those who struggle to solve puzzles which involve opening up files in your computer are given in game guides of where to specifically go. By the way this game breaks the fourth wall to the point it has broken it more than any other video games I’ve played….. and I love it. Fourth wall breaks should generally be generic tricks for writers to connect to their audience, but OneShot uses this method so well that we connect more than expected.
OneShot has a narrative and writing so genuinely made that it almost made me cry near the end. We get to see all these wacky characters across our journey and see how they live their lives during what should be the end of the world. There are no antagonists or villains in the world of OneShot. Just people trying to live their best lives. That’s what a lot of apocalyptic themed video games should understand. That there doesn’t always have to be an antagonist, opposing force, or conflict for the story to work. All the characters are memorable. You don’t get much time to spend with them, but the little moments you have are subtle and well spent. Niko is not only the cutest protagonist I’ve seen in a long time to the point I’m willing to forfeit all profits like the meme I found, but also the best character in this game and how the writing gets you to connect with her. The fourth wall breaks otherwise the metanarrative. Metanarrative is when you use both the real world and fictional world you created to tell a story. Most recent example of this was Inscryption and the conflict which started to arise especially around the second act. OneShot uses metanarrative in a way where Niko will often start up conversations with the player. She will try to create relatable topics and express the most emotions as possible. In a majority og games this should be cringey, but it works in OneShot because Niko is a child and she wrote like one. She’s innocent, light hearted, and doesn’t fully comprehend the scenario she is in. We feel sorry for her and try our best to bring her towards her goal. There was this one point where Niko describes a mess she caused when she was younger, and I really felt this moment because anyone should have caused a mess during their childhood. There was another moment where Niko talks about her favorite meal and it was so adorable as she describes how much her mother cares for her. It’s so cute and I really enjoy it. The twist near the end really struck some strings with my brain and heart. I won’t spoil it, but it does get you thinking about what is the most morally right option. There’s an additional ending which can be obtained by starting a second playthrough which changes the game drastically and it ends with an even more heartwarming note. I felt sad leaving these characters behind, because what I got was an incredible cast made of love.
OneShot is brilliant and I’m not afraid to call this an absolute masterpiece. The only complaint is that the game is only worth playing once for the true ending and those mind boggling moments lose purpose when you know what happens, but replayability doesn’t really drag down my enjoyment with a product. However, they are currently attempting to port the game to consoles which does worry me. OneShot and its narrative was clearly designed for the computers, so trying to convert it over to consoles will be difficult and remove some immersion it originally had. Yet again, more people need to play this game and if the developers pull it off right then they may make a noteworthy port. OneShot is a work of art and one of the most heartwarming games I could easily suggest to you all. In the end I give OneShot a 10/10 for being icredible.
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