OneShot - Opinions

OneShot sits in a weird spot for me because I'm pretty sure it's actually a worse game than I think it is. If I try to think of a single thing to sell someone on the game, I honestly can't, even though I know there were plenty of times I was amazed at what the game threw at me. There's just no identifiable X-factor in OneShot that I always think of when it comes up. It's not a game with an identity strongly based around a gimmick, but one based around a theme, and it's that thematic focus that I remember most vividly looking back. There's a warmness in the writing and music of OneShot that gave me great comfort despite its bleak setting, a parallel perhaps to the warm glow of the central lightbulb which gives faith to the characters of the world. It is a game of hope and love, and I found it beautiful.

In more ways than one, I found OneShot to be similar to Undertale, and while it is lacking in many places where Undertale proves exceptional, I don't think the two games actually overlap too much beyond their shared themes. They're both a bit meta, both a bit silly, and both very touching, but there's very little "game" that's comparable between them. I found OneShot to be a much slower game in general and hardly even an RPG at all. It has elements of point-and-click merged with walking-sim-esque progression and some other truly original concepts, but it never really becomes a game about any of those things. Like Undertale, the gameplay supports the story, and the story remains the focus throughout. While OneShot does place a bit less focus on the characters themselves, if you aren't getting pulled into its world, I would understand not enjoying this one as much as I did. Honestly, I feel that OneShot stumbles a bit in setting its characters up, since even I wasn't too attached to many of them until the back half of the game.

Across all the great RPGs, those that remain the most memorable in my eyes are the ones with the most memorable characters, and this is the core reason why I adore Undertale so much. It's simply a masterwork in doing exactly this, and there's just nothing else that I've played that can match how attached I got to all its cast, which has become, in every sense of the word, emblematic of the game itself. There is no Undertale without its characters, and while there is also no OneShot without Niko and her friends, there's much less of a bond there than I would have liked. The first loop through the game doesn't stick to many important characters other than Niko, so it's hard to get invested in their plight until you can see them again in more detail on the second go. The lack of closure for them after round 1 means they functionally just vanish after you last see them. In contrast, Undertale constantly reminds you of the characters you've met, and keeps them in your mind right up until the end where they're sent off in brief epilogue. Granted, the first "ending" in OneShot isn't meant to be as satisfying as the intermediate path in Undertale, but there's still a noticeable enough lack of concern for all characters other than Niko in the first go-round that the big decision felt very skewed towards saving Niko. In cycle 2, this is mostly remedied since you're treated to a montage of pixel art for each one (and they're nothing short of adorable), but that only made me wish I could have seen more of them in the hours prior.

Now I know I said that OneShot is just the right length, but looking back, I do wish that some of that could have been spent better engaging with other characters. There's just so much time spent alone between the story moments in the first half that it starts to feel a bit empty. Even still, despite its flaws, OneShot stands as a worthy representative of its genre (whatever that is) and proof that every once in a while I should take a chance on a game just because it looks cool.