One Night Stand
video-game, review
One Night Stand by Kinmoku is a short, unique and really lovely visual novel.
You wake up in bed with someone you hooked up with the last night, but all your memories are gone. Thanks, alcohol! Who is this woman? What even is her name? What exactly happened? And what to do now?
While a lot of visual novels have the classic manga/anime look, One Night Stand goes for its own unique style enhanced by the rotoscope effect (where each frame looks like it was drawn from scratch, resulting in squiggly lines).
It is an absolutely fantastic look for the game.
The game sets a rather speedy pace with each playthrough lasting for about five minutes. When you’re alone in a room, you’ve got a handful of objects you can look at or interact with. When your date returns, you have a bit of an awkward chat before she needs to dash out for a bit.
The split between the exploration and dialogue is a bit contrived at times, but the whole thing moves along. This sense of urgency (you can’t explore every item and go through every discussion topic) makes the playthrough flow really well. If you screw up, you’re kicked out of the house before you know what happened.
I’ve never been in a situation like this (and likely never will), but it feels real and it feels completely human. One of the things I love the most about visual novels is the ability (and willingness!) to explore topics that most other games or other media don’t touch.
One Night Stand will probably last you around an hour or two, which is just perfect. Accompanied by a lovely soundtrack, it was a time really well spent.
And if you bought the itch.io’s Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, you already own it.
