Recent reviews by Much Ado

i thought it was funny how the first user tag for this game was "psychological horror", you know, before "chess" and "time travel"



it's not funny anymore

I'm going to liken OneShot to Undertale for 2 reasons, one that is probably obvious, one that might not be.

The obvious comparison is that, like Undertale, this game is a story-based, 4th-wall-breaky sorta game. It does a lot of things you wouldn't expect if you go in blind, and I happen to really enjoy that sort of thing. If you do too, then chances are you'll enjoy this one. It's also got a lot of fun and quirky humor, and it knows when to be serious and tense.

The less obvious comparison is this: One of the most profound things about Undertale for me was that, even after a ton of time had passed since I'd beaten it, I still cared about the world and its characters in the same way that I did as when I played it. That feeling never diminished, never faded, and in fact is the reason why, after getting the best ending, to this day I've refused to reset and get a different one. In my mind, as long as I never reset my file, my version of that world (that was filled with my memories and feelings and experiences) and its characters would continue to live out that happy ending. That's how much my time in that game meant to me, and very few games have ever tried to/come close to giving me that experience again.

But OneShot does.

And that's something special.

This is something I've had on my radar all the way back when I found the demo on Google Experiments (Experiments? Projects? Whatever, not important), about 5-6 years ago. And all I can say is, this is why you wait for the devs to get all the finishing touches. This was 100% worth the entire wait. The combat is smooth and ridiculously satisfying, while giving you plenty of options to tackle your foes. The puzzles are hard enough to feel challenging, but not feel impossible, while combining all the new gameplay elements you've learned along the way. The character interactions are mostly fun, but there is a healthy amount of serious moments that keep everything grounded. And, most important of all (to me), there is no necessary grinding. At all. Yes, if you don't do sidequests, you will be underleveled, but at worst I didn't mind the sidequests, and actively enjoyed them at best.

All in all, this was already one of my favorite games before it was released, and it continues to be that post-release. There were a couple times the game crashed, but the devs have been working to make sure that stops happening (and to be honest, the game crashing gave me the excuse I need to remove myself from my computer and do healthy things, like eat). I only ever saw any glitches a couple of times, and both times they were incredibly minor, just a couple graphical oversights.

I think that this is a game that everyone should at least try. I get that it won't be for everyone, but you won't know unless you give it a chance, and there is a lot of joy to be found in this game.