NEXTON and ARES have announced that visual novel ONE. will be released in Japan on December 22. The game will be available for the Nintendo Switch and PC (Steam/Windows).

Developed by NEXTON brand novamicus, ONE. is a refined version of ONE ~Kagayaku Kisetsu e~. The original game was created by Tactics—a former brand of NEXTON—and was first released as an R18+ bishoujo game for PC in May 1998. The period included in the title ONE. is meant to symbolize the culmination of the series.

ONE. is set during the winter of 1998. The protagonist is a male student in the second year of high school who lost his family at a young age. The story follows his everyday life and his encounters with six different girls, including a childhood friend and a transfer student. In the second half of the game, the story branches into different paths for each heroine based on player choices. Unlike the first half, which depicts a comedic high school life, the second half is an emotionally moving story focusing on the relationships between the protagonist and each heroine.

Some of the main staff who worked on the original version of ONE would go on to form the visual novel brand Key, including scenario writers Jun Maeda and Naoki Hisaya, and illustrator Itaru Hinoue.

ONE.’s press release describes the original game as the pioneer of the Nakige (crying game) genre (this term is used to describe games that feature highly emotional stories, usually visual novels), and a major influence on many creators and scenario writers of the time. Gamers also held it in high regard, and it maintains a median score of 83 and average score of 81 on ErogameScape, a site mainly for reviews and impressions of bishoujo games.

More recently, Jun Maeda has been writing the main scenario for mobile game Heaven Burns Red, and Naoki Hisaya worked on the scenario for action-RPG Crystar.

ONE. features new illustrations by Itaru Hinoue as well as refined visuals which serve to make the story more vibrant, and the scenario was newly edited by novamicus.

The official site for ONE. can be found here.

Written by. Marco Farinaccia based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2023-04-28 10:21 JST)