No One But You

Just a note: I mostly played this game off-Steam, it's actual length is between 8 and 12 hours, depending on your reading speed.

No One But You is an extremely inconsistent game with a complicated history. It was a surprise success on Kickstarter, starting with a really humble goal and reaching like 1200% funding. The company behind it definitely wasn't able to handle the upscaling and didn't set up a reasonable releasing schedule, resulting in a visual novel that is at times reasonably enjoyable and at times a giant dumpster fire. The character art is nice, but is brought down by undercooked backgrounds and straight-up mistakes and contradictions with the game's text (my favourite is when a long scene happening on a rainy evening ends with a bright CG in full sunlight). Major features were added post-launch, including those that really should be these from the beginning (like an opening amination and a theme song with Japanese vocals) and not all stretch goals were even implemented.

The game's biggest issue is two of its five routes, that for many people destroyed the whole experience: Shiro's and Megumi's scenarios are incredibly dumb, over the top and full of plotholes. They try be emotionally impactful and tragic, but are mostly laughable and at times plain distasteful. They're quite honestly some of the worst examples of bad writing I've seen in visual novels, which is a shame, because the common route and introduction of all the heroines were quite decent.

So, to not be completely negative, the game starts with a setup and characters that are very much anime/VN cliches: it happens in Japan, the protagonist is a high schooler that moves back to his hometown and befriends a bunch of girls and one dumb, perverted dude. There's an unsettling mystery connected to his childhood that is intertwined with some heroine arcs. Very standard stuff, but it's actually quite enjoyable (at least up to the point in which writers decided to jump the shark). Beside the cursed routes mentioned before, other ones are actually relatively enjoyable – Chinatsu's route explored protagonist's tragic childhood and is very sad, but decently-written (the author behind it is actually none other than ebi-hime, one of the best EVN devs out there). Yui's route is about bullying and, ignoring the depressing bad endings, is the closest thing in the game to actual, satisfying romance scenario. The route of Ryo, the protagonist's best buddy, could easily be a joke scenario for those that failed to get any of the girls, but is actually a pretty compelling, light boys' love story (!) – not something you usually see in a male-oriented VN. All routes are too either a bit to short or way too short to tell the complex stories they aimed for without serious pacing issues, but outside of Shiro's and Megumi's arcs, I was able to look past that.

One notable thing in No One But You is the soundtrack, which includes a whopping 35 tracks, mostly very decent and used to enhance the game's climate and give a unique feel to crucial scenes thoughout the story. It couldn't compensate for its obvious shortcomings, but it's still an impressive achievement and something I very rarely see in EVNs. Many people criticised the Japanese-stylized writing, but it didn't bother me much – the game actually experimented with style in some fun ways, like the texting sequences that mimicked teen slang used in that kind of messages and made me chuckle quite a few times. In the end, though, No One But You is kind of hard to recommend, unless you're looking for a curiosity: it can often be quite outlandish in its missteps and the neck-breaking pace of it all probably won't let you get bored. As serious entertainment or emotional experience, it simply doesn't work more often than not. Even for this pricepoint, there are many better VNs to pick up and this one should stay at its place as a somewhat unfortunate piece of history.

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PS If you're interested in quality visual novels, check out my curator page.

Long story short: The VN is amazing, the devs aren't.

Pretty much everyone you meet in this vn is a possible route (except, well, your mother). Every route gets you excited about the characters and their stories and to not ruin your experience I won't go into detail here.
Personally I think 10 bucks is okay for this game but if it ever goes on sale again I'd definetly grab it.

Devs had some drama on afterstories they wanted to make and have or haven't now, who even knows anymore...
After one artist quit and another one "went missing" I have no idea what happened to their plans.

All in all a good VN at an alright price, I recommend.

No One But You is a choice-based Visual Novel published by Unwonted Studios and Sekai Project.

About the story:

Favourite chara:



1. Shiro
   
2. Chinatsu
   
3. Megumi
   
4. Yui
   
5. Ryo
   

Favourite route:



1. Megumi
   
2. Yui
   
3. Chinatsu
   
4. Shiro
   
5. Ryo
   

What else you can find in this game:



• TW:Blood
  
• White-haired heroine
  
• Heroine with glasses
  
• Nice OSTs
  
• Violence
  
[*] Well done backgrounds

Overall:

Your mother decides that you should move with her to the city you grew up in when you were born: except that you were a victim of an accident there when you were a child, don't remember your childhood, the accident, the place, or the people you met there.

Look, this is begging to be your generic anime story of the boy who doesn't remember his past. And it is. You can already guess half of the characters and the plot.

To make it worse, the character development is shallow to an unbelievable level, up until the point in which your "route" is decided. After that point, the other characters will play a minor role, or even totally disappear, and the story will develop the "Chosen Character". You'll be somewhat at the middle of the storyline - but there will be only one or two choices left to make, everything else is linear.

"Chosen Character", quotes intended. I personally have lacked any sort of empathy towards any of the characters until I reached the last quarter of (some) of the routes. Some of the endings are very forced in the "oh well, that escalated quickly" vein, and ruined the empathy.

The art is very good, that is true. Apart from the hand of Yui. The H-Scenes are pretty good too, but I'm not sure if I could recommend a game based purely on that.

After so much bashing, I must admit there is one pretty well done ending. One. It was almost worth it.

Linux port is sloppy because of the bug in Renpy. Achievements are fine, you basically needs to get all endings.

This game reminds me of Yume Miru Kusuri. It is a visual novel that deals with dark themes and if you don't make the right choices will end badly for your love interest... and possibly all of them, since without your input most of them will still be in their particular trouble. The only one not so much is Chinatsu, whose issue... well, you really can't help with that one...

Anyway, the three other girls are Yui, who has suffered from bullying to an extent where she tries to be a loner. Shiro, who loves music, but whose father... is a bit of a dirtbag. And Megumi, who is dealing with the death of her sister... which she believes she may have caused while trying to save her from a pedophile... who is now free and stalking HER...

There is also a failure route, if you don't manage to pursue any of the four girls... and it ends slightly badly...

Do try it if you have the willpower and stomach for it.

There is a more explicit version out there, and rumors of a patch that may or may not ever come to fruition...

Well I only played one run myself but really enjoyed it. It really grabs you and whisks you away. Deffinitly addictive. There are some pretty dark twists however that the game doesn't prepare you for so be cautious when continueing forward. Although not perfect as I did find some flaws in the story not reconizing that I didn't complete certain events though it treated me like I had refering to scenes I hadn't seen this is really only a minor complaint. All in all if I hadn't already settled on a in game waifu I would deffinitly play again and my only true complaint is the game wasn't longer as I find myself wanting to continue on in this world interacting with these charaters much much more. For the price they're asking I would consider this a must have however you may aswell skip the steam version and go for the unrated version as aparently is has much more of that juicy content we all crave.

If seems cute with the pink hair, beauty and single. Is the fuc%&#$ crazy as IRL. I rly hate VN for gods sake. But I like the artwork and the music. I didn't expect that end ;A; and I like the foil badge. Tbh I bought it at first for that. But then caught me. Also the auto skip was nice just taking choices without think as IRL again.

There's actually a lot of content here and pretty decent artwork. The story goes into some pretty dark places and there's a lot of variety based on your route. But despite all of that I just couldn't get into it. I played Chinatsu's route seriously, even when the predictibility started to get really grating. Anyone who's read anything before could see where this was going a mile away. Then I played Megumi's route which goes to some really dark places but I just couldn't connect with the characters, they didn't seem real enough. After that I mostly skipped/skimmed the remaining routes to get the achievements. They too had some pretty serious twists and turns but in the end didn't provoke much of an emotional reaction. Your mileage may vary, but it was just one of those rare cases where a lot of effort clearly went into the VN but it just didn't work for me.

Summary: This game is broken, unfinished, lachluster, and disappointing. Had potential but, seems rushed and unpolished.

I'm not going to lie I really wanted to see this visual novel do well, and I had been following the production process in the last couple of months leading up to it's release. However, I'm sad to say that I am very disappointed in No One But You. The reason I am sad to say that, is because I am someone who one day aspires to produce a visual novel of my own, and as such I wanted to support someone trying to do the same. Especially someone who lives outside of Japan like myself.

That being said, this visual novel features no audible dialogue even though we were told before release that it would include it, and the game contains an option in the game menu for "voice volume". However, none of the characters are voiced, and all dialouge is simply written. This means that they were planning on including voiced characters in the final game, but that was scrapped for whatever reason. I was hoping there would be an update or something so we could actually hear some of these characters, but that has sadly not come to pass and it has been several months now since it's release.

Now, I can go on about the art style and how I am not a particularly big fan of it (which I'm not), but that would be slightly biased as some might say that they particularly like the art of the game. However, my main beef with this title is it's lack of continuity among the story arcs. Let me give you an example.

In other visual novels/dating sims, the player character is presented with a choice or choices at certain points along the story's progression. What the player chooses to do at these points directly affects the narrative, and I believe the BIGGEST sin the author of a visual novel can commit is making it so that those choices do not affect the plot appropriately.

Case and point, there is a decision point in this game where the main character Hideki is presented with a choice where if you choose one option you end up performing a prank with one of the story's heroines Megumi, if you go with the other option this prank never happens. So, on my first play through I chose the option where this prank was never pulled. However, much to my confusion later on in the story this prank is mentioned in converstaion as though it had happened, despite the fact that because of the choice I made it schould have never happened.

This alson happens with some of Hideki's relationships with some of the other characters in the story. After one brief conversation with the character Yui, the tsundere character, I decided I didn't want anything to do with her and whenever there was an option to go talk to her I chose not to. Then, what do you know a couple months pass by in a time skip, (which this game is fond of by the way, not a big fan) and suddenly, and inexplicably Yui and Hideki are friends, and I'm left sitting there like, "When the heck did that happen?! I was avoiding that stuck up b****." The story seemd to not be programmed in a way to differ from certain story lines and automatically asumes that you made certain choices that you didn't make. Which leads me to ask the question. Why include choices in this story if they won't affect the progression of the plot? I mean I'm fine with some stupid choices here and there in a visual novel, but at least have them affect the progression of the story appropriately. Heck, even if there was a choice for Hideki to eat a sandwhich or some sushi for lunch in the story, it wouldn't affect the story much, but if you put that choice in there and I have Hideki eat sushi and an hour later Megumi is asking how he liked his sandwhich I'm going to notice that!

This story also includes some non sensical plot points and events, and overall just left me feeling uninvsted in the story. Which is sad, because I wanted it to be a lot better, and it could have been. I would have gladly waited longer for a more polished and complete title with all that was promised in the Kichstarter campaign. I would have even paid more money, but sadly that is not the case and we are left with a finished product that is a fraction of what it could have been. Don't waste your time and money here and instead fork out the extra cash for titles like Clannad or Princess Evanglie.

Please keep in mind that when I wrote this review, the Full Version patch (which includes the voice acting and +18 scenes) wasn't out yet, and still isn't. I finished all available routes until now a day prior to writing this review.

I think we can all agree that the West is far from producing Visual Novels with the level of professionalism we know and love from our Japanese counterparts. That being said, "No One But You" has this typically Western amateurish VN feeling to it, but I wouldn't hold it against Unwonted Studios. They managed to show more care and spend more time towards creating a truly entertaining VN in its own rights different then infamous Winged Clouds. The sad part is that Unwonted promised to polish their game up, admitting it felt rough around the edges -- but isn't showing any signs of doing so.

If anything, I have to say that I was impressed by what Unwonted managed to create here. Personally, I plan on replaying some routes once the patch comes out, that's how much I liked the experience. But on the other hand, this patch seems to be one of those hollow promises... a shame, the game itself really deserved more attention from the developers.

We have a Visual Novel with 5 different routes with different endings, a good art direction, nice writing, good taste in never exaggerating too much, but not keeping things mundane either, shocking (final) moments and excellent humor. In fact, the good humor of MC Hideaki is the trademark of this VN, and like in any good VN, his interaction with the other characters is what really kept me hooked until the very end. Unwonted managed to create characters for which you end up genuinely caring and wanting to know more about, be it about mysterious bookworm Chinatsu, genki class rep Megumi, shy and musically talented Shiro, hardboiled tsundere Yui, or self-declared "bestest friend in the whole wide world" Ryo.

I felt that in some routes the other characters may have been neglected a bit too much, to the point of almost being non-existent and only remaining as some sort of memory. I'd like to point out specially Megumi during Shiro's route... her arc seems to have just been left hanging unresolved.

Away from the amateurish stuff -- side characters suddenly having western names like Anna, artwork flashing out of nowhere for a second (whole scenes before they should appear), the calendar being unable to switch properly to the name of the next month (instead declaring that the month was repeating itself), gaining the achievement of two different endings when I finished only one, a character talking about a detail from a scene I didn't pick, and being unable to delete my save data ingame -- I'd say for Western VN readers to definitely give "No One But You" a shot. It may deserve some more polish, but it IS a fun experience guaranteed to get at least a chuckle out of you and make you feel for the characters.

Now, if only the promised patch came out already... don't get your hopes up, though.

This VN was a wonderful experience to me. I didn’t expected much to be honest (unfortunately there are a lot of VNs that have such a beautiful design, but the story/characters are bad… So I’m used to be disappointed at this point), but honestly… It was way better than I thought. The art style is truly beautiful, BGs and BGM were also amazing. And the story that is apparently a simple/cliche one, is saved by the characters. I really enjoyed them, every single one! Megumi was my favorite girl. And I did not expected that kind of ending… Wow. o_o

Also the “Ryo’s route” caught me off guard. I liked it, but it sure was a big surprise, haha!

I really cannot wait to see more works from these developers.

8/10, might be one of the best dating sims I’ve played on Steam so far.

If you're looking for a simple dating sim with an interesting story for each character, then this is the game for you. There are multiple characters you can choose to develop a romantic relationship with, (5 total) and the price is appropriate for the length of gameplay (about 10 hours). There are multiple endings for most characters, and some of the bad endings are pretty dark. Although there isn't as many oppotunities for choices as I would hope for, it is still just enough to make it still feel like a dating sim as opposed to just a visual novel. In conclusion, I would definitely recommend giving this game a shot.

I actually liked what I saw in this game. The general story kept me hooked on the game, and the backstories of the girls were also great. The game took thirteen hours for me to complete, so I think the price of the game was appropriate for its length. The girls themselves were also great, I especially liked Megumi and Chinatsu.

With all of these positive aspects of this game, you're probably wondering why I'm not recommending this game. Well, for whatever reason, the game only gives an afterstory for one of the five routes: Megumi's. The discussion board for this game had said that there would be afterstories for the other girls added to the game at some point, but this hasn't happened yet, and I'm starting to wonder if they will ever be added. But since I liked many aspects of this game, I will change my rating to "Recommended" if and when the other afterstories are added to the game.

Edit: The game now has endings for Chinatsu and Shiro. I went ahead and changed my rating to "Recommended", however, there's still no afterstory for Yui or Ryo, so just beware.

Spoiler-free TL;DR: bad writing.

Spoilery TL;DR at the bottom

Pros:
-Art was pretty nice
-Music was ok
-Characters were ok

Cons:
-Game often jumped forward weeks/months, even when it seemed like significant things were happening in that time -For example, despite never choosing to talk to one character, during a timeskip I seemed to befriend them - no explanation for this was given
-BAD WRITING - WILL EXPAND UPON THIS BELOW, BUT THERE WILL BE SPOILERS
-Could use some refinement - music tended to stop abruptly rather than gradually fading out, some art was rough in places
-The date shown in the top-right corner became glitched on two occasions, permanently showing the wrong day (didn't affect gameplay, but did bother me a little)


Now then, allow me to elaborate on the writing. I played through Megumi's route and, up until the point where she became my girlfriend, everything was fine. A little bland, perhaps, but enjoyable. Then a new teacher showed up at the school, raising about fifty pedophile flags as he did so. He starts to torment Megumi behind the scenes, until you film him arguing with her and threaten to upload it online. Then Megumi tells you her tragic backstory: a year ago, the same teacher started teaching at the school, tormented her sister for a while, then tried to r*pe her. Megumi saw this as it was happening and tried to stop him, causing him to "accidentally" violently murder her sister. Then he got caught. But, one year later, he's somehow out of prison, and teaching in the same school where he committed r*pe and murder. The only explanation given for this is one line in which he says how "expensive" it was to avoid prison.

After sharing her backstory, Megumi becomes more confident in standing up to him, and it seems like life is back to normal again. As a result, she and the main protagonist both show a remarkable lack of concern about their pedophile/r*pist/murderer teacher. Surprisingly, this turns out to be a bad idea, as he then goes to her house at night, presumably to r*pe and murder her. She sends you a panicked voicemail, you run to her house rather than contacting the police or asking your mother to drive you there, and then it turns out she killed him.

SO, TO SUMMARISE: a pedophile/r*pist/murderer is caught pedo-ing/r*ping/murdering, avoids prison, returns to teach at the school where he pedo-ed/r*ped/murdered, pedo-es for a few weeks, you stand up to him, stop caring that he is a pedophile/r*pist/murderer, he goes to your girlfriends house, presumably to pedo/r*pe/murder, then she murders him.


After that, you can tell her to turn herself in or run away with you. I picked the first option, which led to her having sex with me, and then turning herself in. I'm assuming that the sex would've happened regardless of my choice. There was no sex scene; apparantly there will be a patch for that soon.


After seeing pedophilia/r*pe/murder being executed so poorly in this route (why the fuck isn't he in prison; you can't pay your way out of r*pe/murder charges, let alone be re-employed by the school where you did the r*ping/murdering) I am forced to assume that the writing for the others is equally poor, so I don't intend to play through them. Kinda feels like I've wasted my money.

TL;DR: Kinda bland, until a r*pist/murderer who was caught in your school a year ago, and inexplicably avoided prison, returned to teach at the same school one year later and, despite knowing this, you and the sister of the girl who was murdered show a remarkable lack of concern. AND THAT'S JUST ONE ROUTE.


Also, why does steam censor the word "r*pe"? It took a good few minutes for me to add all those asterisks in, time which could've been spent ranting to myself about the poorly executed rape.

Characters were fun and fit into the story well enough, Though some do inexplicably disappear for no reason halfway through a route.

Some people don't like chiches, i however quite like them. To each there own.

Each character had their own underlying story, as one would expect.

Each story was unique to that character no repetition or story connection.

Endings were out of nowhere (especially Ryo, how i ended up there i dont know)

There were some shortcomings such as typos, some characters not being drawn in, and lack of voices.

However, all in all, i enjoyed the game and had fun, i try not to nitpick about games as it tends to ruin them. As such, i would at the very leastleast recommend you to give this game a try.

Personal overall score 8/10 would definately play again.

Fantastic visual novel with surprisingly dark and heavy storylines! Not a lot surprises me, but there were a few times when I just had to sit here, mouth LITERALLY ajar, staring at my screen in shock at some of the conclusions. HAD to 100% this one to do it's writers justice!

This game really speaks to me. Asking advice on the internet about going on a date with a cute girl. I was told to countlessly kill myself. Just like real life!

Starts out happy and cheery, also quite funny. But things take a sharp turn after summer.



Only played through Megumi's story. Can't replay the game because seeing Megumi brings tears.

Recommended because I'm glad that I played through it once. But I'm never playing through it again. The game is written extremely well, to a fault. You connect very easy with some of the characters, and then when all the bad shit starts happening you really get hit hard by it. Even the good ends are sometimes bittersweet. One route in particular made me actually sick to my stomach and I could hardly continue. If the goal was to illicit emotion, I guess 10/10.

Play through it once, but. I can't do it again.

"This is not some dating sim game where you just go around getting to know people" -Yui

Game is very aware of itself, and it makes that fact known 10/10

EDIT: I have finished all of the routes, and might I just say this is the best game I've played in a long time. The feels were felt as I watched everyones stories unfold. Even the good endings weren't always happy ones. If you enjoy these types of games, or are looking to get into them, buy this.