One Of You

Horror games have been very important to the RPGMaker engine community for a long time – one look at the all-time most downloaded games here should be proof enough of that. Pretty much every engine of this family has a worthwhile horror title to its name by now: rm2k has Desert Nightmare and The Longest Ribbon, rm2k3 had borne Schuld and Backstage, XP was the framework for The Mirror Lied and Miserere, original VX has The Witch's House and (popular, if controversial) One Night games during its time in the limelight, and VX Ace has Subject, Cardiophobia, It Moves, Immortal and there are certainly other games I’m forgetting about. Only engines I’m unsure about are 95, perhaps because rm2k displaced it so effectively (though you can potentially count OFF as an example of one), and the newest kid on the block, MV. One of You is the one game that could convincingly lay claim now. It certainly does a lot of things right, from its non-linear multiple scenario concept, to a truly grounded approach to horror. On the other hand, thoughm it also isn’t quite sure when to stop, which potentially turns the strengths above into weaknesses.

Aesthetics (art, design and sound)



MV RTP is used for the visuals, and it generally works. The few outside maps look rather good (save for the strange above-ground doors and inconsistent wall structure underneath the roof in the image above), while the indoor ones are perfectly functional at the very least. There’s a pretty creepy animated custom menu, and the music is apparently custom and pretty creepy as well, with the menu sounds changed to match it. There are no footstep sounds, besides the one instance where you might walk over a broken mirror, but the other environmental sounds are quite good: the game even uses a fair few voice clips during the key moments, which always adds to the immersion. The one instance where aesthetics fail the game are some Scenario C facesets, which just aren’t convincing at all.



Gameplay



One of You bothers to create a nice little tutorial to reiterate its simple mechanics, which is pretty cool. It’s still largely the traditional formula of interacting with the environment to find items, then potentially interacting with other environment while possessing those items to make things happen and move into previously locked-off areas. Scenario B also has a weird minigame whose tone is out of place on one hand, but which is memorable, even awesome, precisely because of that. Otherwise, the only notable changes are the ability to click to move to an area and/or interact with something there, like in any CRPG, and the C button being used to provide clues about what you need to do next. It’s a nice touch, though due to the short length of each episode, it’s not really needed besides the key environmental puzzle that happens upstairs, at a midway point of both Scenario A and Scenario B (since the two are parallel stories running alongside each other). It is different for both characters, but is essentially still a single, mechanically simple interaction that could only require a clue because of the inconsistent eventing. After all, this is a game where books, newspaper clippings and even laptops can be read even if you interact with the opposite side of the table, when they are clear objects of interest for the player anyway. Thus, when said key puzzle requires you to approach a specific unnotable thing at a specific spot, it’s easy not to get that, and waste time. The Clue of Scenario A immediately tells you that, but one of Scenario B isn’t too helpful, especially since the puzzle itself makes less sense.

I should also discuss the moments where it feels like you have fewer opportunities then you really should, particularly in Scenario B. There, for instance, you can fix a vent spewing dangerous gas out, but you don’t have to, and leaving it alone actually does nothing (a cutscene later on will show it fixed regardless). I just think it would’ve been cool if leaving it alone actually killed both of your characters from gas overdose. This particular room has a wounded character, whom you are supposed to find and tend to, yet it is possible to walk out of the room after having seen him, but before talking or tending to him, and then be forced to go back to him, which I think should be fixed. Similarly, after you complete the aforementioned main interaction of Scenario B and unlock the required door as a result, you can still walk out of that room, go downstairs, and find a character who shouldn’t be there according to the plot at that time, and so the player probably shouldn’t have the freedom to do so. (Alternatively, doing so could be integrated into the plot, and provide another ending.)

Storyline



This is one of the first images you’ll see in the Scenario A, which prefaces a Rule Book found in the room where your initially-unnamed protagonist wakes up in. This whole Rule Book does a great job of both grounding the premise, and creating the sense of uncertainty that’s so important to true horror. It contains minor infractions which already count to 8, with Backtalk and Filthiness apparently treated identically to undefined Crime and Truancy, and all will get the guilty person isolated without food and water for a while. Meanwhile, helping someone “undergoing rehabilitation” is considered as serious as attacking the “rehabilitator”, and can obviously result in death. These rules, listed so plainly in one book, are much scarier then any vengeful ghost, precisely because they are both well-defined, and more forgiving, so to speak. They give the impression your character, apparently suffering from trauma-induced amnesia, was kidnapped by some cult, and so their actual life is not really at stake, and thus there’s no “live and win or lose and die” binary. You know your kidnapper wants to let you live, and so you immediately start wondering whether escaping the place is necessarily worth it, or if it will simply get them killed as opposed to potentially living, even if under such Rules. However, many more twists and story developments appear throughout Scenario A’s brief runtime, and incredibly, they manage to avoid undermining each other. The premise, and the way it’s executed, is ultimately remarkably self-consistent and coherent, not to mention effective at its goal.

I would rather not spoil the game for you, so now is probably the time to discuss secondary writing instead. The environmental description in the game is present often enough, and can be occasionally good. For instance, while the mirror is unfortunately not an actual reflective surface (which a few rm games managed) , it does lead to the question “Who are you…staring back at me?” from Scenario’s A protagonist (protagonists of the other two episodes don’t say anything to that, weirdly enough.) There are other creepy details, like protagonist’s amnesia making them struggle to recollect the function of clocks and fridges (though it’s still not particularly convincing, especially once the memory starts coming back.) And of course, the logs near the end of Scenario A are extremely good. However, there are also a few too many interactions where “There’s nothing here.” (like every trashcan, for instance) and so most room-to-room exploration doesn’t feel particularly rewarding, when it easily could’ve been. For instance, there’s a wooden closet in the bathroom that’s empty, when there are more than a few things it could plausibly contain – a ton of cleaning products to deal with the aftermath of “rehabilitator’s” activities is just one example. Another room could have the protagonist’s phone, smashed up to bits, etc.

Swallow’s Descent is my go-to for what environmental description done to the max looks like, but here, one does need to go that far: Colonel’s games, translated by HiragiHoux, both provide very good examples of how to make every single room engage the player and tell its part of the overall story. The protagonist’s reaction to the item/note, rather then the item description itself, is often key: One of You does occasionally do that (including a memorable instance where a certain note, triggers a large, interactive flashback), but just as often doesn’t: neither Scenario’s protagonist ever reacts to the lines in the Rule Book, for instance, and a particularly disturbing newspaper clipping also provokes no reaction. The moment when a character uses a hammer for a certain puzzle, and then just drops it, even though he has every reason by then to be afraid for his life, also sticks out. Then, the supporting character with a bandaged head also weakens the narrative somewhat through his lack of reactivity. The moment where he’s present contrary to the plot’s logic aside, he’ll mainly just sit in one spot and say the same line, in either Scenario. It would make so much sense to tell him about the things you often find, but you are simply not allowed to do that.

However, these issues are minor compared to what awaits you in the “bonus” Scenario C. Essentially, Scenario A is clearly the main story, and Scenario B is a parallel supplement to it, and they actually work remarkably well together. (Technically, you can complete Scenario B first, but I do not see how it could possibly lead to a superior experience.) Scenario C, however, is unlocked only after you beat either of them, and is sadly less like its own self-contained narrative, and more like a lame post-credits scene. It’s shorter, has even fewer interactivity, and possesses far less narrative or character texture to it. There’s little mystery to it – it’s much like the tired horror sequels where you already anticipate anything the antagonist might do. It still manages a twist of sorts, but the narrative ultimately makes no sense from the start. The simple fact that there are phones, which work, but cannot be used when you have every reason to (besides the fact your character almost certainly possesses a mobile since the game is set in our year of 2017) renders all the going-ons in it wholly nonsensical.

Typos (some spoilers):

Conclusion

In all, One of You is mostly a very good horror story, which disturbs in spite of the occasional lack of polish. This is true as far as Scenarios A and B are concerned: my current score doesn’t cover Scenario C, as playing it is wholly unnecessary and only likely to spoil the overall experience. It also contains hope the developer would work on perfecting the main body of the game, and either rework Scenario C into something better matching the preceding game, or even drop it entirely.