Moon.
For a team's first work and a company's second, it isn't as bad as you expect it to be... conceptually speaking, that is. Moon. starts off with exactly what you wouldn't expect from any of Maeda or Key's usual romps: a setting almost completely devoid of reality and school life, filled with mystery, and most of all, gloomy and bleak. It gives you only hints of whats to come, and it grips you with that alone. It's only then that things start to go downhill for the game, sadly.
The gameplay is introduced to you early on after some introductions for the main trio. No bullshit, it's terrible. I seriously don't even know why it's there, the only reason I can think of is for padding time, and a couple moments where you can get a bad end if you don't take certain actions. There's barely any room for exploration, because you aren't rewarded for exploration. You can walk into rooms and examine every tile if you'd like, though you'll find nothing 95% of the time. And so for a system basically intrisincally tied to exploration for there to be none, you expect unclear destinations, to sort of give a point to the system. But, no, not that too. Corridors are narrow, destinations are usually trivial and spoken by the main character right before you're thrown into the gameplay system. This, coupled with its day-by-day routine system, completely breaks the story, and any replayability it may have had. This, on its own, impeded me from even trying to get any other ending except the True End. So, sadly, this isn't going to be a super complete review, although from what I've read those endings aren't worth seeing anyway.
On that note, the story. Most of it is told in these destinations you're supposed to go, through your traditional sprite/CG and textbox system. You go through Ikumi's routine in the facility, which, as mentioned before, gets repetitive to the point of numbness. The pacing of the story is ruined. What I will say, though, is that the story itself, put in the toughest vacuum possible, isn't bad. It is backloaded to all hell, true, but it has a certain charm that can't be said to be present in the team's next work. But even then, it has issues. The Elpod sections, mainly, are absolutely awful. A great concept that could give way to great character development instead used to further push hentai scenes unto the player all of which are gratitious to the point of annoyance, a running theme with the game as a whole. It can be seen in the game's other hentai scenes, the ones that take place in Class B and C. They try to make this a part of the lore, but the intentions behind them are clear. Which, by the way, all have a weird air of scat and piss fetishes. Not my cup of tea.
So let's say you ignore all of that. There's plenty of characterization in the other sections and bits of the game, right? Well, that's correct... to a certain extent. While the characters are given a fair amount of time to interact and flesh themselves out, they end up with no depth anyway. They are far too simple and one-dimensional from start to finish. Ikumi and the Boy are the only ones I'd say that stray from this a tad, and have chemistry to boot, but what they do have feels cut short. For a visual novel of this size, with this many opportunities, most of their day-to-day lives are spent running through similar dialogue that has been run through a thesaurus, with barely any change.
It's only toward the end that this changes, because it has that "this episodic show is ending so here's your two episode plot finale" NG. Lots of things happen in that ending plot-wise that breaks from their routine. But since it's only "two episodes" you're left with wanting more, not in a "I want a sequel" way but in a "that felt rushed" way. And this extends to the plot as a whole, obviously. They introduce and reveal concepts that aren't really addressed in the best manner, and are ultimately rushed through as well. Good concepts, in fact, like most of the visual novel, that are squandered.
Just like the music and art, too. The music is surprisingly good and catchy even if the overall soundtrack is short and... repetitive. The CGs looks genuinely weird, but the sprite work is good, and it works with the 3D background well.
To conclude: it looks good, sounds good, but ultimately tastes okay, and some bites taste awful. A cake that I can't call average as a whole, but slightly below that.
If it had to be a numerical score: 4/10
One ~To the Radiant Season~
Coming off of Moon., my expectations were fairly low. Looking at One from the outset, there wasn't much that interested me. The setting fit more with the Key staff's usual romps, sure, but it was that exact fact that turned me off so much. Moon. showed me that they could have done more, but reverting to what sold at the time is disappointing to my own tastes. But, keeping an open mind, I dived headfirst into solid fucking concrete.
Mizuka's route is offensively bad. I can't even begin to describe how many boxes it ticks off on person-to-person emotion-to-emotion crimes it commits. The entire route is centered around the protagonist abusing the girlfriend he confessed to on a game that the boys had played on him. In every single way she is emotionally battered throughout the events of the game, and this escalates to her being physically and sexually abused. And even despite that, she still comes back to him, like a stockholm'd animal. It's disgusting from every level. It falls below anything Moon. had offered even in terms of rape hentai scenes, even if I didn't actually see any of that (might have been my version of the game). And then, on top of that, the plot centering the game feels the most wrong here. It's just there because it has to be, and for no other reason. It doesn't serve the relationship whatsoever. There are no reedeming qualities here. I don't know what Maeda was thinking when he wrote any of this. If this was standalone, it'd be an easy 1/10.
Rumi's route is a standard fair. Almost too standard, it comes off as trite, and just there for the sake of it. And it's funny, too, because the chemistry they have in the common route completely disappears due to her becoming more "girly." There's lots of elements here that are problematic in that regard too, but I'd rather not dive into it. The protagonist actually acts like a normal human being and isn't outright an irreedemable assholely cartoony villain, so I guess that's good. The plot, again, is present here, but at least it's placed in a way that doesn't feel awkward. Though, as is a running theme with this game, the ending is good, but the post-credits scene ruins it. This is the best of Maeda's routes in this game by a mile, but it still isn't good by any means. 4.5/10.
Akane's route is good. And it surprised me, too. Coming off of the previous two routes I fully expected absolutely nothing. Another game with some interesting characters squandered by the structure, plot, and terrible writers. But, no. Hisaya showed me that at least he could pour heart into this soulless piece of garbage. Although, I say only "good." Because Akane herself isn't that much of an interesting character, it's more the events surrounding her, and how it ties to the plot emotionally. It was more scraping the surface for the other two Hisaya routes rather than actually bringing things out of me. Weirdly enough, however, is that this is the only route where I can actually accept the post-credits scene. Both elements work, and only here. 6/10.
Misaki is easily where the game peaks. It isn't a particularly high peak, because as is a running theme with both Moon. and One everything is underdeveloped, but it's enjoyable nonetheless. Off the bat in the common route Misaki's interactions were my favorite, but them showing a different more emotional side to her was something I didn't expect, and then using that to wring a couple tears out of me was more than enough to sell me. It taking place mostly on the rooftop, helping the atmosphere, and the descriptiveness of the text feeling slightly heightened really elevates it from the rest of the game. Her development is short, but it's sweet. But once again, good ending, and the worst post-credits scene. Not that it's any different than the others, but that taking in the context that it happens, and the development of Misaki, it doesn't make sense. Thank you, Hisaya, for saving this shit. 7/10.
I expected a lot from Mio's route, and sadly those expectations weren't met. This route didn't play as much into the emotional factor that she couldn't speak, instead going into past meetings as children, and mementos from that as is common in romance games. It was underwhelming only for the reason that the previous route was great. Same post-credits ending problem. 5.5/10.
Shiina's route. Oh boy. There's no way to sugarcoat this, it's grooming. Child porn. She's a fucking middle schooler, canonically underdeveloped, and acts half her age. Jesus Christ. Maeda, what the fuck. 1/10.
Hikami's route... is not even a route? It barely exists, barely anything happens. It provides clues on the plot of the game... but it isn't anything you couldn't figure out yourself at this point in the game anyway. There's hints that they wanted to actually go the romantic way for the route, but it doesn't happen. It also just ends. Abruptly. And nothing is really explained at the ending. I'm not even giving this a score, honestly.
Overall, you may have noticed I don't mention the protagonist much, and that's because he's basically just a self-insert. Maeda writes him as an outright asshole, Hisaya writes him as a more dense, confused, but when he realizes the fact, loving character. The common route depicts a mix of both, making me suspect different scenes were tackled by either writer.
On that note, the lack of cohesion is apparent even going to the route order. There is no true route, no ending. You end the game on whichever route you do last. So, I played based on order of appearance, and since Shiina and Hikami don't appear unless you look for them, that's how it ended for me. To prevent my mistake, I suggest:
Mizuka > Rumi > Shiina > Mio > Hikami > Akane/Misaki
Concluding Thoughts
I was going to write these reviews separately at first, but after finishing One for good I realized that comparing both games was a good exercise. While Moon. showed potential for both writers, One split them both into their separate fields, showing the strengths and weaknesses of both, while also putting them in a more neutral setting, where they could express themselves individually better. While it hurts to say this, especially with the Key catalog in my sights, Maeda did not prove himself whatsoever. Hisaya, on the other hand, showed competency, and because of this I'm convinced the good parts of Moon. were his doing. But in many ways, regardless of writing quality, One is a stepback. There isn't as much thought put into just about every area of it. The setting, soundtrack, atmosphere, art, and even the structure. Moon. feels like a budget title for its time, while One feels like a doujin title of its time. It's a much less ambitious game to its own detriment. So, I still prefer Moon. Even considering how One's peaks are higher than Moon.'s, it's lows are extremely low, ones that Moon. doesn't get close to touching.
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