Game Review: Once Again (Xbox Series X)

I love a narrative-driven game, not just a game with a story, but one that is wholly focused on that over everything else. It’s why I enjoy playing walking simulators and visual novels, and it is the latter style of ‘game’ that Once Again falls into, with some minor adjustment to the formula.

I also love narrative-driven games that make me feel something, and Once Again tries really hard to make that happen. Alas, while I can recognise its ‘coming of age’ story is sweet and wholesome, I found myself unmoved and, by the end, quite uninterested in what it had to say. Especially as up to that point it has very little to offer either. Not just from a gameplay perspective, but from an overall story perspective too.

Be warned, Once Again takes some significant liberties with the word ‘game’ and what we know it to mean.

Developed by RB Wolf, Once Again tells the story of a boy who lost his mother at such a young age that he doesn’t even remember her. The only connection he has to her is a photo he keeps in his wallet. Then, one summer on his birthday, he makes a wish to spend time with his mother and after falling asleep, discovers he can experience a snapshot of a previous time in her life. Before he was born, and through that, learn more about her hopes and dreams. They end up forming a connection, his mother unknowingly drawn to him, but the snapshot is always short-lived, and when it ends, the boy is left wanting more.

Which, each year on his birthday, he gets for one more day. Summer after summer, while growing up, he learns to not just understand her better, but himself too.

Where does the game part come into play? Aside from pressing a button to skip to the next scene? Every so often you can interact with panel-style visuals in a ‘point & click’ fashion. Albeit extremely limited and mostly pointless, which also goes for the handful of puzzles that are so basic, they kind of insult the intelligence. There’s a real sense that these aspects were added last minute to flesh out the game, as they offer nothing but a temporary distraction from a story that doesn’t quite compel.

There are good ideas here, with nice visuals and music, but the approach is clunky and somehow leaves unanswered questions. The game wants to appear deep, and from afar, it does look a bit fathomless, but once you jump in, it’s surprisingly shallow. So much of its attempts to be emotional are unearned, and the longer it goes on, the shallower it becomes. Put it this way, I wasn’t unhappy to see it end.

Which isn’t to say it’s a bad game, or a bad visual novel, it’s just not as impactful as it could or should have been. It is sweet though and a lot of effort clearly went into it. That doesn’t make it a worthwhile play, but should you pick it up, you might get more out of it than I did.