Secrets Revealed in the No One But You Demo

[dropcap size=big]W[/dropcap]ith its campaign finally ticking into the hours mark, I managed to get my hands on a copy of the demo for No One But You from the game’s creator Kyle Tyner. Being essentially a dating sim visual novel I didn’t expect a whole lot of innovation from it. And it certainly doesn’t reinvent the wheel. But, in my opinion what’s not broke doesn’t need fixing. While I prefer games with some bits of uniqueness sometimes I want to play something that feels familiar. Which is pretty much what we get here.

No One But You sees a young boy named Hideaki moving to the big city with his mother. It’s never explained why other than that she says that there are friends of the family who live there. And apparently she’s right as the first person he meets after moving in to the new house seems to know him. Or at least the family. It seems that Chinatsu Misaki has some history with Hide, although he doesn’t remember anything. For we find out in this early conversation that he was in an accident and has lost his memory. So, it’s entirely possible that these two knew each other when they were younger. But it’s only hinted at, although I’m quite certain that if you follow her path to the end you’ll find out these secrets.

Of course, with No One But You being a dating sim you can’t have just one girl pining over Hideaki. There are at least four girls that have some interest in him. Whatever it is. And each has their own…unique personality. Megumi appears to be a bubbly airhead around Hide, Yui comes off very early on as a hothead, and Shiro is obviously shy and a bit of a loner. You get a brief glimpse of these parts of their characters in the demo, but as they say looks can be deceiving.

No One But You deals not just with finding a girl to go steady with but also in discovering secrets and perhaps pasts best left buried. That is the one truly unique feature that has come across in the demo. Everyone has several masks that they wear when in different social situations and why can’t a bunch of characters in a visual novel be the same? And the cliffhanger at the end shows that there could be a darker side to Hideaki and the others as these secrets unravel throughout the story. Let’s just say that the ending of the demo leaves one on the edge of their seat, wondering what’ll happen next.

The demo is far from perfect and Kyle told me that even this is very much in the rough stages. Still, despite missing backgrounds and the conspicuously absent Ryo sprite the demo for No One But You shows much promise. And considering that the campaign has managed to get all of the currently announced stretch goals, including the extra “love scenes” that myself and so many others wanted, I’m not the only one that thinks this one is worth watching.