It is not always immediately evident if a FMV dating sim is good or bad, you have to step back and see the whole picture. The flaws in Only You are obvious: mixed video quality, clunky scene cuts, and annoying background music. But they matter less and less when put up against the good love interests, funny dialogue, dual-story content, and surprisingly dense endings.
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The defining feature of Only You is that it has two story paths based on a starting perk: money or charm. Each path has unique scenes. The love interests are the same, and there are similar narrative beats (e.g. getting sick), but how you meet characters and what you do is all different.
For example, you live in a mansion in the money path but stay in a friend’s apartment in the charm path. Whether you are charming or rich is often a focal point for humor. Playing through one path will take under 4 hours, with double that needed to see all scenes in that path. Do the math and you are looking at about 16 hours of total content, which is impressive.
In the prologue, a female AI character tells you to find love or you will die. The same AI appears between chapters, previewing upcoming situations and providing commentary. She also gives you small missions elsewhere, like finding items. Completing missions gives you coins to buy gifts that boost affection, but getting all endings is not difficult. Cue to Fall in Love With You had a similar AI character, but Only You has a much better integration, and a real human plays the AI.
There are seven main love interests. The domineering CEO, Gu Zhiwei, is the most prominent. Sultry actress, Zhou Liman, expects the best. The Jiang twins have funny banter and contrasting personalities. Childhood friend and cosplayer, Xu Mengyao, stays with you. Sweet swimming coach, Wang Qiuyun, has a child. And unassuming university student, Lin Xiyue, cherishes real love. The best thing about the dual path is that you get to see different sides of people. With charm, you expose the inner child of CEO Zhiwei. But with money, you wine and dine her as the boss. While most love interests get balanced screen time, Lin Xiyue is scarce on the money path.
Each path has 2-3 endings for every love interest, along with a few lonely failure endings. Some characters don’t get a happy ending in both paths, which is a shame. The happy endings are pretty good though and feel dense, even though they are only a few minutes long.
Video quality is inconsistent; some scenes are clear, but in others it’s like watching LEGO blocks in a washing machine. Also, the game has monotonous background music that can be too loud, drowning out the live audio. Scene transitions can be rough and the game does sadly use obvious face filters. But despite these quirks, Only You has plenty of charm and is definitely worth your money.
