Kanon

Kanon PS2 is the PlayStation 2 edition of Key’s landmark Japanese visual novel, published in Japan by NEC Interchannel. The original PS2 conversion arrived in February 2002, while this record corresponds to the December 22, 2004 Kanon Best budget reissue. It presents the story as a single-player, text-led adventure set in a snow-covered town, where second-year student Yuichi Aizawa returns after seven years away and discovers that much of his childhood there has slipped from his memory.

Most of Kanon unfolds through narration, dialogue, character portraits, background scenes, music, and occasional still illustrations. Players guide Yuichi through everyday conversations and pivotal decision points rather than through action sequences. Each choice can change which events follow and gradually direct the story toward one of five principal character routes, so replaying from earlier decisions is central to seeing the different outcomes. The PS2 version is an all-ages console presentation rather than the adult Windows original, and its format puts the focus on the branching drama and its five heroines.

Yuichi stays with his cousin Nayuki Minase and her mother Akiko as he settles back into school and the surrounding shopping district. Along the way he encounters the energetic taiyaki-loving Ayu Tsukimiya, the amnesiac Makoto Sawatari, the frequently absent Shiori Misaka, and the quiet upperclassman Mai Kawasumi. Their individual stories combine school life, comedy, family bonds, old promises, illness, and increasingly unusual elements in the wintry setting. Memory is especially important: Yuichi’s return and the recollections that surface over time connect the separate routes to the visit he barely remembers.

Kanon was Key’s first released visual novel, with scenario work divided between Naoki Hisaya and Jun Maeda, character design and art direction by Itaru Hinoue, and music by OdiakeS, Shinji Orito, and Maeda. Its songs include the opening “Last regrets” and ending “Kaze no Tadoritsuku Basho,” both associated with the game’s reflective atmosphere. Unlike the original PC release, later console versions added character voice performances; on the Dreamcast and PS2, Yuichi remains unvoiced while the other characters speak. That differentiates this PS2 edition from the 2007 PSP version, which added a voice for Yuichi as well.

The PlayStation 2 release sits between Kanon’s 2000 Dreamcast conversion and its later PSP, mobile, and modern reissues. It is also separate from the television adaptations produced by Toei Animation and Kyoto Animation: those retell the material in animation, whereas Kanon PS2 leaves route selection and the pace of discovery to the player. For fans exploring Key’s early catalogue, the game is notable as the starting point of a developer whose later visual novels included Air and Clannad, while the PS2 version preserves an important early console form of its multi-route story.