Ever17: The Out of Infinity

Making a visual novel is hard. The creating process itself is easy since it's just text, art, sound and coding, but to make an everlasting impression with your game you need to have a high budget to hire talented artists and composers, godtier writers and top-of-the-line voice actors to bring the world alive, and on top of that if you want to release a proper story-driven piece without nudity you take risks as a studio since your main demographic is lonely men in their 20s who treat the genre as dating simulators and just want to sleep with the girls. So in the pool of mediocrity Ever17 stands to me as a special existence - It is KID's best game and has stood the test of time.

The premise of the game is that you are visiting an underwater theme park but something goes wrong; the place gets flooded and you get trapped there along with a small group of people trying to find an escape back to the surface. During the journey you will find out more about the facility and the people you are trapped with.

The game is told on 2 different perspectives; one through a teenager who has lost his memories and another through an outgoing young adult. Both of the scenarios are similar to each other but when you go through them you will notice that some things don't quite match. The game gives you few hints along the way but nothing concrete until you reach the true ending.

The individual routes are all interesting and pique your curiosity and whether you think the true ending is smart or just straight up dumb, it is satisfactory ending to the game which ties both of the scenarios together in a nice way. Outside of the story the game also has great OST to it; it is one of the few soundtracks of any media I have on my music library since it's short and just fun.

Overall this game is so good that it makes it into my top 3 of visual novels, and I have consumed way too much of this genre.

Ever17 features a genuinely well thought out mystery that can come as a shock to many readers unfamiliar with Uchikoshi's work. Related to it are some fairly out of left field sci-fi concepts that may seem a bit random, but is somewhat discussed in the previous game, Never7. Nevertheless, it's impressive how much detail and planning went into this section of the story, but the major flaw with the visual novel is that this level of writing is only seen at the end of the visual novel. In order to experience the aforementioned elements in the story, the player must go through many hours of unimportant scenes including eating tuna sandwiches, kicking cans, and playing charades. It's not hyperbole to say that the majority of the visual novel is consisted of this. While there are some interesting plot details scattered throughout, it's incredibly minuscule compared to the dull slice of life that plagues most of the visual novel. Even though the ending is impressive especially for a visual novel released in 2002, it's hard to recommend to most readers due to everything else.

Not as enjoyable as Kotaro Uchikoshi's Nonary Games titles, but Ever17: The Out of Infinity [エバー・セブンティーン -the out of infinity-] has some cool plot twists and character reveals none-the-less.

I probably wouldn't recommend this game in general: acquiring the story's penultimate conclusion isn't worth the huge playtime you have to commit to reading the different story paths. Unlike Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors [9時間9人9の扉], the game's world doesn't get fleshed out very well, nor do any of the plot twists or revealed mysteries boggle your mind in a satisfying way.

writing/scenario: A group of people get stuck in an underwater park, and according to calculations the place will get destroyed within several days. Can they get help or somehow get out of there in time? During this time, you will slowly learn more about the mystery of the underwater park and about the characters. I really like the scenario up until the true route, which ruined the whole game in my opinion. The strength of the writing comes across better the less you know about what's really going on, the game is an extremely good mystery with a bad resolution. Much of the game will feel like a complete mindfuck, but unfortunately the game actually isn't one in the end... I also have to say that some of the game was quite moving to me especially some of the contents in Tsugumi's route.

visual: Individually the visuals may not be that impressive, but there are good production values for the time with some animations, the game has aged well and most importantly, the backgrounds do a fantastic job at immersing you. By the time you're finished with Ever17 you can map out the whole game world. The park is so damn memorable. On the other hand, the CGs are underwhelming and there's if I recall not that many of them.

sound: One of the highlights of the game is the music. It often gives the game a really dark atmosphere, but much of the music is also more lighthearted and does its job well. One of the best game soundtracks. The characters are voiced.

gameplay: A fuckload of choices. This really feels like an adventure game much moreso than a novel.

hentai: None. The game is not lewd either.

overall: one of the most memorable settings and premises with brilliant BGM and an atmospheric mystery. Just beware that the writing is actually kind of shitty in the long run. I forgive this game because I loved the mystery. Remember11 shows some improvements over this game, It gives you more to think about by having a much better ending and being more clever in general.