Ever 17 The Out of Infinity and Never 7 The End of Infinity Review

Gameplay

Graphics

Audio

Value

Summary: Though it's a slow burn in revealing its true colours, and sometimes a bit of a pacing drag, Ever17 is a beautifully depressing story about the ups and downs of finding and losing hope in claustrophobia.

4.5

Tuna Sandwiches.

The legacy of Ever17 is still felt in more recent years through its shared DNA with the Zero Escape series, in part due to never making it overseas. Following the re-releases of KID’s Memories Off series of visual novels last year, Never7 and Ever17 are following suit, marking their first official releases in English.

Ever17 is the anthological sequel to Never7, introducing an entirely new locale, cast of characters, themes, and dilemmas. The atmosphere is a lot bleaker, following a group of survivors trapped in a fast-decaying underwater theme park as they deal with the raising and dashing of their hopes of escape. Although it retains the same choice-making gameplay and visual and sonic styles, it also boasts a bright and colourful Frutiger Aero palate, a real time capsule of what “futuristic” looked like in the 2000s.

The game’s structure is also completely different. Instead of following one character living out one week and repeating again with their girl in mind, Ever17 splits the narrative between two protagonists; fairly generic protagonist Takeshi and the amnesiac Kid. Takeshi’s route is closer to Never7 in essence, with more focus on romance paths than Kid’s, which leans more into the sci-fi. The “childish girl” role also changes per the two protagonists, with Takeshi accompanied by the ever-energetic Coco and her puppy PiPi, while Kid is instead accompanied by the teasing Sara.

Having played its predecessor Never7 and its successor Remember11, the two paths perfectly bridge Ever17 to sit right in between the two. The sci-fi aspects of the Kid’s route get a bit heavy-handed at times (a pacing balance that Remember11 was a lot better at) but are what gives the game more of its personality than Takeshi’s semi-dating sim, even though I will admit that I much prefer this half of the game. Takeshi’s dating prospects are the two most interesting girls in the game for wildly different reasons. Sora is an absolute joy to be around, but is overshadowed by Tsugumi, who I find unlikeable and avoidably obstinate, if justifiably so. The real kicker is that these two personalities are notably descended from Haruka’s archetype, who completely won me over in Never7. I couldn’t get quite as invested into either romance path upon realising this.

It’s worth noting though that the story is a very slow burn whichever protagonist you choose, especially compared to Never7. The pacing can sometimes feel like a bit of an unnecessary obstacle, if a justifiable narrative decision to convey how it feels to be trapped for a week. Don’t let the opening slog put you off though; once it really takes off it strikes gold, and both protagonists’ routes are relatively distinct considering the shared cast and locale.

Though the original game released in 2002, this version of the game is based on the 2011 Xbox 360 release. This change is reflected in the different intro video and song, as well as the backgrounds and soundtrack. The one change that hasn’t been kept for the 2025 release is reverting back from the primitive 3D character models to sprites, which is honestly for the best.

The music was composed by Takeshi Abo, retaining his “bright and colourful” composing style but with a cutesy synth and piano-driven tone than the more acoustic arrangements of Never7. The 2011 version of the soundtrack is the same compositionally, but with a fresh coat of paint in its production. The difference is best heard in the track Heilmittel, which now uses a much brighter piano drenched in reverb, has extra sections, and fluctuates in tempo. Most tracks however simply have a mixing facelift. Several tracks also have newly-added piano reductions which were not present in the original. Like Never7, all characters besides the player are fully voiced, though only in Japanese. The acting sounds fine to me, it just feels a bit loud compared to the music at default settings, but it’s nothing I couldn’t adjust in the settings.

The localisation is also good, with a few but minimal grammar errors. There was an amusing instance of one text box containing feedback about a translation rather than the text itself, but I would be surprised if this made it into the game on release day.

Final Thoughts

I was a little worried jumping head-first into Ever17 again that it might not have lived up to my expectations on replay, but I still enjoyed it almost as much now that enough time had passed. Like Never7, the rabbit hole spirals deeper than you think it will, and once that ball gets rolling, it can be difficult to pull yourself away and go back to the real world.

Never7 and Ever17 release separately and as a double-pack on March 6th.

About the Author

Dylan McCarthy PKA Alpine Escape, a music and sound design production student with a life-long obsession for video games.

Ever 17 The Out of Infinity and Never 7 The End of Infinity Review