Ever 17 – The Out of Infinity and Never 7 – The End of Infinity Double Pack Review – Good Story, Bad Editing

Ever 17 – The Out of Infinity and Never 7 – The End of Infinity Double Pack Review

Ever 17 – The Out of Infinity and Never 7 – The End of Infinity Double Pack contains remasters of two classic visual novels from the early 2000s. The second game, Ever 17, was localized previously and became a cult classic. However, this is the first time Never 7 has officially been available in English.

They’re both landmark titles for the career of creator Kotaro Uchikoshi and for visual novels as a whole. The question is, how well have they stood the test of time?

Both of these remasters were made using the Xbox 360 version of the games, which features some controversial script rewrites. I haven’t played the original versions, so this review will judge the remasters on their own merits.

Before I begin my reviews proper, let me note that Never 7 and Ever 17 take place in the same universe. Although they’re thematically related, they aren’t directly connected. That said, I recommend playing Never 7 first. Ever 17 plays off its predecessor’s narrative and spoils Never 7’s twist.

A Piece of Gaming History

Ever 17 and Never 7 are visual novels: interactive fiction with visuals and audio. The player determines the outcome of the narrative by making various choices to steer the protagonist onto certain routes. Once on a route, you make more choices to see events, bond with other characters, and reach different endings. In short, they’re narrative-driven games, and their writing is quite solid, though they both do have serious flaws.

Never 7 opens with a vacation. Makoto is a university slacker who gets sent on a seminar retreat as punishment. Now he’s spending Spring Break on an island with three other students.

But on the first day, he wakes up on April 1st from a nightmare about a dying girl holding a bell on April 6th. And this is only the first of a series of premonitions that haunt his stay. As April 6th approaches and things grow even stranger, Makoto fears one of his new friends will actually die…

Ever 17 also begins with a vacation gone wrong. After an accident, a group of people find themselves stuck in the undersea theme park LeMU. The exact number of victims seems strangely unclear. Even LeMU’s computers can’t seem to tell how many people are stuck down there.

The escape pods are inaccessible, the complex is slowly flooding, and they can’t make contact with the outside. The survivors have 170 hours to save themselves, defy their cruel fates, and maybe even fall in love.

Ever 17 – The Out of Infinity and Never 7 – The End of Infinity Double Pack are Time-Traveling Classics

Ever 17 is much better and more interesting than Never 7. This should not be a surprise to anyone, because Never 7 is a pretty straightforward early 2000s dating sim. With its dated visuals and crunchy voice acting, it feels like it’s been displaced in time. I played it in handheld mode because I didn’t want to see what it would look like on a TV screen.

The cast is very archetypal 2000s anime, but they’re still fun to watch bounce off each other. Energetic Yuka, withdrawn Haruka, adorable Kurumi, playful Izumi, and hot-tempered Saki all have their own appeals. They have good chemistry when they’re enjoying themselves… and better chemistry when they’re at each other’s throats.

The characters and romance are the best part of Never 7, particularly the unlockable Cure routes. The final twist is good, but Never 7’s narrative simply doesn’t have the impact it once did. That said, if you like old dating sims that were revolutionary once, you’ll probably like Never 7.

Ever 17 looks and sounds much better, though its art design is still dated. None of the CG cutscenes are terribly convincing, but the soundscape sure is. The characters are pretty endearing, the twists are still mind-bending, and it’s really hard to describe the game without spoilers. Suffice to say that if you want a weird sci-fi romance game from Ever 17, you will get exactly that.

Were the Editors Asleep?

Ever 17 and Never 7 are both very slow by modern standards, even for visual novels. This is especially egregious with Never 7, but playing Ever 17’s later routes also got on my nerves. Especially since the game doesn’t let you skip scenes that are near-identical to ones you’ve already seen.

The single biggest issue I have with both of these games, however, is the editing. Never 7’s plethora of typos is annoying enough. But there is no excuse for the sheer number of translation issues in Ever 17. Not only does the translation actively spoil a fairly major twist regarding a character’s name, it also includes an entire editing note.

The second half of Ever 17 is full of typos and inconsistent terminology. I genuinely can’t tell if what’s intentional foreshadowing and what’s a terrible mistake. Either way, it looks lazy. The good news is that most of the twists still land.

Ever 17 is a genuinely great visual novel. I wish it had a genuinely great English editor. Never 7 is an acceptable visual novel with a few very good moments, and I wish it had better pacing.

Ever 17 – The Out of Infinity and Never 7 – The End of Infinity Double Pack should get a much better score than I’m going to give it. Unfortunately, narrative-heavy visual novels can’t afford to be unedited. I sincerely hope the developers return to these remasters and fix the translation errors. Until then, my criticisms stand.

***Switch codes provided by the publisher***