Review: Ever 17 And Never 7 Can Get Wonky

Hailed as one of the best Japanese video games of all time, Ever 17: The Out of Infinity is set to exhilarate readers once again on modern consoles, along with, for the first time in English, its prequel Never 7: The End of Infinity. Despite the dated visuals and humor, the story for both games hold up well. However, it might take someone with no emotional connection to the series a while to warm up to them thanks to the slow pacing.

As a disclaimer, I’d like to put out that I did not play the original versions of either game. So I have no proper reference point for how the remaster compares. The 2025 remaster of Ever 17 uses the 2011 Xbox 360 remake’s script, though it preserves the 2D visuals of the initial PS2 and Dreamcast releases. This script also introduced some changes to the characters and story. But since, again, I never experienced the actual original version, I have little of an opinion on how this affects the enjoyment of someone who’d been a fan of the Infinity series since the turn of the century.

Both Never 7 and Ever 17 are visual novels that advance via text and voice-acting, with accompanying character sprites and occasional stills. Player input is limited to the occasional dialogue option. Choices range from the mundane (a slight change to a character’s reply) to the drastic (which character you play as). If you prefer visual novels where your choices have more direct consequences, or ones that feature more active gameplay, these aren’t for you. Thanks to the all-star cast and their phenomenal performances, though, the games can pull you into the story quite well, which can stave off the monotony of reading for hours on end.

While both stories have different plots and focal themes, they center around the protagonist trapped in a situation (a time loop in Never 7 and an underwater facility in Ever 17) and trying to escape while deepening their bonds with the people around them. In Ever 17, you play as either Takeshi Kuranari or “Kid,” a boy with amnesia. They’re both visiting the water park of LeMU when a leak traps them in the underwater portions of the facility. With only 119 hours until the facility implodes, they, along with other stragglers, need to find a way to either escape or contact the surface for assistance.

Meanwhile, in Never 7, you take on the role of Makoto Ishihara. He’s a university student who’s at a seminar resort with three other classmates. It doesn’t take them long to befriend some locals of the island town they’re staying in. Throughout the week, Makoto experiences precognitive flashes. At times, he just "knows" things he logically shouldn't. Other times, he sees a vision of disaster, with said disaster taking place moments later. Throughout the week, Makoto grows close with with one the girls in his new friend group. However, the girl usually dies, and he finds himself back at the start of the loop. Using his knowledge of the future, he seeks to prevent said death from occurring.

Both games feature a deep and gripping sci-fi story, though Ever 17 leans into it far more than Never 7 does. Never 7 can take a few detours into exploring Makoto's romantic escapades with the heroine of the given route, which can get frustrating if you’re not really interested in that particular aspect of the story. Though both games have you retreading familiar ground multiple times, they make it easy to return to forks in the story, so you can explore other routes and options. I really appreciated this, considering how long each game is.

There’s a nostalgic charm in how dated everything feels, especially in character sprites. The proportions and poses can be unapologetically wonky in a way I seldom see in modern games. Playing on the Switch in handheld mode, the presentation didn't look too bad, though a much larger screen may reveal flaws. At times, the artwork can straddle the line between "bad but charmingly earnest" to straight up "bad," but that's not something Mages can fix, I suppose. The age of the game doesn't affect the quality of the story, at least. I’m impressed at how the twists took me by surprise, considering these games are two decades old. So many sci-fi visual novels came out since then, and yet, certain revelations about the story or characters felt refreshing and creative. I can understand why these games still hold a special place in people’s hearts.

That being said, the dated nature of the games isn’t always positive. The writing, both the localization and the original text, feel like looking at time capsules from the past. It took me a long time to warm up to Ever 17, as You’s interactions with Takeshi were so off-putting to me. I’m personally not a fan of this type of Rumiko Takahashi-esque slapstick humor. In the early hours of the group’s time in underwater LeMU, they’re so unnecessarily mean to Takeshi for comic relief that I kept having to pause and do something else because I just didn’t want to read it anymore. Granted, we still see this kind of humor today.

Another reason for my initial aversion to You had to do with her being the group’s walking encyclopedia. Uchikoshi likes to use her to slip in asides on history, mythology, and anthropology. Interesting, for sure. But You’s explanations are so long and detailed in the dialogue that I dreaded seeing her anywhere on my screen, especially when not everything she brought up had to do with the story. This might be why I took less issue with Never 7’s pacing, as Ever 17 already gave me an idea on what to expect.

Speaking of Never 7, I didn't realize until later that this remaster is the first time it got localized. It bucks modern conventions in localization, which made me believe it, too, used a script from long ago. Like with Ever 17, it doesn’t bother to censor out any old-fashioned assumptions about gender that another studio might have to line up with Western sensibilities. It's a faithful adaptation of the Japanese script, but to the point that it had a negative impact on how comprehensible it is. Within my first two hours of Never 7, I had to replay the Japanese voice-over in a conversation since the translation for the line, while 100% accurate to the Japanese, felt like a non sequitur. Just because something is the literal translation doesn't mean it's the optimal one.

The “Kid” in Ever 17 is also an interesting oddity in the localization. “Kid” is the temporary name the characters christen the amnesiac boy with. When you play from his perspective, though, the text box for his name reads “Boy.” After doing some research, it turns out that this is what the original version of the English script referred to him as. I’m not quite sure why they decided to change it. When they did, though, they must have used Find and Replace to change all instances of “Boy” to “Kid.” Now, I can totally empathize with this. But when it’s a word as common as “kid,” you end up with some funny mistakes, like “kidding” becoming “Kidding” in the middle of a sentence.

As a fellow translator, I can appreciate how much text they must've had to go through, and can only hope the localization team had a healthy turnaround time. That being said, in the case of Ever 17, there are so many little issues that I thought a remaster would fix. Never 7, too, didn't quite read like a visual novel I expected in 2025 (I know the game is old, but the localization is new, remember?). The above issue with "Kid," for example, seems like an odd thing to leave in. When a story relies heavily on text to lay the groundwork for later twists, mistakes like putting Sara at a scene when she physically wasn't even there can lead to unnecessary confusion down the line.

As for the performances of the remasters, the port on the Switch ran fine for both games. I didn’t encounter any bugs or issues. Being able to advance the text with either the analog stick or the A button was very convenient, as it gave my right thumb a break during long sessions. Since these games are long, the portability is great since this means you can play them on the go. If you can play it with a proper sound system, I would recommend that. The games’ main selling points are the music and the voice-acting. The speakers on the Switch in handheld mode didn’t do them justice.

To be frank, while I appreciated the complex yarn Uchikoshi wove, I wouldn’t say Ever 17 or Never 7 are visual novels for everyone. It takes such a long time to get to the meat of the story that “It gets good, I promise” might not be enough for people with busy schedules. Going into these games knowing that critics and fans in the past considered them (especially Ever 17) absolute masterpieces of their time ended up highlighting the negative qualities for me. That being said, despite not particularly liking any character, I still felt genuine worry, joy, and relief for them throughout their adventures. It surprised me just how much I'd grown to care about everyone without ever noticing. To inspire such emotions, as well as the bittersweet sense of accomplishment upon reaching the various endings, is a testament to Uchikoshi’s mastery of his craft.

Ever 17 and Never 7 are out on the PS4, Windows PC, and Nintendo Switch.

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