Ever 17 Review

And a rather delayed review...I should really update this more often. Oh well, it's not like anyone reads this, right? At any rate, here is the review that was taken from erogegames that I posted it on before. The next review that I do will be something I haven't posted elsewhere, so look forward to that (sometime in the future, anyway...)! Also, as per usual, any spoilers should be hidden behind spoiler boxes. Although common sense, if you have not played ever17, for the love of god don't look at them! Everything else should be spoiler free.

Ever 17

The visual novel's front cover

Brief Overview
Ever17 -the out of infinity-, more commonly known as Ever17, is a visual novel written by KID and localised into English by Hirameki International. The game is part of KID's Infinity series, which also includes the games Never7 and Remember11. Ever17 has elements of both slice of life and sci-fi, as well having a mystery theme which becomes more emergent the deeper into the story you progress. The deep rooted mystery aspect of the game is why it has become one of the most well-known 'mind screw' visual novels around.

The story begins on a fictional man-made island called Insel Null in the not-so distant future. Located somewhere off the coast of Japan, the island is home to an underwater theme park called LeMU, and it is here where you play as one of two protagonists in the game. The first is Takeshi Kuranaki, a relatively average college student who goes to the park with his friends. The other is a teenager who has developed amnesia and has lost many of his memories; forgetting even his own name, he is known simply as the 'Kid'. You're very quickly introduced to several of the game's heroines during the opening part of the game, but it is only after disaster strikes, stranding you aboard LeMU, that the story begins in earnest. Events out of your control then unfold, and questions regarding the nature of the accident, as well as how to escape, begin to surface.




Art and Graphics
Originally being released in 2002 on the Dreamcast, the art looks  somewhat dated, though not so much as to cause any real grievances. I found that the style was a little reserved in the usage of colour (particularly in some of the backgrounds), although this meshes well with the mystery themes present in the story. In addition, while the sprites are static, there's plenty of expressions that portray emotions well. Tsugumi's were especially noteworthy since she had a few subtle actions such as head tilts; considering how quiet and aloof her character is, these small changes do a lot to convey her feelings.

As well as having decent art style, there are an ample amount of CGs to unlock (somewhere in the region of one hundred). The game also uses full-motion videos (FMVs), and, while uncommon, they're a nice addition as they add a sense of urgency to some scenes (their antiquity does show a bit, though).

A sample screenshot from the game

Music and Voices
There seems to be a great deal of mixed feelings regarding ever17's music, but I enjoyed it. While the music perhaps don't hold its own so well outside the game, when working alongside it, the music does an admirable job. There are a few pieces (as oft are in visual novels) that feel overused, but there are definitely some stand out ones including Karma and LeMU ~The far away land of Lemuria~. Personally, I also liked Drittes Auge nehmen for its intrigue vibe. Don't expect any large orchestral pieces if that's what you're into, but the composer Takeshi Abo did a pretty good job matching the music to the theme of the game (many of the pieces have an sort of muted or 'underwater' aesthetic to them; definitely fitting for ever17).

The voice acting in the game is generally well done, using some well known actors and actresses including Sōichirō Hoshi and Kana Ueda. The only voice that I didn't feel was great was Coco's; it  sounded like a mix of a wild animal being tortured and an extremely angry banshee (as younger girls who voice act have a tendency to do). Don't let this bother you, though, as you can easily turn her voice off in the options if it becomes too unbearable for you.

Characters
The five different heroines are:
Sara - The intelligent high school girl who has a thing for hacking and ninjas.

Sora - The beautiful park supervisor who's probably the most level-headed person among you.

Tsugumi - The terminally pissed off woman (my favourite character; she's as close to a tsundere as you're going to get. I mean, she acts like she'd rather be dead than talking with you half the time*).

Coco - The little girl who is more than a little eccentric.

You - No, not you, You. As in Yuu... Look, just roll with it. I didn't give the characters their names.

The cast is fairly well balanced, and all the characters have their moments. That said, I felt that perhaps the cast wasn't fully realised in its development. Often I found the character progression was neglected somewhat in favour for propelling conversations towards discussing some philosophical or sci-fi related topic, preferring plot development over character development. It's not as if the characters are outright ignored, however; both Tsugumi and Sora, in particular, had a decent amount of growth.

In retrospect with the whole Cure thing, a poor choice of wording...

A sample of the 1001 blue and white hallways in the game

Plot
In terms of structure, there are four main routes and a final route you unlock after getting the four good endings. The first four routes were pretty entertaining, although if you don't like slice of life content, you may find them laborious and slow paced. In addition, the initial routes feel repetitive since you're essentially playing the game at least four times to get the various endings (to mitigate this, I highly recommend using the skip button, liberally). The thing that bothered me the most, however, is a lot of the sci-fi felt rather ponderous, and, in some cases, downright obtuse**. I felt as though many of the explanations could have been much more succinct and had the same (if not greater) impact.

Even with their faults, though, the four routes did their job for preparing you for the true end very well, leaving many hints to fascinate and frustrate me along the way. A lot of the fun was coming up with my own crackpot ideas to 'fill in the blanks', and, despite sounding overly critical, I enjoyed them a lot. That said, the true route is on a different echelon than the previous four.

It's difficult to talk too much about the true route without accidently spoiling something (the last thing I want to do), but just know that the final route epiphany is superb. Seriously, the narrative structure and how the seemingly disjoint routes come together is ingenious***. Additionally, thinking for yourself during the build-up to the true route definitely doesn't detract from the experience; it amplifies it. It helps to draw you into the character you're playing and engrosses you in the story because you are not only emotionally invested, but intellectually, too (a little ironic since some of the sci-fi explanations treat you like a moron in the previous routes, but whatever).

One other thing to mention is the quality of the translation. I'll be perfectly honest: it's below the quality of most fan-translated novels. It's not terrible or anything (in fact it's almost endearing, in a way, although definitely readable), but there are some suspicious spelling and grammatical errors, as well some pretty zinger lines. These include the ever-infamous "Naturally, I knows the hacker" and, my personal favourite, "You're stupidity is terminal".

Oh the irony.

As a scientist, I felt many of the explanations were more gimmicky than providing actual, interesting, creative sci-fi. The n+1 malarkey with Sora is a prime example of this. I did, however, appreciate the biochemistry, although if all your p53 tumour suppressant genes were no longer functional, the [i]least[/i] of your worries would be getting a little sun...

[rant alert]
On a side note, for realists (ie cynics) like me, some of the things that happen are sort of...well...highly improbable, to say the least. Take Takeshi jumping into the sea. I don't care how cool your Cure virus is, the pressure would destroy the blood vessels in his eyes, and various other nasty things would happen that I won't go into detail about. In addition, if you had a secret underwater research facility, you would have atmospheric controls to limit the spread of a microorganism if there was ever a breach in containment. Moreover, you'd have everyone in type one hazmat suits so even if the virus spread into the air (which you should be controlling), no one would be affected. I know Leiblich Pharmaceutical is supposed to be greedy in all, but there's a fine line between being greedy and plain stupid.
[/endrant] Sorry, I just had to get that out somewhere.

The use of visual novel's perspective is so simple, yet so effective. This almost unique use of narrative structure makes it so an anime adaptation would be impossible, and makes ever17 really special (I think KID may use this method in some of their other infinity visual novels, too[SUP][citation needed][/SUP]). In hindsight, almost all of the scenes were well placed and had a purpose (links nicely into the game's theme: perspective or Blickwinkel)

Closing Thoughts
Ever17 is truly deserving of praise. It is by no means a flawless gem, but it does what it sets out to do exceptionally well: to stun the reader with an intelligent, yet believable, sci-fi mystery. The true route is a reward for those loyal and, perhaps, patient enough to play through the game. Etched into the stones at the beginning of the game is the question 'where is heaven?'. Well, after playing this piece of art, I can safely say that a large portion is located right there, in the game. Read this fully, and I promise you, you will not regret it.

+:

• Build-up is brilliant and intellectually stimulating
• Stunning final route
• Tsugumi <3
• A lot of creativity went into the sci-fi

-:

• Stupidly longwinded explanations in the sci-fi department, which makes the implementation of the otherwise interesting sci-fi fall short somewhat
• Characters didn't get as much development as they perhaps deserved
• First four routes are repetitive (use that skip button!)
• Questionable Engrish in some parts

+/-:

• No ero. I always include this in the +/- section since everyone is different. Personally, I definitely think it's a plus as it means the story unburdened by potentially distracting H-scenes, but that's just me.
• Some people don't like ever17's music; I thought it was fine, but it's worth a mention
• If you don't like slice of life, you will struggle through a lot of the initial four routes and may find the pacing off. Not a problem for me, but I'm just putting it out there.

Recommended play order
Tsugumi --> Sora --> You --> Sara --> True Route

Final verdict: 88/100
Disclaimer: The number doesn't mean a huge amount, it tends to change slightly in terms of my mood. if it was out of ten I'd probably adjust the score to be 9 or even 9.5/10. Just accept that my scoring system is weird as hell and my opinions aren't set 100% in stone.

Au Fait.