EPTEver 17 - Out of Infinity is a Japanese Visual Novel, developed by KID in 2002. It was later released in English by Hirameki International in 2005. However, Hirameki International stopped all of its Visual Novel business in 2008, and Ever 17 is currently out of print and very difficult to buy. As an example, the price of the game can be in the hundreds of dollars on amazon.com. Luckily, it's still easy to find if you don't mind torrenting, for instance. You can also experience the entire story by watching the youtube playthrough starting here, probably the best option:
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It has all the scenarios and every part's description has a link to the next one, very easy to navigate. I also recommend going through the scenarios in the order the channel's owner has outlined in the description of the final part of the prelude. Save the link of the final part of the prelude so that after you're done with one scenario, you can come back and go through the others.
For the people who don't know what a Visual Novel is, it's basically a book that periodically gives you choices that affect the story and occurances in the game. Most of them also have anime-style illustration. Some of them can have minigames or some gameplay elements from other genres(mostly RPG or Strategy). Good Visual Novels tend to be very immersive, and you can really feel like you are a part of them. Many of them also have sexual content, that is however not the case with this specific Visual Novel(or any other Visual Novel released by Hirameki International). The best-known Visual Novels to the western audience would probably be the Phoenix Wright series.
Opening Movie:
Characters(as described on VNDB):
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Protagonists:
Kuranari Takeshi
![[image loading]](http://s.vndb.org/ch/69/69.jpg)
Description
A university student that has come to LeMU with friends for a day of leisure. He's separated from his friends... and entangled in a horrifying string of events. His personality is usually outgoing, optimistic and sometimes emotional.
"Kid"
![[image loading]](http://s.vndb.org/ch/66/66.jpg)
Description
"Kid" is a mysterious character who can't remember who he is or why he's at LeMU. He is introverted, shy, scared, but willing to sacrifice himself for others. Since they don't know his name, the others refer to him as "Kid."
Main Characters:
Akanegasaki Sora
![[image loading]](http://s.vndb.org/ch/65/65.jpg)
Description
The only full-time staff member of LeMU to be stranded, Sora is a professional computer engineer and she tries her best to get everyone stranded on LeMU to safety.
She thinks rationally at all times, not allowing emotions to sway her decisions. She likes flowers, animals, and anything living in nature.
Komachi Tsugumi
![[image loading]](http://s.vndb.org/ch/64/64.jpg)
Description
A girl of few words, shrouded in mystery. Why has she come to LeMU?
Who, or what, is she? Her cold eyes seem as though they can peer right into the hearts of people and she regularly has harsh words for others. Just when it appears that she might open up, she lets loose with a flood of anger. What is the secret that this strange girl possesses?
Matsunaga Sara
![[image loading]](http://s.vndb.org/ch/63/63.jpg)
Description
Sara is a second year student at Kyumeikan Girl's High School. Before graduating, Tanaka You was also a student there and Sara's senpai. She may not look it, but she is an experienced hacker, capable of breaking into nearly any computer system. Sara is also obsessed with ninja and ninjutsu.
Sara came to LeMU on a class field trip, but now she is stranded along with the other characters.
Tanaka Yubiseiharukana
![[image loading]](http://s.vndb.org/ch/61/61.jpg)
Description
A freshman at Kyumeikan Women's University intending to major in archeology, and a part-time worker at LeMU. Her father gave her this unique first name because Tanaka was a common surname but very rare as a first name. She also possesses a wealth of occult-related knowledge and skills to survive in an emergency. More than anything, she loves to talk. Her nickname is "You."
Yagami Coco
![[image loading]](http://s.vndb.org/ch/60/60.jpg)
Description
Coco regularly breaks out in behavior that would be too crazy to be broadcast on TV. Her words and action rock the brains of those that see and hear her. Coco is not especially good at anything and has no special skills or qualities to speak of... but she is proud of her ability to bend spoons. But for all of these reasons, Coco is loved by those around her, impossible to dislike, that may in fact may be her special skill.
Some reasonably spoiler-free thoughts and preferences about the characters in spoilers:
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Tsugumi is probably my all-time favorite character out of anything I've watched/played. I'm not sure why that is, I guess I see some of myself in her.
Apart from her, I would say that the other characters are still pretty good, just not as special. My second-favorite character is probably Coco.
Out of the protagonists, I prefer playing as Takeshi. I guess it's because he's older and I'm starting to get old...
Game description on Wikipedia:
Ever 17 is the tale of seven individuals who come to be trapped 153 feet within the underwater marine theme park, LeMU. During an apparently normal day at the park, a massive accident happens, placing almost half of the facility underwater. The path to the surface and the communication lines are cut off. In addition, LeMU is under constant assault by severe water pressure, limiting time to find a means of escape to 119 hours. Escape is not the only concern, however; many questions arise as to the legitimacy of the accident and whether or not those trapped there were brought there for a purpose.
(Note, after this point are some of my own thoughts and some things about how the game works. I'm not going to spoil anything in specific but if you think that this game already interests you, you should either find it somewhere or just go through the youtube playthrough. If you're unsure, though, feel free to read on)
However, that description merely scratches the surface. The story is incredible, with numerous deep, thought-provoking concepts(A slight example is at 1:29 - 1:37 in the opening). It's also unpredictable, and I found myself in awe on multiple occassions. I would go as far as to say that this Visual Novel has the best story out of everything I've experienced, including books, animes, tv-series, movies, games, and other Visual Novels. The beginning and some other parts can be relatively slow, but after a while I found myself completely immersed in the game universe, desperately wanting to know what was going to happen next.
This is not a simple game that you can just play casually. You cannot go around skipping text and you need to read everything with thought and concentrate on it. You cannot dismiss any information as unrelated even if it seems very minor. If you are into FPS games or somesuch and don't really care about the story and just want intense gameplay, this might not be the game for you.
This is a Hard Sci-Fi game. This basically means that there's going to be realistic explanations for how everything works. Some of the explanations can be a bit difficult to grasp and this game repeatedly has a lot of information coming your way. It's still very well presented in my opinion and it's surprisingly easy to understand.
The game also is very emotional. I consider myself a reasonably tough person, in that I can watch sob movies and many sad animes and such without problem, take a relative's death without tears, this game however.. I completely broke down in several occassions.
The game differs from most Visual Novels in that you are able to make the choice between the two protagonists early on in the game. Both characters then have two different story arcs, focusing on a specific girl(Sora and Tsugumi for Takeshi, You and Sara for "Kid"), and with your choices you are going to be able to decide who is going to be the focus of the story. As a general piece of advice, you're going to want to pay attention to your character of choice every chance you get, and ignore the other girl whenever possible.
Something about how the game works below(No direct spoilers about the story but I figured this still deserves the spoiler tags):
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This game is pretty much a multiple route mystery game, in that after playing through the game for the first time, you are likely left with more questions than answers. However, as you play through the different story arcs, you are going to learn more and more. After you have finished all 4 story arcs, you will unlock the final story arc which is going to help you put everything together. Because of the way the game is structured, this also means that it needs to be experienced as a Visual Novel. It would not be possible to make this into an anime, manga, or a book.
Although story is definitely the main focus of the game, I really loved the art as well. All the characters are drawn well, and I personally love the art style. The expressions of the characters bring forth their feelings really well, I especially like how Tsugumi and Coco are drawn. The backgrounds are drawn very well, too, and you get a really good idea of the surroundings. The different sorts of illustrations and explanations are very clear and well thought-out as well. There's also a few 3d animations which to me is very impressive, considering that this is a Visual Novel from 2002.
A few words about the sounds:
Voice acting:
The voice acting is decent for a Visual Novel, I'd say. A lot of the time I need to turn the voice acting off because it's just that horrible, luckily that was not the case for this game. Tsugumi's voice is my favorite and I feel that it's done really really well and really fits her personality. Coco's is also very very good and I think that it suits her great. Takeshi's is pretty good as well. I also liked Sora's and Sara's voice acting, but not quite as much as the others'. You's voice acting was okay, but if was my least favorite out of the girls'. It got kind of annoying at times. "Kid"'s voice acting, however, is in my opinion the worst of all. I couldn't stand it at all. Might be just me, though.
Soundtrack:
The soundtrack of this game is, in my opinion, above average. Most Visual Novels have rather annoying soundtracks with just one or two good tracks, and the normal, everyday-life-ish tracks seem to be horrible and annoying. I don't think that this is the case with Ever 17. I wasn't annoyed by any of the tracks, which is quite remarkable for a Visual Novel. Of course, the soundtrack isn't magnificently incredible like Sengoku Rance's or Phoenix Wright:Ace Attorney's, but for a Visual Novel's standards it's still quite formidable. Here's a few of my favorites in spoilers:
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The first one is probably a bit biased because of the scenes during which it plays, but even so it's my favorite calming track in the game:
The second one is more intense, and I was very positively surprised when I heard it for the first time. I really like it:
The final one is the saddest song in the game, and I would say it is also the most famous song of the game. It's also the title song of the game(the background picture is unrelated):
Despite this game having many good things, I guess I'll mention some of the negatives about this game. First is the obvious one - Although there's a lot of text to translate and Hirameki didn't have too many people working on the game so it's understandable, there's plenty of typos in the game. Still, it's easy to understand and doesn't take anything away from the story, but it's a slight annoyance.
Second: After playing through a story arc, the next playthroughs might be repetitive especially if you are playing as the same protagonist. However, if you remember how much you can skip you can skip the repeated parts without a worry. You might also want to read them for a second time in the case you missed something earlier. These problems are very minor in the grand scheme of things.
All in all, it's a wonderful Visual Novel and I'd recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind plenty of reading and a wonderful, deep story. Even though it can be a pain to find the game, luckily you can completely bypass that by watching the youtube playthrough. You are pretty much losing nothing because they make all the correct choices for you, and you can concentrate on the wonderful story. Even though it's going to be a long journey, I promise that in the end you will feel that it definitely was worth it.
Oh right, and finally I'd rate this game 10/10. It's the only Visual Novel I'd give a 10 to at this point. Even with some flaws I give the story 11/10, securing the straight 10.
If you guys liked this let me know, maybe I'll type a few words about some other Visual Novels or other things~.
