this shit sucks ass tbh its called the out of infinity because if you fucking play it its gonna put you to sleep for an infinity amount of hours because its so fucking boring
tsugumi my beloved
Tsugumi my beloved 10/10
Una de las experiencias más hermosas y únicas que he tenido el placer de probar, mientras que a su vez, es de las que más conciente está de la forma en que funciona el medio en el que se desarrolla.
Legítimamente, es imposible contar ésta historia de cualquier otra forma que no sea mediante un videojuego sin cagarla, porque incluso teniendo detalles que uno vería como irrelevantes (Cómo lo es la perspectiva en primera persona, el hecho que tengas que rejugarlo varias veces para conseguir el verdadero final o que ciertos diálogos cambien dependiendo del personaje que elijas), terminan siendo piezas esenciales para el Plot Twist final.
Quizá el único "Pero" que uno podría tener es que hay ocasiones muy puntuales en que el juego opta por un ritmo absurdamente lento y pesado de leer (Aunque a final de cuentas sirva para darle peso a las relaciones que formes con los personajes), pero que una vez y te llegas a acostumbrar, serás recompensando con caracterizaciones preciosas de su muy extrañable cast.
Ever17 fue juego que me dió perspectivas sobre la ficción y la vida misma que nunca se me hubieran pasado la cabeza en ningún instante, que me enseñó lo bello que puede ser una simple casualidad; pero sobretodo, que no importa la cantidad de dudas que uno pueda tener sobre si mismo... Siempre habrá una forma de encontrar una respuesta... Siempre habrá una forma... De salir del infinito.
Legítimamente, es imposible contar ésta historia de cualquier otra forma que no sea mediante un videojuego sin cagarla, porque incluso teniendo detalles que uno vería como irrelevantes (Cómo lo es la perspectiva en primera persona, el hecho que tengas que rejugarlo varias veces para conseguir el verdadero final o que ciertos diálogos cambien dependiendo del personaje que elijas), terminan siendo piezas esenciales para el Plot Twist final.
Quizá el único "Pero" que uno podría tener es que hay ocasiones muy puntuales en que el juego opta por un ritmo absurdamente lento y pesado de leer (Aunque a final de cuentas sirva para darle peso a las relaciones que formes con los personajes), pero que una vez y te llegas a acostumbrar, serás recompensando con caracterizaciones preciosas de su muy extrañable cast.
Ever17 fue juego que me dió perspectivas sobre la ficción y la vida misma que nunca se me hubieran pasado la cabeza en ningún instante, que me enseñó lo bello que puede ser una simple casualidad; pero sobretodo, que no importa la cantidad de dudas que uno pueda tener sobre si mismo... Siempre habrá una forma de encontrar una respuesta... Siempre habrá una forma... De salir del infinito.
I started playing this today on my trusty old PSP-2000 and to my dismay there's not a single comma in this fan translation the formatting must have failed somewhere it does say beta after all. that's ok though i'll get through it somehow. at least there are full stops. soundtrack is killing it.
Damn, this opening song is great.
Ever17 was my 100th VN. I suppose it's only fitting to read one of my last remaining unread translated classics for a milestone like that, especially when it predates even Tsukihime's and Fate/stay night's English translations. I had to take breaks from suffering through Never7, so I decided to read a bit of this to get a headstart at the time.
Amidst the whole Infinity-Uchikoshi-Nakazawa-SciAdv situation you have works like:
• Remember11, a game that, in my opinion, is primarily focused on its sci-fi concept, as well as themes and symbolism, and sacrifices having character and surface-level story depth, to the point that you will almost certainly have trouble figuring out a chunk of it without that one blog
• Chaos;Head, a game with an unlikable protagonist, with a strong character and thematic focus, to the point of being unapologetic about its vision, regardless of the fact that a huge portion of the audience would obviously drop it because of the main character, Takumi
• Steins;Gate, a much more unambitious, safer bet following Chaos;Head with a lesser passion from the writer of being tired of time travel stories, but undeniably competently written
• Chaos;Child, which I see as being somewhere between the previous two
And so on. So where does Ever17 lie?
A huge issue I had with Remember11, and especially Never7, as opposed to SciAdv which generally has a strong focus on characters, was that the two Infinities were almost hyperfocused on their sci-fi concept that they neglected their characters, making the surface-level plot and cast appear shallow and having like two scenes of actual characterisation outside of drama surrounding the premise (albeit for different reasons — Never7 makes you repeat the same thing around a dozen times while wasting time, and Remember11 is short and well-paced but doesn't have very compelling characters to me).
Going into Ever17, I did almost expect it to be "the Infinity/Sci-fi Mystery VN of all time", but I went in with an open mind. Luckily, I was mostly proven wrong, E17 is definitely my favorite Infinity. It barely even had the "I am sad, therefore I can shoot this sci-fi thing because of having a childhood trauma, or something" trope that these stories love to have.
While yes, E17 does have more of a mass appeal written into its DNA (written with being liked by as many various audiences as possible), as opposed to N7 and especially R11, so to speak, I think it has the most interesting premise and best cast of the three. It certainly has some issues, like how it could be cut by around 10 hours without any damages to the actual substance of the game, and we could have three routes instead of five, or how this among Takeshi Abo's weakest OSTs (though there are some bangers, like Karma, Drittestock or Zweitestock, of course), or how it gets cheesy at times, but overall it was certainly a fun experience. I can see why it was such a big deal. It certainly would have impressed me more earlier in my VN journey, but it still had plenty of surprises for me this late in the game.
Ever17 was my 100th VN. I suppose it's only fitting to read one of my last remaining unread translated classics for a milestone like that, especially when it predates even Tsukihime's and Fate/stay night's English translations. I had to take breaks from suffering through Never7, so I decided to read a bit of this to get a headstart at the time.
Amidst the whole Infinity-Uchikoshi-Nakazawa-SciAdv situation you have works like:
• Remember11, a game that, in my opinion, is primarily focused on its sci-fi concept, as well as themes and symbolism, and sacrifices having character and surface-level story depth, to the point that you will almost certainly have trouble figuring out a chunk of it without that one blog
• Chaos;Head, a game with an unlikable protagonist, with a strong character and thematic focus, to the point of being unapologetic about its vision, regardless of the fact that a huge portion of the audience would obviously drop it because of the main character, Takumi
• Steins;Gate, a much more unambitious, safer bet following Chaos;Head with a lesser passion from the writer of being tired of time travel stories, but undeniably competently written
• Chaos;Child, which I see as being somewhere between the previous two
And so on. So where does Ever17 lie?
A huge issue I had with Remember11, and especially Never7, as opposed to SciAdv which generally has a strong focus on characters, was that the two Infinities were almost hyperfocused on their sci-fi concept that they neglected their characters, making the surface-level plot and cast appear shallow and having like two scenes of actual characterisation outside of drama surrounding the premise (albeit for different reasons — Never7 makes you repeat the same thing around a dozen times while wasting time, and Remember11 is short and well-paced but doesn't have very compelling characters to me).
Going into Ever17, I did almost expect it to be "the Infinity/Sci-fi Mystery VN of all time", but I went in with an open mind. Luckily, I was mostly proven wrong, E17 is definitely my favorite Infinity. It barely even had the "I am sad, therefore I can shoot this sci-fi thing because of having a childhood trauma, or something" trope that these stories love to have.
While yes, E17 does have more of a mass appeal written into its DNA (written with being liked by as many various audiences as possible), as opposed to N7 and especially R11, so to speak, I think it has the most interesting premise and best cast of the three. It certainly has some issues, like how it could be cut by around 10 hours without any damages to the actual substance of the game, and we could have three routes instead of five, or how this among Takeshi Abo's weakest OSTs (though there are some bangers, like Karma, Drittestock or Zweitestock, of course), or how it gets cheesy at times, but overall it was certainly a fun experience. I can see why it was such a big deal. It certainly would have impressed me more earlier in my VN journey, but it still had plenty of surprises for me this late in the game.
I was baited into this under the promise that even if I disliked Zero Escape, this would be very very interesting. I was also informed this isn't only uchikoshi working on it, to soften the blow.
This is the worst prose I've read in a very very very long time, and I put up with shit from Umineko. Here's some excerpts from this work of pure art:
"Why had such a thing happened?
He had no idea.
No idea...
Where he was.
Where had gone.
Shaking.
Shaken.
Feeling ill."
"Couldn't be? Do you know something about this?
I don't know anything...
Do you know something?
How could I know anything?"
"He had no idea.
He didn't know...
There was no way he could know.
But there on the bed.
There...
On the bed...
There...
The bed below, the bed on top, the bed below...
Who are...
(You...?)
Who...?
(Stop...)
Please stop."
"More than anything, they didn't allow PDAs to work inside so the facility would be completely separated from the world above as part of the attraction." (Yes, this is how it's grammatically said).
No, I got a lot further than where these excerpts are taken from and it did not get any better. Some of this could be translation errors, but I went ahead and checked up with the kanji for a few of these just to make sure and no the separations and general use of establishment with where people are is just disorienting. This main hook is laughably bad too. I recall what a friend told me today, "VN authors need more Agatha Christie in their lives." And boy does that hold true. What a mess!
This is the worst prose I've read in a very very very long time, and I put up with shit from Umineko. Here's some excerpts from this work of pure art:
"Why had such a thing happened?
He had no idea.
No idea...
Where he was.
Where had gone.
Shaking.
Shaken.
Feeling ill."
"Couldn't be? Do you know something about this?
I don't know anything...
Do you know something?
How could I know anything?"
"He had no idea.
He didn't know...
There was no way he could know.
But there on the bed.
There...
On the bed...
There...
The bed below, the bed on top, the bed below...
Who are...
(You...?)
Who...?
(Stop...)
Please stop."
"More than anything, they didn't allow PDAs to work inside so the facility would be completely separated from the world above as part of the attraction." (Yes, this is how it's grammatically said).
No, I got a lot further than where these excerpts are taken from and it did not get any better. Some of this could be translation errors, but I went ahead and checked up with the kanji for a few of these just to make sure and no the separations and general use of establishment with where people are is just disorienting. This main hook is laughably bad too. I recall what a friend told me today, "VN authors need more Agatha Christie in their lives." And boy does that hold true. What a mess!
given my interest in visual novels and having experienced a few of the big names in the genre back in my teenage years, the fact that i'd never gotten around to ever17 is pretty astounding. it's one of those seminal pieces that completely changed how the medium would be executed for the foreseeable future, and something of a rite of passage in the genre even now. my first uchikoshi project i saw all the way through was 999, and after being pretty mixed and generally underwhelmed with never7, i'm happy to say ever17 is the remarkable sequel and reboot(ish) that people built it up to be.
cat out of the bag, uchikoshi is a hack in the most lovable way. he strikes me as similar to hirohiko araki in the way that he's constantly bursting at the seems with concepts he wants to share regardless of how well he can fit them into the already pacing-troubled genre of visual novels, or how much weight they end up carrying in the greater picture. he's a hack, but he's my kind of hack. and i think the fact that, to my understanding, he was a supplemental force in ever17 more than the general overseer as he was with zero escape works to this game's benefit.
given the premise of ever17, the conversations and concepts at hand actually feel naturally and relevant. basically every concept or theory introduced holds weight and feels like a naturally integrated piece of the larger puzzle. these characters have a lot more time to unwind and communicate in a way that feels natural; where 999 is in a constant state of reminding you how urgent every waking moment is, the perpetual dread of ever17 looms over and is constantly shoved aside like an impossibility, clearly out of mental defense, and it works REALLY well.
i'm a sucker for late 90s-early 00s slice of life anyways, and the moments ever17 SHOULD feel comfy, it comes naturally. the entire cast is interesting and developed well - PARTICULARLY sora and tsugumi, the latter is the rare exception of uchikoshi not only writing a genuinely empathetic and grounded woman character but stands as one of the greatest visual novel characters and respective routes i've ever played. sara and you are great too, and even coco, who embodies that loud-mouthed moe type i tend to really dislike ended up winning my heart over as her route slowly came up over the horizon. ever17's protagonists offer a phenomenal dichotomy and as the slice of life slowly peels away, especially if you play the game with its now obviously intentional route order (which IS the way you really should play it) it occurs to the reader how seamlessly all of the ideas snugly tucked away in moments of slice-of-life key-esque everydayisms and bombastic melodrama piece together into a final act perhaps too intelligent and profound for the game's own good.
ever17 is a slog at points but i chalk that up half to the nature of early vn composition as a whole and half to being completely by design. the slow days wasting away with this cast build up a social structure and a dynamic that, when tinkered with, becomes even more irregular and upsetting. it's astounding how ballsy this game gets in its final hours, even with all of the games it's inspired down the road under my belt. i'd be very surprised if another uchikoshi project gets to me the way this one did, but then, there's still remember11 down the road.
cat out of the bag, uchikoshi is a hack in the most lovable way. he strikes me as similar to hirohiko araki in the way that he's constantly bursting at the seems with concepts he wants to share regardless of how well he can fit them into the already pacing-troubled genre of visual novels, or how much weight they end up carrying in the greater picture. he's a hack, but he's my kind of hack. and i think the fact that, to my understanding, he was a supplemental force in ever17 more than the general overseer as he was with zero escape works to this game's benefit.
given the premise of ever17, the conversations and concepts at hand actually feel naturally and relevant. basically every concept or theory introduced holds weight and feels like a naturally integrated piece of the larger puzzle. these characters have a lot more time to unwind and communicate in a way that feels natural; where 999 is in a constant state of reminding you how urgent every waking moment is, the perpetual dread of ever17 looms over and is constantly shoved aside like an impossibility, clearly out of mental defense, and it works REALLY well.
i'm a sucker for late 90s-early 00s slice of life anyways, and the moments ever17 SHOULD feel comfy, it comes naturally. the entire cast is interesting and developed well - PARTICULARLY sora and tsugumi, the latter is the rare exception of uchikoshi not only writing a genuinely empathetic and grounded woman character but stands as one of the greatest visual novel characters and respective routes i've ever played. sara and you are great too, and even coco, who embodies that loud-mouthed moe type i tend to really dislike ended up winning my heart over as her route slowly came up over the horizon. ever17's protagonists offer a phenomenal dichotomy and as the slice of life slowly peels away, especially if you play the game with its now obviously intentional route order (which IS the way you really should play it) it occurs to the reader how seamlessly all of the ideas snugly tucked away in moments of slice-of-life key-esque everydayisms and bombastic melodrama piece together into a final act perhaps too intelligent and profound for the game's own good.
ever17 is a slog at points but i chalk that up half to the nature of early vn composition as a whole and half to being completely by design. the slow days wasting away with this cast build up a social structure and a dynamic that, when tinkered with, becomes even more irregular and upsetting. it's astounding how ballsy this game gets in its final hours, even with all of the games it's inspired down the road under my belt. i'd be very surprised if another uchikoshi project gets to me the way this one did, but then, there's still remember11 down the road.