And so I continue my journey through Uchikoshi's writing credits in a kind of reverse order.
I was a bit surprised how much I enjoyed this one. The first hour confirmed that this was very much an "early" work of his, and I would go so far as to call it something of a 999 prototype. Having played 5 of his games in the span of a year, I've noticed that he has a set of battle tested plot devices he's been polishing up iteratively. It could feel like I'm reading the same story over and over, but in application they're more like structural elements of the story rather than the twists. In a way it feels like sci-fi chemistry where he takes a set of known hooks and mixes them together in different ways to see how they interact.
Here with Ever 17, what's interesting to me is that the "thriller" element of the Zero Escape and Somnium Games is gone. Instead we get a quieter, more character driven drama. There's still definitely the paranormal/sci-fi mystery element and more exciting moments, but not so much the pushing tension the later scenarios lean into. Less reliance on suspicion and shadowy antagonists and more gradual and mostly cooperative struggles against nature.
What I ended up liking the most about this title was what I've generally found to be a weakness in Zero Escape/Somnium: characters. The cast here is nearly as flashy, quirky, and immediately rememberable — there's no Dates or Clovers or Aibas — but they feel more grounded because of that, and their dialogue still has plenty of chracter. Everyone has a decent range of roles they play and their own ways of playing them.
The characters also get the time they need for their arcs to build and for you to get attached to each by the end. And in direct contrast to my issues with later Uchikoshi titles, you actually get some solid closure with the characters by the end. Not sure how that quality of his stories went so haywire with Zero Escape.
That said, the pacing here can feel a tad more sluggish due to a less refined story. For the most part it glides along pretty well, especially since they wisely made the skip feature work on "similar" scenes and not just the exact scenes you've read — for example, if someone delivers a bit of exposition in one scenario, the smart skip will generally let you skip that same exposition in another route, even if given by a different character. On occasion though, there are still a few scenes that will feel road-bumpy. Getting to all the "good" ends and through the true route took me about 19-20 hours so it still felt like a pretty light read (for me).
As a sci-fi fan I should also mention how those elements are used, as I was quite entertained by the set of topics explored. There were some well worn matters, but also a lot of ideas that now feel kind of cooly retro and even ones that feel more uncommon (at least in my reading). I think there was a lot of good detail paid to water and diving physics without getting too caught up with itself. It was lighter with the supernatural/occult conspiracy elements than ZE. Enough to make it fun but not so much that it muddled up the hard sci-fi elements.
From a technical level, there's not much more to say than that this is an early 00s VN but on the more fully featured side. It should be explicitly noted, though, that this is a strictly text VN unlike Uchikoshi's later works. So anyone hoping for more puzzle gameplay will be left wanting here.
On that note, I would call this a solid recommendation for general VN fans, and particularly for readers looking for character driven sci-fi dramas or early 00s ocean themed stories. Not the most polished work, but much more solid than I expected. And its more matte finish is actually part of its appeal.
I was a bit surprised how much I enjoyed this one. The first hour confirmed that this was very much an "early" work of his, and I would go so far as to call it something of a 999 prototype. Having played 5 of his games in the span of a year, I've noticed that he has a set of battle tested plot devices he's been polishing up iteratively. It could feel like I'm reading the same story over and over, but in application they're more like structural elements of the story rather than the twists. In a way it feels like sci-fi chemistry where he takes a set of known hooks and mixes them together in different ways to see how they interact.
Here with Ever 17, what's interesting to me is that the "thriller" element of the Zero Escape and Somnium Games is gone. Instead we get a quieter, more character driven drama. There's still definitely the paranormal/sci-fi mystery element and more exciting moments, but not so much the pushing tension the later scenarios lean into. Less reliance on suspicion and shadowy antagonists and more gradual and mostly cooperative struggles against nature.
What I ended up liking the most about this title was what I've generally found to be a weakness in Zero Escape/Somnium: characters. The cast here is nearly as flashy, quirky, and immediately rememberable — there's no Dates or Clovers or Aibas — but they feel more grounded because of that, and their dialogue still has plenty of chracter. Everyone has a decent range of roles they play and their own ways of playing them.
The characters also get the time they need for their arcs to build and for you to get attached to each by the end. And in direct contrast to my issues with later Uchikoshi titles, you actually get some solid closure with the characters by the end. Not sure how that quality of his stories went so haywire with Zero Escape.
That said, the pacing here can feel a tad more sluggish due to a less refined story. For the most part it glides along pretty well, especially since they wisely made the skip feature work on "similar" scenes and not just the exact scenes you've read — for example, if someone delivers a bit of exposition in one scenario, the smart skip will generally let you skip that same exposition in another route, even if given by a different character. On occasion though, there are still a few scenes that will feel road-bumpy. Getting to all the "good" ends and through the true route took me about 19-20 hours so it still felt like a pretty light read (for me).
As a sci-fi fan I should also mention how those elements are used, as I was quite entertained by the set of topics explored. There were some well worn matters, but also a lot of ideas that now feel kind of cooly retro and even ones that feel more uncommon (at least in my reading). I think there was a lot of good detail paid to water and diving physics without getting too caught up with itself. It was lighter with the supernatural/occult conspiracy elements than ZE. Enough to make it fun but not so much that it muddled up the hard sci-fi elements.
From a technical level, there's not much more to say than that this is an early 00s VN but on the more fully featured side. It should be explicitly noted, though, that this is a strictly text VN unlike Uchikoshi's later works. So anyone hoping for more puzzle gameplay will be left wanting here.
On that note, I would call this a solid recommendation for general VN fans, and particularly for readers looking for character driven sci-fi dramas or early 00s ocean themed stories. Not the most polished work, but much more solid than I expected. And its more matte finish is actually part of its appeal.