Ever 17: The Out of Infinity - Nintendo Switch Review

Ever 17 by developer MAGES. and publisher Spike Chunsoft US—Nintendo Switch review written by Natasha with a copy provided by the publisher.

 
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

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I've got a good one for ya! An awkward teen, an amnesiac kid, a grumpy Lolita, a bratty child (not really), a hacker, an oblivious employee and an AI walk into an underwater bio-dome---

Imma' stop your joke right there. 

Why?

Cuz', I'm gunna write it better. Duh!

~

--------------------[WARNING! YOU'RE ABOUT TO ENTER INFINITY]----------------------

Immerse yourself in LeMU

We welcome you to our artificial island water park that will bring you a lifetime experience that you will never forget. Enjoy our ocean-top theme park for the first part of your tri¶, then move down into our underwater bio-structure that will finish off your day in relaxation and comfort. There's much to expl¤re 51 meters under the $ea. View the m@rine life up close and pe®sonal, take a ride in one of our mini submarines or fill your bellies at our man¥ themed restaurants. Ät LeMU, thÊre's Ñever a dÜll moment. Yo#'re perfe¢tly sa%e ^n ou* han`s...

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A Group a Little Wet Behind the Ears

I was surprised to see that all the characters in Ever 17 were voiced at the start of the game, but as I continued further into the storyline the game has two separate points of view and depending on your choices you either play through one characters story or the other. They certainly didn't shy away from this colourful cast. How bout an introduction?

Takeshi Kuranari

Takeshi is one of our “Two-Choice” protagonists: a college student who decided to tag along with his friends to explore the wondrous water theme park, LeMU. After being separated on the ride down to the underwater facility, Takeshi creates a small incident that accidentally points him to being a bully. In order to clear this mix up, he agrees to help aid the situation only to find himself far into the medical branch of this dome. Too far away to escape the on-coming chaos that is about to unfold.

Kid

A young teenager and the other “Two-Choice” protagonist, who seems to have lost his memory. The only thing he seems to remember is chasing after a girl. His confusion makes him an easy target for those looking to take advantage of him, and he finds himself colliding with Takeshi and injuring himself in the process. As he is examined in the medical wing of the dome, chaos breaks out and he is locked in behind sealed doors. Confused and afraid, he must depend on his instinct to guide him through this underwater hellscape.

You Tanaka

A part-timer who works at LeMU during her summer break. She helps guests around the establishment and doubles as first aid assistance. She was the one who accused Takeshi of setting up poor Kid. She is head strong and tends to be the one to always diffuse a situation. As she tries to keep the group from panicking she battles with not only her entrapment, but an unknown disease that's slowly killing her.

Sora Akanegasaki

At first she seems like your typical tour guide, but it isn't long until you find out that this individual is different from the rest of the group. With the help of some advanced technical devices that are given to every guest at the park. You are greeted by this lovely AI. She is in charge of looking after LeMU's underwater structure. A super computer with a body. Even though Sora isn't tangible, she has eyes and ears on the whole building.

Coco Yagami

This spirited individual has dreamed of visiting the underwater theme park for some time. With her trusted pet dog, Pipi, they run into Takeshi on their way down into the bio-dome. Together she gets caught up in all the madness that takes place and is another victim trapped in this metallic prison. She does her best to cheer up anyone feeling down with a good joke here and there, but let's not forget that she's just as scared as the rest.

A Nostalgic Feeling

My first initial though on Ever 17 was how much this game brings me back to late 90's, early 2000's, anime vibes. The music and characters certainly fit the atmosphere. Considering I didn't play through my first Visual Novel type game until the 3DS, it was a nice change of pace to view this type of genre from an earlier time.

With obvious outdated visual and sounds, the story telling was surprisingly strong and compelling, keeping me interested enough to know what's going to happen next.

A Story Adrift

Overall, Ever 17: The Out of Infinity, was a charming change to my usual romance centered story telling. The further I got the crazier the game turned into. It definitely doesn't cut short on surprises and unpredictability. If you're looking for something to kick your nostalgia into overdrive, I highly recommend giving this game a try. I'm happy to give this game a rating of 8 out of 10!

-----------------------------[INFINITY TERMINATED]--------------------------------

Score: 8 / 10

 

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Never 7: The End of Infinity - Nintendo Switch Review

Never 7: The End of Infinity by developer MAGES. and publisher Spike Chunsoft US—Nintendo Switch review written by Natasha with a copy provided by the publisher.  

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

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You ever get the sense that you've experienced an event before in your life and can't seem to remember, but your body does? Or perhaps you've happened upon something that hasn't occurred yet, but you know exactly what's going to happen? (Walks across a sturdy bridge)

Are you saying, you can see the future? (Wooden boards creek beneath our feet)

Hard to say. More like I'm given these visions of events that are about to hap--- (Falls through a weak board on the bridge)

(Kneels down close to the open gap) Didn't see that one coming, did you? (Pulls out a pen and paper) DON'T WORRY, I'LL WRITE THAT YOU SURVIVE THE FALL!

~

A Sense of Deja-vu

Never 7 brings us on a trip up in cottage country, with a handful of students that are participating in a school activity where individuals get to know each other better. No one is connected, which allows everyone to form a fresh new bond. While they enjoy each others company for the next seven days, strange happenings seem to occur. Even weirder, you have the ability to stop it. Flashes and/or glimpses of future events spark through your mind. Is it possible that you're psychic? If so, perhaps you can stop a horrible death from coming true...

If the Cast of Baywatch was Stuck in a Time Paradox

What's a school trip without our stereotypical cast? Throw in a group of gullible teens and a handful of nearby local strangers and you have yourself a menagerie of trouble makers. Now, rise for attendance...

Makoto Ishihara

Our main, faceless, protagonist. He is very much a slacker, but makes up for it in how much he cares about those around him. He is also blessed (or cursed) with the ability to see the future, or rather, briefly see an event that's about to happen. With this kind of power you have the opportunity to possibly stop events from playing out as they should.

Yuka Kawashima

If you ever heard of teen spirit, then this girl is the definition of that. She is the lead counsellor of this school event and does her very best to get everyone to join in on cooperative activities. But this goody two-shoes comes with some bad habits. She's a terrible drunk and an even more terrible cook. Better watch out because she will corner you.

Haruka Higuchi

What most people would call the “Silent Type”. She really only seems to show interest in one individual and that's the main character... as long as you choose to chat her up, otherwise she's mostly quiet with the odd word here and there.

Okuhiko Iida

The superstar of the group and only other guy, Okuhiko has the attitude of a high-strung noble. He often teases the main character and tends to shove him off on almost anything they talk about. This guy tends to wear his feelings on his sleeve and this is noticeable for his affection towards Haruka, almost always tailing her around everywhere he goes.

Kurumi Morino

The Genki Girl of the group. Her playful and child-like attitude puts her as the youngest, but she ends up being the most mature in the darkest of moments. Her favourite past-time is pulling pranks on others and sometimes her antics could place her, or others, in hot water.

Izumi Morino

Kurumi's older sister, she is the picture perfect example of “Looks sweet on the outside, but crazy on the inside”. Unlike Yuka, Izumi is a master chef, which makes sense since she's the proud owner of her restaurant near the beach. On a side note... she's a terrible driver.

Saki Asakura

Our rich girl who lives nearby in a villa. She comes storming into Izumi's restaurant demanding why she never got her pizza order. (Hint: Okuhiko stole it) Then totally decides to forget the whole thing and befriends everyone instead over a home-cooked meal. She does continue to be the most prideful individual in the group which tends to put her in most people's bad graces throughout the game.

A Slow Precognition

Never 7 takes the meaning of “Slow-burn” and cranks it up to an 11. It is a snails pace for anything really exciting to happen and tends to leave me behind in that aspect. For a gal like me to play through a Visual Novel in full, you have to really start off strong in the story telling to keep me interested. However, I find this game falls short on delivering a compelling story, only to hold all the cards until the last hour of the game. Perhaps an audience with more patience could truly appreciate this game's story.

Time Waits for no One

To conclude, there is an intricate story about time and retrying intertwined within the game. In order to get the full picture you'll have to play multiple playthroughs to hopefully get the good ending you're searching for. It may not be my cup of tea, but people looking to bide their time to unwind the mystery that is Never 7: The End of Infinity, could have a better experience. This game gets my rating of 6.5 out of 10.

(A strange light flashes from behind as I put away my hammer and hardware) Woah! I feel like I've been here before? (I casually walk over to my friend)

You don't say? How bout you tell me all about it as we walk over this very sturdy looking bridge!

Score: 6.5 / 10

 

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CHAOS;HEAD NOAH Review

Chaos;Head Noah by developer MAGES. and publisher Spike Chunsoft—Nintendo Switch review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes 

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Chaos; Head Noah is a remastering of Chaos; Head, one of the installments in the "Science Adventure" series, which also includes titles Steins; Gate and Robotics; Notes. Essentially look for the semi-colon. Chaos; Head Noah is a visual novel that's a little grimier and darker than you may be used to, but is an incredibly gripping experience.

Chaos; Head Noah is the tale of Takumi Nishijou, a highschool boy who only goes to school 2 or 3 times a week, and is obsessed with anime and the MMORPG Empire Sweeper Online, where he is a very well-known player called Neidhardt. He has trouble dealing with other people, and will often feel as if someone is staring at him, although he never sees anyone when he looks. One day on his way home from a netcafe he visited after one of his mandatory school days, he encounters the scene of a murder and sees a blood-soaked girl. This is the start of a tale of attempting to figure out where the line between delusion and reality lies.

If you think I was pretty vague about the plot description, that's because I was. Chaos; Head Noah is a visual novel, which means that it's essentially a book you watch, with a few interactions available. Hence anything I say after the above would be spoilers and possibly detract from your experience. That being said, I can tell you that this isn't your average dating sim style visual novel. Hell, it's closer to a crime/thriller novel than a dating sim, despite the abundantly female cast.

The story follows Takumi as he attempts to navigate his life and find out who the murderer behind the "NewGen" killings is, before he himself gets murdered after witnessing the crime scene of one of the murders. Along the way he will interact with a cast of mentally unstable characters, much like himself. Yup, that's right, Takumi is an extremely flawed character. In fact, as a "person", I really don't like Takumi. He's a sketchy, geeky wimp who is constantly getting lost within his own delusions. That being said, as a character he is both well written and a good focal point, as he is fallible and full of contradictions and imperfections, much like mankind.

As a visual novel, Chaos; Head Noah follows a pretty straightforward "gameplay". You read text, you continue reading text, you read more text. Occasionally you'll be able to trigger one of Takumi's delusions. This is done by hitting the shoulder buttons on the Switch, or ZL and ZR if you prefer. You can trigger a delusion when a silhouette background gets overlayed with the scene and is slowly rotating. Once you reach the end of the text segments within the overlay, Takumi will have a delusion based on your input. If you have a green coloured background in effect, the delusion will be happy, funny, or perverted. If the background is red, the delusion will be negative or downright disturbing. One of the first negative delusions even involves a pretty graphic death sequence, so be aware of that going in.

If you don't choose a delusion type, or revert back to a normal background by "cancelling out" the colours, Takumi won't have a delusion and will remain grounded in reality. Some of these delusions are actually required for unlocking different endings, so feel free to watch them. That being said, if you don't know about them you may never even activate them. No, seriously, I only ended up accidentally activating the second last delusion trigger in the whole game on my first playthrough. It's a little annoying this isn't particularly well explained, especially considering it's basically an integral part of the visual novel.

Now, what would a visual novel be if we didn't talk about the art and sound direction? Good news, it's pretty good. The soundtrack especially has a number of wonderful tracks, including some done by an actual band named Phantasm, with the lead singer going by FES, mimicking the in-game band and lead singer by the same names. Best part is they're actually good, and the lead singer is also the voice actress for the in-game character as well. While I found the graphics and background art to be pretty good, especially considering this is technically one of the older titles in the science adventure series, I would suggest playing in handheld mode. TV mode isn't bad, it just feels more "at home" in the handheld mode.

For those curious about doing multiple playthroughs for all the endings, the good news is there is a skip function that pauses at the delusion trigger points. Also, after the first playthrough you get extra scenes from a different perspective on subsequent playthroughs. Handily, the game keeps track of what you've unlocked, such as music, CGs, and endings, through the "extras" segment of the main menu, so you can check which endings you're still missing.

Overall I have to rate Chaos; Head Noah quite favorably. The story is engaging, the characters are all flawed in a relatable way, the art direction and musical style match the tone and setting, and the delusion triggers keep you engaged even during multiple playthroughs. While actually using the delusion trigger is very poorly explained, there is still a lot to enjoy here. While it does get extremely dark at some points, it really does a good job of setting the tone.

If you're interested in a science/fantasy visual novel, Chaos; Head Noah is a good starting point, either on its own or as part of the Science Adventure series.

Score: 8 / 10

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