Review - Ever 17: The Out of Infinity (2025)

Ever 17: The Out of Infinity is the next step in Kotaro Uchikoshi’s attempt to frame the importance of life. Life is unique because of how we each experience it. Despite what cynics might imply, every person gets to view, think and feel the way that reality washes over them differently, even when raised in the exact same environment as anyone else. The light that we emanate during our time alive is the most singular representation of ourselves; for better or worse, there will never be anyone like us again once we take our final breaths. We cannot hope to ever fully describe what our life was like because, in spite of prose and the most creative media around, we are soap bubbles dancing in the rays of summer sun. Beautiful, directionless, and gone before you know it.

But we still do our best to share and express these moments of revelation, of wonder, of heartbreak with whomever we can, as that is also a big part of the shared dream that is existence. The ideas that burst forth from the wellspring of our minds can quench and nourish an important part of the soul, the part that desperately wants to know that we are not ultimately alone. Ever 17: The Out of Infinitytakes the minute ideas teased in Never 7: The End of Infinity – of meaning, of humanity, of sacrifice – and ultimately applies it to a much larger, more engaging lens. Gone are the forced ideas of trying to date someone in order to drive the plot forward. Now we have a framework that, in spite of its fantastical setting, has the tenants of what creates a memorable gaming experience. Namely, intrigue, shock, and unbridled confusion with zero attempt to console the player.

Ever 17: The Out of Infinity takes place in the underwater adventure city of LeMU, a park that promises to grant all your dreams and wishes. Whether this is true or not can never be discovered, because the whole thing suddenly suffers a catastrophic disaster about six minutes after you arrive. Struggling to get your bearings, it quickly becomes clear that the park is currently cut off from the surface and the self-sustaining mechanics have been damaged. There is only 117 hours and 17 minutes left of oxygen in the city, and you and your companions must rally and find some way out. Over the course of less than five days, you’ll discover a lot about LeMU and those traveling with you, and slowly begin to realize at least one person may have something to do with the event, and, more importantly, may not want everyone to survive.

You’ll notice that my initial synopsis is a bit vague, and that’s deliberate; I haven’t simply forgotten how to write. Ever 17: The Out of Infinityis an odd duck to approach in terms of summation because of several factors. First and foremost, like Never 7: The End of Infinity, this game is over twenty years old and spoilers exist everywhere as to what the story and pacing are. Secondly, the way the game unfolds is still very much a visual novel experience, complete with branching choices and some nuanced choices that result in some very shocking moments. For example, there is one moment during my maybe fifth playthrough where I finally got to someplace new and ended up needing to recall one or another location I had visited before. Everything leading up to this moment apparently was trivial: naming one place got me a good ending, naming another got me a bad ending.

In stark contrast to Never 7, the path to success for Ever 17 is far more tangential and obfuscated. Sure, you can choose some obvious moments like “go with person A instead of person B,” but others turn into an entire thread that can unravel the structure of the game. For the sake of clearer explanation, there are five people you need to think about: Sora, You, Tsumugi, Coco and Sara. It will never not be confusing that a character is called You (pronounced Yo), so brace yourself. There’s also two other folk that you don’t need to consider: Takeshi and The Kid. The Kid has a name, but you won’t find it out until the very, very end of the game. They interact and chat, but that’s it. You don’t need to care about Takeshi or The Kid because they are you, in one way or another.

This is where things get confusing, even for longtime fans of the game, so now’s as good a time as any to explain what Spike Chunsoft has brought to the table. This version of Ever 17 is an amalgamation of all the best parts of the different versions that have been released over the years. The 2D sprites from the first version have been polished and look pristine, but some of the 3D animation for different scenes that came into the Xbox 360 version exist for filler. The 3D character models are gone, the soundtrack is intact, and the game now unfolds in a way that Uchikoshi first envisioned. That is, you absolutely MUST finish the game first from Takeshi’s perspective before you can see The Kid’s POV.

Once you embark on Takeshi’s adventure through the LeMU, there’ll be a lot to notice over the course of the game. First and foremost, many of the interactions and exchanges feel fantastically natural. Conversations between Sora, the primary guide of LeMU, are a bit robotic and factual at first, but really develop into these fascinating glimpses into what it means to exist. You is good natured and bubbly but clearly hiding damage beneath the surface. Inversely, Tsumugi is incredibly cold and thorny, with good reason, and gradually opens up to you, but never fully. And Coco is so upbeat and cheerful, a wonderful example of a friendly, optimistic character who you know is going to have a rotten time any minute now. Takeshi’s talks with The Kid are stilted, but purposely so, as The Kid has amnesia.

Ever 17: The Out of Infinity continues the science based viewing of many things by overwhelming the player with facts, information, and historical constructs that feel trivial, but have greater meaning for the game’s direction and atmosphere. You’ll suddenly get biological breakdowns about fish, the explanations of Greece’s ideas of fate, and philosophy, and constantly reminded of Archimedes’ principles. Yes, you’re in a steel death trap beneath the waves, and no hope to shoot to the surface without fear of a fatal case of the bends, but how about we really dig into the schematics of what it means to properly prepare tuna for dinner? Again, in spite of the massive data dumps you’ll get, nothing ever feels out of place: once you realize that there isn’t a word that is minced or spoken errantly.

When you play Zero Time Dilemma, the constant assault of the grim reality of things forces characters to always stick to either pertinent information or pretty bleak observations. By contrast, the crew stuck in LeMU understand they have long stretches of time where, while waiting for water to drain or things to be repaired, they simply can’t do anything. In lieu of panicking, they have moments of humanity and fun, like playing in the now abandoned gift shop (which sounds INCREDIBLE) or hanging out in the hot springs that exist because this game was made in Japan, of course there are hot springs in the underwater villa. It shows that you can have a game with a very stressful forward motion that also takes appropriate breaks in the doom to remind you of why you want to live.

Once you successfully finish Takeshi’s route, Ever 17: The Out of Infinity allows you to play as The Kid, where things get…weird. For one, you’re now from the perspective of the amnesic teen who also gets premonitions and headaches. For another, the route is slightly different. By that I mean Coco doesn’t exist, and is now replaced by a girl named Sara. Sara is fun and upbeat as well, but she isn’t Coco, and The Kid keeps hallucinating Coco at random times. No one else sees Coco, no one knows she exists, and Tsumugi is apparently in a lab coat now? I know oxygen deprivation is happening in real time but I can’t believe that I’d just make up a pink haired girl who tells terrible jokes all the time.

The reality of what’s happening in Ever 17: The Out of Infinitywill take you several playthroughs to fully unlock, which almost feels like a standard affair in a visual novel nowadays. However, you need to understand that this 2002 title will not hold your hand with any of it. To get to the real ending, you’ll need to finish several times, each time leading in a different direction, and then play a final time to really get the rug yanked out from under you. Unlike Never 7, the “true” ending of Ever 17 feels resolute and solid, but also very hopeful and positive. Everything feels explained, people have a bright future and corporations get punished, which you would hope would happen after Underwater Disneyland almost implodes.

The journey can be a bit arduous, however, because Ever 17 is SHOCKINGLY long. You get a deep feeling of connection over the course of things, a sensation that you’re experiencing the four days in almost real time as you move forward. A single choice can branch off into something new that will take over an hour’s worth of reading as you watch Sora grapple with the question of what it means to be alive, or Tsumugi revealing a dark part of her past. The first time I played, I ended up getting killed at what I thought was the climax and quickly reloaded. Once I didn’t die there, I still had another TWO DAYS underwater before the better ending was reached. Two more days of inner monologues, scientific extrapolation and the quickest, least detailed sex scene that’s ever been in a visual novel.

If I’m being honest, I much preferred Takeshi’s stories over The Kid’s. I felt like Takeshi engaged better with everyone as he spoke to them like peers instead of overseers/guardians. Since The Kid has amnesia, everyone treated him nicer and spoke gentler, which felt less genuine than the good natured ribbing and brutal honesty Takeshi received. Moreover, Takeshi does get a chance for romantic developments, even if they come in periods of grief and despair, whereas The Kid only has a very awkward moment of suggestion from Sara (which gets MUCH more awkward later on). But, due to the nature of needing to showcase the story from both sides (and underline the high strangeness of Coco’s disappearance), The Kid’s story is technically the more interesting one. I had to admit it, but, in the afterglow of the game, I can see how important it is.

Ever 17: The Out of Infinity is also the game that finally got me fully on board with the composer, Takeshi Abo. A score done with geometric elements that fully incorporate the underwater scenario and the science fiction backdrop, this stands out in a way that dances on my brain stem like a lightning storm. The music draws you in and locks you down like the ill fated passengers of LeMU, aurally assisting in painting a picture of curiosity, fascination and harsh realities. With tracks named after the different sections of the station (which are all in German?), the soundtrack experiments with electronic noise and synthetic reverberations that are captivating. Abo seems to have gotten his complete works up on streaming services, so be sure to check out the sound for yourself as soon as possible.

The biggest lie that gets told is how unimportant a single life is unless they’re providing something for the world, the community, or whatever microcosm it gets slotted into. People around the world begin to embrace nihilism as a justification for what it all looks like, and it’s easy to go dark instead of searching for the light. Tsumugi, a tragic heroine aboard the LeMU, embodies this from start to finish, and the struggle for Takeshi to help change her perspective – not through saccharine affirmations but genuine action – is a hard fought and hard won battle. His influence affects Tsumugi for the remainder of the game, on both storylines, and it’s so validating to see that happen.

For you, the player, the struggle to make it through to the very end may feel insurmountable. The choices of Ever 17: The Out of Infinitycan be very fine in terms of survival or death. Needing to go back and revisit your decisions and your words again and again can be so grueling, and you may decide, after a spell, that you’ve seen enough. You watched Takeshi escape. You watched The Kid escape. Let’s assume others escaped as well, and that should be enough, shouldn’t it? You’ve done what you need to do: gotten a “good” ending where you can firmly believe that the character you played has achieved what they need, and that’s all that matters.

If you’ve already picked up Ever 17: The Out of Infinityand know why you should keep going, then go fight the good fight. If you have no idea why I’m still harping on this, please give me a modicum of trust and seek out the answer yourself. Sometimes it’s not just about the characters of the game: it’s about the player. It’s literally about you, and what you can do to change the fates of everyone, what you can do to help along a better tomorrow for an entire planet that maybe you’ll never meet, but you can still influence. And the incredible feeling of knowing that a game can punch you in the solar plexus, can steal your breath and force your inner eye wide open, is a treasure even today.

You don’t have to clear your backlog. Go ahead and put aside some time, every day, but don’t hurry. You won’t finish Ever 17: The Out of Infinitytoday, or tomorrow, or maybe even in a week. But you will finish it. You’ll consume the whole thing, bones and all, and you will be sated. You’ll remember words and phrases. You’ll recall stellar voice performances and marvel at how the story unfolded. You cannot ever forget Chami the hamster or Pipi the dog. And you will think about this game whenever you visit the seaside. In spite of the game’s warning screen, you are not, in fact, in an infinite loop. Time marches forward, and we bring our memories along with us. And, one day, we’ll release them all out into the sky. At that moment, finally, we return to infinity, and leave behind only what others remember of us. Leave behind smiles.

Ever 17: The Out of Infinity is available now on PC, PlayStation 4/5, and Nintendo Switch.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

A copy of Ever 17: The Out of Infinity was provided by the publisher.

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