Without a doubt, the best story you will ever experience in a game!
Developer: KID
Available On: PC, PSP, DC, PS2
Released: December, 2005 (US)
Ever 17 was the first visual novel that I ever played. I admit I was a little wary of it at first. After all, the whole game is just reading text and making some choices along the way! I mean, how much fun could that really be? Well, set those worries aside! Ever 17 is not only loads of fun to play through, but I will personally guarantee that it has the best story you will have ever experienced! Assuming you can understand it's rather complicated nature!
-- Story: 10/10 | Perfect --
Can I give eleven out of ten? No, I guess I can't... but this story certainly deserves it! Let's start with the basics:
"Seven people find themselves trapped without warning in the marine theme park LeMU, 167 feet underwater. Water, air, and food are in short supply, and worse yet, a mysterious virus lurks deep in the ocean. The park is relentlessly assaulted by water pressure, and the protective bulkhead will collapse within the next 119 hours.
Time is limited for the people trapped in LeMU. As they fight to escape, the bonds between them grow stronger - bonds of friendship, and bonds of love. But time waits for no one, and your time is close to running out."
But believe me when I tell you that synopsis is barely scratching the surface. The game takes place in the form of two halves where you play as a different person in each. The first is as a University student, Takeshi, and the second as a younger boy who has lost all memory of who he is. Within those two halves, there are various paths for you to take and endings for you to reach. Each end is distinctly different, but more often than not, end in tragedy.
Takeshi is presented with two primary paths to follow: Tsugumi and Sora (two of the girls trapped with you). Whilst 'Kid' is given a different two paths to follow: You and Sara. Each story, with one exception, follows a primarily romantic tale with plenty of excitement as you go. Once you finally complete each path, you're presented with a finally one that will fully explain exactly what has been going on and bring everything together in a way you'd never think possible: Coco's path.
As I mentioned at the beginning though, the final story is incredibly complex. You'll be dealing with theories of time paradoxes, the third eye as well as many other related philosophical subjects! It might be helpful to have Wikipedia on hand! I'd love to keep going on and on about it, but it's best I don't ruin any of it! Just do yourself a favour and play it! You'll laugh, you'll cry and, by the end, you'll become completely emotionally attached to to the characters!
-- Gameplay: 10/10 | Perfect --
Just a quick note on this first. I am comparing the gameplay in this to other visual novels I have played. Don't play this expecting a point-and-click or a traditional kind of adventure game here! It's purely reading the story and making some choices as you go! What I am basing the score on here is how often you get the make choices and how dramatically they effect the direction the game can take you.
Ever 17 doesn't have the largest amount of choices you will see, but it does have just the right amount. They're not so frequent it starts to get annoying, and they're not so distant you start to get bored waiting for them. The choices that you are presented are also usually rather ambiguous. What I mean by that is, you never really know what direction I choice might take you in. The game is not predictable at any point.
-- Graphics: 9/10 | Superb --
The graphics are really wonderful to look at. The backgrounds are beautifully done and very intricately detailed. Each different area you visit over the course of the game has it's own unique feel to it, thanks to the great art. The characters as well, are great to look at. The detailing is fantastic and the way each character looks really suits their personality. The only reason this category does not quite score the perfect ten is that the characters sometimes look a little off during just normal conversations.
The real highlight though, and as it should be, is the quality of the CG events. For those of you that aren't familiar with the term: as you progress through visual novels, you are rewarded with high quality images known as CGs. These usually focus on one particular character in extra detail. These are fantastic to look at in Ever 17 and there are plenty of them for your viewing pleasure!
-- Sound: 10/10 | Perfect --
Background music is excellent and really sets the mood at the story progresses. There's a couple of tracks that especially help pull at your heartstrings during the more dramatic parts of the story. Sound effects are equally well done and sound very realistic. The central theme music of the game, that you'll hear on the main menu among other places, is a particularly beautiful tune and one that will probably end up making you cry whenever you hear it. The opening theme also has a rather good song that suits the tone of the game well.
Voice acting is the most important thing in this category though, and i'm pleased to say that it has been done very well. The voice actors portray their roles very well and you feel that the characters are genuine as you listen to them. Another plus is that all the characters are voice acted, excluding the protagonist (as is the norm).
-- Value: 10/10 | Perfect --
Ever 17 can be bought pretty cheaply of somewhere like Amazon nowadays. Though it's really worth any price as long as you get to play it and you certainly get your money's worth! If you're an average reader, it will probably take around eight or nine hours to progress through the first path. From there, there's another four paths to complete with the final one being the longest! And trust me, you're going to not get everything there is to collect on one play through of each path either!
Within each path is a multitude of things to collect depending on the choices you make, but there's two main things that you'll be focusing on. The first is completing the CG Gallery, this is less challenging, but very time consuming. You will want to try and find them all though, and that can take up quite a lot of time. The second can be a fair bit more challenging. That is, achieving each of the twelve endings the game as to offer. It will probably take you quite a number of attempts to get some of them, as you have to be quite careful in the choices you make!
-- Tilt: 10/10 | Perfect --
I'm a sucker for a good story, so there's no doubt I'd award the game a ten here. Basically though, Ever 17 is just an incredible experience. The only person I wouldn't recommend it to is someone who despises reading. Even if you don't normally like to read a lot, I suggest you try this out anyway. I promise it will blow you away!
-- Overall: 9.9/10 | Almost Perfect --
Go and play this game now! The law should legally enforce that you play this game at some point in your life! It really is that good! It's perfect in almost every single way, except the graphics, which i'm being rather picky about anyway! I just have a couple of notes to finish this off you should be aware of. Firstly, there is no erotic content in this game as there are with most visual novels. And secondly, there's no option for English voices and there are a couple of spelling mistakes here and there in the translation.
Thanks for reading, now go and play Ever 17!