Find true love and escape from a tragic time loop in Never 7, a classic visual novel now remastered and available in English for the first time.
Never 7: The End of Infinity
Developer: MAGES
Price: $20
Platforms: Nintendo Switch (reviewed), PlayStation 4, PC
MonsterVine was provided with a Switch code for review.
Never 7: The End of Infinity is the first visual novel in the Infinity series and one of the earliest games written by Kotaro Uchikoshi. It originally came out in 2000, and now it’s available in English for the first time thanks to this remaster. Although it’s the first of the two games, I chose to play it after Ever 17 since that’s the way they were listed in the remasters’ marketing. The connections between the two are light enough that the order doesn’t matter.
The story begins with the main character, Makoto, waking up from a dream of someone dying on April 6. It’s currently April 1, the start of a special university seminar where he and a handful of other classmates are meant to get to know each other. He puts the strange dream out of his mind, and the seminar begins. For the most part, Never 7 is a straightforward romance story. While the common route has occasional hints of the time loop, it mostly focuses on slice-of-life scenes and interpersonal conflicts between the characters. There also is one sci-fi element that is introduced so casually, it took me by surprise, although it’s not necessarily bad.
Never 7 features time loops to influence the story
Depending on your choices, you eventually end up on a specific love interest’s route to learn more about her story and develop a romance with her. Tragedy ultimately strikes, and Makoto is sent back in time to repeat the events of the story and work toward a better outcome. The characters are all fairly likeable, with believable conflicts despite several parts of the plot relying on miscommunication and misunderstandings. Some of the routes are locked at the start, and new choices appear in the common route once they’re available. One of the characters also has a bonus story that retells the route from her perspective. Unfortunately, it has no voice acting, doesn’t give Makoto a sprite, and lacks notable new insights, so it feels rather pointless.
The last character’s route effectively ties up the story and introduces more serious lore elements to the plot, although some aspects of the story are left ambiguous even by the end. There’s no big moment where everything takes on new meaning or anything like that, just a final romance. Strangely enough, one additional route is unlocked after that and goes in the opposite direction, taking a more comedic approach to the situation. While an odd note to end on, it was nevertheless entertaining enough that I didn’t mind how out of place it felt with the rest of the plot.
Never 7 has a fine presentation, with a soundtrack that helps set the tone quite well and an older art style I found to be charming. Although I saw an occasional typo or a line that didn’t flow quite right from the previous one, they weren’t too significant. Overall, while Never 7 isn’t especially groundbreaking and won’t ever have you on the edge of your seat, it’s an enjoyable romance visual novel.
The Final Word
Never 7 is often overshadowed by the praise heaped upon its successor, Ever 17, and is considered to be the lesser of the two. It’s not amazing or earth-shattering, it’s simply… fine. Nevertheless, it offers a charming visual novel experience and deserves time to shine. It might be a fairly straightforward romance visual novel despite its time loop premise, but it’s a fine story in its own right.
– MonsterVine Rating: 3.5 out of 5 – Fair
