Adventure Corner ~ Never 7: The End of Infinity

Welcome to Adventure Corner, a column where members of the RPGamer staff can give their thoughts, impressions, and pseudo-reviews for various adventure titles that don’t come under our usual coverage. Adventure Corner is aimed at delivering opinions on a wide range of titles including visual novels, point-and-click adventures, investigative mysteries, and so forth.

In this edition of the column we take a look at MAGES. Inc.’s Never 7: The End of Infinity on Nintendo Switch.

Never 7: The End of Infinity

Painting them with a broad brush, to a newcomer, visual novels seem to break down into two types of stories.  Philosophical science fiction or fantasy that really gets the player thinking, often incorporating elements of horror, or a romantic tale in which the protagonist falls in love with one of many options presented while getting to know the character better.  Never 7: The End of Infinity feels like an early progenitor of the former group, but still stays true to a slice-of-life romance at heart.  The result flows well, though it has moments where things feel too safe.  As an early work of acclaimed science fiction visual novelist Kotaro Uchikoshi, it is more than just a curiosity with interesting storytelling and character development to be found.  The first title in the Infinity series, now finally brought over with an official translation, should be played before Ever 17: Out of Infinity, which it is being released alongside.

Makoto Ishihara is a typical lazy university student who hasn’t been to many classes in his Psychology course.  When he finds out there’s a seminar retreat with a few classmates that could make up for the missed time and allow him to pass, he jumps on the opportunity.  The seminar retreat is a bonding exercise where the group gets to enjoy the cabin that the university owns on an island.  Joining Makoto are Okuhiko, a constant rival and rich playboy who seems fake to Makoto; Haruka, a quiet and mysterious girl; and Yuka, the designated leader for the retreat.  Through happenstance the group also befriends Saki, a brash girl who knows Yuka and is vacationing at her family’s villa nearby, and the sisters Izumi and Kurumi, who run a local cafe on the beach.  Each of the characters has moments of heartfelt poignancy, comedy, and the occasional facepalm situation.

Depending on the player’s choices, Makoto connects with one of the girls over time and some feel more natural than others; one of the romantic interests acts much younger than they are, while another involves the protagonist thinking of them as having a father/daughter relationship briefly before feelings head in a romantic direction instead.  Never 7: The End of Infinity still handles these situations with grace as each of the girls brings out a different aspect of Makoto’s personality.  Whoever is chosen to get closer with, the same basic outline happens: spend time with a girl and fall in love, but there is no happy end to be found at first.

Okuhiko has a point, but he does make some choices that makes his face pretty punchable.

After Makoto witnesses this unhappy outcome, he suddenly wakes up in his bed, where it happens to be the first day of the retreat again.  Makoto reacts to this in a few different ways depending on the route, but ultimately lands on the same conclusion —  he has to save his love.  Armed with the knowledge of prior events, there’s a balancing act that must be maintained to still fall in love with the same person, while also trying to alter events enough to prevent tragedy.  This basic outline has a lot of mileage as every story plays out rather differently and brings in a new piece to the puzzle for the player to figure out how everything connects.  However, some things are still left vague, even after experiencing every ending.  Getting close to each of the interesting girls in Never 7: The End of Infinity can be addicting, as figuring out their guarded secrets opens up information that makes the science fiction side of things connect easier.

Almost every choice that Makoto makes sends him down another road to a different ending.  Luckily, navigating through the other choices after playing through once is easy enough with a handy skip feature to zoom through the dialogue until reaching the next decision.  There’s an underlying points system that the game keeps track of to see which girl Makoto gets to fall in love with him, while in the second half there are set decisions that decide on a good or a bad ending.  More routes become available based on how many endings have been obtained.  Plenty of little variations can be found in shared conversations over the timelines, but every route has this group becomes friends with Makoto falling in love with one of them.

Party girl is one of Yuka’s traits.

Makoto himself has a few different personality traits that are brought out best with each girl.  Whether it’s his playful, nurturing, submissive, thoughtful, or caring nature, there’s always something taking the forefront that connects Makoto to each of his love interests.  Each aspect is believable and the inner dialogue that Makoto struggles with while deciding what to say next, both in dialogue choices and just his personality makes the stories feel natural.  What shines through in every route is Makoto’s loyalty, playfulness, strength, and desire to protect making him a protagonist worth rooting for, even though he can also be thick-headed and lazy at times.  The events of Never 7: End of Infinity consistently show Makoto struggling and generally succeeding in being a better person, all because of the seminar retreat.

The game features the usual visual novel format of different static backgrounds that are cycled between depending on where Makoto is, while the person he’s speaking with appears in the foreground with a few different poses, facial animations, and clothing styles depending on the situation.  All the character designs and backgrounds evoke an early 2000s anime style that is pleasantly nostalgic.  The user interface for the dialogue boxes when having to make a choice are very easy on the eyes.  However, the real heavy presentational lifting comes from the great soundtrack by Takeshi Abo.  Every girl gets her own vastly different theme that plays when Makoto is focusing on them, and make fine use of the piano to capture the vibe that each character gives off.  This is only heightened by the excellent Japanese vocal talent who deliver the dialogue with conviction.

Precursing a meal that the more learned about it the queasier it can make players.

Never 7: The End of Infinity plays a delicate balancing act between maintaining the comedic and tragic elements of its stories.  Each route contains little things that raise the corners of the mouth as well as the tugging of heartstrings.  There’s nothing groundbreaking in the behaviour of any of the characters in this story, but that in itself lends it to a more natural setting that is fun to experience.  Piecing together the puzzle of how to save Makoto’s love never gets old and before long players fondly remember each of the characters and how they change Makoto for the better.  The science fiction is rather rudimentary in the title but serves as an easy way to dip their toes into the genre.  Visual novels veterans may find the love stories and underlying science fiction a bit too basic at times, but the game works as a perfect entry point into both sides of the typical visual novel coin.

Never 7: The End of Infinity works best when viewed from an entry-level standpoint.  There aren’t too many surprises to be had in is presentation, but as a title that mixes both slice of life romance and thoughtful science fiction, it is a lot of fun.  The soundtrack, character design, story routes, and vocal performance provide a lot of heart and appeal.  It certainly evokes the feeling of a summer camp adventure with some messy execution and a sense that many of the events feel typical, but in the end is still a memory that can be looked back on with a smile.

Disclosure: This article is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.