Ever 17: The Out of Infinity
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| Ever 17: The Out of Infinity | |
|---|---|
 Ever17 promotional artwork |
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| Developer(s) | KID |
| Publisher(s) | JP KID TW T-TIME Technology |
| Platform(s) | PS2, Dreamcast, Windows |
| Release date | JP August 29, 2002 (Original Release) May 16, 2003 (PC Premium Edition) |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction, bishōjo, romance visual novel |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Teen
CERO: C (Ages 15 and Up) |
| System requirements | OS: Windows XP/2000/Me/98, 800 MHz Pentium III or AMD Athlon processor, 128 MB RAM, 8x CD-ROM Drive, 2.25 GB of HDD space, 32 MB video card (SVGA 16-bit color) |
| Input methods | Keyboard, Mouse |
Ever 17: The Out of Infinity is a Japanese science fiction visual novel produced by KID, originally released on August 29, 2002 for the Playstation 2 and Dreamcast. A Windows version, Ever 17: The Out of Infinity Premium Edition, was released on May 16, 2003. In December 2005, Hirameki International released an English edition of the PC version in the United States.
Ever 17 is a part of the Infinity series by KID. The other entries in the series are Never 7: The End of Infinity and Remember 11: The Age of Infinity, both of which take place within the same universe.
The game tells the story of seven people who are trapped in an underwater theme park and their struggle to escape.
Contents |
[edit] Gameplay and system
As with most visual novels, Ever 17's gameplay consists of reading through text accompanied by still images and music and occasionally making choices that will have a bearing on the storyline.
Takeshi and the Kid are the main characters, whom the player can control and view the storyline through. Each has a different path through the game, and each has different endings. Takeshi's endings involve Tsugumi and Sora, whereas the Kid's endings involve You and Sara. Obtaining each of these endings relies on making the correct choices throughout the scenario. After the player has completed all four of Takeshi's and the Kid's endings, the final path, Coco's path, will open. Once the player has started the game after unlocking Coco's path, new choices appear early in both perspectives that determine if the player moves to Coco's path. This path is longer than the others, switches between Takeshi's and the Kid's viewpoints, and, once the switching begins, has minimal choices to make, none of which make a difference to the overall story.
Ever 17 also has a skip function, allowing the player to either skip through any text he or she has already seen or to skip all dialogue. There is a shortcut feature that allows the player to skip to any day on any route, provided they have already cleared that day.
[edit] Core development team
- Director: Takumi Nakazawa (Regista, formerly of KID)
- Scenario writer: Takumi Nakazawa, Kotaro Uchikoshi (freelance, formerly of KID)
- Character designer: Yuu Takigawa (freelance)
- Music composer: Takeshi Abo (freelance)
[edit] Plot
Ever 17 is the tale of seven individuals who come to be trapped within the underwater marine theme park, LeMU, 153 feet below the surface. During an apparently normal day at the park, a massive accident happens, placing almost half of the facility underwater. The path to the surface and the communication lines are cut off. In addition, LeMU is under constant assault by severe water pressure, limiting time to find a means of escape to 119 hours. Escape is not the only concern, however; many questions arise as to the legitimacy of the accident and whether or not those trapped there were brought there for a purpose.
As the situation grows more desperate, the people trapped inside LeMU grow closer. They begin to uncover the answers to mysteries about themselves, LeMU, and the situation itself. As the end of LeMU grows nearer, so too do the mysteries and relationships forged by the situation grow deeper. Ultimately, it is up to the characters not only to survive, but to discover the truth behind LeMU and themselves as well.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Protagonists
- Takeshi Kuranari (倉成 武 Kuranari Takeshi)?, (CV Souichiro Hoshi[1])
A university student separated from his friends. He is very emotional and passionate, often using actions to express his feelings.
- Kid (少年 Shōnen)?, (CV Souichiro Hoshi[1])
An amnesiac youth stuck in LeMU. He remembers nothing of his past (not even his name) or why he is even at LeMU. The others trapped in LeMU have taken to calling him "the Kid", or simply "Kid". He mostly keeps to himself, not being as animated as Takeshi.
[edit] Heroines
- You Tanaka (田中 優 Tanaka Yu)?, (CV Noriko Shitaya[2])
You is a part-time employee at LeMU, trying to get closer to her father - who disappeared working at LeMU when she was only a year old. She's outgoing and optimistic, bringing relief to an otherwise dire situation.
- Tsugumi Komachi (小町 つぐみ Komachi Tsugumi)?, (CV Yu Asakawa[1])
Tsugumi is a mystery. At first glance, she's wary, cold-hearted, and rarely speaks at length. She seems to be hiding something from the others. She is also initially quite distrustful of the rest of the group.
- Sora Akanegasaki (茜ヶ崎 空 Akanegasaki Sora)?, (CV Hiroko Kasahara[1])
The only full-time staff member of LeMU to be stranded, Sora tries her best to get everyone stranded on LeMU to safety. She thinks rationally at all times, not allowing emotions to sway her decisions.
Sara is a second year student at Kyumeikan Girl's High School. Before graduating, You was also a student there and Sara's senpai. She may not look it, but she is an experienced hacker, capable of breaking into nearly any computer system. Sara is also obsessed with ninja and ninjutsu.
Sara came to LeMU on a class field trip, but now she is stranded along with the other characters. She does not appear in Takeshi's scenario.
- Coco Yagami (八神 ココ Yagami Koko)?, (CV Hisayo Mochizuki[1])
An innocent, happy-go-lucky girl stranded on LeMU. Coco can't seem to keep focused, being prone to spurts of childish behavior. She is always seen with her robot dog, Pipi.
When playing from Kid's perspective, Coco isn't among the stranded, but appears from time to time.
[edit] Plot details
The plot of Ever17 is told through multiple storylines that ultimately intersect. The player must reach the "good ending" for each of the initially available storylines in order to unlock the final storyline that weaves the previous stories into a single narrative.
When playing as Takeshi, events happen in 2017; when playing as the Kid, events happen in 2034.
- 2017
Leiblich Pharmaceutical built IBF, a research laboratory, on the ocean floor to study the unique microorganisms that are found around thermal seafloor vents. As a cover for the lab, they built the LeMU theme park above.[3] They were developing the Tief Blau (TB) virus as a biological weapon, and lost containment in 2017.[4] One of the escaping researchers opened the emergency exit from LeMU to the surface and let out the air pressure, causing the disaster.[5]
Sora is an artificial intelligence projected by a Retinal Scanning Display (RSD) system in LeMU.[6]
Ryogo Kaburaki ("the Kid") visits LeMU in 2017 and is overcome with amnesia.[7]
Tanaka Yubiseiharukana (You'haru') has a heart condition and is expected to die. She had a clone placed inside her and gave birth to Tanaka Yubiseiakikana (You'Aki') in 2015.[8]
Tsugumi is a carrier of the Cure virus, which has "frozen" her aging at the appearance of 17 years old and made it almost impossible for her to die.[9] She has come to LeMU to gain access to IBF so they would "know... the seriousness of [her] existence".[10] Takeshi and Tsugumi become close while trapped at LeMU, and they produce twins.[4]
Coco, the daughter of one of the IBF researchers, had been exposed to TB shortly before the disaster while visiting her father.[11] Her symptoms appear while they are trapped in LeMU, and they gain access to IBF in an attempt to cure her. Coco is placed inside a high-pressure oxygen treatment pod to help her body fight it. The rest of the group, except for Tsugumi, soon show signs of TB. They discover that there is no known cure, and decide to inject themselves with the antibodies that Tsugumi's body was successfully fighting TB with. Tsugumi returns to LeMU because she forget her pet hamster, but gets trapped; Takeshi learns from You'haru' that Sora's memories are stored in LeMU and returns to copy them to a disk. Takeshi successfully saves Tsugumi and Sora, but they return to IBF after a rescue vessel had come and gone.[12] They take a small submarine to the surface, but the batteries die and Takeshi exits to give it enough buoyancy to save Tsugumi. Takeshi dies on the ocean floor.[13] Coco also dies, trapped in IBF, because she left the pod to look for her robot dog Pipi and the rescue team didn't find her.[14]
LeMU is soon rebuilt. Tsugumi gives her twin son and daughter to an orphanage in order to keep them from Leiblich. However, they are soon found, separated, and placed under the care of foster parents who name them Hokuto and Sara. You'haru' and Kaburaki stop aging in 2022.[4]
- 2034
You'haru' and Kaburaki set up events so You'Aki', Tsugumi, Sara, and Hokuto are trapped in LeMU. Sora's memories of the 2017 incident are erased. Kaburaki plays the part of Takeshi. Hokuto ("the Kid") loses his memory due to Blick Winkel (BW), a being from a fourth dimension that is "fooled" by events seeming to repeat themselves, "overlapping" with him. BW begins experiencing events through Hokuto in 2034 and Takeshi in 2017.[15][16]
When they are rescued by You'haru', BW asks You'haru' why she did it, and she says that BW told her to do it so Takeshi and Coco could be saved. BW goes into the past to 2017, just after most of them are saved, and makes Pipi, Coco's dog, dive down into the ocean. Pipi is too weak to save Takeshi or Coco, but retrieves the disk with Sora's memories and records footage of Coco trapped. BW heads back down to the ocean floor, and, with the help of Hokuto sharing its perspective, awakens Takeshi. Takeshi swims back into IBF and finds Coco trapped there. If they were to be saved in 2017, a grandfather paradox would be created, in which the events in 2034 that caused BW to appear would not happen. So Coco and Takeshi enter cryogenic suspension for 17 years, and BW tells You'haru' what to do in 2034. BW realizes then that it is at the center of a predestination paradox, in which it has set up events to fool itself. BW returns to 2034 and rescues them, and all characters from both time periods, including Sora, whose memories from 2017 were transferred to a robotic body, are united.[17]
[edit] References
- Note: the text can be seen in the script.dat file; the first line of each passage is referenced here. MOV_END.e17, the ending movie, is playable in a media player.
- ^ a b c d e f Ending movie
- ^ Ending movie (note: the CV is listed as "Noriko Shimoya", a mistranliteration)
- ^ May 1st Kid's Perspective (after unlocking Coco Version): "That was it! Microorganisms!"
- ^ a b c Timeline in ending movie
- ^ May 6th Tsugumi Version: "When they found that a few people had become infected, they must have panicked...and the situation got out of hand."
- ^ May 1st Kid's Perspective (after unlocking Coco Version): "She's not really here."
- ^ May 5th Coco Version: "I just remembered my name...."
- ^ May 5th Coco Version: "Yubiseiharukana had a serious heart condition."
- ^ May 5th Coco Version: "Twelve years ago, I was infected by a virus."
- ^ May 6th Coco Version: "That's why I...came here. To LeMU. To IBF."
- ^ May 6th Tsugumi Version: "When Coco came to IBF she was probably exposed to TB somehow..."
- ^ May 6th Coco Version: "Coco groaned, and held her hand pressed against her mouth."
- ^ May 7th Coco Version: "A heavy ringing filled the submarine."
- ^ May 7th Coco Version: "That was the first time that she realized the truth..."
- ^ May 7th Coco Version: "From the beginning, you've been the Kid."
- ^ May 7th Coco Version: "You have to wait for 17 years!"
- ^ May 7th Coco Version: "Why would you do something like this!?"
