Como un no fanático de las novelas visuales tenia mis dudas sobre si disfrutaría de esto, y como dice la calificación fue un viaje sorprendente. Ever 17 toma lo que es una premisa sencilla y hasta cierto punto cliché para detonar en un sin fin de giros argumentales y siempre mantener al espectador con dudas y preguntas sobre que está sucediendo realmente.
Si tuviera que encapsular la cosa que más me sorprendió de esta novela, no es la historia en sí, si no su estructura poco convencional y que utiliza el medio interactivo lo mejor posible, y es que cuando mas lo pienso mayor es la sorpresa en como enlaza todos los hilos y dudas en la ruta final, sin contar ese giro argumental final el cual demuestra lo único que pueden llegar a ser los videojuegos siendo irrepetible en otros medios.
Aun así no todo puede llegar a ser bueno, ciertos eventos y conversaciones pueden ser mas largos y cansados de lo normal, además el factor romance se siente un poco fuera de lugar en algunas partes, esto debido a la gran inclinación a los temas de ciencia ficción y es muy notorio la pocas ganas de los escritores en escribir romance hasta el punto de ser un pequeño impedimento para ver lo que realmente importa. Fuera de eso mi ultima queja es con cierta conveniencia argumental en eventos concretos. Ever 17 esta plagado de elementos cancerígenos que pueden arruinar cualquier historia muy rápido y aun así se las arregla para no caer en tropos típicos o anticlimáticos la mayoría del tiempo pero a veces es necesario o llega a ser muy conveniente chocando con la demás narrativa.
Para dejar una conclusión e incitar a otros a leerla puedo decir que en un principio fruncirás el ceño en más una ocasión preguntándote si esto tiene sentido y a medida que avanzas algunas dudas se resolverán, pero otras surgirán y todavía más confusas que las anteriores, aun así esta es la magia de la novela, toda duda tendrá su respuesta a su debido tiempo y yo como testigo de conocer muchas historias de ficción logro sorprenderme en más de una ocasión.
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Because only you are in the infinity loop

[if you're reading in english, make sure to play using the himmel patch!]
had half of the twists ruined for me unfortunately because i played the zero escape series first, which is basically bargain bin ever17 as a whole (to be specific, i think this game resembles 999 the most in core structure).

the routes will start blending together and the romance is quite shallow, but the separate heroine routes are absolutely needed for meta reasons, and you'll see when you get to true end, which is genuinely quite a spectacular show of sci-fi answers so ridiculous it becomes almost amazing. almost.

This VN has the single most mindblowing plot twist ever put in a VN. The plot spends 4 routes perfectly fleshing out the characters and introducing both physical and metaphysical concepts that will be integral to the story's solution while keeping all the ends loose, and then on the final route wraps it up in such a spectacular way that will leave you K.O. for a long time before you even get out of the shock to continue reading. Get a flowchart though, you don't want to risk missing the true ending.

Ever17 is a very compelling sci-fi story with a downright excellent mystery and twist which manages to mindfuck you in the best way possible, and is very well put together. What I find more impressive though is how it gives some of the cast members meaning in a manner that is unique to the twist, which is so nice to see when some of his work reflects the opposite. In general the cast is a good point for this VN, it has a few standout good members. Unfortunately bogging this game down is the pacing (a number of scenes are just boring because of the poor SoL and meh cast dynamic) and some other characters who I feel aren't good, as well as its involuntary forced PhD in structural engineering. I also just have issues with some of the execution of a particular part of the final route that takes the wind out of certain sequences. Overall still a great VN and worthwthile read though, I think the good parts make up for the flaws.

This was the first VN I ever read. EVER. And I really do think it's a good entry title for people because it has a digestible ambitious story, with good enough character banter and intrigue factor that keeps you motivated to find out the truth about all the mystery.

The OST is not remarkable at all, people mention Karma but...... it's not up there, I'll say the OP is one of my favorites take that as you will

The dumbass hologram did not need an entire route. For the love of god. Why.

Okay before I move onto my issue with the story I'll make a general statement so you can click of this review and go play it or whatever,

Ever17's story only works and operates at a level of convenience that is far too absurd. It genuinely baffles me how SPECIFIC it is, people could argue that the story's structure itself INSISTS that it must happen this way, but I really think the game is wild for just the weirdest convenient nonsense just to confuse players.

Alright now to the spoiler category:
-The game's fundamental plot twist is that both sides of story happen in different time periods of Lemmuria, the job of the game is to confuse you so you think it's all happening in the same time just different variations, so it does this twist using 3 characters:
1) A CLONE child of one of the characters in the previous time period (okay?)
2) A hologram (.......okay)
3) A literal immortal unageing person (are you serious)

THE LITERAL reason these 3 things exist is just to mask the fact that the game occurs in 2 separate time periods (iirc 17 years apart), WHY, WHY DOES THE GAME INSIST SO HARD ON THIS TWIST

I truly don't remember the next part so if anyone can enlighten me please go ahead:
We never truly find out why the original event at Lemmuria occurs, and if it occurs why isn't there a call to action to save them from the outside, why (for a facility with a damn high functioning hologram that fucking deserves a whole route) does it not have accessible means to contact the outside, this ALWAYS irked me

The point of the game is to get You(the character in 2017) to somehow recreate the exact event in (2034) which is done via Blick Winkel (I can't fucking believe I remember so damn much form this game), and lord only knows how in the actual hell Blick Winkel convince You(2017) so WELL that she just does it, also Takeshi in (2034) has red hair, WHY. THIS IS SO SPECIFIC. WHY. WHY ON EARTH. CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN THIS? I don't get it it should be blue....anyways.

The game implies Takeshi and Tsugumi procreated in the fucking gondola

Why the fuck did they procreate in the fucking gondola, the damn sexually potent gondola are you fucking for real (trust me I genuinely enjoy Tsugumi's immortality status but it's in-service of a twist and not like a cool thing she just has which is pretty awful)

All in all? I grew up with this game, it's my first title, the first thing I was elitist about, tearing it down really doesn't bring me joy, because it has it's charm, you go into Lemmuria and you remember the experience, you remember going on youtube and seeing those weird 3D sprites and having a physical reaction, you remember searching images for it on google and finding weird promotional art, you remember the dumb Tsugumi washing machine jokes (that's apparently the only thing it's largely known for in it's longevity of an existence), the game is plot hole ridden, and it's not fun plot hole ridden, it's just a weird little hobbit (I don't know what i mean by this)

I had low expectations about this title coming from Never7, which were kinda confirmed at first. The first playthrough felt eternal, but I loved the (Sora) ending. After that, I really liked completing the other endings because of how they make you understand the characters and the whole picture.
Then, I went for the true ending, and man it felt slow, but once it gets started, it's trully a mindfuck. You think you know how the plot will end and then they throw you plotwist after plotwist after plotwist, until you are afraid to think that a human mind could actually create such a story. Kotaro Uchikoshi, you're a fucking genius.

theres probably a lot of parts in this game that didnt really need to be there and characters take forever to explain things, and in my opinion are sometimes kinda ridiculous about things to the point of just being annoying

but like honestly i think the plot of this game is really well put together and the twists are kinda fuckin nuts sometimes that it makes up for it.

also i think the characters are just pretty enjoyable and even though the first two routes arent as interesting as the later ones i enjoy the characters enough to find them fun