If you’ve never heard of Never 7 – The End of Infinity, that’s not incredibly surprising. While successful in Japan, this visual novel never had any Western releases aside from fan translations until now. Originally developed by KID, Never 7 has had multiple Japanese releases over the years. Fortunately, this series is popular enough for famed studio Mages Inc. to update it and release it on modern consoles, courtesy of publisher Spike Chunsoft. There’s even a double pack available with the sequel, Ever 17 – The Out of Infinity.
What you’ll quickly find out however is that Never 7 is not what you might expect from a visual novel that’s part of a well-known science fiction series. In fact, it feels like very much the opposite of anything you might expect. You play Makoto Ishihara, a university student on a trip with a group of fellow students and you wake up to a dream of someone dying. It feels so real that it’s unsettling to Makoto, so much so that you almost forget where you are and what’s going on. But that’s where things take a turn for the ordinary because Never 7 is much less a science fiction VN and much more a slice-of-life / romance one. Over the course of the week, you will meet and learn about five different women and make choices that take you down a romantic path with one of them.
That’s not to say that there aren’t some strange things going on. Makoto is experiencing some sort of lucid dreams that seem to have an impact on events around him, all while trying to navigate some rather awkward teenage relationships. Not everyone believes his story of course, but subtle (and not so subtle) events slowly pile up to indicate that something very abnormal is going on with Makoto and those around him. Since the whole purpose here is to read the story and get to know the characters and the world, there’s no sense in fully revealing the plot, which you can absolutely look up online anyway, but suffice it to say that things very slowly creep toward a conclusion that’s only really satisfying if you can get to the true ending in the game.
With that in mind, let’s talk about the flow of Never 7 – The End of Infinity. While this isn’t a kinetic visual novel, the branch points are fairly far apart and there’s no map system showing you what you missed at any given point. Decisions aren’t necessarily clear either, though the general positives or negatives towards a character sometimes show in your choices. If you struggle with slice-of-life, this is going to be a tough visual novel to get through as the majority of the story is small, unimportant social interactions and the overarching elements that have to do with the larger story are few and far between. By and large you’re reading though and while the writing isn’t bad, it isn’t the best either, and occasionally even lapses into the somewhat questionable.
Never 7 is a study in teenage angst and awkward feelings with girls struggling with body image issues within their social group and dealing with private issues in awkward ways. There are a couple of obligatory rich kids who react poorly to confrontations and situations, and just as an example, a younger girl who is too concerned with the size of her breasts to go swimming with the rest of the group. Makoto is worried what others will think of him, Yuna is carefree and reckless when inebriated, Haruka is distant and angsty, and Izumi is focused on cooking and caring for others.
This approach slowly starts to gel with the deeper sci-fi elements of the story very slowly, so don’t expect too much other than a bunch of social interaction for the majority of the game. When things suddenly shift, it’s almost surprising and it makes the end game interesting, but only the true ending is the one that really makes the game come together. Make the wrong choices and you’ll mostly be left wondering and replaying to skip through to different branch points. That’s unfortunate as there’s a lot of potential here and casual players expecting one approach to a longer and well-defined series might be disappointed by Never 7. It’s best to keep in mind that the series only exists because the sci-fi components from this game were popular enough to turn that into the focus for the rest of the series and playing through Never 7 is more like setting the stage for what’s to come than anything else. From that aspect, it’s more than bearable to muddle your way through the game to get a feel for the style and some world-building. If you get a moderately interesting story with some pacing issues along the way, that’s not so bad either.
The game is also visually interesting, but not for the reasons you might expect. Mages preserved the original visuals here so most of the game is minimalist at best, showing few or no characters in many scenes and when they are visible or when static cut images highlight character interactions, the resolution is surprisingly low. For older anime fans, this will be almost refreshing, with clearly hand-drawn art scanned in to make the game creating a feeling similar to watching old VHS anime. The lack of definition in artwork that was never made in HD is kind of refreshing and the throwback facial animations and conventions are very retro in an endearing sort of way. While the visuals are nothing to write home about in Never 7 – The End of Infinity, they’re also not bad.
Sound design is similarly compelling. There’s a minimalist approach taken here with quiet moments, scene specific music, and only occasional sound effects. While there’s not always a ton of music, what there is blends perfectly with the scenes, elevating them beyond the writing and making them more immersive. Sound effects are similar, only being used to accentuate certain points or locations rather than overwhelming the reader. The net effect is that the music and sound effects perfectly complement the story, creating a much more solid experience overall.
If you’re looking for a deep experience with tons of extras, you’re not going to find it with Never 7 – The End of Infinity however. This is a pretty bare bones release, though once you manage to finish at least one route, a few little bonuses start to pop up. There are 18 different possible endings to the game though, and until you manage to unlock more (we’re talking lots of replay), you won’t be able to access some of the bonus features. Thankfully, to expedite the process, you can speed up dialogue to hyper speed when going back through the branches, set auto saves, and check the log for conversations if you happen to hit the auto advance button (which is easy to do). There’s also no touch screen compatibility on the Switch while undocked, definitely a disappointment, though it’s made up for by the mapping of text advance to both left and right sticks, eliminating the need to constantly tap face buttons.
Patient gamers are going to get out of Never 7 – The End of Infinity what they put into it but it’s not a perfect visual novel and it won’t be for everyone. Fortunately, the $19.99 price point is fairly low and the reasons for taking the time to spend with it are good, but the game itself is a mixed bag of inconsistent narrative themes from a game that was clearly trying to find its feet when it was originally made a quarter of a century ago. Don’t let that dissuade you though because if you have the time to go through Never 7 at your leisure and you’re the forgiving sort when it comes to minor flaws, the overall experience is quite gratifying for a 10-15 hour game depending on your reading speed. It’s definitely a game that’s worth your time, especially since you’re likely to want to play Ever 17 afterward!
This review is based on a digital copy of Never 7 – The End of Infinity provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and played equally well on both. Never 7 – The End of Infinity is also available for PS4 and PC on Steam.
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.