<report>Ever17 was when Uchikoshi really came into his own as a writer. I never realized how influential this game was to all of Uchikoshi's other works. After finishing it, I can definitely see its DNA in zero escape and AI: The Somnium Files, but it definitely also holds its own as a story and is different from all the children it spawned.

The good:
+ Amazing plot twist. Classic Uchikoshi shit man.
+ The atmosphere was on point. You always feel like something is not right. Cognitive dissonance and unease permeates this game.
+ Music was great. Almost all of the atmosphere was thanks to the music.

The bad:
- Pacing issues. Par for the course for most VNs.
- Plot twist might be too good for its own good, creating several plot holes in the process.

<report>It may be a science fiction mystery, but at its core, it is about the main characters of the story and the human beings residing within them. The dialogue and interaction between the characters can be very moving at times; it feels like it's written for actual human beings. You can also play as two different protagonists and the story branches off depending on the protagonist you choose, so that's interesting too. The music is excellent as well, really gelling with the underwater theme and creating the claustrophobic, eerie atmosphere of LeMU. There is also a simple and moving piano track in there called "Heilmittel" that I enjoy very much.

All in all, an interesting mystery with unforgettable characters, excellent music and very good writing. Recommend.

<report>If it's your first time playing an Uchikoshi game you'll probably enjoy it.
I've already played Remember11, Root Double, Zero Escape series, Steins;Gate, among others, so maybe that's why I didn't enjoy it as much as other reviewers. Many plot twists were obvious to me way before the reveal, and without the twists the game doesn't have much else to offer.
"Downtime" between events was kinda boring and repetitive, the filler went from bad to terrible, and there's lots of it. Tons of copied text between the routes too. Felt a bit guilty when fast-reading/skipping, but on the other hand filler didn't add much, and characters didn't seem very interesting besides two or three. Luckily you'll realize soon which parts you like and which ones make you mash enter.

<report>I fucking ADORED this game. I love the ocean so much and I love science. Ocean + science? That's what this game is. Along with some existential dread, but that's for flavor lmao. Most of the characters are amazing, and the twists really blew me away. It all came together in a way that really made sense and just added so much to the game. Please play it, look at all of the ratings. They're mostly in the 10s-8s. There's a good ass reason for that.

Tip, though. PLAY HIMMEL EDITION. Trust me.

<report>This was one of my first visual novels ever and was my favorite for awhile. It has much better characters than the Zero Escape games but in exchange has far worse pacing. Since I played this before any other Uchikoshi games the twists were all new and far more effective than when they were recycled later. The main things holding it back are the sometimes awful pacing and overall roughness that was likely present due to being one of Uchikoshi's first real stories.

<report>This VN is called Chami.

Ever17 has a dated, but still charming, style and feel. It centres around a number of people being stuck in a theme park underwater; how this happened, why are these people stuck here, how they can get out, are all questions the characters deal with.

Now this is a very character centred VN, with each route presenting seemingly unrelated and weird ideas from these (good) characters, as information is uncovered. The voice acting is lovely, and the soundtracks are good, too.

Though it has rough edges, like some of the sprites, bit of the pacing, and playing in 800x600.

Most crucial is the sophisticated plot. I don't think you can do yourself more of a disservice than dropping this VN halfway through, as you only have to wait until you get your mind blown.

<report>It would be a 10 because the end is so satisfying, but the way to get it takes so long and needs to much patience from the player that would make you drop it, at least to take a pause. It's ok/kind of bland in its worst, but extremely good in its best.

<report>You liked Zero Escape? You want more? Then dig into this visual novel by the same creator. Follow the recommended route order of Tsumugi -> Sora -> Yu -> Sara -> Coco and you'll enjoy this VN thoroughly. I sure did. It's essentially "999: underwater edition" in surprisingly many ways. Sometimes a bit slow to get through, this VN will have twists and turns abound and if you like Uchikoshi's style especially his usual twists, you'll really enjoy this.

<report>Ever17 was the first sci-fi mystery VN of the genre I read. It had some of the most mindblowing twists I've seen in fiction along with some really memorable emotional moments. It's a shame the official release is out of print and really expensive, this VN is one of the best.

<report>tt feels like steins;gate but with a much better setting and storyline in my opinion. being trapped in an underground theme park is not something you see very often. i like how it involves history that may have really happened and some theoretical physics. it was unpredictable and it really kept getting better and better all the way to the end. a true masterpiece.

<report>The main theme of escaping the theme park was not actually the main focus of the story. Rather, the confinement served as a catalyst for discussions about philosophy, physics, biology, and other sci-fi topics partially grounded in reality. I found the subject matter of these discussions somewhat basic and having numerous logical inconsistencies, much like there were plot holes in the story, such as an easy means of escape revealed at the end of one route. They were not especially jarring though, and could be ignored by not paying too much attention.

My main issue was that the pacing was far too slow, mostly during the prerequisite routes. Most of the content then was unnecessary filler, as... Read more »

<report>This game seems to be very highly regarded for it's time. But if you play this one in 2021 or even in the future, you should know it didn't age well at all, even with fan patches like Himmel Edition.

The biggest negatives are most of the characters personalities being uninteresting. The pacing itself having way, way too much filler in it and sadly the wasted setting too. Let's get to it.


The characters might be best described as naive kids, being overwhelmed by the situation. That's all well and good, but the game never does anything to develop them in any meaningful way beyond this state, which is of course a problem given this game is very character centric. What you get to experience... Read more »

<report>Did not age well, at all. Compared to some of the later Uchikoshi's works (as well as works that are inspired by it) this one feels more like a prototype.

Despite being marketed as life-and-death drama in a confinement environment, this feels more like a dating sim than anything, and not even an interesting one, since hardly any of the romanceable characters are interesting or likeable. I know Tsugumi is considered to be a fan favourite, but if anything I find her to be the most irritating out of all. I don't really like tsundures in general, and this character does nothing to change my opinion on them. I hated her so much that I found a legitimate pleasure in seeing how Takeshi mistreats... Read more »

<report>(I am editing this review to add some more thoughts about E17 two months after having finished this VN)

2021-06-30
-New Thoughts-
This was already mentioned, but back in the day, E17 was huge in the community of English visual novel readers. Now, after so many new titles arrived and were also translated, E17 is received not as well as it was back when it was the only one doing what it did, but nobody can deny the impact it had. It feels complete despite its amateurish feeling resulted from the lack of technology back in the day. For what it is, E17 still holds a candle to some new titles, but still lacks some aspects - it's a... diamond in the rough.

I'd compare it to the massively... Read more »

<report>I took a long time to build up enough interest to read this. I will be honest my expectations were not super high since I am not into the whole 'escape' genre. Thankfully it did not seem to be the kind of escape story I feared it would be.

While reading the common route, I felt it was pretty decent and the overall theme is interesting enough to want to learn more about it. I think there is nothing wrong with the pacing. I honestly believe the pacing is an integral part of the story as a whole, it feels intended. Though I still did skip repeated text to save a bit of time on the second Takeshi/kid routes.

The true route surprised me, but not because of the plot twists and such. What I... Read more »

<report>TL;DR: A solid VN with some meat to it and decent characters. The entire VN is elevated by the twists and reveals that tend to come later on in the story (not really a spoiler, every piece of writing does reveals like this) so you should be patient. It's worth a try but it's not worth forcing yourself through.

I've already read the Zero Escape trilogy and Somnium Files 1 (dropped 2), all by Uchikoshi. So I didn't come into this totally blind in terms of "Uchikoshi-isms". But I don't think that affected my enjoyment of the VN much.

SOL: The few SOL scenes that Uchikoshi put effort into, were high quality. 8/10. Got me to care for the characters. Felt pretty unique. But the majority of both... Read more »

<report>Finally got around to reading this one after countless recommendations.

And ... it's okay. That's about all I can say, really. It seemed as though there were pieces to the puzzle of a great story, but they weren't assembled quite right.

I had pretty much figured out the "twist" long before the reveal, so it wasn't a great surprise. The characters were pretty inconsistent, exhibiting considerable intelligence and skill one minute, then acting like complete morons the next. At one point, I honestly wasn't sure if them all having severe mental illness and/or deficiency was a subplot or not.

The story dragged a lot. Quite a few spots of downtime, and the feeling that the story was just... Read more »

<report>For years, Ever17 was considered one of, if not the best story in the visual novel medium. In recent years, it seems the consensus has shifted to be more mixed than it once was, but it's undeniable that the impact Ever17 had on VNs (specifically the English-speaking VN fanbase) was huge. This is a story that, despite it's flaws, I think it still well worth reading today.

The premise is very engaging, and gets going pretty much right away. There's about 30-40 minutes of setup, and after that, the story really starts. The prologue is really well paced and succeeded in hooking me pretty much right away. Like Never7, Ever17 has multiple routes that can be tackled in any order, and after you... Read more »

<report>This mystery/sci-fi VN is a well-known classic made in 2002, involving the creative powers of Kotaro Uchikoshi who later wrote the critically acclaimed Zero Escape series, and many similarities can be drawn between the two concoctions. Ever17 features 6 (?) characters trapped in an underwater theme park, unaware of the seemingly coincidental circumstances that led to them being there. Many mysteries and hijinks ensue.

It's worth noting that this VN is slow to get into, as you basically have to complete the 4 individual character routes (Tsubaki, You, Sara and Sora) before you can do the final true route, and until then you are basically left in the dark about a lot of things. The estimated... Read more »

<report>Very slow, poorly paced and bland characters. Having played the Zero Escapes before definitely didn't help, because they're definitely more fun and interesting even when they're also rough and uneven.

ever17 has some fun beats and 2ish enjoyable characters. But both are diluted so much by so much padding of scenes that are uninteresting as characters just hang out. I love a story where characters hang out a lot like in Higurashi. But the characters are too flat to ever invest in. And so much of the word count is just spent on repetitive logistics. For people trapped in a life or death situation, they spend a lot of time talking out a game of kick the can and very little time actually... Read more »