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Old 07-29-2007, 02:41 AM   #1
Doppleganger
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Ever17 -the out of infinity-

Haha, man. Originally, I planned to type this out Saturday afternoon, but everything was locked down so I had to go home. I'm nineteen, and a college Junior, so one would expect me to know better on Saturdays that 'the' Memorial Union, which is what we have instead of a "student" union, wouldn't be open today. But I had no idea all the computer labs would be closed! I ended up walking to and from home, not to mention all across campus, carrying a CD that had all of my data/notes for this topic. I hope no one was watching. D:

Why do I say this? No real reason...
...

The visual novel I've been raving about for a while now is in fact Ever17 â‚€the out of infinityâ‚€ (〚¨ã’ã’¼ã’»ã€š»ã’€“㒳㒠€*〚£ã’¼ã’³). It is the third visual novel I have played, following Narcissu, Fate/stay night, and preceeding OMGWTFOTL (though I finished that one before Ever17) and it is the longest of all the novels I have played. By far. I clocked myself around approximately one hundred and fifty three hours (equivalent to a little less than six and a half days), from Thursday 26 June 2007 through Friday, 6 July 2007. Suffice to say, I was thoroughly entertained, and when I finished the novel I ended up with the confidence/ego boost of a lifetime. Simply put, this novel is electrifying, and with great enthusiasm do I say it is the *best* written Japanese media I have ever had the honor of experiencing. The reason I did not name this title earlier is named in the spoiler discussion at the end of this introduction.

Now, for a little background information. The company who created Ever17 was named KID - Kindle Imagine Develop, a professional company specializing in bishoujo visual novels. I say "was" because, sadly, the company declared bankruptcy last year and is now defunct - this is likely because of the investment capital costs of its projects, particularly because the voice acting services for the games (which are top-notch, I might add) were expensive and labour-intensive. This is quite tragic, given that Ever17 received high acclaim in Japan, which is part of the reason it was noticed as a potentially great title to bring off shore.

Our benefactor for this game's English existence is Hirameki International. Hirameki is the only localizer/distributor of Japanese visual novels for the English speaking world, and frankly, never before have I respect a localization company as much as them. Not only are visual novels a dangerous investment because of the low appeal/stereotyping (and duly justified) of them as porn games, the magnitude of the translation project is ASTRONOMICAL. I say without exaggeration that the amount of translated material in Ever17 rivals the amount present in all of the manga published by a company like Del Rey combined together - and considering a huge library of manga could cost anywhere in the upper bounds of several hundred dollars while Ever17 has a comparable amount of translated material with full colour, voice, music, sound, and a game element - decision making - at only $50, it's mere existence in English is a miracle. Heck, the title getting licensed before KID's bankruptcy is a miracle itself, too - one could almost call it a quirk of fate. This is perhaps a first for me, and I say it with great vigor: SUPPORT HIRAMEKI. Only 2,000 copies of Ever17 were sold on the initial release compared with 10,000 for Bible Black, the infamous occult eroge. Hirameki did good work and I'm proud to have enjoyed their product.

This is but the introduction - I will proceed to examine each of the game's elements in turn, noting the positive and negatives of the game. Because this game is, perhaps, a milestone for me in which I have actually been spoiled (badly) for two major plot points, I shall undertake it onto myself to provide a "clean" environment for casual readers, such that nothing, and I mean nothing of value will ever be spoiled in this topic. Ever. Ruining Ever17 for someone would be the sin of a lifetime for me, and I'll go beyond my best to make sure it doesn't happen. In my own experience I was long ago spoiled for Ever17 but forgot the whole plot and details, and even if I had remembered most of them there is no way they would have mattered all that much until the puzzle, and I will say there is a puzzle to this story, was starting to form. When it was just a shapeless mass of nothing spoilers mattered little, but halfway through the novel they were killer. I wouldn't want someone to stumble onto a landmine accidentally without giving a stern, due warning.

- Mechanics -

Though this is an odd choice to start my review on, I do believe it should take precedence over the details of the game given there's some distinctions between Ever17 and other novels. Namely, Ever17 differs from other Hirameki products (or so I am told) in that it sports its own execution engine, whereas the other games need to rely on a DVD player of some sorts (either a real player or a software one like MediaPlayer or VLC) that are ultimately of poorer visual quality and possess a troublesome interface. Ever17 lacks this and all of the troubles associated with them, but the engine is not perfect - one cannot minimize the game screen and still be able to listen to music/sounds going on in-game. For those purposes, everything is paused, although in auto-read and fast-forward mode the game will still run.

Another issue of note is the fast-forward option, activated by triggering it in the options menu and holding CTRL down or simply pressing F3. Unlike FSN, the fast-forward of Ever17 is far slower, taking a great deal more time to sift through - while this did not bother me initially, when I became frustrated trying to obtain a certain someone's path the option was a hindrance, whereas the lightning-quick one in FSN was a boon even if I used it far less there.

Interface-wise, Ever17 is limited to being but a visual novel. One reads text, watches "sprites" on screen move around, and occasionally decisions can be made. These decisions are limited to no less than two but no more than six in one rare instance, but usually there are two to three options.

As far as the translation quality is concerned, I consider it very good, though because of carelessness some of the clues in the game were distorted by Hirameki (there were a couple instances of this) or they were just ignored because they could not be properly localized. At that, some of their substitutions were unnecessary, and lead to a great deal of un-needed confusion. I wish Hirameki would have released a patch to fix all of these troubles, but thus far it doesn't look like there's anything to come of it. Nevertheless, still a wonderful job, especially given how huge the novel is.

- Structure -

Ever17 is the longest novel I have played, and of those novels it probably has the most routes - instead one single, main plotline where "branches" extend off into Bad Ends, there are five principle routes dominated by plot, and at certain fulcrums the direction of a Bad End or Good End abruptly swings toward its earned path. That is to say, rather than a single decision influencing the direction of the plot like in FSN (id est, Shirou enters a room, encounters Berserker and gets squished), the aggregate decisions over the course of the first six days of the LeMU determine the route, which isn't locked into place until the middle of the seventh day for Takeshi and somewhere between the third and fourth days for the Kid.

Technically, there are two characters who get to shine in each "route" of Ever17 - Kuranari Takeshi, and the Kid. I saw 'technically' because in the final route, the perspectives alternate between the two. Takeshi's route has two Good Ends and one Bad End, which, as I said earlier, take the entire scenario to determine. Kid has two Good Ends, two Bad Ends, and two epilogues, which occur after the credits have rolled for finishing his scenarios. Kid's Bad Ends, unlike those for Takeshi, are very much like FSN in that a single decision can trigger them - suffice to say, I found Takeshi's Bad End to be bone-chilling and far, far, far superior to Kid's cop-out endings. Frankly, I was probably even more disappointed since I was expecting something grand out of Kid's Bad Ends after having played Takeshi, but I got a face-ful of "denied"!

Also, Takeshi *does* have an epilogue, but it's not reachable until after the final route, "Coco's Path", has been finished. Even then, it's not much of an epilogue and barely makes any sense - when I saw it, I thought the game was glitching on me or something. Not really worth the effort to play through Takeshi's route again just to see.

Of the possible pairings, the Kid gets You and Sara, while Takeshi gets Tsugumi and Sora.

- Plot -

On 1 May 2017, an accident occurs at an underwater theme-park off of the coast of Japan. While the majority of the attendees escaped, five individuals find themselves trapped in the facility with little chance of unaided escape. With further flooding of the complex temporarily stalled, the five individuals discover that they only have around seven days until the entire structure implodes under the severe water pressure. While they have provisions to support them, over the period of the week uncalculated emergencies happen that require immediate attention, and the group, originally composed of strangers, gradually become close friends and establish relationships with one another. As they grow closer and learn more about LeMU and its sponsor, the joint German-Japanese pharmaceutical behemoth Leiblich, they begin to suspect as to whether or not they are imprisoned beneath the sea by accident or nefarious machination.

...

Ever17's plot is fairly straightforward, and I daresay it doesn't introduce anything too original for the general setting. I cannot think of any archetypes at the moment but "being trapped at the bottom of the sea" is a stock scenario in many science fiction stories. Many such stories even go in-depth as to the specifics of the location, citing outside political factors as one of the reasons for a site's reaction (id est, a government-sponsored scientific marine observatory) - Ever17 meets these standards fairly well. We learn it is the year 2017, and much has changed since the year of our lord 2007 (actually, 2002 when this novel as made) - I shall not get into the specifics, but even for the world of this time, the theme-park LeMU is "out of this world" advanced and presumably continues to boast of such many years later. It's almost like a space station under-water, and a certain someone will go in depth regarding the structural damage and the limits of the complex.

As also evident from the unusual but not totally original stage, there is a prime opportunity for romance. Seven days worth. A lot of people who I spoke to who played the game are of the belief that "seven days is not long enough for people to fall in love", but I've heard of worse cases (ever hear of "love at first sight"?) that are significantly more fantastical. In spite of this, the romances are well developed, and I put a firm emphasis on this. Even the weakest of the romances, arguably Tsugumi, are still very touching and a number of people cried at the end of them. I should note that while I shed a manly tear during episode eight of Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann, I did not cry during Ever17 but I wish I did - I found myself too shocked at times to cry.

In any matter, while plot is essential for the backdrop of the story, and the atmosphere of LeMU and the world Ever17 occurs in paramount, the game is very character driven, rather than plot. By this I mean the few characters involved have a significant impact on the outcomes of the game, as opposed to the plot being the driving force and the characters merely being passengers along for the ride.

A small note - when I'm talking about plot, I'm just referring to the general setting irrespective of how the story actually played out. Consider clay - one needs good clay and fine skill to mold a beautiful sculpture. Right now, I'm just judging the quality of clay, not the artistry, which is to come toward the end.

- Characters -

Our heroes and heroines, the real attraction of the game. All of them sport original personalities and diverse dispositions/tastes - none of them are stereotypes. Their development over the seven days following the LeMU incident is astounding - it forced them to mature very quickly, even for older members of the group. Of course, one or two never change...

When I say these folk are the draw, I mean the player grows quite fond of them - after the ending, I found myself having a hard time saying good-bye to such a great bunch that I had hung around for the six days it took me to play this game. That is, it took me a long time to get through the epilogue, and when I did, I smiled, waved at the screen, and said (aloud) "abayo, dachi-ko".

There isn't any particular order to the listing. Although there are event screens for the males, they're not all that great so I did not include them.

...



Tanaka You - Noriko Shitaya
An eighteen year old girl and a freshman at Kyumeikan Womenâ‚„s University. Her real name isn't really "You", she just shortens it because her real name is very long and she's frequently embarrased about it. She works part time at LeMU as an attendant - she was caught in the accident while tending to a a disoriented guest. You is knowledgeable on a wide range of topics, ranging from the practical to trivial, and has a wealth of information on anything related to the occult. She's a firebrand and is fiercely independent, but also dedicated and trustworthy.

...

I really took a liking to You, even before I landed on her path - she had a lot of spunk and was quite, erm, intimidating with the amount of information she knew. Tsugumi and Sora were very simmilar in this regard, but for some reason I felt quite sheepish not having as many skills as You did in the dire situation that was the LeMU accident. She was a pleasure to talk to, very quirky and with a lot of energy. Among the girls, she's probably the funniest, since she does hilarious things and says a lot of hilarious stuff - she's as friendly as Coco and as kind as Sora. Quite a package, I daresay!

Of the female characters I'd say I would rank her second on my favourite list, and her romance was probably the smoothest of all other routes. At first, I was disappointed that Takeshi didn't get the opportunity to romance You, since they (quite clearly) had a lot of chemistry together, but her relationship with the Kid during her path was pretty cool.

Her epilogue confused me at first, but I was able to quickly compute what was occurring and my jaw dropped when I pieced together that part of the puzzle. It was very, very small in comparison to the other stuff in the novel, of course, but it was the biggest plot point I figured out myself, and I'm quite proud I was paying attention. Interestingly, two or three even BIGGER plot points were in that epilogue and I totally missed them - it was my own fault of course, but there's no way someone armed with the info I had could have been on the lookout for them. Loved this epilogue the most with the exception of the true epilogue.

...



Komachi Tsugumi - Yuu Asakawa
A quiet seventeen year old girl who dislikes the company of others. She is fiercely intelligent and capable, but she hides these talents beneath a grimace of un-interest. Of her companions, Tsugumi is the most private and she rarely mingles with the rest of the cast - when she does, she is noticeably agitated. She frequently roams around LeMU while everyone else slumbers, searching for clues and doing various personal activities. Her reasons for coming to LeMU, not to mention why she is cold toward her party, are unknown.

...


Tsugumi is supposedly the most popular of the Ever17 characters here and abroad, but really I disliked her path the most and was actually cheering for Takeshi at the end of it. In fact, "cheering" cannot completely convey what I felt, "went Gar" would be more accurate.

Such reasoning is two-fold. Tsugumi, whose path I originally wanted to play, turned out to be outrageously tsundere, to the point of annoyance (extreme emphasis on the 'tsun tsun'). Takeshi was a good-willed, agreeable fellow, with a lot more patience than I would have had - Tsugumi grinded his face into the pavement and then make a big deal about it later as if she was the victim. I dislike Matou Sakura from Fate/stay night for the same reason - she acts and is depicted in a way that implies she's not responsible for her actions and should be forgiven because of her background, but really that is in-excusable. "Heaven's Feel" is excellent in every way but Sakura, and frankly she should have stayed a minor character and gone totally ignored by everyone in Fuyuki City.

Her background wasn't enough for me to forgive her for being such a jerk - when I was playing through the Bad End, I desperately wanted to know more about her and liked her earlier, cryptic talk and actions. But once Sora's development started, I abandoned Tsugumi because Sora was all the more interesting. Only until Coco's Path did I actually start to feel for Tsugumi, but for the majority of the game I held a strong grudge against her.

Additionally, the most time I spent on the game was devoted to obtaining Tsugumi's Path, which I missed one or two times after playing through the Bad End and Sora's Good End - she's just too difficult to please.

My second peeve with Tsugumi is that she did something positively vile to Sora in Sora's Path, but in effect it made Sora's Path all the more emotional - one could say it jump started Sora's progression. I guess in that sense Tsugumi sacrificed herself to prop Sora up on a pedestal, but I will always hate her for it. Especially since I didn't understand what happened there originally - it's tough to talk about, really.

...



Akanegasaki Sora - Hiroko Kasahara
Prim, proper, and professional - at twenty four years old, Akanegasaki Sora has accomplished more than most people would have at twice her age. She is employed as the Systems Engineer for the LeMU computer administration system, and is second in rank only to manager of the whole theme park. When LeMU is under-handed, Sora enjoys doubling as a hostess and attendant for guests. She is a lover of nature and is very affable and curious, but she takes her job very seriously and is always concerned with the welfare of visitors.

...

Sora is, by far, my favourite character. Like You, I took an instant liking to her, since she was so incredibly polite and knowledgeable - she didn't seem to have too much of an interest in Takeshi at first, but he grew on her and they had a really nice relationship going toward the end of her route. She's designed to look like a "traditional beauty", and I've got to say I liked everyone else's designs more than Sora at first, but when I saw her CG pictures I fell for her. Lovely beyond words! Not to mention she's a kind hearted person as well and is very observant.

Among the ladies in the novel, Sora is the eldest but she isn't as wise as one would think - surely, she's not as foolhardy as Takeshi, but while sociable she hasn't made many friends during her life. Thus, she grows quite fond of her fellow companions trapped in LeMU and together they help Sora mature more than anyone would have ever dreamed.

I consider Sora's Path, specifically her Good End, to be one of the most emotionally profound endings of the game, and it was the one that shocked me the most. Of course, all of Takeshi's endings were powerful, but I felt Sora's was even more touching than Tsugumi's, particularly because of my bias against Tsugumi in favour of Sora and because Takeshi was even more GAR during it. 'twas a legendary ending, to say the least.

However, I must express that I feel Sora was given the short-end of the proverbial treatment stick in Coco's Path, as her final resolution is only marginally satisfying compared with the amazing finishes for the other characters. I felt a kindred bond with Sora that none of the other characters could share with her, which was referenced earlier in the game by her but wasn't revealed to be significant until Coco's Path - she never suspected this relationship, of course, it was beyond her understanding, but I got it and felt a whole lot of sympathy for her. A WHOLE lot of sympathy for her. However, she was happy in the end, and so long as she was happy I guess I can't help but smile as well.

...



Matsunaga Sara - Kana Ueda
Sixteen year old Sara is a sophomore at Kyumeikan Girl's Academy, and is visiting LeMU on a field trip to do some volunteer work. She is a former classmate of You Tanaka, who she admires with great respect. Her interests are ninjas, ninjas, and ninjas - she loves talking about them and is seemingly obsessed. On the other hand, she is afraid of water and tries to avoid it. Although quite mischievous and a lover of teasing others, Sara is actually a rather lonely girl. She is quite skilled with computers and technology of all sorts.

...

Sara was an interesting case for me, really. As with Tsugumi, her path was the one I wanted to go down when I was playing the Kid, but somehow I ended up on You's Path (most likely because I took the same approach to the Kid's route that I did with Takeshi, only because of how Kid's plot lines are structured it was harder to get a Bad End) and wasn't disappointed. When I finally did go onto Sara's Path, I had already been spoiled for the major point of her route, but I think it just made things all the better since I would have not liked the surprise in her route at all. Rather, with that plot point out of the way, the lesser clues were quite interesting and they explained a lot about Kid as well. Not to mention the ending was quite romantic, in the original sense of the word. I loved her design - she is perhaps the best looking of all the characters, even taking into account Sora's "mature" beauty. Hanging around her was always fun as well, for she was very enthusiastic (in a different manner from Coco). I wish her route had as much detail in it as You's, there just wasn't enough material in there for her. Kid, on the other hand, got a lot of development from his relationship with Sara, whereas he considerably less from his time with You.

...



Yagami Coco - Hisayo Mochizuki
An unusual girl with a sunny disposition, Coco is a very curious and playful, who has charm enough to even soften the hard heart of the distant Tsugumi. Her father is a researcher with Leiblich Pharmaceutical, and she is visiting the company theme park LeMU with him. She doesn't have any practical skills or useful information, but her cheer and adorable behaviour never fail to comfort those around her.

...

Coco is often said to be "impossible to dislike" but frankly, I didn't really feel anything special about her at first and outright hated her during You's Path. When I first played as Takeshi, Coco was prancing around doing childish stuff, but when I found out more about her I rolled my eyes, groaned, and thought "she's the loli character". Even in retrospect I'm not sure about the validity of that, but Coco's position as mediator of the group screamed "stock character" to me, though something happened that made me care about her just a tad more. Even then, I didn't like her and though her to be useless, though I couldn't help but have some compassion. Such sympathetic feelings were lost when I played You's Path and her presence threatened to ruin everything I had worked to hard to get through - after playing the game for so long only to get a Bad End, I was outright furious with Coco in You's Path, virtually beckoning my character to his death. Thankfully, none of that came to pass, but I still loathed Coco and wasn't exceptionally keen on playing her route, since it implied she would be the next romance.

All of that changed when I played her path. Coco got a lot more event graphics and she looked a whole lot more mature than she did prior to that - in fact, I got the impression of Furude Rika from Higurashi, who actually acts very childish but hides another, more adult persona named "Frederica Bernkastel". In this, I began to feel a bit more for Coco, since tragedies associated with children just strike me as superficial, whereas an adult who has undergone a tragedy is more "aware" so to say of the impact. It's like a child with no concept of death versus and adult experiencing it - such an event evokes more emotion from the adult.

Though there isn't really a whole lot to Coco, her few secrets did come out and they were quite amazing, but their place in the game was ambiguous for a while - and during this time, I managed to grow closer to Coco since a lot more time was focused with her than in Takeshi and Kid's routes. When everything came into place, I had totally purged myself of the disgust/hatred from the original routes and felt nothing but compassion for the girl - really, I grew to like her a lot, and though I still have a special place reserved for Sora and You, Coco kicked down Sara and Tsugumi to take third place. Heck, she might even tie You for second, and the both of them are really close to Sora - their paths were just that great.

...


Kuranari Takeshi - Souichiro Hoshi
A twenty year old college student, who came to LeMU with some friends to relax and have some fun. At one point he becomes separated from his comrades and gets involved in an event way over his head. Although an educated fellow, Takeshi is a bit slow in applying his knowledge and often ends up acting first rather than thinking problems through - though, his good nature and responsibility are admired by all the other people trapped in the water park. Takeshi is full of energy and enthusiasm, and he is rarely pessimistic about anything, though he is prone to irritation after a great deal of attrition.

...

Ahh, Takeshi. The hapless hero! He's a tad stubborn, but he's also very flexible and friendly, and eschews using violence for anything. He's also a very caring person, moreso than I would have believed for people he barely knew, and is concerned with getting everyone out of the facility alive. Frankly, Takeshi was an inspiration to me and I enjoyed playing as him, though his personality and mine aren't exactly congruent. He's the very kind of fellow I would love to have as a best friend, though, even if he's not the sharpest chisel in the shed (not to say he's an idiot, not at all. He's just not on the same level of amazing expertise Sora, Tsugumi, You, and Sara are. The Kid has an incredible learning curve as well, and no one faults Coco for not helping, so that just makes Takeshi the dumbest of the group, or rather, the most normal).

Takeshi is good friends with You (or rather, he becomes good friends with her), the Kid and Coco, while he pairs off with either Sora or Tsugumi. In his routes, Takeshi is characterized by dedication and heart, and he takes those ideals to the extreme, even to the point of kicking reason to the curb. In all of his routes, I classify him as 95% pure GAR, with about 5% for recklessness - the only other normal male lead I've seen recently deserving of the same praise is Yuuichi from Kanon. Suffice to say, Takeshi probably isn't as awesome as the Kid, since the Kid is a lot more capable than he is, but he made a bigger impact on me because of his personality.

...


Kid - ???
The Kid is a boy of unknown age, though he appears to be between fourteen and sixteen years old. He has no idea why he as LeMU, nor does he know about his past or even his own name. The other characters believe him to have trauma-induced amnesia, which plagues him for the duration of almost all scenarios. Because of his memory loss, the Kid is very frightened of his surroundings and withdrawn, though he opens up to the kindness of the other captives in LeMU. Takeshi names him "Kid" (shounen) for lack of a better temporary name.

...

Kid was the second protagonist I played, and one I suppose I liked just as much as Takeshi, though for different reasons - he's very self reflective and often indulges in philosophy regarding his loss of identity, asking questions to himself like "Who am I?" and "Who are you?". I would say this kind of thinking reflects his own personal nature, which isn't memory specific - he's a very clever, intelligent boy and demonstrates this many times over in the game. In fact, at first I thought I was replaying Takeshi's route from another person's perspective since the Kid seemed to recognize stuff that went on in Takeshi's route almost instinctively. However, the reasons for the Kid knowing this stuff were revealed to be his own unique perception, which I found to be pretty darn cool.

Of the two protagonists, I would say Kid is probably more important than Takeshi, but in a way that's fallacious. So I will say the Kid did more stuff than Takeshi did, even if the impact of what he did was less than Takeshi (though, Kid did a lot of really badarse stuff in his routes up through the ends, whereas Takeshi merely finished his routes with a bang) - Kid is also the central lead of Coco's Path, and continues to be awesome in it.

Among relationships with the characters, Kid is really attached to You and Coco in Takeshi's routes, and equally attached to You in his own route but has a solid relationship with Sara. He's not particularly close to Tsugumi in either route and respects Sora's age and maturity. He is also good friends with Takeshi, and Takeshi treats him like a little brother.

I should also note that while the Kid has a voice actor, that actor's identity is obscured for creative reasons to go alongside the character's "lost memory" theme.

- Music -

Among visual novels, the quality of music is usually very high, though there is one issue that seems to permeate across all of theme - the music isn't exactly recognizable. Say, for example, one could easily identify the Imperial March from Star Wars or the main theme from The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring, but one would have a far tougher time pinning down the theme of Minority Report or Ocean's 11. See what I mean? The music could be absolutely fantastic, but it would fall under the brand of "generic" in that people would not be able to pick out those themes from those that are more iconic.

Thus, I can say with great pride that Ever17 distinguishes itself from other visual novels by having very memorable music, such that almost every scenario has a theme that I could call up almost at will (or at least be able know the theme when playing). Compared with OMGWTFOTL and Fate/stay night,with only one or two such themes, Planetarian and Narcissu with one, composer Takeshi Abo has gifted the game with an incredible sound track, and one that I do not tire of listening to even though the themes recycle quite frequently.

These tracks, however, are not voiced, though that is not to say that there are not themes that are sung in the game - one song actually has lyrics but it is first heard without vocals in one route, then someone sings it in another route unaccompanied by music, and in Coco's Path both the voices and harmony are combined to the great surprise of the player. I wasn't playing much attention to the themes so when that union occurred, well, "surprise" would be an understatement - I was totally blown away.

The opening piece, "LeMU ~Far Away Continent of Lemuria" is a hauntingly beautiful melody performed by KAORI. It's juxstaposed on a cutscene that begins with a pan of the LeMU complex, following by brief profiles of the characters. It's the best opening theme of any visual novel I have scene, even when combined with the cutscene - that is saying a lot, given FSN had an animated opening and a great song, "This Illusion", to go along with it. I think the marriage of the music and the cutscene was much more appropriate than in FSN, or rather, I should say it would be hard to play another song against Ever17's opening, whereas it wouldn't be too much trouble to find a song that would fit the FSN animated openings just as much as "This Illusion".

Immediately after the cutscene concludes, the player is brought to the main menu, where a piano re-arrangement of "LeMU ~Far Away Continent of Lemuria~" set to a different scale and tempo, labeled as "Karma" in the tracklist, plays. When I first heard it, I immediately had some flashbacks to GaoGaiGar, where a simmilarly themed piece was introduced later in the series that was a variation on the opening, "Yuusha-Oh Tanjou". "Karma" is even more forlorn than the opening, though I should say how one reacts to it is entirely dependent on what one has experienced - on my initial play through, I felt nothing from the theme but gradually began to associate it with tragedy. Following my completion of the latter routes, it became a song of triumph, though I can still 'hear' tragedy in the soft piano keys.

Another song of note is the lyric of "Gedaechtnisschwund", which is the scariest arrangement in the entire soundtrack. It begins with an extremely soft piano, but gradually crescendos into a supernatural theme of impending doom. This song was so terrifying, after hearing it so many times my imagination actually started to layer the expectation of the crescendo on silence, meaning I could hear the song in my head even when I took my headphones off. That doesn't happen anymore, thankfully, but it was quite an experience to go to bed and have that tune clawing in my skull.

Ending the game in the final credit roll is a positively lovely song called "Aqua Plus", which, if I could put the emotional imprint of music into an image, would be "golden and joyful", and it was well earned after the long game. If it was not enough that the song was so euphoric, it was sung by Hiroko Kasahara, Sora's voice actress, who I consider to have gotten second class treatment compared with the other female leads. Allowing her to perform the final song, which applied quite well to her character, was just perfect. I was too busy cheering and proudly pounding my fist into the air to appreciate the majesty of the song originally, but I instantly fell in love with it and loved it more after each additional run through of the ending credits.

- Sound -

Sadly, I do not believe there is anything spectacular about the sound in Ever17. I cannot stress enough how good it is, especially compared with manga where sound effects exist only in the imagination and in anime where they are of dubious quality, but there's nothing particularly breathtaking about the sound effects or their usage. I was really impressed with Fate/stay night's use of ambience of high quality sound, and that same standard of excellence is emulated by this novel as well. Of course, Ever17 isn't purported to be innovative of daring in the sound department, unlike Higurashi, so I should say that it's of normal or average variety.

- Voice Acting -

Any normalcy in the sound department for a visual novel is utterly over-compensated by the ridiculously dynamic performances of the voice actors. Even more powerful than the music as far as "audio" goes, Ever17 would only be less than half as enjoyable if it were not voiced, since the voices themselves play an important role in the mystery of the game. The actors really gave it their all when performing - I heard a lot of heart coming from them, and most of the lines were flawless delivered. I doubt there was ever a moment when a voice was ill-fitting for a mood. Not to mention the sheer NUMBER of sound bytes, holy crack. Virtually all the lines in the novel not spoken by the player character were voiced, and I estimate there was so much dialogue the amount in Ever17 is comparable to Death Note the anime. Those familiar with DN's verbose writing style will testify that's a LOT of material, and I consider Ever17 a valid rival for it.

Though there were only a handful of voice actors, every one of them was a famous professional, with an extensive line of work preceding and following the title. I've already named all the voice actors/actresses above, but one wouldn't really know much about them until I start naming off roles they've played. In example, Noriko Shitaya, the voice of You, is Sakura from Fate/stay night. Yuu Asakawa is Rider. Kana Ueda is Rin Tohsaka. Takeshi's actor, Souichiro Hoshi, is Maebara Keiichi from Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. Hiroko Kasahara and Hisayo Mochizuki haven't had nearly as many roles, but I think as a result of this they put a lot more effort into their roles - I think Takeshi had some of the best acting (I was particularly impressed with him), followed by Sora and Coco, with Tsugumi and You following. Sara wasn't bad, there just wasn't a lot of room to pump emotion into the character. Still, all the actresses did a fine job of singing, if and when they did sing. Simply fantastic job.

- Themes -

There are a number of themes in Ever17 that permeate the novel and the "infinity" series as a whole. Almost obviously, the theme of "infinity" plays an important role - the player is reminded at the end of each successfully finished scenario (for good or ill) that "you are in the infinity loop", implying there's more to do in the game. Of course, this also has a double meaning that isn't revealed until far later, and even then, I suspect the idea continues on through the other KID titles as well.

Romance is quite possibly the weakest peg of the whole story - sure, I found the romance to be quite satisfying (on the whole), but given the exceptionally short timeframe (seven days), most folks were skeptical that it could work. Of course, I'm one for the "Florence Nightingale" syndrome, that people in traumatic situations have a far higher propensity to fall in love with one another, thus negating the normally staggered period of time before a relationship forms. Of course, what is done in Ever17 is written very well, but it wasn't originally the focus of the story. Even saying this, Ever17 is one of the best romance stories I have ever heard, and as of this writing I'm about halfway through Kanon and haven't been as touched as in Ever17 - I'm a tad proud of Ever17 holding out against that legendary visual novel's anime, though I seriously doubt it'll be able to top Clannad if what people say about is true.

Science fiction plays a powerful card in Ever17, though it has a flavour of familiarity. If any of you folk have visited theme parks like "Six Flags Marine World", LeMU should feel right at home (I spent every weekend at Marine World in my Junior High days, so LeMU felt almost like a different, but old friend). There is futuristic technology and engineering in LeMU alongside stuff like, oh, candy and chicken sandwiches. Technology isn't the only issue that has been gone over, though - apparently, our timeline and that of Ever17 differed in the 1980's. The world ended up a lot more progressive, presumably did something with global warming, and on the whole is a whole lot nicer place, though there are some odd laws in effect.

On the science note, I should also say that physics and biology play an important role in the game as well - because of the grave situation the characters are in, it is imperative for the safety of the main characters for them to understand exactly what caused and what will happen to the LeMU superstructure, often resulting in lengthy discussions of the mechanics of the place. Frankly, despite my age and education I was quite intimidated by how everyone else applied their knowledge. In this, Takeshi and I were one in the same - he was frequently just as lost as I was! It was quite humiliating to ask Sora to put the details of the structure into a simple metaphor for me to understand since I was too dense to get the explanation the first time (she didn't like that) - Kid was much sharper though, and I got the hang of the stuff by the time I played him. Medicine and the importance of it play a subservient role to physics for the science focus, but they are importance nonetheless.

Comedy, comedy. Remember when I said romance was possibly the weakest link? I still affirm that, but only because romance is one of the major attractions of the game - one isn't playing Ever17 for comedy, though it is there, and it is quite touching. The laughs aren't really out of exaggerations or anything like that in shounen or shoujo, but rather the interactions of the characters with one another, like how a group of friends would joke with one another. Some of the funny moments are grounted grounded with a serious explanation - in example, the Kid is very frightened of his surroundings because he can't remember anything, so he's very trusting of his companions and often takes stuff literally, to great comic effect. He's funny in a cute way, but his reasons for behaving that way are quite serious. The same goes for Sora and You, though I should note Takeshi and You are the clowns of Ever17, often emotionally reacting to stuff (and each other) in over the top ways.

Another important theme in Ever17 is the role of philosophy and mythology, and how they draw parallels with the game. Characters often speak in riddles, both knowingly and unknowingly, and these riddles are usually told metaphorically, either through a story or through an analogy. The stories are perhaps the easiest to get, whereas among the analogies there are some very abstract ones that had to be explained to me (notably involving rings) - the philosophy plays an important role in You's route and minor one in Sora's, though more toward the former. This is because the philosophy defines You as a person (as players will discover), and Sora is just curious about a number of ideas and issues. I should note that most of the mythology is Japanese in origin, and the localizers (unnecessarily, in my view) substituted one of the tales for a Western one, which can be a source of confusion.

Ultimately, the core theme of the philosophy section of the novel would be the role of belief, particularly "believe in me who believes in you". To survive, the characters need to believe, trust, and rely on one another, and that belief must be mutual. This point is especially driven home in Coco's Path, where the player learns just how important and powerful it is.

Ever17's strong point is the mystery/suspense angle, which is positively unbelievable in how the game is layered. Every puzzle piece fits perfectly, the number of deceptions and twists (good twists, I might add) are amazing. Even the most ambiguous and trivial bit of information would come into use later in the game, even BEFORE Coco's Path which spilled all the beans - information from some routes explain occurences in other ones. I went in the game expecting a challenge and only got a handful of puzzles myself, not doubt because as I've grown I've developed tunnel vision and it was hard to conceive of some of the plot points. Of course, that just made them all the more incredible and exciting. Discovering the secrets of LeMU itself are the less impressive of the twists - everything about the characters is far, far more interesting. I will say this hear and now - before the game, I thought to myself, "writers wouldn't write something useless" and considered everything in the game said to be important. THIS IS AN ESSENTIAL MINDSET TO HAVE when playing the game - everything has a purpose, and one needs to reflect on the meaning of certain words, ideas and the like. They've all got a place in the story.

- Artwork -

Graphically, Ever17 is one of the better visual novels I have seen. As typical of most novels, they're of extremely high art quality, since the artwork is drawn on a computer and is truly "digital", unlike the anime we see or the manga we read. As such, it's very bright and vibrant, conveying the look of a true 'video' game even though the 'game' is more akin to a story. Of the professional groups, I would say KID's artwork is probably the best with the exception of the folks who do Shuffle - of my complex of games, it is superior to FSN, OMGWTFOTL, and Narcissu, but around the detail of Planetarian.

Ever17's artwork, expectably, consists of 'sprites' in different poses layered over a fixed background. There are one or two cutscenes as well depicting rushing water, but they have not aged as well as the rest of the artwork - the CGI appears quite dated. It should also be noted that I consider the "normal" graphics, which comprise the vast majority of the game, are of lower quality than the "event" screen artwork, who is done by a different artist. For example, at first I didn't think Sora was a very good looking character from her front view, but she looked great from profile shots - in the same way, You looked weird in her profile with her mouth open. Takeshi's design is positively weird - his hair clashes with his clothes, and it seems eerily unnatural (a silly thing to point out in a visual novel, but hey, Coco does the pink hair deal pretty well).

The "event" artwork is positively gorgeous, though - everyone looks great and they are exceptionally detailed, almost like portrait paintings that also happen to move slightly. Characters that I felt needed a facelift in parts of the game looked stunning in the event graphics, especially Sora and Takeshi.

- Overall -

My interest in the novel was entirely the credit of Yotsuba, who has a small, but agreeable fan-base dedicated to the novel there - with one notable exception, they were very courteous to me regarding spoilers and answered my questions with great enthusiasm. Prior to getting involved with the invisible Ever17 crowd, though, I had largely ignored the novel until after I finished FSN - I was cleaning up lurk's entries on various memes and terms and came across Ever17, which I remembered played a role in the early parts of SaiGar since a couple characters were nominated. I had read the entry before but forgotten it, and after re-reading it I thought the game would be worth a download. My primary motivation was to learn who/what is "Blick Winkel", and how it connected the plot - suffice to say, I did learn, and never in my wildest dreams would I been able to figure it out on my own before-hand. Suffice to say, that plot twist was the crown that, in my view, made Ever17 the most royal of all visual novels in English today. The game was already far superior to anything I had previously read by that point, but when I discovered Blick the game reached godly status. I can only fault KID on one issue, and that is the non "event" graphic artwork, but any other criticism, as little as there is, lies with Hirameki. Rather, it almost feels like I'm looking for an excuse to not give this game perfect marks - no other novel can touch it.

Again I say, with absolute certainty, that this is the best Japanese media I have ever experienced in my entire life, the best complex mystery/suspense story ever (though I'm sure some real classic detective fiction will trounce this game), one of the better if not best romance stories, and one of the best games I have ever played. Quite frankly, finishing this game was one of the most cathartic events of my whole life, I felt as if a whole lot of negative pollution just got flooded away with the ending credits. Simply, purely, wonderous.

As far as visual novels go that I have played, my relative scoring is as follow (/10.0):

Narcissu 8.2
Fate/stay night: Fate 7.4
Ever17 â‚€the out of infinityâ‚€ 9.7
OMGWTFOTL 1.6
Planetarian 8.0

People who I would VERY HIGHLY RECOMMEND this title to: big bad birtha, Arizona Talon
People who I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND this title to: PiccoloNamek
People who I would RECOMMEND this title to: Kasumi Violet, Big Pimp Krillin

[center:cdb92]
Ever17 â‚€the out of infinityâ‚€
✀✀✀✀✀
FIVE STARS
[/center:cdb92]
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Old 07-29-2007, 03:58 AM   #2
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

Why would you highly recommend this to me? You know I don't play these types of games.
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Old 07-29-2007, 04:03 AM   #3
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

I didn't, actually. My reasoning is based on what you've seen in the past and liked - from that, I made the inference that you would like it a lot. Same goes for Kasumi Violet - if she liked Narcissu, she'll probably enjoy Ever17.
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Old 07-29-2007, 04:10 AM   #4
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

Well, I've never played any of these games, nor do I plan to; something tells me I probably wouldn't enjoy it... perhaps if they stripped all of the romance elements out, maybe I'd play it. Maybe.
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Old 07-29-2007, 04:19 AM   #5
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

There's nothing explicit, if that's what worries you. I myself tend to avoid games like that and it's one of the reasons I rate Ever17 so highly. Still, while the romance is secondary to the mystery/suspense, it still is a driving theme in the game. Aside from explicit content, why would you dislike the romance in such a game like this?
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Old 07-29-2007, 04:34 AM   #6
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

Quote:
Originally Posted by Doppleganger
There's nothing explicit, if that's what worries you. I myself tend to avoid games like that and it's one of the reasons I rate Ever17 so highly. Still, while the romance is secondary to the mystery/suspense, it still is a driving theme in the game. Aside from explicit content, why would you dislike the romance in such a game like this?
Nothing explicit, huh? Nothing? That's different, then. Still, romance is depressing to me for a number of reasons which I won't get in to now. The fact that you have a certain level of control within the game, combined with not only visual but audio representations of the characters (and music, too) leads to an experience that would be more emotional than say, a book, or even a movie. This is something I want to avoid, because I prefer to remain, to an extent, uninvolved while experiencing a story. I suppose this is a coping mechanism to protect myself from any potentially unpleasant emotions.

Even so, if what you say is true, I might put this on my "might play some time in the indeterminate future" list.
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Old 07-29-2007, 12:09 PM   #7
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

I was already considering playing this, but from what you said, I will get to it faster than I thought. I don't know if I will find it as amazing as you did, or if I'll find it more amazing than you did, but we'll see. I will probably just buy it instead of torrenting it, but since I am running low on money, I will have to wait a bit for ordering it (I will most likely order it when I order the next Haruhi DVD).

(NOTE: Did not read into the plot or the characters because I don't want to risk getting spoilered.)
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Old 07-29-2007, 12:53 PM   #8
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

Quote:
Originally Posted by PiccoloNamek
The fact that you have a certain level of control within the game, combined with not only visual but audio representations of the characters (and music, too) leads to an experience that would be more emotional than say, a book, or even a movie. This is something I want to avoid, because I prefer to remain, to an extent, uninvolved while experiencing a story. I suppose this is a coping mechanism to protect myself from any potentially unpleasant emotions.
On control, there's something I want to talk about but cannot for fear of revealing something important, but I will say the degree of emotional stress varies depending on path. In the end, though, no matter how ill-feeling one becomes, everything comes out pretty darn well. Not completely to my satisfaction, of course, but well enough.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PiccoloNamek
Even so, if what you say is true, I might put this on my "might play some time in the indeterminate future" list.
Ahh, 'tis good to hear. You probably won't take me up on this suggestion anytime soon, but after writing that large post a non-committal answer is a minimum. :p

Quote:
Originally Posted by big bad birtha
I was already considering playing this, but from what you said, I will get to it faster than I thought. I don't know if I will find it as amazing as you did, or if I'll find it more amazing than you did, but we'll see. I will probably just buy it instead of torrenting it, but since I am running low on money, I will have to wait a bit for ordering it (I will most likely order it when I order the next Haruhi DVD).
I'm really torn as to what to suggest for this game. Personally, I liked it so much I will buy it (even though there's no proof patch) and pledged to myself I would not pirate another Hirameki game in my lifetime out of respect for the company. I'm not ashamed pirating Ever17 since if I hadn't, I wouldn't have known how great the game was, but at the same time I don't know how to advise other people on getting the game.

My only advice would be to get this game as soon as possible, and if that means ends up being a torrent, buy it in the end - it's well worth your time and money for it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by big bad birtha
(NOTE: Did not read into the plot or the characters because I don't want to risk getting spoilered.)
If/when you do get the game, feel free to field any questions here, since after that nasty incident with the Russian I'm very concerned with keeping the game's mystique intact for everyone here. I took great amends to make sure little of what I typed up in my review was even border-line spoilers, and even if I said something that a game player would recognize, someone who hasn't played the game wouldn't make the connection.
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Old 07-29-2007, 01:11 PM   #9
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

Quote:
Originally Posted by Doppleganger
I'm really torn as to what to suggest for this game. Personally, I liked it so much I will buy it (even though there's no proof patch) and pledged to myself I would not pirate another Hirameki game in my lifetime out of respect for the company. I'm not ashamed pirating Ever17 since if I hadn't, I wouldn't have known how great the game was, but at the same time I don't know how to advise other people on getting the game.

My only advice would be to get this game as soon as possible, and if that means ends up being a torrent, buy it in the end - it's well worth your time and money for it.
I think it might be faster to buy it anyway. The torrent has no seeders, meaning that it is downloading at 0kb/s -_-;. I am reluctant to buy it, because I think my piece of **** computer might not be able to play it, but I guess it will be worth the risk.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Doppleganger
If/when you do get the game, feel free to field any questions here, since after that nasty incident with the Russian I'm very concerned with keeping the game's mystique intact for everyone here. I took great amends to make sure little of what I typed up in my review was even border-line spoilers, and even if I said something that a game player would recognize, someone who hasn't played the game wouldn't make the connection.
Oh, if that is the case, then I will take some more time to read the plot and the characters. I'm sure I won't know what the hell you are talking about, but I will try to understand when the time comes for me to play it.
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Old 07-29-2007, 01:28 PM   #10
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

Quote:
Originally Posted by big bad birtha
I think it might be faster to buy it anyway. The torrent has no seeders, meaning that it is downloading at 0kb/s -_-;. I am reluctant to buy it, because I think my piece of **** computer might not be able to play it, but I guess it will be worth the risk.
That's my fault, most likely. When I went to Hirameki's main website to see where I could buy the game, I went to the messageboards and some idiot had spammed links on how to pirate the Hirameki games and provided a quick walkthrough on how to set up the emulation. Well...I might be a hypocrite, having pirated the game myself, but something about taking the torrent links above ground irked me so I reported the spam to the Hirameki forum administrator. They shut down the website to purge it of those links and are most likely going to look around for ways to shut down the torrents.

I still have my original file on a DVD somewhere, though, so if you need a seed badly I'll be able to help you out. It'll have to be later tonight, though, since I put off writing my political essay and doing my econ work all yesterday. ^^;

Quote:
Originally Posted by big bad birtha
Oh, if that is the case, then I will take some more time to read the plot and the characters. I'm sure I won't know what the hell you are talking about, but I will try to understand when the time comes for me to play it.
Eh? EHH?! No no no no! Do NOT do this! I've looked around quite a bit and even parts Hirameki's main website is very careless with spoilers! What I've written above is fine and has been quadruple checked by me, but spoilers are literally lurking around looking to stab you in the foot! Under no circumstances must you visit websites like Wikipedia or Yotsuba looking for info - ESPECIALLY Wikipedia, I went there as fast as I could to clean up the article just in case you went there looking for data.
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Old 07-29-2007, 02:05 PM   #11
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

So we can read it? *has not read it yet -- any of it bar your points system at the very bottom -- because people mentioned spoilers*

By the way, it's probably to do with just finishing Harry Potter Book 7, but your last post sounded so much like Hermione Granger to me.
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Old 07-29-2007, 02:52 PM   #12
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

Quote:
Originally Posted by Xuande
So we can read it? *has not read it yet -- any of it bar your points system at the very bottom -- because people mentioned spoilers*
Yes. Part of the reason it took me so long to write the review was I was always going back and checking for spoilers, any possible slip-up that might permit an inquisitive reader to make a connection prior to playing the game. All of the character summaries are based off of the Hirameki ones, though I substituted facts I felt were dangerous with more mundane facts. In the entire post, there's only one possible point that could be a spoiler, and that is the name I mentioned in the first paragraph of the "Overall" section, but said name is shown in the opening cutscene so aside from saying "it's important" nothing was given away.

Now that I've gone over the post again, there is something that could have potential for trouble, but is very vague and should not be a problem. Folks who have completed the game might take notice of it, though. It is unrelated to any of the subsections.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Xuande
By the way, it's probably to do with just finishing Harry Potter Book 7, but your last post sounded so much like Hermione Granger to me.
Somehow, I'm not surprised that post came out a bit nanny-like. I panicked when I read BBB's passage and my mind flashed an image of Ayu about to step into a highway and get hit by a spoiler dump-truck. :x
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Old 07-29-2007, 03:13 PM   #13
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

Tell you what, I'll read yours if you'll read mine.

*begins to read Doppel's long thread, which Talon can tell he's really invested his heart into, and will take it very seriously ... but he hopes that Doppel will return the favor for Talon's Harry Potter rant, which is far less emotional to him and also less lengthy, but still long enough to win many a tl;dr award at 4chan*
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Old 07-29-2007, 03:23 PM   #14
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

Quote:
Originally Posted by Doppleganger
Eh? EHH?! No no no no! Do NOT do this! I've looked around quite a bit and even parts Hirameki's main website is very careless with spoilers! What I've written above is fine and has been quadruple checked by me, but spoilers are literally lurking around looking to stab you in the foot! Under no circumstances must you visit websites like Wikipedia or Yotsuba looking for info - ESPECIALLY Wikipedia, I went there as fast as I could to clean up the article just in case you went there looking for data.
Umm.....Let me rephrase that. I think I will read the characters and the plot that you put down. Just so you know, I NEVER read the plot or characters on anything unless I am sure it has no spoilers.
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Old 07-29-2007, 03:32 PM   #15
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

Quote:
Originally Posted by Xuande
Tell you what, I'll read yours if you'll read mine.
Great minds think alike!

Quote:
Originally Posted by big bad birtha
Umm.....Let me rephrase that. I think I will read the characters and the plot that you put down. Just so you know, I NEVER read the plot or characters on anything unless I am sure it has no spoilers.
Oh thank heavens.
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Old 07-29-2007, 04:16 PM   #16
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

Okay. Thoughts:
  1. Having not yet played the game, I don't have too much to say. I probably read about 90% of your sentences (skimmed quite a bit around where the music section is; including that section itself, you were starting to go on and on, chap, about stuff I don't really care about when I haven't yet played the game myself!), but considering how much you wrote, I don't think it's too much of a crime. 'specially not since I read all of the major stuff.[/*027c9]
  2. Dude ... you get me all excited to play this game, and I have med school in 13 days. I still have a ton of Naruto to get through, and I also have to start reading some med books to prepare. wtf -.- plus plus don't worry about it [/*027c9]
  3. Dude ... you get me all excited to play this game, and you don't even offer me a chance to acquire it within reason!? :x "Only 2000 copies ever sold." "I refuse to help you guys find the torrent." "Oh, did I mention that I *KILLED* the torrents that exist by drawing their attention to Hirameki?" What the fuck, dude. What the fuck. XD plus plus a little bit of [/*027c9]
  4. Dude, you *know* I'm going to go for that girl with the long dark hair. XD Dammit that she's the hardest one to get. If I fail getting her, I'll try to go for the lady who looks like she has the best chance of being "an adult woman with an adult body."[/*027c9]

I'll look into acquiring it later tonight in English. If I can't find it within a few hours, I'll have to move on to trying to find it raw, but I know, just based on what you've described, that there is NO WAY I will be able to handle it raw. So ... here's hoping I can find it in English. BBB, if you find it, let me know. I'll do the same for you, since this guy *jerks his thumb at Doppel* won't help us. :P
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Old 07-29-2007, 07:32 PM   #17
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

BBB, I believe I may have found a working solution. I will be trying it out shortly, after downloading Episodes 24 and 25 of Code Geass.

Ever 17 on the most Mini of Novae ... not sure what the Latin plural is of "nova", actually :x , oh well

Doppel ... let us try and get this before you hand it over to the Hirameki Police Squad. Please.
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Old 07-29-2007, 10:23 PM   #18
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

Quote:
Originally Posted by Xuande
Dude ... you get me all excited to play this game, and you don't even offer me a chance to acquire it within reason!? :x "Only 2000 copies ever sold." "I refuse to help you guys find the torrent." "Oh, did I mention that I *KILLED* the torrents that exist by drawing their attention to Hirameki?" What the fuck, dude. What the fuck. XD plus plus a little bit of
Well, as I said, something about making information on were to find the torrent "public" like that made me uncomfortable. Perhaps I was afraid of what happened to insani who did a commercial translation for Planetarian but found out no one was willing to purchase the game because of the expense and relatively short download time for the torrent.

Even then, I'm copying my original from a DVD as we speak so I'll seed whatever torrent you decided to pick out.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Xuande
Dude, you *know* I'm going to go for that girl with the long dark hair. XD Dammit that she's the hardest one to get. If I fail getting her, I'll try to go for the lady who looks like she has the best chance of being "an adult woman with an adult body."
I figured you would like Tsugumi - I think everyone goes into the game thinking, "man, she's pretty, I better seduce her first" but then they end up on the Bad End. Luckily for Talon, most of the girls in this game end up with long hair in the end, except for Coco - you should be quite impressed with the endings.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Xuande
I'll look into acquiring it later tonight in English. If I can't find it within a few hours, I'll have to move on to trying to find it raw, but I know, just based on what you've described, that there is NO WAY I will be able to handle it raw. So ... here's hoping I can find it in English. BBB, if you find it, let me know. I'll do the same for you, since this guy *jerks his thumb at Doppel* won't help us. :P
Since the game is voiced, you should be able to pick up on some of the clues that were changed by the localizers - more information comes from the original source, especially in the case of a certain puzzle involving Japanese characters. Pay attention to that one! Also, "mermaids > dwarves". Keep that one in mind for Coco's Path.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Xuande
Doppel ... let us try and get this before you hand it over to the Hirameki Police Squad. Please.
I only reported the torrent because some idiot was spamming Hirameki's own messageboard with it. In any matter, though, I'll seed that.

...

Seeding commencing.
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Old 07-29-2007, 10:38 PM   #19
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

I dunno about dwarves, but in Japanese mythology, mermaids have a hell of a lot more in common with those in Harry Potter than those in Disney films. If there are any mermaids in this game, scary. Run like hell, shoot it if it moves, and pray you don't get eaten.

Edit: Just started downloading. Disappointed, because it started off at 80 kbps and said "ETA: 20 hours" but then plummeted down to 30 kbps. :x Currently working its way back up, looks like it's at 41 kbps right now ...
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Old 07-29-2007, 10:42 PM   #20
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

Quote:
Originally Posted by Xuande
BBB, I believe I may have found a working solution. I will be trying it out shortly, after downloading Episodes 24 and 25 of Code Geass.

Ever 17 on the most Mini of Novae ... not sure what the Latin plural is of "nova", actually :x , oh well

Doppel ... let us try and get this before you hand it over to the Hirameki Police Squad. Please.
Thanks Suigin. I apologize that I couldn't help with the search, but I just got home from work, so I have been away from the computer =/. Anyway, I have downloaded the torrent, and it will take awhile to download because it is downloading at 3kb/s -_-.

Anyway, I still haven't read the characters and plot, but I will after I take a rest because I am pretty tired right now. I know you put your loins into it, and I am more than obliged to read it (hell, I would want at least someone to read the super long Kanon speeches I made). I will say my opinion of the storyline and the character I will go after, when I read it.
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Old 07-29-2007, 11:06 PM   #21
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

I do intend to read all of your Kanon comments, but I will not be completing the series until Friday at earliest, since this is finals week for summer school and I've got a lot of stuff to catch up on today.

My computer will be on for most of the night as I finish the remaining Kanon files and write my essay, so I'll be able to seed for something like the next seven hours.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Xuande
I dunno about dwarves, but in Japanese mythology, mermaids have a hell of a lot more in common with those in Harry Potter than those in Disney films. If there are any mermaids in this game, scary. Run like hell, shoot it if it moves, and pray you don't get eaten.
By that I mean something about mermaids was switched to something about dwarves - you'll recognize it when you see it, since it makes less sense than keeping the original myth. However, the original myth is still explained through the audio, so when you see the dwarf issue just ignore the text and listen to the narration. It'll be a lot less confusing.
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Old 07-29-2007, 11:10 PM   #22
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

You're my hero if you do. I keep oscillating between high speeds and low ones, but when it's high, it says "DL: ~120 kbps" and "ETA: 6 hours 50-some minutes." I'm betting that you're probably the guy I have to thank for all the high upload (87.96.192.161 is my knight in shining armor, as he accounts for 50+ kbps of my 120 I keep getting), and if you stay on for seven hours, I should be able to nigh-on get the entire file. Since I'm leaving my machine on overnight (most likely), it'll work out for BBB too, especially if I can find out which IP address is his. Now to see if you're my hero or not (UPN IP check, hope you don't mind if I sneak a peek up your skirt ) ...

EDIT: Nope, you're not. :x You're my silver medalist, uploading to me consistently at ~15 to 20 kbps. IP of 76.197.0.93

EDIT 2: Oh no. :x Now you plummeted down to only 8 kbps. You're cutting me loose, Doppel!

j/k, I know you can't control how the tracker sorts your bandwidth out. Oh well. ^_^;
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Old 07-29-2007, 11:26 PM   #23
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

Quote:
Originally Posted by Doppleganger
I do intend to read all of your Kanon comments, but I will not be completing the series until Friday at earliest, since this is finals week for summer school and I've got a lot of stuff to catch up on today.
Eh?.......Umm....I was referring to the ones I made a long time ago. You know, like that EFZ game review that was almost as long as your review on this game. It doesn't matter, since I think Suigin did anyway (well, he responded to something from the creamy center, so I just assumed it....). What I said was only an example. I really don't care now.

Son of a bitch torrent! 12kb/s and it pretty much stays there. 5 god damn days before it finishes, and I am not even sure my ****ty computer will play it ><.
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Old 07-30-2007, 12:47 AM   #24
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

Update:
- 22.4% complete
- 89 kbps DL
- 47 kbps UL (seems to be my ISP's limit, it was the exact same speed for Geass 24+25)
- ETA: 6h 22m

I plan to leave the computer on overnight, though it is rather noisy, so if you see me go offline, guys, it's not because I'm going back on my word but has more to do with me cutting power so I can get some shuteye. Hopefully it'll be done by the time I wake up tomorrow; also, hopefully BBB will have made some progress. I hope for your sake you're at least at 15% by now. My condolences if you're not.
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Old 07-30-2007, 12:53 AM   #25
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Re: Ever17 ―the out of infinity―

Note: I forgot my main PC works again. Wait about twenty minutes and I'll have another seed up for both of you.

Quote:
Originally Posted by big bad birtha
Eh?.......Umm....I was referring to the ones I made a long time ago. You know, like that EFZ game review that was almost as long as your review on this game. It doesn't matter, since I think Suigin did anyway (well, he responded to something from the creamy center, so I just assumed it....). What I said was only an example. I really don't care now.
Those are the ones I am referring to. Don't think that just because I'm late to the party doesn't mean I won't sip your half-empty glasses of wine. :p

Quote:
Originally Posted by big bad birtha
Son of a bitch torrent! 12kb/s and it pretty much stays there. 5 god damn days before it finishes, and I am not even sure my ****ty computer will play it ><.
<-doesn't really understand the complaints behind the download speed. I get most of my downloads at 1.5kb/s, getting eight times that would be a blessing.
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