What Is Never 7: The End of Infinity?
Never 7: The End of Infinity was originally released in the year 2000 as a PS1 title known simply as Infinity. It is the first entry in the Infinity series and is followed by Ever 17: The Out of Infinity, concludes with Remember 11: The Age of Infinity, got a spin-off known as 12Riven: The Psi-Climinal of Integral, and finally rebooted with Code_18.
When looking at the Nintendo e-Shop category for this game, it is easy for some people to be mislead into expecting one genre of game based on category type to buy/review the game, only to find it’s some other category altogether. I say this because the e-Shop described it as an “adventure” game, but in actuality, it’s a “visual novel” game through and through.
However, despite my preference for…most other types of games, and visual novels not being my general cup of tea – so to speak (BlazBlue series aside as it has fighting game elements), this game, from a conceptual standpoint, has an interesting premise about story. As such, I gladly agreed to give the game a fair chance. Now, after being able to play for about a MONTH in advance (thanks, KID, Cyberfront, and Mages Inc.!), is this visual novel a good story, or does the lack of meaningful gameplay hurt the game as a whole?
Story
You might not recognize the game’s focus right away, and if so, I don’t blame you. You meet 6 or so different women over a week and get close to them. On day 7, one of them (as in, the one you bonded with most) dies, and time loops back to the beginning so you can prevent that death at the expense of someone else. For some reason, this reminded me of Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars for the Nintendo 3DS. In that latter game, you also bond with various women for plot and gameplay-related reasons.
In Never 7, you bond with the women and make various choices that ultimately end up influencing who dies at the end of the first loop. If you want a less simplified version of what I just said, it’s that a Truant College Student (Makoto) is sent away to an island where he ends up trapped with 6 women in a tropical cyclone for a week, with one of them dying at the end of the week before time/fate gives him a second chance to change that person’s fate. Got it memorized?
Gameplay
Hope you like pressing that A button to advance the dialogue and make select choices at certain points, because that’s all the “gameplay” this title offers. Even then, if you call this proper gameplay, then I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
While the gameplay is slow, it brings out Makoto’s best personality traits with each girl. While you never see Makoto’s face or portrait aside from the intro and maybe a few endings, the game puts YOU in Makoto’s shoes, metaphorically speaking.
As far as soundtrack is concerned, the game makes excellent use of the piano to help convey each girl’s feelings, and the Japanese vocal talent all throughout the game…ohh ho, this vocal talent is so good!
Conclusion
If you can fully commit to this visual novel, you’re in for decent writing, great characters, and a lovely soundtrack. The apparent lack of mini-games that other ports of the game have is sort of offset by the above good factors mentioned. In addition, the game has multiple endings and a fast-forward option to get to the choices needed to unlock the other endings much quicker, saving time in secondary and tertiary playthroughs. I recommend you approach this game with some caution. It’s ultimately enjoyable, but by playthrough number 2 or 3, I was kinda’ tired, and most disappointingly, bored. That’s the worst that a game can do to me aside from making me frustrated. I didn’t feel frustrated, thankfully, just bored.
Developer: Mages Inc.
Publisher: Spike Chunsoft
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PS4, PC
Release Date: 6th March 2025
Gaming Respawn’s copy of Never 7: The End of Infinity was provided by the publisher.
