Visual novel talk: Ever 17
I was sucked into playing Ever 17 by the folks at the Penny Arcade forums anime thread. Basically, someone found the game at a Circuit City or something and rescued it from the bargain bin. Since then, a few more people weighed in on it and some picked it up. From the general discussion and others’ opinions I’ve been promised that I would shit bricks.
I’ve gotta say, Ever 17 is another fine example of taking advantage of the visual novel format. My first brush with this sort of trickery was with Clannad and it’s light orb shenanigans.
I feel like the order that I did the arcs had some bearing on my impressions. I went Sara, You, Sora, then Tsugumi. So I did both of Kid’s paths before doing both of Takeshi’s. You could imagine my surprise the first time I went through one of Takeshi’s routes after doing all of Kid’s. I think that going in this order made it more obvious that something didn’t quite add up.
When taken as a whole, each arc seems really strange. I’m not entirely sure what the point of Sora’s arc was. The cloning stuff with You was really weird. I guess You’s arc was really about the Third Eye stuff. The Kid I = fake Takeshi was also a lolwut. The whole reveal with Coco and Blick Winkel didn’t feel like it was a resolution for me and it felt more like it came out of nowhere.
So I guess my favourite arcs were Tsugumi’s and Sara’s. All of their weird medical anomalies made some sort of sense. The Cure and Tief Blau and infrared vision and Leiblich’s sinisterness were a lot more interesting than the crazy Third Eye stuff. The relationships that were developed in those arcs also made more sense and were more enjoyable.
I guess my problem with Blick Winkel is that it seems like it’s supposed to make complete sense but it doesn’t quite fit in with the other stuff like the diseases and the exploration of what living is. Compared to light orbs and Hinamizawa syndrome, Blick Winkel doesn’t feel like it’s a part of the framework they’ve set up.
Overall, a lot of it is really good and a lot of it is really ridiculous. That and pharmaceutical companies are evil.
Tags: ever 17, Visual novels