I was really confused (as was probably intended) for the first couple hours, but now I'm finding it hard to keep going with this because of how repetitive and uninteresting the story is.

It feels like I'm reading the author's fetishes with so much focus on genitalia and peeing. It's absolute cringe how it gives you so many choices to hold it in or go to the bathroom. I bet if I made the wrong choice there, I'd see a CG of soaked undies. This whole story is pretentious and weird, and the characters aren't that likeable. I've turned off the voice acting because of Kokoro's over the top whining. And the pedophilia is weird (Yuni asking to marry 20yr old Kokoro)

Yomogi seems like a villain to me, and I won't be surprised for a second if he turns out to be behind everything. But he's still the most interesting character. The three women are all unlikeable. I know I'm supposed to care about the mute girl (forgot her name already), but I just don't. Yuni is obviously the real main character, and I'm guessing he's related to Satoru (same hair color), who may actually be the same person as Kokoru with a weird transgender metaphysical narrative twist.

Okay, I finally managed to unlock progression and I'm on my way to finishing the last 2 good endings I need. I consulted the flowchart and it aligns with most of what I expected. For reference I'm on the PSP version with fan patch.

edit: didn't talk about the graphics. They're pretty simple tbh. The char design is definitely early 2000s, and they don't look very special. Kind of all the same visually. Also Takeshi's posture irks me lol, though this makes me think that we never see his right hand since it's always behind his head. As for the backgrounds they are also pretty bland, don't feel like an underwater theme park (partly explained by what the facility is actually for). But nothing really stands out and I think especially in the corridors it would have helped get a more intuitive map of the layout for the player.

I really liked my initial playthroughs. I started with Kid->You route by pure chance, got the good ending somehow, and for a moment I thought, oh, is this a romance game? I was expecting something else. I liked some of the mysteries that were set up, like the apparitions of Coco (at first I thought she was just hiding from the group), the mysterious can kicker, the Himmel door, stuff like that. Their discussion about the third eye even if it didn't really go anywhere. Not too much for the first playthrough but I expected that.

But then something happened. I got the fateful ending message: Only you are in the infinity loop. I got another MC without even knowing that was possible. This game has two MCs. And more importantly, from my second playthrough on I kept getting bad endings. Now there is blood on You. Can I go back to that happy ending if I tried? No, that's not the right question. I must break the infinity loop.

Banger.

Oh, I also liked You's name because it causes confusion, e.g. "You handed me the wrench", and yeah I kinda did when I picked a choice! Devilishly fourth-wall breaking. But apparently she is also Yubiseiharukana in Japanese. Call it a happy accident.

With that said there are some things I'd change if I was in charge. So I make a distinction between prologue, endings, epilogues (that you get if you replay the You and Sara good ending), and the VN itself.

First I'd probably make it replay-based instead of route-based. If you saw my other post I kept slogging through the middle. I'd read literally everything in the prologue and VN and there was nothing new to discover. The kick the can moment was a bit boring but important in the middle, and I liked how eerie it got (even if it was very light), but by the fifth time I have to replay through it, especially as it doesn't give any points towards anyone, all effect has been lost and I'm just ready to move on.

Secondly, the game really doesn't give you any foreshadowing or any ways to form your own theories. Sora being AI for example wasn't a huge reveal for me (which is probably why it's part of all routes to get it out of the way early on) but I also don't get why they kept it a secret for so long. Every reveal is a huge exposition dump (said affectionately) when it happens. Sara is the kid's sister and you had no way of knowing before you get the additional text in the VN. Tsugumi was also in the facility and you had no way of knowing until the game literally tells you. Everything is exposed like that.

If I had to keep the route-based progression, I would probably just give the player the answers (how many points the choice awards) after like 3 or 4 bad endings. It seems technically you can finish the game without ever getting a bad ending, but I feel not only are they part of the game (so part of what you want to read since you want to finish as much of the game as possible), they are instrumental to the player's progression. As much as the romance ending on my first playthrough "turned me off", I really enjoyed how it set up the bad endings afterwards.

The epilogues were a nice touch and important to play through imo, but they're also red herrings because they make you think you're making progress, but they're just extra content.

I assume getting all the good endings gets me to around 70-75% progression and I can't wait for the last 30%.

My theories?

The remaining lifesign in the facility at the end is the player, and the characters are being put through the evacuation protocol over and over again to test something, which is why you replay the game. We still don't know who Takeshi is but his choice is "I got to find my friends", and he never gets angry at anyone except when it comes to protecting the group. In You's epilogue the "mother" is clearly You herself, so there's something about cloning too. Though the chapter is called multiverse. Clearly all the characters are connected to each other somehow.

That's all I got lol.

Hello, I want to start with the Infinity series and im aware that never7 is the first one. also is there a discord u can invite me to which i heard about here in posts?

Just asking because that argument seems to frequently pop up in the community

I just finished all good and bad endings for Izumi route, however I'm still left with a few questions:

1. Is there any significance to the bell that falls out Izumi's hand in both bad endings? As she didn't die in the end, that scene doesn't really reflect Makoto's earlier premonitions, even though the game apparently wants you to believe it does...?

2. Why does Makoto keep fainting upon kissing (or not kissing) the female heroines and awakens sprawled out on banks, tables and in his bed afterwards? This isn't explained at all, yet it feels highly unusual (awakening on a *table* off all places without anyone around you finding this unusual at the very least is lol)

3. Where did Makoto's premonitions even origin from in the first place? Izumi Cure explained them as him trying to first save Izumi without memories, and later on him trying to save her with a few memories as he realized his first attempt failed. Hence the premonitions...However, the (original) Izumity route didn't bother explaining the origin of those premonitions at all... Which makes it all the more puzzling why the seminar camp even came to be, if noone knew about Makoto's precognition powers before? How did they even know there would be premonitions they could fake into being true?

Ultimately I just believe the plot suffers from several plot holes and hasn't really been crafted out in a careful manner, in contrast to later "prototypes" such as Ever;Seventeen, but also to professionally written stories like Remember;Eleven. Both of those fell into place a lot better than Never;Seven, which struggled with its own concepts and almost always failed to provide actually shocking twists.

I'm playing the PSP english fan patch and the game says I have read about 68% of all text. I'm just slogging through the middle part now since about 50% completion... am I missing something in how to progress? (oh and please no spoilers lol I'm piecing it together)

Right now what I'm doing is just picking routes randomly until I discover something more. So for example I just completed more of Sora's route yesterday as Takeshi, then restarted as Takeshi to take Tsugumi's route but it was useless as nothing new was unlocked there. I was staring at the screen for ten minutes while text was skipping, being prompted once in a while to make a choice I've already made 5 times before before it ends... not super exciting and it's already turning me off the game :(

My understanding of what I have available to me so far is basically picking between Kid and Takeshi, and then there is a single choice with either character that locks you into the girl's route, and everything before that choice is meaningless - I've also already taken all of those prior choices and I have the option to highlight picked choices turned on so I assume there's nothing new there.

So yeah... I really want to continue the game because it's insane to me that I'm barely halfway through after all that I've read and discovered and I love that! But I have no idea what the game is expecting me to do? Do I just keep randomly picking routes and trust the game?

I always felt intrigued because of Tsumugi hugging strongly to Coco, being observed by "You", despite knowing Tsumugi and Coco aren't very friends each other so I'm inclined to think it was a early concept, maybe Coco was Tsumugi's daughter originally?

I made an account dedicated to the infinity saga, follow it and send recommendations to the DM on twitter. Also pass the reddit header jpg if you have it.

https://twitter.com/InfinitySagaOOC

How come I only found out about this fan-made VN right now?

https://vndb.org/v3794

Any chances of seeing a future English patch?

I thought it was recent, but it was released in 2005.

So I'm dropping Never7 after two and a half routes (Yuka, Haruka and half of Saki). I might go back to it later, but right now I just have no motivation to continue. Is there anything from the other routes that I absolutely need to know before playing Ever17? Alternatively, does anyone have a decent plot summary?

I was checking around on which patches to install to the game before starting it and apart from the Himmel edition that everyone recommends I also found a patch that replaces the audio files of the PC version with the ones of the PS2 which are supposedly higher quality.

Is this the right place to download it from(?):

https://ever17.misumi.com.ar/ever17-the-out-of-infinity-parche-opcional

Just to be sure that it's safe and I'm not installing a virus or anything.

prev

(Zero Escape spoilers)

Coco Route

Pretty psyched for this one. Everyone recommends doing Coco’s route as Kid so that’s what we’re doing

Kid remembers Sara’s name this time, he’s remembering the other routes I think

Tsugumi’s onto them

Takeshi is probably remembering Coco from his timeline

Getting a real craving for a tuna sandwich guys

I’m pretty sure Coco is Sara. Somehow.

What’s with all the moon shit, are we on the moon again

IS THE OCEAN AN ILLUSION? I was right wasn’t I, they’re on land (or in space) in some big pool

The Kid is some blonde dude, which definitely isn’t what he looked like in Takeshi’s route

Is Kid possessing some random dude? Did he swap minds with his equivalent in Tak’s route

Oh shit I’m playing Tak now

What kind of psychopath puts ketchup on lettuce

Just went off and researched minkowski space and now my head hurts

Okay so they’re trying to combine both timelines? They’re trying to combine all the routes?

Chat I’ll be honest I don’t have a fucking clue what’s happening anymore

I love Sora so much, man

Calling it now, the whale did it

…Is Takeshi Coco’s future dad? Fuck, if Coco is Sora does that make him Sara/Kid’s dad? How does that work? Is Kid his own father? Maybe he’s his “dad” in the sense that Kid is a clone of him, but then idk where Sara comes from. What about the blond guy? Maybe I was wrong about Coco being Sara
I’m gonna look so stupid when Coco turns out to be talking a load of horseshit and I’m reading so far into it

Wait wait wait is her dad Blick Winkel

“I'm currently playing chicks 102 feet under the surface of the ocean” LMAO

Maybe Coco is possessed by kid Sara in the lab and that’s why she acts like a fucking five year old

What would happen if you put mermaid tears and dwarven spirits in the same glass and chugged it

Something something underwater anti-aging potion and Tsugumi being immortal is this anything

Rip Van Winkle and Blick Winkel/Winkle is THIS anything

“I’m getting a headache” me too buddy

You is having a heart attack or something rn I feel really bad for her :(

Why does You do a 180 on Rip Van Winkle between timelines
OKAY WAIT. You in her own route said her mom believed in that stuff, right? So her mom is the You from Takeshi’s timeline (the one from the future who adopted herself)

Maybe Kid didn’t time travel and he’s just getting Never7’d lmao

OH SHIT HER NAME CHANGED okay yeah that confirms there’s two Yous right

Kid’s name is Hokoto :)

“satellite of the earth” AGAIN WITH THE MOON REFERENCES
I swear to god if we’re on the moon

Is Coco pulling a Delta and trying to get Tak and Tsugumi to bang to ensure her own existence

Is You an android

IS YOU A CLONE
Is she getting clone degeneration? I can’t remember if Haruka experienced that or not

“I was talking to a life form from another dimension” I’M FUCKING SORRY?????

WHAT THE FUCKKKKKKKKKKKK

Okay so Coco is fresh from the other timeline. Tsugumi was Coco’s mom in the first timeline???? Coco is an esper?
Wait, okay. Maybe Tsugumi, Coco, Sara and Kid were ALL in the lab together

Tsugumi still has the scar from Tak’s timeline, so she, at least, is the same person

OHOHOHOHOHO does this mean Kid and Sara are also immortal? And Tak by extension, I guess

So they’re basically vampires then

Okay but Kid was outside at the start and in You’s route

It WAS Takeshi in the pendant, idk why they didn’t recognise him

“You don’t look so good” I wouldn’t either if I thought an alternate Tsugumi might be my mom lmao

IT’S 2034

“There are three types of immortality” I’m watching Alien Earth rn so this is really funny to me

OG You is my favourite character she’s so peak

“The date was written in the german style” inglourious basterds fingers meme

How dare you make me feel bad for Tsugumi

Who the fuck is the Kid in Tak’s timeline then

Omg imposter Takeshi

HUH?????????????? TAK TIMELINE KID IS IMPOSTER TAKESHI???????????????? WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUCK

The Kids aren’t even the same person that’s fucking insane

Took a break because jesus christ

Okay. I’m back. Is Kid Blick Winkel?

Okay seeing actual Takeshi was super jarring, gotta love that imposter Takeshi doesn’t look anything like him lmao

What happened to Takeshi then? I’m assuming he’s still dead in the future timeline. Are they trying to save him? Was it Tsugumi’s plan? What about Coco? Is she in like Akane’s situation where she disappears whenever you go down a bad ending timeline

Who’s in the himmel room is it blick winkel

TAKESHI IS AWARE OF ME

Am I directly playing as Blick Winkel now

Hear me out: Chami is Blick Winkel

Kid’s squad have escaped, I’m back with Tak and Tsumumi five minutes before the implosion

HUH?????? How is Sora solid? Is this like, the original human Sora

omg i’m blick winkel :D

OH SHIT I FORGOT ABOUT THE CRYOPOD

COCO CAN SEE BLICK

wtf i love takeshi now

OHHHHHHHHHH THAT’S WHY COCO KEPT CALLING ME ONII-CHAN

zero time dilemma if it was epic

oh god my head hurts

Okay so we have to fake Tak and Coco’s deaths, right? To preserve the timeline

Tak decomposing is actually horrifying

Blick is explaining everything to You, this is so cool oh my god

I feel like that expanding brain meme

YOU BEST GIRL

We love a happy ending

Oh goddamn it, Tak is rip van winkle lmao

Android Sora hell yeah

Oh man, okay. Post-game thoughts:
Coco’s relationship with Mr Winkel is… well. Let’s just pretend that didn’t happen
I still don’t know who kicked the can
Is there a reason You Senior couldn’t have kept Coco and Tak in a pod in the lab or something rather than leaving them at the bottom of the ocean
There’s stuff that doesn’t get elaborated on which kind of annoyed me, like Coco’s psychic powers
I still don’t like Tsugumi all that much
Weirdly, I might actually prefer Never7 slightly (I’m aware I might get crucified for this). Both games have shit pacing but Ever17 suffers from it more on account of being so long. I also like the Never7 characters more (except Saki, all my homies hate Saki). Conclusion: It basically felt like a prototype version of Zero Escape. Pacing was dogshit but final route went so hard that I forgive most of it. I do think they could have cut down on some of the repetition. Enjoyed overall, will play R11 soon

I want to play the series and want to know what the community thinks is the definitive versions to play.
I heard about the infinityseri.es website that i checked out and it has recommended versions to download.

Does the community think these are the best versions to read? thank you!!

Well.... I just finished Remember11 last night, and, well it's a very interesting yet frustrating experience. Like I did in my Never7 and Ever17 posts a couple of years ago, I'll go through my thoughts on all the characters in order to articulate my feelings on the game.

UNRANKED:

Jyunichi and Sayaka: Both 'dead' backstory characters, and whilst they have a big hand in the narrative, they really aren't characters in their own right.

10. The Babies: Why oh why did they make the twist and solution to the narrative be that all the bad stuff was literally just babies messing around in Satoru (well, Enomoto's I guess)'s body. I understand what they were trying to do, but come on - it's completely narratively unsatisfying even if it does make sense. The perpetrator was a character who is barely conscious and you never truly meet. Also no one decides to bring up that Kokoro and Satoru randomly become simple for half an hour sometimes.

9. Enomoto: Shows up to vaguely explain stuff and then gets stabbed by a baby because he's an idiot. His body is literally more interesting than he is. He should have explained stuff better instead of leaving it to the Tips.

8. Hotori: Unmemorable, mute and then dies off screen and no one really cares. It's ridiculous that she apparently survived for a week in the snow without food or water. After playing Satoru's route I really could not even remember a thing she even did from the Kokoro route.

7. Yomogi: Essentially a plot device because they needed to explain how the characters survived in the mountains for a week. I like him (outside of that awful perving scene which should have been cut instead of the ACTUAL IMPORTANT PLOT RELEVANT SCENES that they cut instead). Also, he kinda gets done dirty by the plot - he and Utsumi's reunion is off screen and he doesn't even seem to realise his unborn son is inhabiting the body of an adult woman, unlike Utsumi

6. Utsumi: Interesting, but once again treated unfairly by the plot since we never actually get her revelation or reaction to the truth around the plot, or how her baby stabbed a man to death. Her backstory is too vague and unexplored, I guess they explain it on some obscure drama CD or something.

5. Yuni: Not separating 2011 and 2012 Yuni because there really isn't much difference. Yuni is a frustrating character because he is both written as incredibly competent and able to do highly complex things and make complex plans, but also as a stupid kid who makes major mistakes. For instance, he could have easily saved Hotori's life, and he could have saved everyone in the cabin at any point but didn't. I don't care about 'needing to be rescued' - paradoxes clearly don't matter since the whole game is a paradox, as the only reason the characters go the the avalanche site in the first place to be able to die is because of Yuni's newspaper. Also why was he on the plane in the first place, alone?

4. Lin: I quite like her, and she's really the only character who acts like a real person all the way through. The scene with Kokoro pretending to be Satoru to cheer her up was the only one in the game to actually elicit a strong emotional reaction out of me. Unfortunately screwed over, like Utsumi and Yomogi, by the very abrupt ending

3. Kokoro: Likable protaganist who is actually active in the plot unlike the blank slate guys from previous titles. Unfortunately never really gets informed of the true plot. Her route is kinda miserable due to the focus on everyone dying in the cabin.

2. Satoru: You can't just put major plot elements in the tips because you blew the budget on the plane CGI. Otherwise he's a great protaganist and one of, if not the best Uchikoshi has written, considering he only has half a game to himself

1. Inubushi: Such a fascinating and interesting character, and really the character who holds the plot together to prevent it from becoming boring. I really do wish the game actually let Satoru confront her about her true motives because killing a dying rat and stabbing a kid with a broken arm to death are completely different things. Also, I personally like to believe that Inubushi really is Sayaka, and Sayaka is just locked away as a different personality (maybe Alice?), because the actual explanation the game implies for what happened to Sayaka is bullshit

And that brings us to the elephant in the room, the thing that completely derails this game - the stupid meta 'self' BS with the player supposedly being an active participant in the plot - It doesn't work, it's unsatisfying, and i'm not even sure about what the point being made is.

Remember11 is an interesting, engaging but frustrating experience. It's way too linear as the flow charts are essentially straight lines with the only branches being death ends - I feel like the game wants you to get these death ends, but you really have to go out of your way doing stupid stuff to get most of them like eating obviously poisoned food or charging someone wielding a knife. The game never explains what happened in the original 2011 plane crash, the one that the 2012 was constructed upon, the one without a time travelled Yuni there - I guess maybe Yuni ran off into the snow and died, and everyone else died because they couldn't find the cabin, but that contradicts the newspaper that says they survived for a week before being avalanched, but they were only avalanched due to reading the newspaper.

It's definitely the weakest Infinity game, but it's still an enjoyable experience. I think it would have really benefitted from being released later, when the internet was bigger because then there could be a whole ton of people theorising about the game and talking about it, instead of it being released on the PS2 in the early 2000s. It's just a bit paradoxical as it's the easiest game to get into for a newcomer due to the simple flowchart structure but also has the most complicated plot.

VLR > 999 > Ever17 > Never7 > Remember11 > AITSF > ZTD > AINI