Never 7: The End of Infinity

Never 7: The End of Infinity
A stylized illustration of two young women lying down, seen from above
Cover art, featuring Izumi (top) and Yuka (bottom)
Developer(s)KID
Publisher(s)KID, Cyberfront, 5pb.
Director(s)Takumi Nakazawa
Writer(s)Kotaro Uchikoshi
Composer(s)Takeshi Abo
SeriesInfinity
Platform(s)PlayStation
Neo Geo Pocket Color
Dreamcast
Microsoft Windows
PlayStation 2
Macintosh
PlayStation Portable
Android
iOS
Release
March 23, 2000
  • PlayStation
    • JP: March 23, 2000
    Neo Geo Pocket Color
    • JP: November 23, 2000
    Dreamcast
    • JP: December 21, 2000
    Microsoft Windows
    • JP: October 26, 2001
    PlayStation 2
    • JP: June 26, 2003
    Mac
    • JP: March 3, 2005
    PlayStation Portable
    • JP: March 12, 2009
    Android
    • JP: August 28, 2012
    iOS
    • JP: October 24, 2012
Genre(s)Visual novel
Mode(s)Single-player

Never 7: The End of Infinity is a visual novel video game developed by KID. It was originally published by KID on March 23, 2000, for the PlayStation as Infinity, and has since been released on multiple platforms. It is the first entry in the Infinity series, and is followed by Ever 17, Remember 11, the spin-off 12Riven, and the reboot Code_18.

The story follows Makoto Ishihara, a college student who attends a seminar camp on an island together with three other students; he also befriends three other people whom he meets on the island. The game takes place over the course of a week, and consists of the player reading the story, occasionally making choices that affect the direction of the plot; on the sixth day, one of the characters dies, and the game moves back in time to the beginning, letting the player use knowledge from the first set of six days to make new choices, to try to prevent the death.

The game was directed by Takumi Nakazawa, planned and written by Kotaro Uchikoshi, and composed for by Takeshi Abo. Uchikoshi included science fiction elements, but was unable to make heavy use of them, as his superiors at KID thought that the game needed to focus on cute female characters in order to perform well commercially. Abo composed music based on his first impressions of reading the game's story, with a focus on its "emotional flow". Because of the science fiction and theoretical themes, he composed what he describes as "geometric music".

RPGFan praised the game for its plot, its intimate scope, and its music, whereas Famitsu found the game's mood boring. As the science fiction elements were well received, later entries in the series gradually moved away from the dating theme and became more focused on science fiction.