Kotaro Uchikoshi Talks About the Re-Release of the Infinity Series

Writer and director Kotaro Uchikoshi is best known for his genre-busting Zero Escape and AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES games, which combine twisty mysteries with visual novel-like storytelling and escape room-style puzzles. But his earliest work, including the Infinity visual novel series, remained inaccessible to Western gamers for a long time due to the lack of an official English translation. Now, developer MAGES and publisher Spike Chunsoft, Inc. have brought Never 7: The End of Infinity and Ever 17: The Out of Infinity to the West in brand-new remastered editions.

Game Rant spoke with Uchikoshi about the initial development process of Never 7 and Ever 17, his feelings about seeing them re-released after so long, and how these early games went on to inspire his later works, such as AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES. He also discussed his many inspirations for creating mystery and science fiction games, which include novels, films, TV series, and more, and hinted at future projects he wishes to create someday. This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.

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The Development Of The Infinity Series

Q: Never 7 was one of your very first games. Could you talk about what the original process of writing and creating it was like?

A: Never 7 was originally titled Infinity and was released in Japan for the PlayStation 1 in March 2000. The actual development period was about six months, and I was in a nightmarish situation where I had to complete all the scenarios in just three months. Naturally, there was no way I could properly handle the final scenario, Izumi’s route.

So, with no other choice, we had to release the route in a cut-off state. On top of that, we didn’t have enough time for debugging, which resulted in a terrifying major bug that made it impossible to even reach the unfinished Izumi route. As a result, Infinity was completely torn apart by criticism. But by that time, a Dreamcast port had already been decided. This led to the thought: “If we’re going to do this, why not take the opportunity to add the ‘real’ Izumi Route we originally envisioned and perfect the game?” — and that’s how Never 7, in its current form, was born.

If that bug had never existed, the higher-ups would have surely ordered a direct port of the PlayStation version to the Dreamcast to cut costs. In other words, Never 7 only came to be because of that bug. To me, Never 7 is like my origin story. If that bug had never happened, Ever 17, the Zero Escape series, and even the AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES series would never have existed. Fate truly is ironic.

Q: Did you always want Never 7 to become a series when you first started? How did the trajectory of the Infinity games change as you worked on them?

A: Deciding whether a game would become a series was entirely up to the kind and benevolent higher-ups. The company at the time operated under a refreshingly straightforward policy: ‘If it sells, we’ll make it a series. If it doesn’t, we’ll cut it off without mercy.’ As mere underlings, we never dared to dream of turning an original title into a series right from the first game.

Q: Fans of your work have become very attached to characters from your games, such as Kaname Date from AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES. What characters from Never 7 and Ever 17 do you hope fans will connect with?

A: A defining characteristic of my games is that every character holds significant meaning and a deep story. It’s like a house of cards—if even a single card is missing, the entire structure collapses. So, there isn’t necessarily a specific character I’d want players to especially connect with. Instead, I’d love for each player to take their time and fully appreciate every character down to the finest details.

Q: Never 7 and Ever 17 are some of your earliest work. How did they inspire games you went on to create later?

A: Before Never 7, I worked on Memories Off, a pure bishoujo romance game. At the time, I believed that only that type of story could be accepted as a visual novel. As I mentioned earlier, the development period for Infinity (Never 7) was extremely tight. Naturally, the scenario had to be completed as quickly as possible. So I thought, ‘Well then, I’ll just write what I actually want to write. That’s the fastest way to finish it… though I doubt it’ll sell at all.’ With that somewhat irresponsible mindset, I started writing.

But what happened next was completely unexpected. When the complete version of Never 7 was released, it was surprisingly well-received, and sales were strong! That’s when I realized: ‘Wait… I can write what I want, and people will still embrace it?’ And so, from that point on, I continued the infinity series with the same approach, and later, both the Zero Escape and AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES series were created with that same mindset.

Q: Your games are known for their unique settings, such as the ship in 999 or the mysterious facility in Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward. Can you talk about creating LeMU, the underwater theme park featured in Ever 17? Were there any real world inspirations for LeMU?

A: In a previous question, I mentioned that I write what I want to write, but to be precise, it’s never 100% what I want. The portion of the story that truly reflects my personal desires is probably around 30%. The remaining 70% is bound by various constraints. For example, the most straightforward limitations are budget and schedule. In most cases, even before I start writing the story, parameters like ‘How many settings can we have?’ and ‘How many characters can we include?’ are already decided.

These constraints naturally lead to the concept of a closed environment–a necessary decision to keep costs down. In reality, it’s often a necessary decision to keep costs down. That’s why, from the very beginning, it was determined that the setting for Ever 17 would be a closed environment. The next question was: Where should the characters be trapped?

That’s when I remembered a story a friend once told me: “Have you ever been to Disneyland on a rainy night? Just before closing time, when there’s no one else around… It was just me and my girlfriend, holding hands. The only sounds were the pounding rain and her quiet breathing. It felt so serene, so mystical, so dreamlike. Inspired by that story, I decided to set the game in a theme park. But a normal theme park on land wouldn’t work—after all, anyone could just climb over a fence and escape. To create a truly inescapable closed space, I surrounded it with seawater instead.

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Kotaro Uchikoshi’s Mystery And Science Fiction Inspiration

Q: You are known as a master of creating mystery games. Why did you become interested in the mystery genre?

A: It just so happens that my mystery-themed games became hits, but personally, I’m very interested in other genres as well, and I’d love to create them. For example, a slice-of-life story like K-On!, a horror story like something out of Stephen King, a coming-of-age drama like The Breakfast Club, a love story like Bridget Jones’s Diary, an action-packed thriller like Die Hard, an adventure epic like Laputa: Castle in the Sky, or a comedy like Friends…I can only hope that someday, a wealthy patron will appear and give me the opportunity to bring these projects to life.

Q: What are some of your favorite mystery stories? Are there any that inspired your games in particular?

A: There are far too many to list, but if I were to name some Japanese mystery novels off the top of my head, they would include The Tokyo Zodiac Murders, The Summer of the Ubume, The Decagon House Murders, Disease That Leads to Killing, The Perfect Insider, The Devotion of Suspect X, The Lautrec Villa Murders, The Man Who Died Seven Times, Wings in the Dark, Murder at Shijin-sō, and Oreta Ryūkotsu, among others. When I was in middle school, I read Jirō Akagawa’s novels from cover to cover.

As for films, some that come to mind are Saw, Se7en, Fight Club, Oldboy, Matchstick Men, Who Am I: No System Is Safe, Primal Fear, Confidence Man JP, The Game, Now You See Me, The Sting, Wild Things, Basic, The Prestige, Arlington Road, and Kisaragi. That said, I don’t limit myself to mysteries—every book I’ve read and every movie I’ve watched has become a part of me. In fact, it might be harder to name a work that hasn’t influenced me in some way.

Q: In addition to having mystery elements, Never 7 and Ever 17 are science fiction stories as well. What are some of your favorite science fiction stories, and are there any that inspired your games?

A: There are far too many to list, but in terms of novels, some that come to mind are The Door into Summer, Cat’s Cradle, Inherit the Stars, Flowers for Algernon, The Three-Body Problem, Story of Your Life, Ginga Yūbin wa Ai o Hakobu, From the New World, All You Need Is Kill, Brain Valley, and Spiral, among others. Also, everything written by Yasutaka Tsutsui and Shinichi Hoshi.

As for films and series, my influences include 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes, Gattaca, They Live, Kin-dza-dza!, Brazil, 12 Monkeys, Solaris, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Ghost in the Shell, AKIRA, Cowboy Bebop, Blade Runner, and Star Trek, among others.

Q: Are there any other of your earlier works you’d like to see remade and brought to the West?

A: I would love to have all of them remade into visual works. If there’s anyone among the fans who is involved in film production, please get in touch! Well, I don’t hold the rights to any of them, though…

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to tell Game Rant’s readers about Never 7 and Ever 17?

A: It’s extremely rare for a title to get a remastered version a quarter of a century after its original release. This is all thanks to the fans who have continued to support it. I’m truly grateful from the bottom of my heart!

I’ve heard that this version has been slightly rearranged from the original, but I believe the core elements are the same. So, for those fans who have yet to experience these games, I encourage you to give it a try! While there may be some rough edges, since it’s a work from a quarter-century ago, I think you’ll feel the roots that eventually led to the Zero Escape and AI series.

Also, for those who have played Never 7 or Ever 17 in the past, I’ve heard that many elements have been refined in this version. I hope you can enjoy those improvements while reflecting on the memories of when you first played them, soaking in the nostalgia! And for those of you who are thinking, ‘I don’t know anything about Uchikoshi’s works!’—I think it’s a great opportunity to trace Uchikoshi’s works in chronological order. If you’re curious, I’d be delighted if you’d pick them up!

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