One of the reasons that I adore visual novels is their ability to evoke emotions in ways that just hit differently than other games. With platformers, fighters, and adventure games, you get the thrill of victory and the agony of being terrible. With modern RPGs, there’s a wide range of effects, including the very sincere loss and anger that comes with injustice or complex writing. But something about the visual novel’s pacing allows the sensation to sit within me, like a depth charge, and explode outwards to tear my being apart. With Until Then, I am left holding my heart and wondering, dumbly, if I can ever put into words what this game has meant to me. For the very real pangs of love, life, and the desire to live a better existence have come to roost inside, and they may stay for a very, very long time.

Mark is a high school student in the Philippines, and he’s just not doing very well. He’s a terrible student, he barely exists, and his dedication to simply being in online games and avoiding reality is steadfastly preventing him from making any advancements. But the arrival of some new students seems to awaken something in Mark, and now the world has gone topsy turvy in no time flat. A young man with the potential for an amazing future, it’s up to Mark to find his way in the world and discover that there’s a new life waiting for him after the end of the old one. That even a devastating loss and years of wasted opportunities isn’t the end of the road for him…or for anyone else.

Serious warning: if you are suffering from depression, please be safe before entering into this game.

While that description might sound contrite and cookie-cutter, this preamble serves two purposes when it comes to talking about Until Then. The first is to let you know whose shoes we’ll be walking in for the duration. While Mark has a huge cast of characters around him, from the effortless Khyle to the complexly adorable Sophia, you have to see everything through his eyes before you can understand another’s perspective. The second purpose is to let you know that you cannot, for a second, take for granted what might be happening on the screen. While you might think you’ve just landed on another season of Degrassi, the overarching storyline of Until Then resonates with such a larger message that cannot be overstated: everyone is going through something.

As a non-traditional visual novel, players may initially be a bit put off by the interactions you take within the game. Mark can walk left and right in a beautifully large 2.5D world, but he has no depth in his controls. You can simply walk left and right and interact with objects and people when given the cursor indicating potential. There is so much to see in every facet, from the minor details on a school desk to the detritus out in the streets, but the developers have carefully chosen what, exactly, can be spoken/touched and how it changes with Mark’s influence. There are multiple choices to be made throughout, but the decision to either do or do not seems to have the greatest impact, though the ripples might not be observable from the immediate.

Something Until Then does far better than many I’ve seen in this field is the choice of artistic styling and pixel design. While there have been games with higher density or more detailed sprites, the way that the characters never stand still (except for some very specific moments) pushes this sensation of what it was like to be young. Even when a character is sitting or prone, there’s a constant animation that goes beyond mimicking breath. Each person has a specific cycle about them that pulsates life. Ryan has a tight, rhythmic bob that projects his connection with sports. Louise’s actions are more subtle, someone who has a lot of control over themselves and what they give to the world. As much as it threw me off initially, I came to respect how the designers had breathed an extra detail of “alive” into their work.

I suppose that no one is visibly hungover from the night before is an improvement from my own group project experience.

Moreover, outside of the characters is the landscape itself. This is the first time that I’ve flagged down an acquaintance, shown them screenshots, and asked “Is this what it was like?” because there is a level of detail here that I can’t quite place my finger upon. I’ve never set foot in the Philippines, but there is a loving amount of decision that went into all things visible. The school building, the hospital, and the smaller and larger homes (particularly Nicole’s) feel so dynamic and authentic that I thought they must speak to a cultural crafting. Not only that, but smaller things like the food or the graffiti that occasionally pop up had weight to them. I didn’t know what pork sisig was before this game and now I need to find a restaurant that will make it properly.

That continues with the soundscape of Until Then. Divided into two aspects, the one people will notice most is the music. As music is a backbone for Mark’s development and his emotional anchor point, you’ll experience all variance of tracks that paint a world teaming with concepts and promise, despair and loss, and just thrilling vibrance at existing in the here and now. The piano pieces both classical and originally composed resonate in your soul and can be heard hours or even days later. I even appreciated all the faux prom music that we heard or the poppy soundtrack that Cath imposes on everyone while preparing Mark’s house. Every time the music changes, it’s indicative of a tonal shift, in something new coming and you must do your best to be ready for it.

Then Mark just starts playing Chopsticks and someone throws a shoe at him. Probably.

The music is balanced and sometimes enhanced by the sound effects, which are constant, specific, and, at times, overwhelming. When moving through the streets, in the halls, into the mall, or out in the rain, you always have ambiance to let you know where you are and what it’s like. Some things, like the murmuring of shoppers, give you a warmth of familiarity, even if you can’t discern what’s said. Others, like the constant crowing of roosters in the early morning, might be nostalgic to those who grew up with it, but it began to stress me out due to the regularity. Because the noises are on a loop for pre-programmed times, it can eat at your mind rather quickly. It especially came up in the ending credits, when the peaceful music was shot through with the sounds of someone yelling outside. Authentic, maybe, but damn if it wasn’t a lot.

As a nontraditional way to deliver a story, Until Then also wanted to incorporate a lot of minigames that add to the overall game styling. In my opinion, the minigames are the one massive misstep within the development process because they never really feel natural to the flow of the tale. While you can logically point and say “this incidental activity underlines the youthful nature of the characters and their lives,” it’s also a series of interjections that feel abrupt. The fishball minigame, for example, is surprisingly challenging and serves no purpose other than Steam achievements and some minor dialogue changes between Mark and Sophia. The piano rhythm game, on the other hand, feels like it’s important but doesn’t get introduced until just before a crucial performance for Mark. Comparatively, Jack Jeanne allowed many chances to practice before the music mattered, giving better credence to the games’ existence.

Additionally, it would be really fun to be able to revisit the minigames outside of the main storyline. There isn’t a chance to pause or quickload within Until Then, so you have to play through a section in its entirety in order to progress and unlock the next area. This means that if you want to hone your skills at the carnival games you need to play through a rather long chunk of the game that, at first blush, seems incidental to the overall story. Sometimes we just want to take a moment and practice tossing coins onto panels without needing to get our feelings hurt by seeing the protagonist make actions that we, ourselves, probably did in our own formative years.

This karaoke minigame came out of nowhere, kicked my ass, and never made a second appearance. Awesome.

If it feels like I’m on a negativity jag, it’s because I wanted to cover as much of the comparatively disappointing points of Until Then as I could before gushing over the story and the storytelling. I’ve done visual novels both great and small, epic and bite-sized, and presented in a number of different and interesting packages. I prefer my visual novels on the phone or on my Nintendo Switch so I can easily keep playing them wherever I go. I like to be able to read, digest, and do so while I’m away from home because I spend the majority of my time commuting to and from my office, so an opportunity to sit down and play in front of my computer is a rarity, and requires concerted effort.

But I made the time. Not only did I make the time, but I also made a point to connect my phone to Steam Link so I could do this journey as often as possible wherever I was. The connection wasn’t always great. Sometimes I froze. I probably did much worse on any and all minigames as a result. Yet there was a drive and a need to make sure I kept playing this game that superseded all sense of reason, comfort, and rational thought. Because, in essence, the wordpainting and pixelscaping drew me in that Mark’s world became my own.

I haven’t been a teenager for a long time, and I’m eternally grateful for that. Being a teenager is a tumultuous time of bad decisions, horrible impulse control and constantly feeling exhausted beyond reason while authority figures everywhere demand you be awake for their whims. Until Then does the impossible by managing to capture the spirit of teenage life in a way that hits harder and more directly than any title I’ve played previously. Instead of feeling like a vain attempt to recapture lost youth and superfluous ideology, it encompasses the heart of the matter, allowing you to dive headlong into the story and the elements without feeling like an outsider.

If you’ve never said this to yourself at least once, please email us with your gameplan, because I need a copy.

The way that Until Then invites the player into this school and this period of life is warm and uncomfortable as a classmate’s parents asking you to join them for dinner even when you barely know this kid. It’s a genuine offer that bears no ulterior motive, and yet you squirm because it’s so earnest it feels wrong. There’s a vibe to Until Then that permeates every choice, and it’s that squishy, malleable sensation of it shaping itself around you, moving with you, understanding you in a bizarre way that you did not ask for but are not going to remove. The leadup to events in Mark’s life – class projects, promposals, heartfelt conversations – kept pace with my own questions and curiosity, so everything unfolded naturally, feeling more like life than a game.

Moreover, the relationships that develop have a sheen of genuine affection and care that is impossible to ignore. While Mark encounters people who like him to varying degrees, the people who choose to make him a part of their lives do so with their whole being. I read simple statements, inside jokes, and casual banter that caused an ache in my core for human connection like that. The ability for a lonely boy to not be isolated in his sadness but be able to share with someone who truly gets him was emotionally destroying. I was brought to very real tears a minimum of twice, and a couple of additional times may have just been my already shaky constitution caught off guard by a cheap but effective blow.

Remember, the giant cutlery is a symbol of multiple cultures all coming to the same kitschy conclusion at once.

That, perhaps, is one of the greatest strengths of Until Then is having a fantastical story that puts the player at odds with what they know about science, the universe and the fifth dimension without thrusting them into it in a heavy-handed method. As much as I love Anonymous;CODE, you need several sections of serious exposition peppered throughout in order to grasp the technology of this cyberpunk world and the bizarre nature of the game’s mechanics. For Mark, I didn’t even realize there WAS something weird until after the third chapter, and even then it felt incidental to the fact that I was falling for a girl and needed to figure out how to reign in my emotions AND be a good friend. It’s the realest way to approach the world-changing events of your own life: having to swallow them but still keep on living as normally as possible.

I feel like I’m working overtime to express my takeaway from this game without spoiling anything, and the acrobatics I display here should qualify me for some kind of medal. Players can and should come into Until Then with as little information as possible regarding the events therein. While several plot “twists” are far from obfuscated, the progress itself is well-paced and satisfying, with good breaks for autosave where needed. And when the game is over – which should only run you about nine hours or less – it’s ultimately up to you for what you think “The End” really means. Consider your own happiness. Consider what is best for everyone. Consider what love and sacrifice say when standing before the Judgement of whatever power you believe in. And then consider what you would do if you could try it all again just one more time.

I have my own choice words for you, Ridel.

This is not the end of my time with this game. I have gotten the True Ending, but I’ll be returning. God willing, there’s a Switch port in the future so that I can bring this title around and take it apart from moment to moment. If they ever want to do a voiced version, I’ll be auditioning for Mark’s teacher. If a limited edition is announced, I’ll be saving my pennies. There is a world where this game doesn’t leave a mark on my being, but I’m not there. This world hasn’t ended yet. Take your time, come in with an open mind, and engage in a life not your own. The joy and sorrow of Until Then leaves an indelible mark on your soul, and I am better for it.

Until Then is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.

Reviewed on PC.

A copy of Until Then was provided by the publisher.