Review spaceybirdie 4/5 · Mar 16, 2025
The HIghs and Lows of Language Immersion
7 Days to End with You starts by taking you right back to the beginning. No, really. The beginning. Like when you were born.
In a sense, at least. You open up the game to a friendly-looking woman sitting across from you. Speaking to you... kindly? That's the issue, here: you aren't sure. You don't understand a word she says. …
7 Days to End with You starts by taking you right back to the beginning. No, really. The beginning. Like when you were born.
In a sense, at least. You open up the game to a friendly-looking woman sitting across from you. Speaking to you... kindly? That's the issue, here: you aren't sure. You don't understand a word she says. Every word you see, however, is subsequently stored in a dictionary which you alone are now the editor of. Your job from here on out is to try to learn enough of these words to make meaninful choices, and communicate when the time comes.
7 Days to End with You is a point and click adventure game which hinges around the mechanic of language decoding. It is, in my opinion, a fantastic innovation in gameplay. Given the complexity of language decoding, and the degree of freedom the player has to do so, I can only imagine what a puzzle this game was to create. The bulk of my awe at this game is over the fact that the developers managed to create a game with this mechanic which functions - and functions well enough to be both difficult and possible, even once translated from its original language.
The scope of the game is fairly small, and the environment changes very little from the start to the end of the game. The possible changes which might complexify and liven up the gameplay (especially between the multiple runs which the game encourages) appeared to me to be a matter of lacking time and resources, rather than a lack of imagination or skill. The sense of gradual understanding you form throughout the days creates a self-directed crushendo of foreboding - and this serves well enough as a story on the first playthrough.
In my mind, the more people that pick up this fascinating game, the more likely we are to see different iterations on the gameplay in the future. So, if you like puzzles, mystery and language learning, I highly reccomend playing. It might even help you procrastinate learning an actual language! Now, where's my kanji dictionary...