Until Then (2024)

There is something about this game that it´s hard to explain, maybe it´s due to its atmosphere, but it really knows how to teleport me to those old times when I had to study and hang out with classmates. Those were horrible times really and I´m glad that I´m not there anymore, but here I am missing it. I miss having responsabilities, feeling useful and being around people, even if they laught at me, when you mix all of this with one of the themes being learning to grow up, grief and how to face loss, you get an explosive emotional cocktail. I think Until Then does an amusing job with its themes and the psychology of its characters, showing how hard can be to grow up in an absent parents environment, how traumatic can be the disappearance of our beloved ones and its sad repercussion through our personal growth. Also, I think it´s worth mentioning the silent treatment we give to those who are suffering in silence.

This is a visual novel we are talking about, so expect to play the game a few times to get the true ending, with each run changing the story. My only complaint is that the first run is way too powerful, the other runs are poorly executed in my opinion, mainly because the story gets into scifi territory and sadly, that´s the worst part of Until Then, it´s the big downside. For what´s worth, I think there are some neat parts in these followring runs, especially the character study of both Mark and Nicole in the last one, but that´s it. I think Until Then would be way better as a whole if it discarded the entire scifi thing tbh, and the other routes instead of focusing on multiverse shit, they should focuse more on its characters perspective, which to be fair the second run did try, but it wasn´t enough

I have never cried this much since I played Rewrite (Shizuru's route) and I hate the devs for making me play a minigame while tears are flowing like there's no tomorrow.

Just want to also add that I'm Filipino and this is a 15-year-old pinoy simulator that depicts life as a teen in the early 2010s. Setting my nationality aside, the game's well made. A lot of love was put into this and I would want everyone to experience it.

CONS: I do have a problem with the pacing tho. It takes a lot of time to pick up given the world-building of this game. Sometimes controls are a bit iffy as well. Eventually, it gets to be worth the time.

I'll update this review once I finish the next playthroughs but want everyone to know that I have never felt this much angst in wanting to replay (EDIT: CONTINUE) a game. Until then!

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On my second playthrough and I'm emotionally devastated.

I appreciate that the devs added a QOL feature that streamlines most parts of the story so we could get into the meat of things.

But my god I did not expect this to hurt again.

On towards the third? Until then!

Man do I want to punch a wall

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It's been 3-4 weeks since I finished the game and I can't stop thinking about it. I've gotten a bit of closure from this new emotional trauma I'd never knew I'd develop. In any case, I love that this game itself teaches us about acceptance and at the same time, about how we can still make a change in other lives apart from our own.

If I could give a rating above 5 stars, I would.