Ever 17

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Who... are you?
Who... am I?

Ever17 is a Visual Novel made by the now-sorta-defunct studio KID, and is one of the very few visual novels to be officially translated into English (by a company called Hirameki International, now completely defunct). It tells the story of six (or is it five? Or seven?) young people who are trapped in an underwater theme park called LeMU when it unexpectedly springs a leak. They then have 119 hours to find a way to escape before the place implodes and they all die. It's a little like The Poseidon Adventure, if The Poseidon Adventure were set in the future and had sinister German pharmaceutical companies and some interesting uses of quantum physics. So not much like it at all, really.

The game has two first-person protagonists, each with their own set of paths. The first is an amnesiac boy known only as the Kid; the second is Takeshi, an ordinary college student. Other major characters include Coco, a fourteen-year-old who looks ten and acts about five; You (it's a nickname, not a pronoun, although it's still pronounced "yuu," and not "yo"), a cheerful and friendly employee of LeMU; Sara, an imaginative girl who is a little obsessed with ninjas; Sora, a calm and mature woman who also works at LeMU; and Tsugumi, an enigmatic and unfriendly girl who seems to want little to do with anyone else.

The game is also a huge Mind Screw and possessed of a plot so twisty that any attempt to explain or describe it more thoroughly would, by necessity, involve spoilers. Speaking of which, beware of falling spoilers in the trope examples section; some tropes are big spoilers just by being listed.

Recently, a Manga adaptation (based on the Xbox 360 version) has started (translated chapters).

See also Never 7, Remember 11 (the other two games in the series),12Riven (a spinoff of sorts that takes place in a similar setting), Code 18 (the "official" fourth game in the series, though without any input of the original staff), I/O (directed/written by the game's director/main writer), and Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (directed/written by the other main writer), all which have similar themes and setups.

Warning! Due to the nature of the game, the trope page contains many SPOILERS even after following our usual spoiler policy. If you are the type of reader who is bothered by them, probably you shouldn't look at this page at all, before reading the game.

Tropes used in Ever 17 include:
  • A God Is You: You, the player, are actually Blick Winkel.
  • Absurdly Youthful Mother: Yubiseiharukana and Tsugumi.
  • Action Mom: Tsugumi, if "After You've Gone" is to be believed, is pretty decent in a fight.
  • All There in the Manual: The origins of the Cure Virus, as well as the significance of Tsugumi's friend Julia and Shigezo Morino, is only revealed in Never 7, the first game of the series.
  • Ambiguous Situation: Unlike most of the mysteries, it's never made clear what exactly happened in the game of kick the can.
  • Arc Number: 17, 34 or other numbers divisible by it.
    • A few of the times/dates have 17 in them.
      • The most obvious one, being that the year is 2017. The seventeen-year time gap obviously counts too.
      • Coco's birthday falls on December 17th, 2002.
      • BW comes into existence on May 1st, 2034 at 3:17 PM.
    • 17 meters (56 feet) between each floor of LeMU.
    • 17 minutes in the decompression chamber in the prologue.
    • Takeshi mentions the Ninneko Song 17 when Coco starts calling him Takepyon.
    • 17 seconds for the lights to come on after repairing the generator. In 2017, Tsugumi correctly times this by pressing the switch on Takeshi's count of 17, ending with 0 as the lights come on. In 2034, You/Sara/Kid press the button on Kaburaki's count of 34, and Sara counts 17 as the lights come on.
    • 34 rings in Tsugumi's Jewel Chocolate metaphor to Kid. Like the above example, this is a reference to the 2034 incient being a repeat of 2017, in addition to Tsugumi's hinting that she's figured everything out, and is playing along for both the cause of rescuing Takeshi/Coco, as well as collecting her "rings," being her children Sara and Hokuto.
    • You's father disappeared 17 years ago, when she was 1 year old.
    • The password to the system is a haiku, which is 17 syllables long (5-7-5)
    • The Tief Blau virus is labeled "Tief Blau 2017-Rev.17"
    • Likewise, the Cure virus is known to affect the p53 function on the 17th chromosome.
    • Due to her condition, Tsugumi stops aging, making her forever 17, at least physically.
  • Babies Ever After: Well, more like Teenagers Ever After, but it still applies in the True Ending.
  • Bishonen: Takeshi and Hokuto. At first you wouldn't think Takeshi is, but that's because it's not really him. The real Takeshi is described as being ridiculously good looking. On a different note, it's kind of amusing when even a Bishonen trope involves major spoilers.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The "good endings" that aren't the true final ending, mainly Tsugumi and Sora's endings.
  • Blind Idiot Translation: Not as bad as some, but it has its moments -- like when a line that should have been something like "Of course I know what a hacker is" became "Naturally, I knows the hacker", which became a minor Memetic Mutation among the fanbase.
    • Whenever someone posts a screencap of that line, a post of "Oh You" may follow.
    • A more literal example would be near the beginning, where someone in a tanuki suit being bitten by a girl who is being bitten by a dog. The dog looks nothing at all like the tanuki, and yet the game calls the dog a "smaller tanuki". And then, mind-bogglingly enough, the game later states the obvious and tells you that it's not a tanuki.
    • Not to mention all the "find and replace" errors, as with "youth" and "Kid". The result gives us sentences like "Kidere" and "Kidink," instead of "You there" and "You think".
      • Which is particularly ironic, considering a find-and-replace error is an actual plot point during Kid/You's scenario. This is how You'aki' discovers that mentions of her (grand?)parents were purposefully deleted from LEMMIH.
  • Book Ends: Both the prologue and the epilogue start on a boat, narrated by Takeshi.
  • Break the Cutie: You and Kaburaki after the first incident.
  • Broken Bird: Tsugumi. Twice. You"haru" and Kaburaki have essentially become this by 2034.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Too many to list. Archimedes principle. The cryogenics function on the pods. The coffee machine. The lemur suit. "Life readings: 6." The broken mirror in the bathroom. Can you swim 100ft? "I am You." You's mom had a robot dog... EVERYTHING is important.
  • Cloning Blues: The You in the Kid's routes (Yubiseiakikana) is a clone of the You in Takeshi's routes (Yubiseiharukana). Unlike most examples of this trope, however, the one being cloned did it willingly.
  • Closed Circle: More or less the game's premise.
  • Continuity Nod: Several to Never7, such as the mentioned characters of Shigezo Morino, the father of Izumi and Kurumi Morino, and Julia, one of the origins of Cure Syndrome.
  • Curtains Match the Window: Everyone.
  • Death by Sex: Takeshi dies shortly after having sex with Tsugumi. Sort of.
  • Dead Person Impersonation: 2017's Kid is playing Takeshi's role in 2034, although real Takeshi is Not Quite Dead at that time.
  • Death Seeker: Tsugumi.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Tsugumi. Then she refrosts again, and then defrosts permanently by the True End.
  • Determinator: Takeshi. The game even states that he's actually probably drowned at this point, and he still gets up and saves the day. After having enough done to him to kill him in about six different ways without eating in over a day because he threw up his last meal after swimming through frigid water and without resting at all. Unless you consider being dead at the bottom of the ocean "rest".
    • All of the survivors of the 2017 incident probably count. Organizing a 17-year-long scam, using your children as pawns, to trick a hyperdimensional being into retconning history takes some balls.
  • Deus Ex Machina: Invoked Trope by survivors of 2017's incident, with the player being Deus.
  • Diabolus Ex Machina: Tsugumi's good end, where she and Takeshi board the remote sub and escape just as IBF collapses around them, cue them talking about the future and the forthcoming happy ending right? Nope, the sub just happens to run out of battery power and starts sinking at the conveniently worst possible moment, necessitating Takeshi's Heroic Sacrifice to save Tsugumi's life, and the Tear Jerker Downer Ending.
  • Did Not Do the Research: Decompression from 6 atmospheres to one would probably cause death. Takeshi's sudden decompression from 12.5 atmospheres would almost certainly cause instant death and dismemberment. Look up the 1983 "Byford Dolphin" accident for the gruesome details.
  • Ditzy Genius: Sara is perhaps the silliest character, saying the silliest things (both how she says them and what she says, though a lot of it is lost in the English translation), but she is a genius, especially when it comes to computers. Judging by the flashbacks, her silly personality seems to be due to associating with You. Coco is silly too, but she's a loli so it's expected.
    • You seems to be pretty smart too, but most of silliness seems to stem from the fact that she's a Genki Girl.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: You demonstrates a point about perception to the Kid by making him cap a pen with one eye closed. The tip is slippery. It won't go in the hole. It's his first time doing this. See Does This Remind You of Anything? page quote for details.
  • Downer Ending: Both of Takeshi's endings count, as well as all the bad ends. In Tsugumi's ending, Takeshi makes a last minute Heroic Sacrifice to allow Tsugumi to escape to the shore while he drowns, as she cries for him not to die. In Sora's ending, not only does SHE not escape, but Takeshi is caught in the collapse and everyone but Tsugumi is slowly dying of Tief Blau without any available treatment. Luckily, the true end is NOT a continuation of THIS route.
    • It can be assumed that in the Sora arc, Tsugumi treated all afflicted persons on on her own, while Takeshi was unconscious. Otherwise he probably would not have been able to get to Sora, let alone survive the sudden decompression. Of course this still qualifies as a Downer Ending by a wide margin.
      • Given how resistant Tsugumi is to that idea in her own route, and how hostile relations are between her and the rest at the end of the Sora route, that is quite unlikely. Most likely, either this was due to Takeshi being The Determinator, or he had gotten infected whilst in the Jellyfish Gondola.
      • Then again, it is quite explicitly stated in Tsugumi's arc that Takeshi gets some of Tsugumi's blood in his mouth when they kiss. As this means he's infected with Cure, he quite probably can't even die from the pressure. But even if he survives, if he can't get up, the Downer Ending gets even worse.
  • Dying Declaration of Love: You to Takeshi in Tsugumi-Sora Bad End.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending
  • Everybody Lives: The True Ending is absurdly happy.
  • Everyone Is Related: Out of the nine (ten if you count BW) main characters in the game, six are related to at least one other person (seven if you want to get technical).
    • To elaborate: Takeshi, Tsugumi, Hokuto and Sara are all a family; You'aki is and You'haru's daughter and clone; Yoichi (You's father) had a hand in the creation of Sora, and thus she also has some relation to You. There's also Coco "adopting" BW as her older brother (and boyfriend).
    • On the other hand, in a slight subversion, the game leads the player to believe that there's some relation between Coco and Sara. This is highlighted by the fact that they're the major missing link between Takeshi's routes and Kid's routes, and further promotional and extra art typically shows the two together. Fast-forward to the end and epilogue of the game, and there's neither relation nor any real interaction between the two. The Drama CDs don't have the two interact much either (justified in After You've Gone, given their circumstances).
  • Face Doodling: You and Sara do it to sleeping Takeshi. Kaburaki, who was one of the survivors of the first incident, eventually had it happening to him in the second. He probably knew it was going to happen.
  • Find the Cure: May 6th is devoted to this as everyone is infected with Tief Blau. Ironically, the cure is Cure.
    • This is also pretty much the plot of both Drama CDs, with Sora in "2035" and Sara in "After You've Gone".
  • First Girl Wins: For both protagonists.
    • Although Takeshi (and initially, the player) doesn't realize that it's Tsugumi under the tanuki suit. The next girl would be Coco, who gets paired with Blickwinkel.
  • Flat What: After eating a sandwich with Takeshi's special ingredients (sage, soy sauce, mayonnaise, Tabasco, etc.), Tsugumi claims it tastes like pizza, and Kid's first thought is this.
  • Foreshadowing: Lots of it, inside each path and in a game as a whole.
  • Fridge Logic: Just how did they recover the statues covered with Coco's doodles, anyway? Several ton statues under several hundred feet of water? What, did they rebuild the entire place from the pieces that were destroyed?
    • Why does LeMU get rebuilt? And why is it an exact replica of the old one?
  • Gas Chamber: The LeMU incident (the first time around, that is) turns out to be an unplanned version of this.
  • Generation Xerox: Deliberately invoked on Yubiseiakikana by her mother, in order to make her as similar to her mother as possible, as part of the Batman Gambit to trick Blickwinkel. As this includes tricking her into thinking she has the same backstory as her mother, You is obviously not happy when she finds out.
  • Genki Girl: You, Sara, and Coco, to varying extents.
  • Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Takeshi has the option of using one of these on the Kid. Subverted if he does do it, as he instantly regrets it and is looked down upon by the others.
    • If you chose to hit him, Tsugumi's affection points actually go up.
  • Go Mad from the Revelation: The Kid has brief moments of mental stress no less than three times when he starts to discover his past. You does this rather comically when she learns part of the Kid's past as well.
  • Gratuitous English: The message at the end of every route except Coco's.

This story is not an end yet. Because only you are in the infinity loop.

  • Gratuitous German: LEMMIH's system declares its announcements in German. Also, Leiblich originated from Germany.
    • There's also Tief Blau (Deep Blue) and Blick Winkel (View/Perspective).
  • Go Out with a Smile: Several characters in bad endings.
  • Groundhog Day Loop: This story is not an end yet. Because only you are in the infinity loop.
    • Different from most other loops in that, like the game says, it's only Blickwinkel that's experiencing the loop, continually going back and forward in time to 2017 and 2034.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: Hokuto and Sara are classified as such, though not a true example of this trope.
  • Half-Identical Twins: Averted. Sara and Hokuto look very little alike.
    • Strong Family Resemblance: Also Averted. Hokuto and Sara bear little resemblance to either of their parents.
      • I don't know... grow out Sara's hair and give her a few years and she just might become Tall, Dark and Bishoujo too. Her personality is a complete 180 of her mom though, so it may not feel the same. Though nowhere near as bad as her mother, Sara did seem to be pretty cold and anti-social before she met You, telling people not get involved with her.}}
  • Hand Behind Head: In the Kid's route, Takeshi's right hand is always behind his head.
  • Head Pet: Pipi, sometimes.
  • Healing Factor: Tsugumi.
  • Helium Speech: Used in the prologue by Coco. Combined with the fact that her normal voice is already high-pitched... your eardrums will explode.
    • In the remake, Takeshi also has this in the same scene (which makes more sense in hindsight, since all voices, his included, should sound like this without the headphones).
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Tsugumi's Good Ending ends with one of these.
  • Hidden Eyes: A strange version of this: while we never see either Takeshi or the Kid while playing as them (except in some CGs, but even there they are not fully seen), we see exactly what the other looks like while playing from the opposite perspective. Or so we're lead to believe.
  • Hot Mom: Tsugumi, forever 17 and forever Tall, Dark and Bishoujo. You'haru counts too.
  • Hope Spot: See the Diabolus Ex Machina above.
  • Human Popsicle: Takeshi and Coco are both cryogenically frozen in order to avoid dying of Tief Blau.
  • Idiot Hero: Takeshi, at times. Both routes, actually -- Kaburaki does a pretty good job of mimicking it, compared to his original, somewhat low-key personality.
  • Incurable Cough of Death/Blood From the Mouth: Symptoms of Tief Blau.
  • Inferred Holocaust: Sora's ending seems to imply that everyone except Tsugumi would die of Tief Blau, since no one was injected with the vaccine. They would probably infect everyone in the rescuing party as well, leading to the epidemy being that bit worse. Tsugumi herself would probably end up in the hands of Leiblich, and so she and her children would be in for endless torture and experimentation, without even death to spare them. But it's still supposedly a "good" ending.
    • Even in the True Ending, Tsugumi, Takeshi and You will have to watch their children grow old and die while they stay young forever. Well, maybe not You'aki, as she could still be exposed to Cure, but Hokuto and Sara are specifically stated to be immune to Cure and its life-extending effects.
  • Karmic Death: All of Leiblich's Kick the Dog moments, such as capturing Tsugumi, Hokuto, Sara, and Dr. Tanaka, developing and accidentally releasing Tief Blau, and various experimentation comes to bite them back in the ass as they all contribute to the company's eventual shut down at the end of the game.
  • Kuudere: Tsugumi. When she's not being visibly disgusted with everyone (especially Takeshi), she'll prefer a cold emotional distance.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: The Kid.
  • Les Yay: You and Sara have a pretty close relationship. A little too close at times. Most evident in Kid/Coco's route, when refusing to smile or laugh in front of You (in response to getting over his amnesia) results in her picking Mayo's nose in order to get Kid to lighten up. Cue Sara sensually reacts to You's finger being inserted into her nostril, followed by the words "And at that moment, Senpai and I became one." Everyone laughs it off afterwards, though Sara isn't quite as amused as the others.
    • Also apparent when Kid walks in on You and Sara cuddled together sleeping, and You being particularly possessive of Sara's body in their half-asleep state. Slightly subverted in that Kid contemplates on squeezing in between the two, if only he was sleepy.
    • And again in You's route, while not quite obvious; Sara realizes Kid and You's relationship and tells Kid she's jealous, but because it's him, she'll let it go.
    • In the remake, this becomes a Running Gag: Sara and You frequently act out dialogue similar to cliche Schoolgirl Lesbians at a boarding school (speaking to each other very tenderly, mind you) in order to tease Kid, and at the end, just when it looks like they're going to take it to the next level, they break off and laugh, usually leaving Kid blushing.
  • Lethal Chef: There's a reason Takeshi was designated as the one to cook the chicken sandwiches, as one scene proves. You's, Kid's and Coco's sandwiches apparently don't taste bad, but they end up looking bad. Coco's sandwich in particular has a long list of ingredients that probably don't go well together.
  • Limited Wardrobe: While "Takeshi" and Tsugumi's clothing being the same in 2034 is justifiable, You"aki" still wears the same casual clothes that her mother did in 2017, despite 17 years having gone by.
  • Long-Lost Relative: More of a Long Lost Family in this case.
  • Love Makes You Crazy: Both Sora and Tsugumi get steadily more unstable in Sora's route resulting in Tsugumi first half killing and then basically raping Takeshi (ot at least taking advantage of his confusion) on the gondola, followed by Sora having a minor Freak-Out and trying to drown Takeshi with the sprinklers.
  • Love Triangle: Sora, Takeshi and Tsugumi. Obvious in both of his routes but only really problematic in Sora's when both have mild breakdowns because of him, with Tsugumi apparently raping Takeshi on the Gondola after asking him to kill her and Sora's reaction of a mental breakdown through jealousy. The Kid as well, sort of, but his two choices aren't a Kuudere Broken Bird and a Tin Man with emotional expression issues.
    • Though one of them is his sister. Good thing the other one is the "canonical"/True Ending love interest, huh?
      • All the UST between Sara and the Kid admittedly does disappear instantly after that reveal. But there was more there than in any other route in the game which is mildly disturbing.
  • Luke, You Are My Father: Hokuto and Sara are actually the son and daughter of Takeshi and Tsugumi, though in a slight subversion, Tsugumi already knew this.
  • Lyrical Dissonance: Sara's Image Song, "Lullaby of Tears", is a poppy, catchy, obnoxiously cute song about how alone and sad she is and how much she misses her brother.
  • Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Takeshi and Tsugumi have sex in the Qualle (the jellyfish gondola) in Sora and Coco's routes, and in the IBF sickbay in Tsugumi and Coco's routes.
  • Mama Bear: Tsugumi, as revealed in "After You've Gone". Simply put, do not mess with Hokuto or Sara, or Tsugumi will kick your ass.
  • Meaningful Echo: In the prologue, You's line "I am You" is said Just for Pun. Next time, it's said to You'haru by You'aki, to signify that they are the same person. And in the epilogue, it's a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
  • Mega Corp: Leiblich Pharmaceuticals.
  • Memento MacGuffin: Sara's pendant, which contains a hologram of what she believes is her deceased father.
  • Mind Screwdriver: Coco's route manages to clear up virtually every mystery in the game.
  • Moon Logic Puzzle: Without a walkthrough, some paths can be difficult to succeed on a first try. Most notably Tsugumi's good end.
  • Morality Pet: Chami is this to Tsugumi.
  • Morning Sickness: This is how Tsugumi began to realize that she was pregnant. Particularly notable in her case, as she has the Cure virus, meaning she can't normally get sick, meaning something was clearly up.
  • Mr. Exposition: Sora generally fullfills this role inside LeMU while You"haru" does so at the end of the game for Hokuto/Blickwinkel.
  • Multiple Endings: An interesting subversion occurs here since the "True End" is actually much, much happier than the so-called "Good Ends".
  • Murder the Hypotenuse: Subverted in Sora's route: she decides to try to kill Takeshi instead.
  • Nietzsche Wannabe: Tsugumi, when at her wangstiest.
  • No Export for You: You're from Europe? Tough luck.
  • Official Couple: Takeshi/Tsugumi, Hokuto/You.
  • Older Than They Look: Coco. Takeshi thinks to himself how energetic elementary school kids are these days... then is shocked to find out that Coco is a third-year in middle school.
    • Tsugumi as well. In 2034, all characters except Hokuto, Sara, You'aki and Sora are this. Coco looks 10 then although she's actually 32.
  • One Degree of Separation: Hokuto and Sara are Tsugumi and Takeshi's children. You'aki is You'haru's clone, and the elder's father helped design Sora and LeMu with Coco's father. You'aki and Hokuto are hooked up at the end. Coco has some sort of strange tie to Blickwinkel, and it's not entirely clear who or what that is. That leaves only Kaburaki as essentially having nothing to do with the rest.
  • One Steve Limit: Subverted with Takeshi: he shares the same first name as Coco's father, Takeshi Yagami (although their names were spelled with different kanji in the Japanese version).
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: The Kid, by virtue of his amnesia, and You, whose full first name is ridiculously long and full of spoilers. It's stated a few times, but deliberately never dwelled on for long. How long it is probably meant that no one bothered to memorize it.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Kaburaki in the 2034/Kid routes. It is not only Obfuscating Stupidity, but also Obfuscating Personality.
  • Overly Long Name: That's why she wants to be called You instead.
  • Our Hero Is Dead: Takeshi in both of his routes, of course.
  • Pair the Spares: Kaburaki and Sora in the Drama CDs, rather awkwardly.
    • It probably would had made a lot more sense to pair Kaburaki and You'haru together, considering that they spent 17 years together.
  • Parental Abandonment: You's father died in an accident when she was young, which lead her to work for LeMU to find out what happened to him. He was blackmailed by Leiblich, who faked his death and forced him to continue working for them, and is found in IBF, where he dies of Tief Blau, but not before talking to You one last time.
    • Takeshi and Tsugumi also do this to Hokuto and Sara, though given their different circumstances, they can hardly be blamed. Not that Hokuto and Sara seem to mind...
  • The Plan / Batman Gambit: The entire storyline is a massive trick, played by the player perspective, on himself.
  • Playful Hacker: Sara.
  • Properly Paranoid: Tsugumi. Especially in 2034. At least in 2017 it really was an accident.
  • Psyyyyychic Powers]: Coco claims to have this (spelled like that too), though the extent of her powers is vague. Her feats, however, include the ability to "borrow" the perspective of beings from "the other side" (the 4th dimension), enabling her to see the past, present, and future of everyone in LeMU (which would explain how she knows everything about what Blick Winkel eventually finds out). She's also able to project herself across time, allowing her to speak directly to Hokuto/Blick Winkel, in addition to actually being able to see the latter when they travel across time. Oh, and she can bend spoons with her mind.
    • The Drama CD "After You've Gone" takes Coco's telekinetic ability further, as she uses her powers to toss around a man who has restrained Tsugumi, while Coco herself is miles away at school. The feat left her mentally drained, however, and she ended up passing out on her desk as soon as she got back to class, but not before wishing Tsugumi good luck.
  • Pygmalion Plot: Takeshi and Sora, sort of.
    • There's actually a scene with an extended bit of exposition specifically about the legend of Pygmalion as a thinly veiled allegory for the relationship between Takeshi and Sora. May bea Lampshade Hanging, but probably is not.
  • Rapunzel Hair: Tsugumi's hair extends to around her knees.
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Tsugumi, who stopped aging at seventeen due to her genetic code being rewritten by the Cure virus. By the end of the game, Takeshi, You'haru, Kaburaki and Coco have also become this.
  • Red Herring: Several, but two notable ones only applies to Japanese players/those who played Never 7 first. Word of God says that The Kid having the same voice actor as Takeshi was meant to deceive players into thinking Kid was a clone of Takeshi (which was pulled off in Never 7), and the Kid's premonitions and mentions of Cure was also meant to fool players into thinking he had Cure Syndrome.
  • The Remnant: Non-military example: In "After You've Gone", Kleinmare, a branch of Leiblich, attempts to continue their activities by luring Tsugumi there, though it backfires in the end.
  • Relationship Voice Actor: Kana Ueda, Noriko Shitaya, and Yuu Asakawa also played characters who were close to each other in some way in a certain other visual novel...
  • Robot Girl: Sora, although of a Holographic AI Girl. In the True End, she does get a robot body.
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The whole goal of the Batman Gambit is to summon Blickwinkel to prevent Takeshi and Coco's deaths in the past.
  • Shown Their Work: The authors clearly knew their way around theoretical physics, as well as just what kind of circumstances would be required to operate an underwater theme park.
  • Shout-Out: All of the names that the Kid can choose for himself are the names of protagonists from other KID visual novels, except for Prince (which is a Shout-Out to the KID game Prince Level 1):
    • Tomoya Mikami -- Memories Off. Makoto Ishihara -- Never 7. Naoto Miyama (mistranslated as Naoto Fukuyama) -- Yume no Tsubasa. Shiina Hasegawa -- Tentama. Motoki Homura (mistranslated as Motoki Inamura) -- Close to inori no oka. Ken Inami -- Memories Off 2. Kyosuke Watarase -- My Merry May.
    • In one of the paths, there'll be a party. You will perform an impression of a strange old archaeologist, who had a talent for cracking a whip.
    • There's a few other Shout Outs to Never 7, including:
      • The scene where Coco is introduced as a third-year in middle school is close to Kurumi introducing herself as a third-year in high school. Both of them are Younger Than They Look, and likewise act the same mentally.
      • The same argument over the name of the card game. Coco/Izumi call it "Super Memory," You/Kurumi call it "Mental Guts", Tsugumi/Makoto call it "Concentration", and Takeshi/Makoto settle for "Concenmemory".
      • "A girl who doesn't have an older brother can call someone who's like a brother to her, 'Onii-chan'" -- a "made-up" rule stated by Coco near the end of the game, but one that Kurumi also abides to.
      • A scene with a sleeping male character (who is the only other guy in the group apart from the current protagonist), who mutters things in his sleep that change/randomize depending on how many routes have been cleared beforehand.
  • Significant Anagram: LEMMIH spelled backwards is HIMMEL.
  • Snow Means Death: Inverted, it's stated to have been snowing on the night Tsugumi gave birth.
  • Soap Opera Disease: You'haru turns out to be suffering from a heart ailment that will take her life shortly, which is why she had herself cloned.
  • Someone to Remember Him By: Shortly after Takeshi's death, Tsugumi learns that she's pregnant with his children, though he gets better in the True Ending.
  • Space Whale: The "Cosmic Whale Room" has an animatronic one.
  • Stable Time Loop
  • Stepford Smiler: You, Coco, and Sara, though the last is a slight subversion as her Genki Girl personality is actually genuine due to being free from Leiblich.
    • Coco is really only like this in a few scenes in her route, and Hokuto can see through it. Most of the time, she's genki to the extreme, and when she does get sad or depressed, she shows it.
  • Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Tsugumi.
  • Talking to Himself: Takeshi and the Kid, which happens in the prologue and the end of the game, but is otherwise averted due to them having no voiced lines in their own routes. The two Yous also go through this.
  • Temporal Paradox: Very unpleasant. see trope page for details.
  • The All-Concealing "I": Neither Takeshi nor the Kid's faces are shown when you play as them, not even in CGs, but they are seen in the other's route. This is to hide the fact that the Kid is not the same Kid we see in Takeshi's route, and vice-versa.
    • At the end of their routes, the game does slip up and show that their hair color is not as the player expects them to be, but most of the time, the attention is drawn to something else. See the Tear Jerker that is Tsugumi-Sora's bad end.
    • Averted on the one of the covers for the game, which blatantly shows Takeshi with bluish black hair.
  • The Dog Was the Mastermind: The one who came up with the plan is Blick Winkel (a sort of player avatar) with the goal of tricking himself and ultimately allowing Hokuto to call out 17 years into the past to his father. Basically, the player the mastermind behind the plans to trick himself.
    • Its hard to say who is the real mastermind though. Blick Winkel told You'haru the plan only because he knew about the plans from watching You'haru and Kaburaki carry it out in the year 2034. However, You'haru and Kaburaki only carried out the plans because they were told to do so by Blick Winkel. But Blink Winkel told them the plan only because he knew about the plan from watching... See the Temporal Paradox here? No one will ever know who originally came up with the plan. Then again, if you studied real life Time Travel philosophers, you might argue that the plan did not originate from anywhere, and it never needed to.
  • The Rashomon: Takeshi and the Kid both come off as being far more competent and interesting in their own routes. In Takeshi's routes, the Kid is a semi-stable, emotional kid who follows whatever the group says. In the Kid's routes, Takeshi is a huge Butt Monkey. But it's a huge subversion because both of these are correct. 2017 Takeshi is much more confident and has stronger leadership qualities than 2034 Takeshi, who is a grown up version of the Kid from 2017.
  • Third Person Person: Coco.
  • Tin Man: Sora.
  • Together in Death: Sora's ending.
  • Tomato in the Mirror: When Hokuto/Blick Winkel discovers he's not the Kid from 2017.
  • Tricked-Out Time
  • True Companions: Takeshi gives a lecture to Tsugumi about the meaning of "nakama" (which is translated as "friend"), though she rejects the idea. By the Epilogue, the 2017 and 2034 groups have essentially become one large group of True Companions.
  • Tsundere: Tsugumi by the end of her route, and the epilogue.
  • Utsuge
  • Valley Girl: Played for Laughs- In Sora's Route, Sora asks Takeshi to teach her how to act more human-like. The ultimate result is that she begins speaking like the trope. However, after it ends up making Coco cry, Takeshi and Sora agree she should just talk like she normally does.
  • Verbal Tic: Sara, being a ninja fangirl, sometimes refers to herself as "sessha" and ends sentences with the archaic "de gozaru". The translation renders this as over-the-top flowery Antiquated Linguistics.
  • What Year Is This?: The Kid asks Takeshi this since he can't remember a thing. Takeshi seems to not know either and has to rely on his admission ticket. Of course, when you're playing as the Kid, "Takeshi" (also known as the "original" Kid) lies to you, which is just the beginning of setting up the enormous Mind Screw that is Ever17.
  • What Is This Thing You Call Love?: Sora's route revolves around this.
  • Translators Cannot Do Math: There are 17 meters between each level, but America doesn't really use the metric system. So they converted it to feet. The only problem is that there are about 3.3 feet in a meter and not just three. So not only do you lose another reference to 17, the conversions aren't done properly in some places.
  • Yamato Nadeshiko: Sora, Justified as that's her programming as a park employee AI. However, it's subverted at one point in her route after she sees Takeshi and Tsugumi having sex, where she briefly goes Yandere out of confusion.
  • You Already Changed the Past: Found out the hard way.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Coco's is pink. Everyone else's is a reasonable color.
  • Younger Than They Look: Sora, who is 6. Justified in that she's an AI, and her age is given as eternally 24.

The Xbox 360 remake provides examples of:

  • Achey Scars: In the remake, Hokuto has a knife scar across his arm that Sara gave him during their Tyke Bomb training that Leiblich forced them through. Whenever he has a dream about his past or tries to remember it, the scar aches.
  • Big Brother Mentor: Takeshi to the Kid. This was slightly present in the original, but really taken to its fullest in the remake.
  • Chekhov's Gun: A "Lemurian Tablet" is in the remake, a mysterious tablet supposedly from Lemuria that has strange hieroglyphics on it that no one can read, and has Coco's drawing on it. As it turns out, the Lemurian Tablet was created by Blick Winkel (via possession of another person from long ago), and the mysterious hieroglyphics have the details of Third Eye Project written on it.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Pipi, who is this version actually contains a quantum computer created by Yoichi Tanaka. When Sora's data is backed up, it backs up into Pipi, and Sora essentially becomes Pipi for the next 11 years until her android body is developed.
  • Enhanced Remake: Contains an additional route (the Blick Winkel Route, an epilogue of sorts that shows some of the events between 2017 and 2034), rewritten story (the main plot and major events are mostly the same, but a lot of the events in-between are completely different), complete background graphic, additional CGs, character conversion from 2D to 3D, remixed soundtrack, and re-recorded voices.
  • Fix Fic: Essentially the second half of the Blick Winkel Route, where Blick Winkel uses his powers to fix the Bad Endings and give every route a happy ending.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: Kaburaki's amnesia, which was caused by an incident in 2029 where an experiment on space-time oscillation device designed to create an artificial black hole went wrong. Kaburaki had to manually shut it off, but the effects of the black hole briefly sent his 2029 self's consciousness to his 2017 self. The overload of memories caused 2017's Kaburaki's amnesia, but left him with a few fragments of 2029 Kaburaki's memories, which was the source of his "premonitions".
  • Memory Gambit: In this version, Hokuto was also one of the members of the Third Eye Project, due to his compatibility with Blick Winkel, and therefore had known he was going to lose his memory ahead of time.
  • Psychic Powers: In addition to Coco's from the original, it's revealed at the end of her route that Kaburaki is a low-level psychic. Furthermore, Professor Yagami in this version was actually researching these powers and their connection to the Third Eye.
  • Schrödinger's Cast: In the original, Professor Yagami's fate was never revealed, leaving it unknown what happened to him after Tief Blau broke out. Here, he managed to escape from LeMU, made a miraculous recovery from TB, and became a major supporter of the Third Eye Project.
  • Stable Time Loop: A variation from the original- in the remake, Blick Winkel can only talk to other people when he's in possession of Takeshi or Hokuto (or if they have the Third Perspective, like the former two and Coco), and can't talk to anyone else. As a result, he can't directly tell You"haru" the Third Eye Project. As a result, he goes back in time and creates the "Lemurian Tablet", writing down all the details of the Third Eye Project.
  • Stepford Smiler: Sara, who was a subversion in the original, has it played straight in this version, though she still has moments of genuine happiness.
  • Tyke Bomb: In this version, Hokuto and Sara were trained to be agents of Leiblich, teaching them how to use weapons and various other things. However, Hokuto was removed from training when he was 11 after he protected Sara from a bomb she accidentally set off, injuring him badly. This allowed You"haru" to use her influence to get him out of there.
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