By Jordan Campbell I’ll say straight away that visual novels are usually not my jam whatsoever. But something about Until Then intrigued me, mainly the game’s art style. What I came away with after close to twenty hours of gameplay is one of the most memorable and beautiful games I’ve ever played. The game follows high-school student Mark Borja in the Philippines. Your life is a balance of school, juggling friendships and negotiating the pressures of being a teenager. With no parents present as they work abroad, you’re navigating life alone and making the choices each day throws at you.
Having a close circle of friends helps, but everything isn’t all it seems. Mysteries, memories, disappearances, strange coincidences and more start to crop up. The result is an incredibly intriguing tale from developer Polychroma Games and publisher Maximum Entertainment. After just under two years out in the wild on PC, it is now available for Xbox Series X/S, and it’s a game that will stay in my mind for a long while.
I’ve said all I need to surrounding the storyline, and anything more will spoil things for you. Whilst most visual novels are a case of just repeatedly pressing one button and reading text, this one is a little different. You’re solely playing as Mark, and you’ll be living daily life chatting amongst friends, texting messages, and checking social media. The story unravels as you progress and has an Oxenfree-esque feel to the gameplay. You’ll be walking through environments, triggering conversations, taking in information and interacting with objects and suchlike. Pacing does come across a little slow to start with, but it is intentionally setting the scene of the atmosphere and building the picture of relationships with friends.
Sometimes the game will stray away from reading dialogue, and you’ll get some minigames thrown in. It could be playing games at the fairground or skewering fish in competition; it’s very simplistic and not particularly challenging, but it breaks up the loop nicely. It’s a linear affair, and there isn’t really room for exploration other than looking for objects within the environments you find yourself in. It does, however, allow you to gander at the wonderful visual work done. It was a pleasant surprise to find that this isn’t a short game either; it took me just under twenty hours to see it through.
I love me a bit of pixel art, and the entirety of Until Then has been beautifully crafted in high-fidelity. Having played a lot of games in the indie scene that feature pixel-art visuals, I have to say this game tops the pile. Every single scene of the story, the environments and backdrops are just simply stunning to look at. The level of detail is very apparent from the first moments you play with magnificent lighting effects, warm interiors and great animations. Character design is top-notch, and you really get a sense of personality from how people behave and how they look.
Dialogue is nicely presented by chat bubbles that are a pleasure to read. At no point did I ever not engage with what was being said, whereas in most visual novels, it can be easy to become distracted and just keep spamming the A button to get through it. Everything here is conveyed with genuine feeling, emotion and seriousness. The design work sets the atmosphere of that high school feeling, and the social networking aspect of the game is very clever. Audio is blended subtly, with the ambient background noise of environments, and the playing of the piano; it drops slices of audio in at the right moments. Whilst there is no voice acting whatsoever, I don’t think it ever needs it, and for me would ruin the overall engagement and flow of the story.
Until Then is an experience that truly surprised me and sank its teeth into me from the get-go. As someone who usually strays away from visual novels, this one proved to me that if the storyline and presentation are strong enough, it can be fantastic. Developer Polychroma Games has nailed every aspect of this experience, and I highly recommend it. If you’re a casual gamer who is a sucker for a great story and doesn’t mind just absorbing what may come next, you’ll love it.
This is one of the most compelling narratives I’ve ever played through, to the point I couldn’t wait to get some gaming time in to continue the adventure. For less than fifteen quid on the Xbox store, it is absolutely worth buying for the amount of return you’ll get from it. It’s an emotional rollercoaster that will have you wondering what will happen constantly, but you really have to witness this one for yourself, take my word for it and just go and buy it for Xbox Series X/S HERE.
Score – 95%
Pros
- Probably the most beautiful pixel-art presentation you’ll ever see in any game
- An emotional and powerfully engaging storyline from start to finish
- Wonderful character design, with all their personalities felt through the fantastic writing
- Clever smartphone and social media mechanics
- Smooth performance on both Xbox Series X/S
Cons
- Some may find the early game slow-paced
- Mini games aren’t too challenging
Fletcher Wilkinson