A visual novel with branching paths that has more nuances than I expected. I don't want to say too much, but essentially everyone has a goal, and they need other characters to play along to achieve it, so it has a big emphasis on trust in the dialogue (reminds me of Fate a little). I tend to stay away from this genre because of all the anime shovelware, but just looking at the trailer, I could tell it looked unique, and I found the atmosphere very infectious.

You can complete one path in about 45 minutes, but that does not represent the game as a whole - I don't believe that you can access all of the content from the first playthrough. I didn't realize it at first, but when you restart the game, you can start with a different comrade that you would previously meet later in the story, and that will allow you to access additional content if you can navigate the dialogue. The cool thing about the narrative is that you can befriend the people that tried to kill you by using the knowledge from the previous run, in addition to getting more context because every character has some secret they won't reveal. I completed the game 3 times and only unlocked maybe 50% of the optional events. There is a narrative tree you can follow to track your completion progress, in addition to using it as a form of checkpoints.

There are multiple endings, and you can follow various routes to get them. I am not 100% sure how the system works, but when you choose correct responses it will improve your relationship with individual characters, and I believe it gives you more ways to solve a dangerous situation. The story is split into several days, and every day has some collectibles in a form of flashbacks that give you a small drawing with some context.


(+) Story Branching & Content - you can replay the game several times and meet characters in a different order which creates new interactions in the narrative tree. Additionally, you can collect various flashbacks that add more context to what is a very mysterious story. I didn't love the game on the first run, but as you go back, I think it's interesting to learn new things about the characters.

(+) The narrative - for the most part, I thought the characters and the overall story were very compelling. I could nitpick some of the dialogue, and I think the personalities could be a bit more consistent, but it's not too impactful. As you learn the secret objectives of each character, you may realize that not everything is as it seems. I felt kinda sorry for each individual, everyone is just stuck in a bad situation, and I think the game brings up some interesting philosophical questions.

(+) The aesthetic - I like that it looks different from the regular anime, and they even made some slight animations for the unlocks. More importantly, I think it just had a good atmosphere. The devs put some extra effort into the UI design which I appreciate.


(x) Nitpicks - when you present a player with an important choice, I think it should always be a conscious decision of making a hard, but informed choice. To be fair, just about every narrative game I ever played has this problem to some extent, I found that maybe 10% of the game was just trial and error (not bad, but has room for improvement). Some of the deaths that I got were a shot in the dark, there was no way I could have predicted the outcome - go back and replay the day. Also, in my opinion, the characters were a bit inconsistent with what they enjoyed.

Overall Thoughts: 8/10

To me, it's very important that a visual novel is not just a wall of text, and I think this game does a great job of avoiding that. It has lots of choices, a unique look, branching paths, and overall a neat narrative. You can definitely nitpick some of the dialogue, but I can tell the devs were trying to make something compelling and it worked for me.

I have to give this game a thumbs down.

Some other reviewers have talked about the history of the game, or the studio, but honestly I don’t know or care about any of that. My review is solely based on price. Is this game worth $10, and is it comparable to other games at the same price? The answer is a resounding no.

Positives:
+ The premise of the story was interesting.
+ I guess there weren’t any bugs or glitches.
+ I liked being asked questions at the beginning which determines which character you first meet. It reminded me a little of Ultima IV.

Negatives:
- The endings. This is a visual novel, you deserve more than 4 or 5 lines per ending. What’s the point of reading a story if there’s barely any conclusion? You get a few lines of text over a graphic and then you get booted to the menu screen.
- Most choices don’t matter. The story beats are all completely the same, so you’ll be given a choice between “Go!” and “Let’s go!” which leads into the exact same dialogue response but with maybe a +1 stat on one or the other.
- The game is too short. I saw three of the four endings in 3 hours. If you could skip dialogue that you have previously read, the time would be drastically shorter. Because in order to get the other endings, you have to start the game over from the start and click through dialogue that makes little to no difference.

Conclusion:
There are five characters and all seem mysterious and with their own stories. But honestly, each character is shallow. Playing multiple times hardly gives you any mind-blowing perspectives.
I should’ve noticed that there were only 66 reviews at the time I read reviews and bought the game. “Very positive” can be a bit misleading.

This review is not to hate on the developers because I didn’t dislike the concept, nor do I wish this game to flop. It’s just that for $10, I was expecting a lot more. I think even $5 would be a bit much seeing how little effort was put into the endings. I enjoyed the graphics, and the basis of the story, but the steam description, reviews and photos made this out to seem a lot bigger than it actually was.
Rating: 3/10

Even if we set aside the railroaded scenes where both options are actually one and the same, it is beyond argument that the binary choice is extremely restrictive for such kind of story: I brought the killer to the seventh day in a way I deemed acceptable, but during the concluding scene the game forced the interpretation that is directly opposite to my own onto the character's actions. Feels bad, you know.
"7Days Origins" is not a bad game per se, but I can't recommend it.

I miss Argo and Hilde

The artstyle and design are very good, the music fitting and the story interesting. It's not that it wasn't an enjoyable game but I simply can't reccomend it. As a VN sort of game, having basically no saves (besides saving at the start of each day, there's none, or well there is, but they simply don't work), and not allowing to skip dialogue until a choice must be made, really makes it hard to replay the game. For example, I tried to save in the middle of the last day, but then when I tried to go back after I'd finished that one playthrough ALL saves brought me back to the prologue... This problem the game has made me not want to explore the other 2 endings I'm missing and other content I didn't get to explore, simply because it's tedious to do so. Again I must repeat that the first playthorugh was enjoyable and the story interesting, like really this game has a lot of potential, but ultimatly it feels like I an incomplete experience simply because I don't want to replay the game over and over again from the start, just to see if I can find something new, this being something I actually enjoy doing in VNs (provided I have saves and dialogue skips).

You have died, Death has given you, and people around you an assignement to do.
How far will you all go for a second chance?

Pros :
- Very well written visual novel
- Puts you in a tough spot, forcing you to make difficult decisions
- Interesting and intuitive instant messaging format
- Immersion is definitely there
- Will hit you right in the feels

Cons :
- Game's a little short, 45 mins/1 hour for an ending
- The art is a little hidden away, small and mostly behind HUD
- Could use a little more Quality of Life improvements

A true hidden gem, a must have for those who like great stories that make you question your decisions.

A few bugs that are really annoying:
1) The main character's thought box shows up immediately after the newest message in the conversation, meaning you don't even have the chance to read it because the huge box covers almost everything.
2) Ellipsis display can't be skipped and it is excruciatingly slow compares to the rest of the text
3) If you left-click, instead of showing the rest of the currently displaying text, the game just skips it and shows the next one instead. Not a big problem for the conversation messages, but so much worse for thought boxes.
4) If you reload the game, the though boxes at the start of each day will be displayed twice.

Other reviewers have written about how forced the choices are, how weird only 1 save game is provided is, and how the story goes into unexpected directions with the choices players made, so I'm not repeating them here. Too bad because the opening is intriguing enough that I kinda want to see how this game goes, but at this state I couldn't be bothered to replay it.

I really liked that game but it still needs to be more developed.For example:The saving method is actually so bad that makes me confused which one I saved last and additionally,after pressing the save button,it needs some pop up or some saving effect but even with this form,it is still playable and good.

Edit: they fixed that issue,thank you so much <3 ( but we want steam cards too )

hmmmm I must say with all the very positive reviews, I was hoping for an enjoyable read. And dont get me wrong, the story is very well written, the art is interesting, the music fitting to the dark theme that runs through out. That said, nothing on the store page here prepared me for how Dark this story line is.
All i can say without spoilering anything, is that if you like to be a nice person, you wont be happy with the story as it unfolds. Theres nothing here but a final end for nice people.
For that reason I'll give this a down vote, its not much but hopefully on the karmic scales out there somewhere it might one day tip the scales away from all these bad guys win, good guys are sucker games that are turning up everywhere these days. I considered getting a refund as Im under the 2 hour window, but the truth is the game plays well, and there are other pathes I could still choose if i wanted to play again and see how things went if i were willing to be Not Nice.
So I'll leave them with my money, and leave these words here for you to make your own decision.

Fun and original game with likeable characters.