Until Then is a 2024 Filipino adventure game developed by Polychroma Games and published by Maximum Entertainment. The game follows Mark Borja and his moments of déjà vu months after the events of The Ruling, a global catastrophe which caused widespread casualties and infrastructural damage all over the Philippines. The game is presented as a visual novel in a 2.5D sidescroller, featuring pixel art in a three-dimensional environment.
| Until Then | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Polychroma Games |
| Publisher(s) | Maximum Entertainment |
| Director(s) | Mickole Klein Nulud |
| Programmer(s) |
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| Artist(s) |
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| Writer(s) |
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| Composer(s) | Kyle Patrick Naval |
| Engine | Godot |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release | June 25, 2024 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
The game began development in 2020 with a team headed by director Mickole Klein Nulud. It was released on June 25, 2024 for Linux, PlayStation 5, and Windows.
Gameplay
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Until Then is a side-scrolling adventure game[2] with pixel art graphics, featuring 2D sprites in a 3D space.[3] It is also described as a visual novel, though with more interactive elements compared to conventional games in the genre.[2][4] The player controls Mark Borja, a high school student who lives alone in his family's home as his parents work overseas.[4] The player can move left and right in the current environment and interact with specific objects to advance the game's story.[2] At specific moments in the game's story, the player can interact with a smartphone which includes a messaging app and an in-universe version of Facebook, where the player can choose to like and share posts made by other characters in the story.[5][6] When messaging, the player is required to press any key on the keyboard to slowly type out the message to be sent by Mark, both predetermined or chosen by the player.[5]
The game also features several minigames, like skewering fish balls by timing the skewer's position and force; singing on a videoke machine by pressing the correct keys once they reach the top of the screen;[4] and painting by clicking and dragging specific patterns on the screen.[3]
Plot
editIn February 2014, a series of natural disasters strike globally and at once. The event — dubbed "The Ruling" — devastated parts of the Philippines. Urban areas such as the Liamson in the national capital remained unaffected.
Mark Borja, a high school student at Liamson, lives alone with his parents working abroad. He and his classmate Louise experience bouts of déjà vu, which causes their memories to be unreliable. He meets a new transfer student, Nicole, who he feels oddly familiar with. At a hospital with Louise and her best friend Sofia, Mark hallucinates and sees the hospital halls become dark and twisted. Later at a Christmas funfair, he remains uneasy and experiences episodes from what happened earlier, only calming down after meeting Nicole. She admits to Mark that her family were Ruling victims, and that they moved to the capital for a better life.
Mark resolves to join the school’s piano club and signs up for their auditions. While practicing, Mark plays a composition made by Nicole for her best friend Jake, who had disappeared years prior. She agrees to be Mark’s piano instructor, and they begin to practice for the upcoming club auditions. Nicole’s mother thanks Mark for giving Nicole the spark to play the piano again, after having stopped since the disappearance of Jake. Meanwhile, Louise investigates and theorizes that their déjà vu, the mysterious disappearances of students, and The Ruling are from parallel universes colliding with theirs and interacting. Nicole withdraws from the auditions, and Mark, while accompanying her on a trip to her destroyed hometown, lashes out at her for being unable to let go of her past. Recognizing this, he comes to terms with the disappearance of his mother right before the start of the Ruling.
Mark’s best friend Cathy goes missing after her parents forcefully bring her back home from prom. Assuming she had disappeared, Mark chases after her, but she is hit by a truck while trying to reach him. Years later, Mark plays against her recorded racing gameplay. The game then hits a false ending. Afterwards, time is reset to the start of Mark’s commute at the start of the game.
The game continues similarly yet distinctly from the first playthrough. At a café, Mark finds Louise performing the double-slit experiment with anomalous results. Those anomalies occur at “hotspots”; areas significantly affected by The Ruling or its victims. At another hotspot, the pattern of the double-slit experiment suddenly fluctuates rapidly and Mark, Nicole, and Louise disappear and experience alternate lifetimes of themselves. After this, they monitor the double-slit experiment to be alerted for future fluctuations. On the day of prom, Mark runs after a missing Cathy again. He finds Cathy, but she and Louise disappear shortly after. In denial, Mark returns to the café waiting for the anomalous pattern of the double-slit experiment to re-emerge. The game then resets again.
Mark and Nicole both retain their memories after a series of resets. Louise suggests that their interactions are the source of the fluctuations. After another reset, the two try to avoid each other, but a coincidental meeting at the hospital sends the two into a distorted reality. Noticing that a hotspot disappears whenever they come into eye contact inside one, they travel to different hotspots and repeat the cycle. For each cycle, Mark and Nicole experience parts of the other’s childhood and Liamson falls into further chaos. In one cycle, they fail to maintain eye contact. Mark then wakes up in an evacuation center and is unable to find Nicole. The world slowly disappears around him, and both him and Nicole are left in a dark void. They both watch moments of the other’s life play out leading up to the disappearances of Jake and Mark’s mother. They then appear in front of Mark and Nicole, revealing that each lifetime was an attempt at giving them a better life after their disappearances, but in each one, they still had not stopped looking for them. As Mark and Nicole see each other again, they both learn to let go and say goodbye. The Ruling is undone, and they both live their lives separately and normally, with no recollection of each other.
Development
editPolychroma Games, an indie game studio based in the Philippines[1] headed by game director Mickole Klein Nulud,[6] started active development on the game in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.[7] The development team consisted of 10 core people, with additional contributions from others.[8] A demo version of the game was released as part of the Steam Next Fest in February 2024.[5] Release of the game was slated for May 23, 2024, but was delayed weeks before release.[9] After announcing another release slated for June 23, it was pushed back another two days[10] before finally being released on June 25, 2024 for Linux, PlayStation 5, and Windows.[6]
The setting for Until Then is based on Metro Manila in the Philippines in 2014.[6] Due to travel restrictions from the pandemic, the game's artists relied on Google Earth and memory for inspiration on creating the game's setting, falling back to usual Filipino architecture for generic locations.[7] Manila was chosen as the basis for the game's setting as it best represented the experiences of the developers growing up in the Philippines. Despite the setting, Nulud wanted the setting to be universal. As a result, the game makes many references to Filipino culture while ensuring that "everyone would appreciate the main story itself."[6] It also features references to the Katipunan LRT-2 station, Quezon Memorial Circle, and numerous parodies of Filipino business names.[4][6] Liamson Integrated School — the high school of Mark and his classmates — was based off of Rizal National Science High School, where Nulud graduated.[7] This high school setting was chosen to evoke nostalgia among players, according to Nulud and senior environmental artist Pia Demanawa. Both Nulud and Demanawa also focused on "communication" as one of the main themes of the game,[7][6] while writer Mariel Tuble described it as "coming to terms with change, loss, and the passage of time." Nulud and Tuble describe the game as a "cinematic experience" albeit with interactive elements.[8]
The game also drew inspiration from Life Is Strange,[8] Night in the Woods, The Last Night,[6] Your Lie in April, and films by Makoto Shinkai. As development progressed, the team found new inspiration, such as with films by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. Initially, the characters' sprites were designed with equal pixel density to background sprites. This was eventually changed to "have more real estate with poses and expressions", according to Demanawa.[7]
Reception
edit| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | (PC) 74/100[11] (PS5) TBD[11] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Eurogamer |   [4] |
| Push Square |   [12] |
Until Then received "mixed or average" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic.[11]
Prior to its final release, reviewers provided generally favorable reviews for the game's Steam Next Fest demo. Katharine Castle of Rock Paper Shotgun praised the game's "gorgeous mix of expressive pixel art and 3D environments." She also commended the games interactivity,[1] along with Hope Bellingham of GamesRadar+, who was "amazed by how interactive it was."[5] Thomas Kent of Hardcore Gamer praised the game for its "compelling narrative that explores the intricacies of teenage life."[2] Castle and Kent both also praised the game's environment and sound design.[2][1]
Ed Thorn from Rock Paper Shotgun highlighted the game's story and progression and commended the game's interactivity.[3] John Cal McCormick of Push Square praised the game's "authentic portrayal of teenage life" and "well paced story", giving the game an 8 out of 10 rating.[12] Jason Rodriguez of Eurogamer described the game as "a coming-of-age story, a tale of love and loss, friendships and fears" and lauded its references to Filipino pop culture. However, Rodriguez also criticized the language used in the game, which is written in English, describing some dialogue as "using more 'Western' terms instead of the local vernacular".[4] Mitchell Demorest of Slant Magazine shared this concern, writing that "some phrases coming off too literal", while also raising issues with the game's pacing.[13]
Rodriguez and Jess Reyes of IGN both cited Until Then as a significant example of Filipino representation in video games.[4][6] Reyes recalled Josie Rizal as a popular yet dated example,[6] while Rodriguez noted the game's "full-on Pinoy representation" since Anito: Defend a Land Enraged.[4] Bellingham, Castle, and George Yang of GameSpot, compared the game to A Space for the Unbound, another adventure game which also featured an emotional story presented in pixel art style.[7][1][14]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e Castle, Katharine (February 7, 2024). "Play piano, blag your book report, and navigate high school crushes in this gorgeous Philippines-inspired indie game". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on May 21, 2024. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e Kent, Thomas (February 5, 2024). "Until Then Boasts Heartfelt, Emotionally-Impactful Story". Hardcore Gamer. Archived from the original on July 18, 2024. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
- ^ a b c Thorn, Ed (July 18, 2024). "Until Then is the only visual novel game I've truly enjoyed". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on July 18, 2024. Retrieved July 18, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Rodriguez, Jason (June 25, 2024). "Until Then review - friendships, fears, and Filipinos". Eurogamer.net. Archived from the original on June 26, 2024. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
- ^ a b c d Bellingham, Hope (February 7, 2024). "If you loved Life is Strange or A Space For the Unbound, you need to play this visual novel's Steam Next Fest demo". gamesradar. Archived from the original on July 18, 2024. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Reyes, Jess (May 28, 2024). "Until Then Wants to Become a Portal to Filipino Culture For Everyone". IGN. Archived from the original on July 18, 2024. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f Yang, George (May 22, 2024). "How Until Then Showcases The Beauty Of Filipino Culture". GameSpot. Archived from the original on May 23, 2024. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
- ^ a b c Barreiro, Victor Jr. (February 18, 2024). "Q&A: Polychroma Games on the gameplay, narrative of Filipino-made indie game 'Until Then'". RAPPLER. Retrieved July 18, 2024.
- ^ Romano, Sal (March 15, 2024). "Until Then launches May 23 [Update: Delayed]". Gematsu. Archived from the original on May 20, 2024. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
- ^ Romano, Sal (May 28, 2024). "Until Then launches June 25". Gematsu. Archived from the original on May 29, 2024. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
- ^ a b c "Until Then critic reviews". www.metacritic.com. Archived from the original on June 26, 2024. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
- ^ a b McCormick, John Cal (June 25, 2024). "Review: Until Then (PS5) - A Genuine, Heartfelt Tale of Love and Loss". Push Square. Archived from the original on July 18, 2024. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
- ^ Demorest, Mitchell (June 25, 2024). "'Until Then' Review: A Heartfelt Coming-of-Age Story with a Twist". Slant Magazine. Archived from the original on July 18, 2024. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
- ^ Bellingham, Hope (July 27, 2023). "This upcoming narrative adventure game reminds me so much of my favorite indie game of 2023". gamesradar. Archived from the original on February 8, 2024. Retrieved July 16, 2024.