Until Then[a] is a 2024 adventure game developed by Polychroma Games and published by Maximum Entertainment. Set in the fictional city of Liamson in the Philippine National Capital Region, the game follows Mark Borja and his moments of déjà vu months after the events of a global catastrophe known as "The Ruling", which caused widespread damage and casualties across the country. The game is presented as a visual novel in a 2.5Dsidescroller, featuring pixel art in a three-dimensional environment.
The game began development in 2020 with a team headed by director Mickole Klein Nulud. The developers focused on Filipino representation as part of its development, while also creating a universal and cinematic experience within the game's visual novel format. It was released on June 25, 2024, for Linux, PlayStation 5, and Windows. Upon its release, the game received positive critical reception, who highlighted its interactivity, narrative, and Filipino representation.
Gameplay
Mark Borja (right), as seen in the game. The game features a messaging interface, used to contact other characters as part of the narrative.[3]
Until Then is a side-scrollingadventure game[4] with pixel art graphics, featuring 2D sprites in a 3D space.[5] It is also described as a visual novel, though with more interactive elements compared to conventional games in the genre.[4][6] The player controls Mark Borja, a high school student who lives alone in his family's home as his parents work overseas.[6] The player can move left and right in the current environment and interact with specific objects to advance the game's story.[4] 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.[7][8] When messaging, the player is required to press any key on the keyboard to slowly type out the message to be sent by Mark, either predetermined or chosen by the player.[7]
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;[6] and painting by clicking and dragging specific patterns on the screen.[5]
Plot
Act One
In February 2014, a series of natural disasters known as "The Ruling" caused widespread destruction worldwide, including parts of the Philippines. However, the city of Liamson in the national capital remained largely 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 cause 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 victims of the Ruling, 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.
Act Two
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.
Act Three
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 them 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 each 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 he and Nicole are left in a dark void. They both watch moments of each 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
Polychroma Games, an indie game studio based in the Philippines[3] headed by game director Mickole Klein Nulud,[8] started active development on the game in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic using Godot Engine.[2][9] The development team consisted of 10 core people, with additional contributions from others.[10] A demo version of the game was released as part of the Steam Next Fest in February 2024.[7] The release of the game was slated for May 23, 2024, but was delayed weeks before release.[11] After announcing another release slated for June 23, it was pushed back another two days[12] before finally being released on June 25, 2024, for Linux, PlayStation 5, and Windows.[8]
The setting for Until Then is based on Metro Manila in the Philippines in 2014.[8] 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.[9] 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 for the story to "reach into people's hearts". As a result, the game makes many references to Filipino culture while ensuring that "everyone would appreciate the main story itself."[8] It also features references to the Katipunan LRT-2 station, Quezon Memorial Circle, and numerous parodies of Filipino business names.[6][8] Liamson Integrated School, the high school of Mark and his classmates, was based off of Rizal National Science High School, where Nulud graduated.[9] 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,[9][8] 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.[10]
Until Then received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic.[13]
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,[3] along with Hope Bellingham of GamesRadar+, who was "amazed by how interactive it was."[7] Thomas Kent of Hardcore Gamer praised the game for its "compelling narrative that explores the intricacies of teenage life."[4] Castle and Kent both also praised the game's environment and sound design.[4][3]
Ed Thorn from Rock Paper Shotgun highlighted the game's story and progression and commended the game's interactivity.[5] 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.[14] 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".[6] 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.[15]
Rodriguez and Jess Reyes of IGN both cited Until Then as a significant example of Filipino representation in video games.[6][8] Reyes recalled Josie Rizal of the Tekken franchise as a popular yet dated example,[8] while Rodriguez noted the game's "full-on Pinoy representation" since Anito: Defend a Land Enraged.[6] 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.[9][3][16]
Notes
^Filipino: Hanggang Sa Muli, Baybayin: ᜑᜅ᜔ᜄᜅ᜔ᜐᜋᜓᜎᜒ; The Baybayin script is featured in the game's logo.
