Until Then is a visual novel that tells the story of Mark Borja, a high school student who grapples with the usual day-to-day of teenage life while trying to figure out why he’s experiencing weird cases of déjà vu. It’s a slow burn; one that relishes in the quieter, mundane aspects of life that many TV shows and movies would rather you believe didn’t exist.

With beautiful pixel art visuals at its heart, Until Then feels a lot more ‘alive’ than a lot of visual novels, with dialogue and actions taking place entirely within the scene; so in other words, no ‘talking head’ sequences where static characters are nattering to one another from across the screen.

There is a supernatural element that slowly reveals itself, but it’s best if I keep this under wraps here. This is a game that works best with as little prior knowledge as possible, and its story will definitely tug at your heartstrings on more than one occasion through its 10-15 hour runtime.

Gameplay is understandably pretty limited, and you’ll spend most of your time simply pressing ‘A’ to advance the dialogue. Occasionally, you’ll be able to move left or right through the environment, and developer Polychroma Games has also seen fit to include a bunch of fun little minigames. Again, these all fit into the narrative wonderfully, so one moment you might be trying to jam a stick into some floating fishballs, and the next you’ll be playing a tune on the piano. They're really cool and help to break up the experience nicely.

I have to give a massive shoutout to the sound design, too. A lot of the music is composed of slow, gentle melodies no doubt designed to heighten moments of emotion, but the true star of the show is the diegetic sound. Almost all of the public scenes are bolstered by background noises of folks just going about their day; it gives a wonderful sense of place, but also a weird, ethereal feeling to the bizarre events that play out.

While I do appreciate a slow burn, there were definitely a few scenes that outstayed their welcome. One in particular sees Mark simply trying to keep himself entertained at home: he watches TV, plays games, and even chats to random strangers on his phone. It demonstrates his boredom and loneliness well, but I think the same goal could have been accomplished a bit quicker. Mark's bored, but that doesn’t mean I need to be.

This is a minor gripe, though. Until Then is a wonderful story that manages to feel both strange and relatable, and it’s well worth playing. One quick note on the Switch 2, however: the game hasn’t been optimised for the new console yet, so after a certain point early on, it simply didn’t work for me. Stick to the Switch 1 for now.