Until Then is truly a brilliant and underrated masterpiece by a small Filipino Indie developer. This game absolutely blew away my expectations, initially thinking it was a "choose your story dating sim", and later realizing that it was a deeply heartfelt and emotional slice of life/coming of age visual novel with affection, angst, depression and grief sprinkled all over like the rain on Cathy's pluviophile hand. The pixel art style is visually appealing and conveys each character's emotions flawlessly. The devs have a great sense of humor and are well versed in both filipino culture and internet culture with their various parody references to video games, social media and memes (the funniest to me was the pointing wojak at the minion among us plush). The way the game makes Mark juggle between various group chats, dms, facebook/reddit and video games while having to deal with school, cramming and piano practice brings me back to my high school days. The piano OSTs are sweet, elegant and romantic, fine additions to my repertoire. I give a stamp of approval to all the classical music performed by the piano club (I've personally learned and memorized those pieces for recitals when I was around their age too). Every character was enjoyable and relatable to watch and interact with, especially Mark, a last minute slacker, gamer and pianist who's just like me fr fr. Cathy is the kind, funny and supportive best friend character who you wish existed in real life (without the domestic issues of course). Nicole is the sharp witted, creative and intimate soulmate I'd constantly fall for in a million alternate realities. Even the supporting friends, family and classmate characters all had their own unique personalities, interests and desires. The attention to detail in the environment, music, characters and dialogue felt very real and immersive. The first playthrough was fantastic, focusing on high school life, romance, dealing with loss and learning to understand, mature and communicate better with each other. Having to watch Mark prioritize his romance with Nicole while slowly ignoring/leaving Cathy behind, ignorant of her personal issues, was extremely heartbreaking to experience, ESPECIALLY THE ENDING with her confession on the CD DISCOVERED FREAKIN 10 YEARS LATER and the symbolism of her AI car not finishing the race. This is truly peak depression, something I haven't felt much since playing Omori. If the story had stopped there, I would consider it my personal canon ending (I'm a real sucker for tragedy). With the second and third playthroughs, I appreciated the added lore and deeper understanding between the characters, but I can't reconcile that the ONLY viable reality is one without Mark and Nicole getting married. It gives off a sort of Kimi no na Wa (Your Name) and Boku dake ga Inai Machi (Erased) ending vibes. Despite the "true ending", I'd give this game a 100/100 timelines where I romance Nicole every time score. Devs absolutely COOKED the best pork sisig with this game and I highly recommend at least playing through it once for the feels.