Welcome to Ever Oasis, a new game on the Nintendo 3DS platform that sports very cute graphics and a very unique approach to RPG gaming.
Hello, allow me to introduce our main hero, Tethu! Tethu is a seedling and the younger brother to the chief of the Oasis our story starts in. As we are introduced to the world that is Ever Oasis, we are immediately faced with despair. Chaos is attacking our world and the chief is forced to protect his oasis against it, at the same time protecting his younger brother Tethu, results in Tethu being cast away by his brothers’ powers.
When Tethu wakes up again, he finds himself facing a friendly face, the Water Spirit called Esna, who will be your guide in the game. She helps him create his own oasis and thus the true story begins. At first, it is all about building your oasis, making friends and gaining new residents. As you play along, you get many quests and also many grinding-style daily jobs like getting berries to supply the shops in your oasis. While this can get bothersome, I would recommend not slacking on your daily duties. As you progress and your Oasis grows bigger, so will the happiness of your residents and in return, your energy meter!
I really loved that taking care of your residents added to your own benefit, shops that sell well, they bring in money for your own pocket, that you can obviously use for new items or weapons yourself.
While at first, the entire game is all about the benefit of the oasis, at one point, you do leave your home as Tethu sets foot outside. This is where the adventure begins, as you hack and slash your way through the enemies of the desert outside the oasis. The nice part being the fact that the game leads you through everything with ease. Indicators where to go, a clear log of what to do in each quest you may encounter, …
This game does many things very right, like how enemies are more difficult at night and I mean much more difficult, adding to the variety of gameplay, choosing whether to go home and sleep till morning or to keep going with your active quest at night. For the most part, you are in control of everything. Notice me say for the most part? I will let you find that out yourself while playing!
As the game itself progresses, you find yourself getting longer and harder quests, at one point even forming teams of three, go outside the desert and finish the quest you were given and nothing beats having to chose 2 residents to join Tethu to go outside.
All throughout the game, I never really felt bored even though the grinding part of gathering supplies for the shops can get tiresome at first, when you realize what they are for, you know you need to do the work. What I did like very much is that this game appears to be a perfect blend of 2 high-end gaming series in the likes of Final Fantasy and Zelda. It should come to no surprise that this game was made by Grezzo, a famous company that also rebuilt some of the Zelda games for the 3DS platform.
In conclusion, this game is a must buy for anyone that likes an action RPG! While it appears to be a very cute game at first, the game packs a lot of punch! A very elaborate quest system and Oasis building system are the main backbone of the game, offering but few boring bits of what I consider one of the better games on the platform right now! And while the grinding can get tiresome and even though the game has a smart way to cope with it, you will not mind much considering the advantages given in return.
I am rating this game a solid
