The subtitle for Everhood sums up how I felt the first hour I played the game. “An ineffable tale of the inexpressible divine moments of truth” made no sense what-so-ever to me… After playing Everhood for quite some time I think I can conclude the subtitle was just the start of many confusing moments.
You lost an arm
Everhood starts out with a red-caped character who’s been robbed. The thief runs off with the arm of what’s to become your main character. When you wake up you’re not quite happy about it and try to pursue whoever stole your arm. Just as you are starting your adventure you are held back by a toadlike character who wants to see if you at least can fend for yourself in your current state. I was getting ready to go full turn-based RPG but instead was surprised by Guitar Hero… Yep, that’s right, Guitar Hero… Instead of battling it out with attacks, spells, and other helpful attributes, Everhood settles encounters quite differently.
Get ready to dance
Encounters are settled with a sort of dance-off. You are presented with five lanes and can hop freely between them. As soon as the music starts, “notes” are sent down the lanes. Instead of hitting these, you’re supposed to avoid them by either jumping or hopping to the side. Each time you mess up, you lose hit points. Lose too many hit points and it’s game over. While avoiding everything in the lanes, your health regenerates. The amount of stuff thrown at you in time with the music is massive. You’ll be on edge each time a battle takes place. Think bullet-hell tension while bopping to some banging tunes.
Expect the unexpected
Everhood has something familiar around every corner with some obvious nods to some classic adventure. At some point, you feel like you’ve played this before just to be surprised by yet another plot-twist or strange occurrence. It’s this constant back and forth between what feels familiar and what is just completely weird, that makes this a great experience to get through. And trust me when I say this game is an experience. There are no words to describe what it’s like to play Everhood. It’s a unique experience, unlike anything I’ve played before.
Very trippy
Getting through a battle is no walk in the park. You will fail more than a few times. Luckily the sequences thrown at you are the same each time you attempt a certain battle. When failing, you can anticipate a bit in your next attempt. Finding the “safe zones” during a part in the song will make it easier to preserve health. Everhood does its best to make each battle different by doing all sorts of things. Some battles add in new things to avoid like unjumpable notes while others add distortion to the screen to make it even harder. At some point, the screen even turned 360° all while I was trying to avoid about a trillion of hits. Adding a kaleidoscope of backgrounds made me feel like I was on a bad trip.
Absolute bangers
The music used in Everhood is awesome. Each battle takes about 2-3 minutes and features a different song for each enemy. Everhood uses the retro 8-bit aesthetic for the visuals but also for the music. There are many genres featured in Everhood but all have been mangled in a chiptune version. I would definitely listen to an album with these songs.
Conclusion
Everhood is unique and should be experienced at least once. With about 6-10 hours of gameplay, the game is never overstaying its welcome.
