Everhood Review

WARNING: THIS GAME CONTAINS EXTREME FLASHING LIGHTS AND IMAGERY THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE GAME. WHILE THERE ARE OPTIONS TO SLIGHTLY REDUCE THESE EFFECTS, THEY MAKE UP A BROAD PORTION OF THE GAME EXPERIENCE, AND AS SUCH THIS GAME IS NOT RECOMMENDED TO INDIVIDUALS AT ANY RISK OF PHOTOSENSITIVE EPILEPSY.

Digging deep enough into digital stores, it becomes apparent that there has never been a shortage of weird games available to experience, having remained omnipresent in the industry since its very inception, even if they are not clearly visible. One could hardly even fathom the alien concept of controlling the characters present on a TV screen, let alone looking after a fish with a man’s face and voice, a disturbingly in-depth knowledge of human history, and a peculiar contribution to ‘anthro-bio-archaeology.’ While it’s easy to dismiss these games as nothing more than weirdness for the sake of it, there do exist games out there that utilize this edge to create a reality, message, or contribution to society that’s more coherent than the sum of their parts. Such games include Everhood, a passion project in the vein of a ‘musical-RPG,’ developed by two-man development studio Foreign Gnomes. While Everhood’s style of weird may be of an acquired taste, there is a deeply enjoyable game to experience once you get into it.

Presentation

Everhood has you playing as a wooden doll referred to as simply ‘Red’, tasked with retrieving your arm after it was stolen by a thieving gnome (gnomes are particularly common in this world; you’ll get used to it). From there, you are swept into a strange journey through a minimalist psychedelic world, pondering the value of existence as you interact with its denizens. It’s a simple premise going into the game, but as the story progresses, it begins to flesh itself out and reveal its true colors. By the time you reach the end, you’re entrenched in a bizarre series of events, littered with abstract visual interpretations of existence to where some may struggle to clearly explain what they experienced. While the game is undoubtedly weird, with moments that feel random for the sake of it, it is never completely incoherent; there is some rhyme and reason to this world, even if it is more unruly and metaphysical than what may be comfortable.

Everhood’s pixelated overworld is graphically sparse in detail, similarly to how Undertale draws its own world. The colors are flat, and there is little to be found in the way of texture. However, where the latter’s choice contributes to its disarming charm, Everhood reframes this minimalism to an unsettlingly surreal angle, stressing the impermanence of detail in the vast expanse of eternity. Environments are light on touches of the life that inhabits them, obscuring most of what they have to offer in favor of their most prominent colors and elements. Surrounding said environments is nothing more than a black void, infinitely vast, yet equally barren. Maybe there is something beyond the darkness, maybe there isn’t, but that shouldn’t matter, right? There’s nothing out there you can’t experience here. It’s an effective metaphor for the irony that comes from how we disregard detail in favor of the bigger picture, even when we are given ample time to appreciate them. The issue is no longer time, but rather our unwillingness to put in the effort out of sheer boredom. The game does a wonderful job of using black, a color generally used in 2D space to communicate an empty fullness equivalent to that of walls, floors or other structures.

Once you get into battles, on the other hand, Everhood ditches its pessimistic minimalism and often assaults the player’s senses with psychedelic visuals along with their opponent’s attacks. These colors are weird kaleidoscopic experiences, but they are ultimately a visual treat to experience (unless you’re an epileptic). While the world itself is presented as an empty expanse of black voids, individuals are wonderfully colorful and expressive, showing that even when one is cursed with immortality, the individuals surrounding us never provide lesser value to life and are always worth cherishing. It may show that regardless of how much time we perceive to have left with these people, we should always take time to appreciate them in the moment, since we never know when they may suddenly disappear. Alternatively, it may be a symptom of desensitization from eons of existence, continuously deteriorating the human sense of experience down to only the most vibrant or expressive colors or details. This overbearing assault on the senses may now just be part of the world everyone lives in, since it’s the only stimulation that may excite or even garner attention anymore… or the devs just like trippy psychedelics and want to mess with the player during battles. Regardless, the clashing of style works well in communicating the undercurrent of existential dread that is laced throughout Everhood.

This style of eclectic unpredictability is carried over into the game’s phenomenal soundtrack in a way that cannot be overstated. When playing through the game for the first time, it’s impossible to figure out what track you will stumble upon in the next area or encounter, from a healthy dosage of electronica to smooth jazz or even some heavier metal tracks. Learning what’s going to happen next and what accompanying track will play go hand-in-hand in describing the visual and aural delight of playing Everhood. The selection is brilliant, and many of the tracks live rent-free on my Spotify playlists to this day.

It is immediately apparent that great care has been taken into carefully selecting/composing the track playing for each individual combat encounter, creating an extra layer of characterization for whomever you are facing. Take Zigg, for example, a hot-headed, tap-dancing vampire who is not afraid to get confrontational, and this heat carries over into the track: Tinnitus Dance by The Floor is Lava. It lays a fierce groove right from the outset with a rage that does not let up until the very end, which lines up well with how Zigg applies themselves as a character and how they fight. When fighting, they initially keep their cool, launching a steady stream of blue projectiles your way before losing their temper and eventually flooding you with bright orange projectiles from their eyes. This is a single example taken from an early-game fight, but the intertwining of personality with battles is a consistent theme throughout the game, and it serves wonderfully to characterize where dialogue could fail.

From small gnomes of varying colors, to large pigs adorned in gold regalia, sentient talking doors/posts, and everything in between, the world of Everhood is densely populated with a wide array of individuals that you can talk to, each with differing attitudes on existence. The concept of immortality possesses differing effects depending on the individual: some are blissfully unaware of their circumstances, whilst others resort to material wealth to justify existence, and some choose the most inane and pointless activities for the sake of passing time, a resource in nigh infinite supply. If you dig deep enough, a lot of the characters you interact with have some sort of history related to the game’s world and lore, and it’s genuinely interesting to try and unravel what it all really is, even if some of the characters/events appear spontaneous for the sake of unpredictability. There will likely be a lot of things in Everhood that you can’t accurately explain or substantiate, and this obscurity may turn off some of the lore fanatics among you. Everhood is definitely tailored towards being equally as much of a sensory experience as an existential one. Regardless of its depth, characters remain fun to interact with thanks to the game’s witty writing. The tone can definitely wobble a bit unpredictably as you progress deeper into the story, but it remains consistently engaging throughout its 5-6 hour runtime.

Gameplay

The general structure of Everhood’s primary gameplay loop is most comparable to that of Undertale: when not fighting enemies, you are wandering around a small, tightly crafted world, completing basic puzzles or other challenges whilst interacting with numerous NPCs. While the vast emptiness of certain areas contribute to its overall aesthetic, the overworld segments can become a bit of a long-winding walking simulator, treading down long paths led only by a concentration of dots. There are a handful of particular sections (that won’t be spoiled) where this form of padding is by far the most noticeable and had the most adverse effects on the game’s pacing. These walking segments do not take the entirety of the overworld segments, and there are other experiences/challenges to be had in this style, but it remains the most hit-and-miss feature of the game.

A quick glance at the store page may garner confusion as to what the combat actually entails. If you were to request the simplest elevator pitch, the most efficient summary would be if you were to flip Guitar Hero on its head, placing the protagonist on the fretboard and swapping between lanes to jump, move, deflect, or dodge the flurry of notes sent your way rather than hitting each one of them. It is a bullet hell recontextualized in the setting of a rhythm game, though it isn’t necessarily a rhythm game. While all notes sent to the player correspond to the rhythms of the song, there is nothing externally compelling you to move to the beat of the song in any manner whatsoever.

Players are able to move and jump between five different lanes to dodge the small selection of projectiles that can be launched at you. Walls can not be jumped over and requires players to shift to a different lane, whilst lower notes can be jumped over but can cover multiple lanes at once and are the only projectiles capable of occasionally moving between lanes in a sine wave motion. While this covers the extent of basic ‘vanilla’ combat and is quite simple to wrap your head around, it becomes less trivial when hundreds of them are being hurled at you at once. This simple, but effective loop grows an additional layer once you are able to start deflecting projectiles and returning to sender. By pressing the ‘deflect’ key as a note hits you with precise timing, you will absorb the attack, and absorbing a second note of the same color allows you to shoot it back at the enemy. However, if you launch a deflected attack into a lane filled with projectiles or walls, then the projectiles in question will block your attack completely, destroying themselves in the process and leaving the enemy in pristine condition. When put together projectiles are completely recontextualized into multiple layers beyond simply a threat to be avoided: they simultaneously exist as your means of dealing damage and a barrier towards inflicting said damage.

This clarification may be a turn off for those who were enticed by the ‘music’ tag or the ‘music-based battles’ advertised in the game’s store page, especially if they aren’t interested in the bullet hell genre. To be fair, however, as one plays through the game, they will learn that the battles incorporate music more than one may realize. Given that each projectile is launched in sync to the music, it would be reasonable to assume that whatever is happening in the music is likely going to reflect what’s going to be thrown at you. If the song calms down significantly, then you can expect a short break from the action before the game throws you back into the deep end. If the song is building towards a massive climax, then you can expect the end to be absolutely chaotic, with certain battles living up to its bullet-hell inspirations. However, without much knowledge of the songs before fighting them, one should expect to repeatedly attempt battles before they know where any ideal openings are, right? Thankfully, however, Everhood’s structure accounts for this and makes it easier for players to dip their toes into this new gameplay flow.

There is a generous supply of unique battles to be experienced throughout the game, though many of them are repeats of previous battles with a twist allowing players to deflect and attack rather than strictly dodging. In most RPGs, one would be justified in calling this a means of padding the game’s playtime by recycling content. However, in Everhood’s case, this recycling serves to recontextualize the fights from both a story and gameplay perspective, while also easing players into the flow of fighting back. Given that you are likely familiar with the fight, you will already have a vague idea of what it is like, based on either your knowledge of what was thrown at you or your remembrance of the song that was playing. This knowledge allows you to think less about surviving and more about optimizing the fight to defeat the enemy as quickly as possible to avoid dying. In a previous attempt, you learned that there is a brief break in a particular point in the music. With this knowledge, you go into that section with a bang, turning the tides on the enemy with a devastating offense, ending the fight much earlier than if you were to play something brand new. This wrinkle in the game’s structure turns a mechanic that would ordinarily be an arduous process of trial and error into something both novel and digestible, all without breaking the immersion of that precious ‘game flow.’

However, do not be mistaken: not every fight in Everhood with combat is a repeat of an easy fight. There are a small handful of encounters that can be found by going off the beaten path, and these fights are where Everhood begins to embrace its roots in bullet-hell, for those who wish to rise to the challenge. Additionally, 16 new battles have been added into the game, courtesy of the “Eternity Edition.” These fights are a treat in every way imaginable, as they are not only a stellar kaleidoscope of visuals and fresh challenges crafted by the game’s community, but they are also backed by music from a variety of composers recognized and renowned by the gaming community, including David Wise (Donkey Kong Country franchise), Disasterpeace (Hyper Light Drifter), Manami Matsumae (Mega Man), and many more. While these additional fights from the “Eternity Edition” are not required for completion in any capacity, they are still a blast to play through, and they are easy to recommend for anyone who wants more Everhood.

Picture taken from this showcase video provided by Blitworks Games.

The Platinum Trophy

The majority of Everhood’s trophy list is relatively straightforward, only requiring that you see everything the game has to offer in its story trophies and various miscellaneous tasks. While most of these trophies are missable, they are only as such because of a particular point of no return, a point that is clear as day. As such, given that the player isn’t careless and doesn’t traipse past this point, they are free to hunt these trophies as they please. If there are any particular trophies that require further clarification, feel free to refer to the author’s trophy guide here: Everhood Trophy Guide

Where the trophy list gets particularly interesting is when you delve into three specific trophies, trophies that would stop any casual player dead in their tracks and have them question why anybody would ever go this far for a virtual badge. The first of which requires you to move right through a corridor for 3-4 hours. Yes, you heard that right. There is a corridor spanning 888 rooms, and you need to run through every single one of them to earn a trophy. You can’t even rubber band your way through every room, as passing room 530 will fill subsequent rooms with debris that must be manually maneuvered through. That means you need to manually move your way through 358 corridors littered with debris for a singular trophy. It is just as ridiculous as it sounds.

Another trophy requires you to complete every battle in the game at least once without taking a hit of damage. You are able to choose whether you complete it as a pacifist or with the ability to attack, as a flawless completion of either mode will count towards no-hitting the battle, though both come with their pros and cons. Being able to deflect projectiles means you can end an encounter more quickly than if you were to do it without, though it requires you to adopt more technically difficult strategies. While most of the battles become fairly easy to beat flawlessly once you’ve improved at the game, there are a certain handful that are particularly tricky, acting as the real tests of the player’s mettle. These battles are tough, but learning and mastering them is some of the most fun you can have playing this game from a mechanical standpoint, akin to flawlessly needling your way through a difficult bullet hell and earning the 1CC in the end.

The last of the three hardest trophies is undoubtedly the primary reason why trophy hunters refuse to touch this game with a nine-and-a-half-foot pole, specifically “No-Hit Incinerator Part Two.” For additional context, there is an early game battle taking place in the overworld that was designed to be unwinnable during any casual playthrough, referred to colloquially as the Incinerator. The battle takes place in the overworld portion of the gameplay, and consists of two distinct phases, both of which can be theoretically beaten to skip a handful of battles that would play out following the player’s death. It takes place in the overworld portion of the gameplay, placing you in a chamber with tiles laid out in a 7X5 formation. Any one of these tiles can be lit up at any given moment, damaging anything standing on it. Given that it is theoretically possible to survive both phases, it only makes sense that a trophy exists requesting players to complete them without taking a single hit of damage. The first phase is simple enough to clear flawlessly with practice, given that all attacks are predictable and fairly simple to dodge. The same can not be said for phase two, however…

While professionalism in some capacity is important when discussing a platinum trophy, it is worth breaking said professionalism if it means posting the following warning to all prospective players: flawlessly clearing phase two of the Incinerator is the video game equivalent of a Chinese water torture device; it is a Sisyphean task that brings misery to all foolish enough to try, and you would be wise to avoid attempting this trophy at all costs if you wish not to detriment your experience with Everhood.

To understand why this trophy sparks fear into all who have played this game, it is important to discuss what distinguishes phase two of the Incinerator. The most prevalent change is that there are three particular sections of the fight where the sequence in which tiles light up is executed at complete random, making it impossible to predict where you need to go. It is common for situations to arise where tiles light up in a configuration that WILL hit you, out of no fault of your own. While you are always at the mercy of RNG, there is a strategy you can use to maximize your odds of survival: stay right between two tiles near the bottom border, giving you roughly four tiles that you can move to if needed. If a horizontally adjacent tile is about to light up, simply move to the tile next to it, and shift back to the center when the tile turns off. If both horizontally adjacent tiles are about to light up, move downwards and hope you don’t get hit. Moving downwards is ultimately a gamble since your hitbox extends further vertically than horizontally, meaning that you are likely to take damage from something that appeared to be far enough away to not be affected.

While this information does serve to make the RNG portions slightly more doable, conditions are made less favorable when realizing that the timings for tiles lighting up is noticeably inconsistent. Sometimes when a tile is telegraphed to light up, it may take an additional beat or two in the song before it becomes dangerous, whilst other times you are given mere moments before instantly lighting up. As such, your reflexes need to be as composed as they are sharp, since you may have to wait an additional moment before moving back to the middle, lest you find one half of your body charred to a crisp. This is all coupled with the fact that overworld movement isn’t exactly the most precise, so you may find yourself accidentally walking too far or not far enough in one direction or another, causing even further losses.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, the cherry on top of the cake comes from the lengthy downtime between each attempt. There is no way to quickly restart a run of the second phase, like you could with every battle in the game. A proper no-hit run truly begins once you make it through the first RNG section, but before that you actually have to flawlessly complete said section, and before that you have to beat the entirety of the first phase, and before even starting the Incinerator, you’d have to quit your previous attempt by quitting and re-opening the game, loading your save, and replaying the entire cutscene prior to the fight even starting. In a context where you are fighting a boss that depends entirely on skill, this is annoying at worst. However, the downtime gives you an opportunity to reflect on why you failed, and by carrying this knowledge through your analysis, you are able to make your future attempts better.

That being said, this challenge is not a test of skill. There is no reflection to be made as to why you failed. You already know why you failed: bad RNG or simply inadequate reflexes. This challenge is actually a test of willpower. Upon starting every attempt, you need to tell yourself that this one will take you to the end, even if it doesn’t, as you’re automatically going to fail if you don’t. If you want to earn this trophy, then you will have to ingrain it into your lifestyle until the game decides its done toying with you. It will become mind-numbing. This trophy is not fair in the slightest and will happily take days, if not weeks out of your life out of spite alone, and for what in return? An intangible fragment of virtual bling that ultimately doesn’t matter to anyone but you, earned in a medium that is ultimately looked down upon by society as a waste of time in of itself? Even if you were to earn it out of spite for the game, there is nothing there to spite, or any real ground to spite on. The game has nothing to lose by making you fail repeatedly over the course of several hours, days or even weeks. However, you lost a resource that they have in nigh infinite supply: time. Those hours spent fruitlessly attempting this trophy will never be returned, and in that sense, the game has won.

Setting aside the existentialist rant, a completion video can be found below as a reference for all strategies described here and in the trophy guide. While the previous paragraph was certainly a far cry from any degree of professionalism, hopefully it serves as an effective warning for anybody who would like to attempt earning the platinum trophy for Everhood.

Conclusion

Everhood is an existentially challenging game in more ways than one. Its bizarre presentation and story challenges you to peel through its weirdness and often unexplainable phenomena to find meaning through it all, whereas the platinum trophy will make you question why you hunt trophies at all with the psychological torture that “No-Hit Incinerator” puts you through. However the dread of having to flawlessly clear the Incinerator shouldn’t be the reason not to play this game, as there is a wonderful musical experience to be had, even if it is amidst some wobbly pacing and occasionally incomprehensible moments.