Originally released on April 27th, 2000, the video game EverGrace (エヴァーグレイス) is a role playing game released for the PlayStation 2 early in the console's life. In spite of the game promising then-impressive features such as armours and weapons changing your character's in-game appearance, EverGrace released to little fanfare and has generally been forgotten with the passage of time. While the game may not have been a runaway success, it succeeded in a far more important category - being a thoughtful, intriguing work of art.
Upon starting the game, you are greeted with a lack of comprehension. Autumn leaves ascend to the heavens on steady winds while the sky calmly stretches to infinity. The voices of humans, androgynous all, seem to clamour, moan, sing sweetly, and perhaps most importantly, breathe. EverGrace introduces to you what will be your entire experience with the game in just a few moments on the title screen.
Once control is given to the player, the player realises that they are drowning. Ironically, the sky above the water's surface is the ocean, with the player submerged in what feels like endless autumn forests. Intentionally endless they feel - unless you speak to an NPC tucked into a corner of the map multiple times, the player will find themselves making great circles, traveling far but eventually ending up where they began their journey. The dialogue delivered during these opening moments of the game matches the landscape well - it is unusual, alien, and cryptic. Accompanying the player as they step into and through this autumnal kaleidoscope of orange and green are countless, equally kaleidoscopic voices.
As if to greet the player upon their initial exploration of the forests, the music in the area opens with an almost sensual, welcoming moan. As if to match the initial steps of the player, the music begins with a strong, traditional melody. As if to match the footfalls of a gradually more hesitant, lost, and confused player, the music waivers like a tree in a storm winds. The voices return to the background music, moaning, singing, breathlessly chanting, sometimes all at once, as if the nature around the player is attempting to impart some important knowledge to them.
These qualities of EverGrace have led some to believe that the game may be an allegory for the human experience on earth. An experience in which confusion, suffering, and a lack of comprehension are involved. An experience where in spite of the countless generations of humans that have come before us, we continue to repeat the mistakes of the past, ignoring past voices of those who can no longer speak. An experience in which humans find themselves pit against one another for arbitrary and meaningless reasons - just as the protagonist in EverGrace is judged and condemned for that which is not in his control, such as his appearance, there are those in the world alive today who receive the same judgements.
Through all these human experiences there are the two constants in EverGrace, communication, and breathing. Whether it be the almost incomprehensible voices as you begin the game, or the little children clapping and chanting alongside serene tribal music as you near the game's conclusion, the constants remain the same. Continuing on, communicating, and breathing.
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