Indie Everhood - A Psychedelic Tale of Life, Death, Mushrooms and Gnomes

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Prior to Undertale, the concept of an indie RPG was strange, alien even. There were a few here and there, of course. The most remarkable one was OFF, by Mortis Ghost, which had an extremely surprising story with one of the most insane plot twists I’ve ever seen. However, it was mechanically simple, not offering much in terms of mechanics or world exploration. It was, as the kids like to say, Just FineTM. Then came OneShot, by Eliza Velazquez and Michael Shirt. For the time, it was amazing because it was one of the first games to use meta elements and fourth wall breaks in an interesting and unique manner, way before Undertale was even a concept. Of course, by today’s standards, OneShot falls off, not only in comparison to Undertale, but to other games such as The Stanley’s Parable and Outcore, a personal favorite of mine (very recommended!). There were also other indie RPGs, but those simply tried to bring the SNES era of RPGs into PCs, because back then there weren't that many, and thus they weren’t very interesting (looking at you, Zeboyd Games).

After the wild success of Undertale, some quirky, Earthbound inspired RPGs started to pop out from the minds of a lot of creators. None of them couldn’t capture what made Undertale so special (Athenian Rhapsody outright copied it without shame, so don’t play it), but some managed to still be unique on their own right. The subject of today’s article is one of them: Everhood.

AN INEFFABLE TALE OF THE INEXPRESSIBLE DIVINE MOMENTS OF TRUTH​

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The world of Everhood has characters such as stone bouncers and evil ATM.

Everhood was released in 2019 by Foreign Gnomes, composed by Chris Nordgren and Jordi Roca (pretty sure this last one is Spanish). It was marketed as “an UNCONVENTIONAL ADVENTURE RPG that takes place in an inexpressible world filled with amusing musical battles and strange delightful encounters”. Pretty much an elaborate way of saying that this is a quirky RPG with a focus on music. After booting up the game and answering a few questions, you’ll be presented with the character that you’ll be using throughout the game: a puppet named Red. For reasons undisclosed, Red is broken into pieces. And then, the unthinkable happens: a blue creature appears and steals his arm. HIS ARM, OF ALL THINGS! How is he supposed to eat now? And with this small gesture begins a journey transcendence, life, death and quirky characters.

Everhood is one of my favorite indie games, period, and it’s not just because of one or two small things. Rather, it’s because of the different pieces that compose the puzzle of Everhood. Story, music, characters, gameplay… everything is magically intertwined to bring an experience that’s impossible to replicate without straight up copying it. Let’s dissect this masterpiece into pieces.

A MUSICAL ADVENTURE IN A DANGEROUS WORLD​

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If just beating the game isn’t challenging enough, try defeating all enemies No Hit. You’ll get an achievement for your efforts!

Despite the fact that Everhood is marketed as an RPG, it plays nothing like other games in the genre, and it’s definitely not close to the style that Earthbound created. As such, it’s not turn based (or at least not in the traditional sense, more on that later). The thing is that it’s not tactical either, or action, or roguelite or anything of the sort. Instead, Everhood is a pacifist musical RPG in which you have to avoid the projectiles your enemies throw at you. It’s musical in the sense that the projectiles are thrown to the rhythm of the soundtrack, but you don’t really need rhythm to avoid the attacks. You can dodge by either moving (from side to side) or jumping (either in place or the adjacent square). For the most part, simply jumping is enough, but sometimes you’ll get attacked

But wait, what do I mean by pacifist? Is it like Undertale, then? Oh, no, no, it’s pacifist because you can’t deal damage to the enemies in any way, shape or form: just endure until the enemy is done with the music. It’s very simple: just dodge, dodge and dodge. No two battles are alike because each enemy has a different song per battle. All battles are unique, which means that no enemy is repeatable, either, with a few exceptions (and even then, the pattern and the music are completely different).

One of the best songs in the game happens to appear only in an optional battle.

Because of the focus on music, it’s important to talk about the soundtrack. It’s extremely good! Not only are they bangers on their own right, but they also fit the personality of the character. For example, Frog’s theme, which is the first character you encounter in the adventure, is calm and subdued, but with an air of mystery. This is because Frog isn’t really attacking you with the intent of killing, but rather to show you the ropes of the world of Everhood, so the pattern of the projectiles is very easy to dodge and memorize. At the same time, they’re implying that there’s more to meets the eye to them. Green Mage’s, on the other hand, sounds whimsical and unserious, which is on par with the course with this fella. And, because of this, the pattern of the projectiles is tricky and confusing. The most impressive thing about the soundtrack is how each song presents a different vibe, so it’s impossible to say that one song represents the soundtrack, unlike in other games. Some are solemn, some are head-bangers, and some are trippy as hell.

Every single battle in the game is very well designed, even if some want to make you want to pull your hair out, either due to sheer difficulty or due to length. For the former, the hardest ones tend to be optional, and for the latter, there’re usually checkpoints if the song is too long.

A WHIMSICAL WORLD OF MAGIC AND WONDER​

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The boy is right, I tell you hwat.

The events of Everhood happen in a fantasy world where creatures of many races coexist. Aside from the wooden Red, you have people such as Reese, a human woman that doesn’t care much about things; Flan, an amicable slime creature; Zigg, a perpetually angry humanoid blue guy and… Nosferatchu, who is, literally, just Nosferatu with a permanent cold (he is nicer, though). There are a lot of character, and all of them are pretty cool. Some are less important than others (such as the aforementioned Reese, who’s a side character that you don’t even fight), but there are two sets of characters that really matter. The first are the mushrooms. By themselves, these guys are just silly little guys that live in the forest. However, they often hint (in a nonsensical way) at the true nature of the world of Everhood. The second are the Mages and are by far the most important characters. Each Mage is of a particular color, and despite the fact that they are called that, some don’t actually have powers, such as Orange. These are the characters that you’ll be seeing the most.

How the characters are… well, might vary from person to person. Personally, I think the writing is on point, being consistently funny but never getting too annoying (unless it’s on purpose), and all characters have something to bring, even an irrelevant one such as Reese or the Maze Monster. They are all small puzzle pieces that make the world of Everhood. Of course, it’s not all fun and games. Sometimes the game gets serious. Very serious.

LIFE, DEATH AND GNOMES​

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Throughout their quest for the arm, Red is antagonized by many, including themselves.

The main reason people gravitate to these Earthbound-inspired quirky RPGs is usually due to the story, and with good reason. The writers of these games have unsurmountable imagination and can produce plots on par with some of the best directors of movies in history. Now, if only the writing was on par with them… Aside from having great gameplay and soundtrack, Everhood also has a meaningful story. It starts off very light: you have to retrieve your arm back. Doesn’t matter what gets in front of you, whether it’s a kart race, a Dungeons n Dragons session or FALLING DOWN AN INCINERATOR TO YOUR INMINENT DEATH, you have to keep moving. The only thing that matters is your limb. The rest are just obstacles.

But what happens when you get your arm back…? Well, the sheer genius of Everhood is show in all of its glory. However, I can’t explain it without spoilering it, so I’ll just cover the paragraphs below. Read at your own risk! Or even better, go play the game. It’s worth it.

Remember how before I said that the game is a “pacifist musical RPG”? After getting the arm back, you can ditch the “pacifist” adjective. Frog appears and he teaches you… how to kill. That’s right. Turns out, Red is a weapon of mass destruction, as well as the only thing that can kill the inhabitants of the world of Everhood, who have been immortal for ages. Some of them are very tired of living for so long and thus accept their fate very easily. Others, on the other hand, not so much, whatever their reasons, and they’ll fight you back. But Red, who once was a defenseless child, can stand on equal ground, because now he can absorb the projectiles of his enemies and fire them back as an energy wave. The gameplay of dodging is still prevalent, but now it’s done in juxtaposition with the killing stuff. After depleting their health bar, they die. They’re gone for good. Look what you just did. So, you kill every denizen of the world, and the sun as well, and now life’s no more. Congratulations, you did it! And then you discover that you HAD to do this, because, as I said before, the immortals wanted to die, and it was necessary. You were doing the right thing, even after being told a million times that what you were doing was outright evil. And it call culminates with one single message:

“You should never fear death, for its natural and comes to us. Enjoy life while you can. Do what makes you happy. And when the Grim Reaper visits you, embrace it.”

The plot twists of Everhood are so simple, yet so good it makes no sense. The game is often called “Reverse Undertale” for this.
It doesn’t help that if you keep going pacifist, Frog gets angry at you and fights you in the hardest battle in the game.
While I understand the sentiment, and it’s good enough to get people into the game out of curiosity, I feel it’s a disservice to both Undertale and Everhood by reducing them to a superficial take on both games. I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about Pink (a character that becomes very relevant later on, if you know, you know), but personally I don’t mind. I enjoy the game for what it is, and I understand their inclusion. Also, I love the color pink.

A PSYCHEDELIC TRIP ON MUSHROOMS AND OTHER SUBSTANCES​

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Go ahead. No Hit this bastard.
The splendid music is complemented extremely well by the graphics. I think the pixel art, by itself, is very good: it’s expressive enough, very colorful and clear. I personally like how the environments are so simplistic in comparison to the characters, it helps bring them into focus, and helps us remember that the story is about them, not the locations. For this reason, most backgrounds are mere shades and silhouettes the attempt to represent somethings, and once you’re inside of a location, the use of color is very sparse, being comprised mostly of basic colors and black. It’s a really good stylistic choice that gives Everhood a lot of visual identity.

The real kicker, however, lies in the battle themselves. Not only are the sprites of the characters you fight very detailed and animated in comparison to their overworld counterpart, but they also have a lot of spectacle. The zenith of this spectacle lies in specific battles against specific enemies, namely certain mushrooms, gnomes and most battles towards the end. In these cases, however, the spectacle is too much. Sometimes there’s so much light you can’t see anything, sometimes the screen is reversed and sometimes there’s psychedelic imagery that’s too distracting. I understand the reasoning behind this, and in fact I encourage it, but it makes No Hitting certain battles harder than they should. Nonetheless, it’s still worth it, at least once and for casual playthroughs.

FINAL WORDS​

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He's simply the best.

Undertale so good it spawns good games unrelated to it. Everhood is a wonder to look at, a marvel to listen to and a joy to play. A charismatic ensemble of characters, a compelling story about life and death and unique, fun gameplay make the game a masterpiece within the indie field. It’s not as culturally impactful as Undertale or, hell, even Moon, but it still manages to be its own thing in a sea of homogenous quirky indie RPGs. Everhood also has a sequel, which deserves its own article for a myriad of reasons.
 
Pros
  • + Unique battle system.
  • + Great soundtrack.
  • + Remarkable storyline with a good message.
  • + All battles are unique.
  • + Great characters with good writing.
Cons
  • - Insanely hard to get all achievements, including some unfair ones.
  • - Some battles lack visual clarity due to excess of effects.
9
Gameplay
The combat is very straightforward, but satisfying. The mere act of moving is enjoyable.
8
Graphics
The game has a lot of visual identity, providing great contrast between characters and scenarios. The visual flare lies mostly in the battles, though.
9
Story
Although it starts off light and lax, it eventually turns into a transcendental journey. Combines humor and seriousness well.
10
Sound
Great soundtrack with unique songs per battle. Not even a single song is bad.
8
Replayability
After completing the game once, it's possible to find new challenges and even new endings in subsquent playthroughs.
9
out of 10
Overall
Thanks, Foreign Gnomes! I just wished the sequel was as meaningful.
I haven't played this game but it looks interesting and incredible especially for its game system, good graphics, magnificent sound and other things to keep mentioning and by the way great review friend 👍🏻👍🏻.
 

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Game Info

  • Game: Everhood
  • Publisher: Foreign Gnomes
  • Developer: Foreign Gnomes
  • Genres: RPG
  • Release: 2019

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