Review: Everhood: Eternity Edition

” I can say with confidence that the soundtrack is as good as Undertale‘s ” | Would you think that a mix of Undertale and rhythm games work? I did not expect what was coming my way when I started playing Everhood: Eternity Edition, because it can be a psychedelic absurdity of a game when it comes to combat, while also having exploration, dialogue, and notes you can read that explain more about the plot and world of Everhood.

A Guitar Hero-resembling combat system?! Count me in!

Things I liked!

• Great music for a great experience | You will be doing a lot of battle in Everhood: Eternity Edition and that’s exactly where the soundtrack shines the most. It’s a mix of all sorts of music and instruments, and I can say with confidence that the soundtrack is as good as Undertale‘s. For this edition of the game, which adds sixteen more battles, they brought in composers such as David Wise (Battletoads, Donkey Kong Country, Ratchet and Clank), Manami Matsumae (Mega Man, Final Fight, Batman: Return of the Joker, Shovel Knight), Chipzel (Super Hexagon, Dicey Dungeons, Cadence of Hyrule), Keiji Yamagishi (Ninja Gaiden, The Messenger, Streets of Rage 4), among others, which is pretty wild to see. Also, every character has a different sound that replaces their voice, just like you’d see in Undertale.

• More profound than expected | I’ll try to be as brief as I can to not spoil the game, but you may think that the story is going to be stupid and far from the main focus of the game, but it turns out it gets a lot deeper the more you play. It starts with a blue gnome stealing one of the protagonist’s arms, this protagonist is called Red and is a wooden doll. Let’s say that this world with all these weird and funny-looking characters is called Everhood for a good reason, and even the characters’ appearance can be explained by this fundamental piece of information you’re going to have to find out by yourself, hopefully, by playing the game.

• A new mechanic here and there | With this being a relatively short experience, I was surprised to see that there is some variation in the gameplay. Apart from the regular battles, where you avoid damage by moving and jumping, you will also see a racing minigame, a boss battle that plays differently from the rhythmic style, and a “chapter” where you can reflect some damage to the attacker as examples.

• Charismatic characters | There are plenty of characters to found in Everhood, and they all have personalities that can be identified not just by their looks, but also by their dialogues and “voices” as well. They were all pretty interesting characters in their own way, and I really liked how much charisma they had, I certainly won’t be forgetting some of them anytime soon.

• Simplistic, but still good-looking | Yes, this is another case of a game that uses pixelated visuals, just like its main inspiration does, but still has plenty to be admired. Be it the already-mentioned characters, the sometimes weird-looking places you’ll walk through, or even the battles themselves have plenty of interesting things to look at, including the obstacles you’ll be dodging.

Some interesting individuals on the dance floor.

Neither good nor bad

• Your eyes may hurt | There are instances when things get a bit hectic, the screen can be slowly turned around, zoomed in and out, and trembling, as well as some hypnotic-like screens showing up a few times. So even though I really liked Everhood: Eternity Edition, if you’re not into these kinds of things because of feeling nauseous or disoriented, be aware that they are a part of it.

Would you?

Things I disliked!

• Could you let me play, please? | I had some trouble getting the game working. Out of ten times I tried to open it, only three of them recognized my input. At first, I was stuck at the language selection screen, which was supposed to only show up the first time you open the game, but I couldn’t select a language, after restarting the game a few times it finally let me, this problem persisted in the main menu when the language selection screen wasn’t showing up anymore. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to play much the first two times I got the game working, but when I managed to get it working for a third time, I played it for hours, until I got to the end of it. This frustrated me, and having limited time made this review come out a while later than it was supposed to.

How long did I play the game before publishing the review? Around 6 hours and 30 minutes
How long to beat the story? Around 6 hours and 30 minutes
How many Achievements did I earn before publishing? 15/33
How long to achieve 1000G | 20h+
You’ll love this game if you like these | Undertale