Replay Review: Everhood

Console: Steam, XB1, XSX, PS4, PS5, Switch

Developer: Foreign Gnomes

Release Date: March 4th 2021

Everhood is a rhythm-based RPG with strong narrative leanings focused around immortality, death, and goofy characters. Created by Chris Nordgren and Jordi Roca, Everhood takes massive inspirations from multiple indie games, but none are clearer than Undertale and Yume Nikki. Yet, I think it mostly succeeds at being its own thing.

While I would typically avoid drawing comparison with other games so early on in the review, Everhood's inspirations are so blatant that they are part of the first impression of many players, and some can't go past this impression judging by its comparatively few negative reviews. 

Indeed, the wacky cast of characters reeks of Undertale, down to the point of giving each character a "voice" with text noises. Similarly to Undertale as well, this is a game more based on its narrative than gameplay, despite having unique gameplay. And the narrative's introspective and philosophical nature intentionally clashes with is silly characters.

And as far as the Yume Nikki inspiration, most of the environment backgrounds are a single solid color with minimalistic features on top of the background to imply depth. The hub world is also practically copied from Yume Nikki as well, being a black abyss with multiple doors that lead to unconnected worlds.

I have an odd relationship with Everhood: the game didn't make a great first impression on me, and I didn't quite love it... yet I've also played through it three times now, including all of the secrets and optional fights. It doesn't exactly get better or worse the more I play it, either; I just sometimes end up feeling like playing Everhood after a year or so. So why not start a new review "series" where I review games I've already played, but replayed recently and wish to analyze deeper? As a result, there will be a more spoiler-heavy section to Replay Reviews, but it'll be signposted so it can be avoided if desired.

FIGHT THE BEAT

Everhood's most defining feature is its unique combat system. Looking similar to something like Guitar Hero or Rock Band, the main character, Red, is placed on the foreground a five lane area and has to dodge notes that come towards them from the background to the rhythm of the music. Red can move one lane at a time and also jump over notes. Though a simple concept, the difficulty ramps up as the songs get more high-energy and chaotic, and the game isn't afraid of throwing visual distortion the player's way. Further in the game, Red gains the ability to absorb notes.

There are also multiple kinds of notes: single-lane notes, tall notes that can't be jumped over, black notes that can't be absorbed, multi-lane notes, curving notes, and power notes. Notes come in all sorts of colors too, giving the game a psychedelic flair when in battle. While the colors seem purely aesthetic at the start, they gain meaning once the ability to absorb notes is acquired. Red can attack enemies by absorbing two notes of the same color, and then firing a projectile at them. The projectile can break through one normal note, and shatters if it hits a second normal note or a single tall note. 

As a result, gameplay really opens up once this ability is acquired, as simply dodging notes is actually pretty easy, especially since unless playing on Insane difficulty, Red can take more than one hit and recover HP automatically by not getting hit again for a period of time. The difficulty truly comes from having to dodge, pay attention to note colors, get in position to absorb them, and then find an opening to attack the enemy. It's not especially deep, but it's satisfying and stays fun the entire way through.

There are some problems with this combat system, though, that can be dealbreakers to some people. The most major one is that despite looking like a Guitar Hero chart, the game's notes are "played" when they are fired, not when they reach Red. As a result, you're not playing to the rhythm, you're instead fighting the rhythm itself by being off-beat. While I didn't have much an issue with this, I can imagine this being irreconcilable for some players, as this could really throw people off.

My personal problem with the combat system comes to the charting itself: unlike other rhythm games, the placement of the notes feels arbitrary more often than not, as does their number. One sound can arbitrarily spawn multiple notes in odd placements. In a way, the charting was done purely from a gameplay perspective rather than a musical one, which can feel very odd. With this in mind, Everhood is less of a rhythm game than it pretends to be.

Another issue with this system is something that other rhythm games also struggle with: difficulty scaling. Everhood's combat system is not really scalable when it comes to difficulty outside of forcing the player to take damage less often (or never, in the case of Insane difficulty). As a result, when fights need to be more difficult, songs tend to be more chaotic, overcharted, and riddled with visual distortion. While I like the visual distortions and wish there were more of them, the game stops feeling like a rhythm game and more like a bullet hell RPG.

There is also the misleading aspects of the combat: early on, the first major fight is a 3 minute song with a checkpoint in the middle, which gives the impression that minor fights will be short while major fights will be longer, potentially with multiple phases. Yet, outside of the very final fights, this checkpoint feature is never used again, and songs tend to dissapointingly be in the 60-90 second range. This is exacerbated when the absorbing ability is acquired, as most of the gameplay by that point consists of fighting enemies you've already fought, to the same song and chart, but now you can attack them. Very few enemies have new songs or unique mechanics, making it feel more dull than it should be. And for later songs, due to the very nature of the mechanics, you never get to hear the full song unless you're too slow/bad at the game.

Nevertheless, Everhood's combat system is what makes it stand out. And due to its musical nature (despite some inherent flaws), it's also conducive to customisation. While I've never dabbled in it and don't have much of an interest in it, Everhood has many user-made custom battles and an in-game editor that allows players to freely make whatever they want and play other people's custom battles. It's a great way to foster a community around a game, though I have no idea if it's that active.

THE STRUGGLES OF IMMORTALITY

Everhood's a narratively ambitious game, sporting both a narrative and a meta-narrative. Without going too much into detail, you, the player, are a part of the story in a way, and the game makes no attempt to hide it. Red is a mute protagonist, being a puppet, and this is commented upon semi-frequently. While there's a lack of flavor text when investigating random objects, the game does have a plethora of side quests, obscure secrets, and little easter eggs that reward exploration, alongside a New Game+ that actually changes parts of the game and opens up new endings. The game has a handful of widely different endings, which encourages more playthroughs. At the 5-6 hour range, the game doesn't take very long to play through, either.

Everhood's cast is a bit of a mixed bag: though they are memorable visually, their personalities are paper-thin in most cases. Capable of being distilled to one or two character traits, and with some of them seemingly being odd for the sake of being odd, the characters manage to both stand out and be forgettable. The most important characters bear the names of colors and/or have dialogue portraits, while most others are simple kooky designs with little personality. It's not uncommon even in positive reviews to see the characters lambasted as being flat. Gold Pig is greedy and not much more. The Vampire changes their name at every opportunity and not much more. Professor Orange is a mad scientist and not much more. Zigg is rude and not much more. It's hard to get attached to characters because of this; all they are is simple character traits with goofy, varied designs that feel disconnected from each other.

As mentioned previously, most characters have a "voice" made of specific sounds or samples as their text appears, similar to Undertale, amongst other games. This, coupled with text effects reminiscent of Paper Mario such as making letters vibrate, helps give characters and dialogue a tone and personality, as if you can imagine their voices despite their being none. For characters with portraits, this is heightened even more.

Everhood takes place in the eponymous Everhood, a place where all inhabitants are immortal and have been alive for eons upon eons, and the goal of the game is to recover Red's arm, which was stolen by Blue Thief under the orders of the greedy Gold Pig. It doesn't take much time to spot some clear Undertale and Yume Nikki homages, and Blue Thief quickly becomes an ally to Red, becoming their voice in a way, as well as a guide. From there, the quest to find Red's arm leads to multiple goofy scenarios, such as a go-kart race and a TTRPG session. However, while in other games these would be a good spot to get to know the other characters, it merely highlights their flatness. As for what happens when the arm is recovered, I must delve into spoiler territory for the rest of this section. If it sounds interesting to you so far, I recommend playing the game first before reading the rest of this section.

Once Red's arm is recovered, Red gains the power to absorb notes, which by extention gives them to ability to attack enemies in battle and opens up the rest of the game. From that point on, interacting with any NPC gives the option to Interact or Kill them. A nice thing from a game design standpoint is that neither is selected as a default option, meaning you can't kill an NPC by accident. Killing an NPC will either kill them outright or start a battle where the objective is to kill them.

Unlike Undertale's No Mercy ending route, killing the NPCs is portrayed as a positive thing; the characters have been artificially immortal for so long that they no longer have anything to live for, yet desperately cling to life. It's portrayed as a necessary evil and as freeing them. Everhood subscribes heavily to the Buddhist view of death: death is considered to be a natural part of existence, and eschewing oneself from death results in the corruption and weakening of the soul. Some characters will willingly accept death, while others will resist, whether out of fear, anger, or a feeling of necessity. Uniquely, even the sentient Save Points can be killed, removing the ability to save in that area.

Upon acquiring the arm, 30 central characters must be killed, and there are ways to find them all should one be stuck. This phase of the game completely changes its tone: characters who were friendly with Red grow scared of them, or angry at them. There are hints that Red's killings aren't something new, and that they have done such things before. Through finding hidden notes, it is revealed that the inhabitants of the Everhood have lived for indescribable amounts of time, and have run out of things to do and think. In a way, they are prisoners of their mundane eternal lives; mortals that have become unnaturally immortal with souls that aren't meant to be. They are being tortured by themselves and others, and are too afraid of death to let go. One of the game's messages follows its Buddhist beliefs: death is a part of life, and it shouldn't be avoided. I can see the game helping some people with grief, in a way.

But it can't be denied that the game's overall view of death is not expounded upon enough: due to our society's typical view of death and especially murder, there's a strong disconnect between the act of killing and being told that it is freeing its unwilling victims. The long-lasting immortality of the NPCs is not shown enough, as we are simply thrust into its world with little context. It's not hard to imagine a player being distrustful of the Frog, who serves as the tutorial character and consistently encourages the player to kill the others through Red: while they say that the characters are tortured, unhappy, and need to die, you also get to see them having fun and play games together.

However, it must be said: though the flatness of the characters is a valid criticism of the game, I think it's at least partly intentional, if not fully intentional. As a result of their immortality and status as former humans, the characters of Everhood have found their personalities diluted to a few traits over time, becoming caricatures of their past selves. Forgetfulness is a big part of the narrative, best exemplified with Blue Thief's memory loss. It's not out of the question that the citizens of Everhood have forgotten who they actually were as they made themselves immortal. In fact, it's stated that as their lives went on, citizens of Everhood had to change their primordial bodies and were forced to evolve past the physical exhaustion through various means, whether alchemical, medical, or mystical. Untethered hedonism transformed into cruelty, with deadly pranks that would eventually be forgotten, the world turning into an endless loop of torment and forgetfulness.

It's also not lost on me that all characters, whether feminine, masculine or androgynous, uses gender-neutral pronouns; rather than this being a statement about gender identity, I firmly believe this is another way the narrative shows the player the loss of identity engendered by prolonged immortality. By the time we, as a player, enter the world of Everhood, its denizens are little more than shells of their former selves, clinging to the core of their former identities and living empty lives. This makes Red being a puppet more symbolic: they are a puppet for the player, but are just as empty as the other characters, all things considered.

Further in the game, Red is revealed to have been controlled by an alluded character called Pink, as a way for them to finally end the eternal torment of Everhood despite their pacifist nature. The final section of the game is played as Pink, and deals with the grief and guilt they are suffering through. Here there is another disconnect between the narrative and the player's feelings: Pink has known the citizens of Everhood for an untold amount of time, but the player has only met them briefly and seen them as empty shells of themselves. As a result, the trauma Pink goes through rings hollow to the player, like the game is portraying itself as more epic and grand than it actually was, with reminiscences and regrets being repeated ad nauseam.

Further compounding the issue, the game's ending sequence is... poorly paced, to say the least. Without getting to formally know Pink how what their relationship with the characters the player has killed was like, we are given control of them and expected to care about what is going on despite the change of protagonist. Unlike Red, Pink is not mute, which makes the change of protagonist even more jarring. It's a bold and ambitious move that doesn't really pay off due to the game's short length.

The ending also doesn't seem to know how to end properly, and feels the need to escalate further and further to reality-bending levels. Red fights and kills the Sun itself after killing everything in the Everhood, and then Pink must fight what is only referred to as the Universe: a psychedelic cube meant to represent the universe of Everhood itself. And then, the Buddha themself is fought in a "Farewell" celebration-type battle, where all the characters give their last words. It's all prolonged to the point that it feels like a third of the game, if not more, is just the ending sequence. It's the kind of ending that would befit a 20-30 hour epic, not a 5-6 hour sprint. It's like Foreign Gnomes assumed the game would have a massive, irreversible impact on its players like its easiest comparison, Undertale, generally did, but it just doesn't have that kind of impact for most people.

Ultimately, though I see what Everhood was trying to accomplish, and can even give it the benefit of the doubt on some aspects of its story, I think it somewhat misses the mark and collapses under its own ambition. There's simply no way to properly cover and explain such a narratively complex idea as immortality in a way that's satisfying in such a short time.

A LACK OF AUDIO IDENTITY

The music of Everhood was created by multiple composers (with a caveat), but is mostly helmed by Chris Nordgren, Lewmoth and Cazok, with additional music by Dancefloor is Lava, KM_EXP, Lolita (as Roxy), ROZKOL, and Jayman (OurMusicBox). A lot of the game's battle tracks consists of various types of EDM, with some electric guitar thrown in occasionally, while the overworld themes are either ambient soundscapes or catchy grooves. As a game that is ostensibly a rhythm game, the soundtrack is a huge part of its identity and more important for it than games of other genres. There is nothing explicitly bad here (except for one song comically titled "Really Bad Song"), and in fact a ton of it is flat-out great, such as "Feisty Flowers" and "Revenge." However, many of the battle songs feel too short, as I've mentioned, and the overworld songs are good, but not particularly memorable for me. There's not much I'll catch myself humming or getting stuck in my head.

My big issue with the soundtrack, however, is that as good as it is, it feels disconnected. The game's musical identity is muddy besides "psychedelic, loud EDM" and I feel like part of the problem is the use of songs that were not created for the game. Indeed, while many are Everhood originals, some of Nordgren's songs are from his older body of work, published on Soundcloud under different titles, and some other songs either feel like royalty free music or is royalty free music, such as KM_EXP's generically named contributions. Lolita (as Roxy)'s contributions are sampled from another artist, KITCALIBER. Dancefloor is Lava's contributions, meanwhile, were released over three years before the game released, on their own album. I can't find much information about it all, but what's there is clear: a lot of the game's music was not made explicitely for Everhood.

I'd never shame the use of royalty free or outsourcing music in a game, and that's not what I'm trying to do at all, but I do question the wisdom of doing so when making a game whose gameplay and main selling point revolves around music. Even during my first playthrough, when I didn't know anything about the game, I could feel a sort of disconnect with the music compared to the subject matter; this disconnect was made even stronger when I saw the song titles. Many of the song titles do not fit the context they are used in, and heighten the sense of the soundtrack being patchwork rather than carefully crafted. For example, the song named "Vampires Invading Heaven" is used when playing the go-kart minigame.

This isn't to say that the soundtrack is bad in any way. It's not, and some of the tracks are genuinely amazing. But it feels like Everhood lacks just a little identity sonically. Though I find most of his battle songs too short, Nordgren's songs are all very good and tend to fit the setting more than other composers', which makes sense since he's one half of Foreign Gnomes. His contributions are more in the EDM realm and make use of big, distorted bass to great effect. Cazok's contributions are all good, with cutscene, overworld and battle songs being overall fitting, though they especially shine with their battle songs that almost all make great use of electric guitar to up the intensity or add a funky flair. Lewmoth only contributes five songs to the soundtrack, but they are all unique with bouncy beats that are really appreciated.

Overall, the soundtrack of Everhood is very solid, and will resonate with some, but for me it feels a bit too disconnected from the world and characters the game presents. Some songs are fitting and others aren't. Characters don't really get themes either, and their battle songs don't tend to really reflect them that well in general. And to make matters a bit worse, some of the more important songs, such as those of super bosses, are outsourced from previously released material.

PROS AND CONS

PROS

    • Unique and generally satisfying combat system.

    • Good soundtrack, especially in battle.

    • Fun character designs.

    • An interesting narrative idea with enough depth to warrant multiple playthroughs.

    • A bunch of secrets, alternate paths, and easter eggs that are all fun and satisfying to find.

    • Robust creation suite

CONS

    • Flat characters that are poorly developed, making them hard to relate to and grow attached to.

    • Difficulty ends up becoming more about overwhelming the screen than being difficult in interesting ways.

    • Too ambitious for its short length, resulting in a narrative that is more likely than not to fall flat.

    • Patchwork soundtrack that doesn't always feel like it was made for the game

    • For a rhythm game, the gameplay is staunchly anti-rhythm and is played off-beat

    • Primary inspirations are reflected far too transparently, giving a mixed first impression

WORTH PLAYING?

With everything considered, and in spite of my like/dislike relationship with Everhood, I think it's worth experiencing. While it has very obvious influences, it is a unique game unlike any other I've seen. Players who like challenging games and completionists will also have plenty to love, as every battle in the game has an achievement tied to completing it without getting hit once, for example. It lacks the narrative impact of Undertale or the enigmatic introspection of Yume Nikki, but it makes up for it with a unique concept and a philosophical narrative that, perhaps clumsily, challenges the player. Even if it's short and not as epic as it seems to think it is, Everhood does have its charm, and it might connect with you more than it has for me.

I decided to replay Everhood after the sequel was announced, and part of my desire to write this review was to fully internalize my feelings about it before it is released at the start of 2025, barring any delays. At time of writing, only the announcement trailer for Everhood 2 has been released, and it appears to be far more of an RPG with classes, weapons, upgrades, and more. It also looks less derivative of Undertale and Yume Nikki, and more like its own thing, which is greatly appreciated. 

I realized my conflicting thoughts about Everhood when the trailer for Everhood 2 came out: I found myself excited, and then confused about my excitement since my last impression of the game was negative. Revisiting it and writing this has helped me sort out my opinion of Everhood and I think I'd say I like it more than I dislike it, though it's still a like/dislike relationship. Most importantly, I find myself hopeful that the sequel is bigger, better, trippier and has more depth.