Everhood | Recensione (PC)

L'uscita di Undertale has slightly changed the world of video games, bringing back a graphic style and a mood that previously had only been seen very few times before. The video game developers, evidently tired from the sad turn taken by the seventh generation of videogames, once they obtained the means of production (which in this case would be the engines) said to No. to gray, brown, shooters and bullets.

Why not get back on the crest of the wave i old Japanese RPGs? Without getting in the way, however, the epic adventures of Dragon Quest or the stylistic crases of final-fantasy Why not bring back that kind of role-playing game that takes itself seriously but not too much? Why not bring those sensations, those emotions that only a certain type of video game could transmit to the joypads?

Oh well, you got it, let's talk about Earthbound.
Here, if Undertale in a certain sense it has taken that mood and translated it in 2016 by merging it with a myriad of different elements, Everhood (the game we are talking about today) starts from the long wave created by Undertale for a high-class pindaric flight.

Let's start with something like a disclaimer: it is not our intention to say that Everhood and Undertale are the same, it is our intention to say that without Toby Fox's product perhaps today we would be talking about a different game.

Let's open the curtain and then start having a chat about it.

A bislacca recipe?

What is Everhood, first of all.
Here, if we put it on the gnoseological level Everhood he is curious hybrid between one adventure and a rhythm game that constantly flirts with many things.
Its structure requires the top down exploration typical of an RPG with a combat system, or rather, a survival system that asks the player to do the exact opposite of what is usually done in rhythm games.

The battles, or dance contests if you prefer, ask the player to use the protagonist red mage to dodge the bullets that reach the screen, otherwise you will lose life points. These, instead of traveling free as in a shoot em up or in the aforementioned Undertale, are harnessed into a five-block grid that brings to mind things like Guitar Hero or the old beani home Konami.

During these challenges the player will be able to control the protagonist's avatar to dodge the various blows, either by moving sideways or using a jump. The game board during the course of many battles will not remain the same and will change by becoming psychedelic or using different tricks, for a series of very welcome surprises. The choice of the software house composed by the duo Chris Nordgren & Jordi Roca to place a difficulty selector in the options menu, making the adventure truly suitable for all palates.

Depending on the situation, the basic gameplay may then undergo variations of some kind.
Between reverses of perspective, the ability to deflect attacks and other mechanics Everhood manages to remain interesting during its development: a certainly commendable result for what might have seemed like one of the so-called one trick ponies.

Assorted bislaccherie.

The cards on the table will be changed often by the developer duo, bringing metagames, minigames, stylistic changes and various bislaccate during the six-hour duration of the adventure. Everhood, as also mentioned by the Steam caption, is really very very similar to a journey; one of the slightly lysergic ones that end up leaving permanent marks on the cerebral cortex on top of that.

When you are not fighting you are exploring and exploring in the game means navigating these wastelands out of time and space.

Everhood's plot and worlbduilding seem, at least at first glance, quite patchy. It definitely doesn't help that the setting is practically a huge black palette with some sprites to indicate the settings in a stylized way (more or less as it happened in some sections of Undertale) but we all agree that these choices point towards a precise stylistic choice. This, in any case, does not save the technical dimension of the title which clearly shows the limits of a low budget production.

After thirty minutes of playing Everhood opens like a flower towards the player, winking at the first and mythological Yume Nikki.
Il protagonist, accompanied by his trusty bluish buddy whom we will not name to avoid spoilers, he will have to explore various sub worlds from door to door, ending up in fungal forests, D&D games (!!!) and very crazy playgrounds.

A few more coins wouldn't hurt ...

It continues to be really difficult to talk about a weird game like Everhood. The adventure, as also specified by the developers, pushes the accelerator a lot in bringing decidedly unexpected content. This makes the narrative not always easy to follow and, compared to the inspiring games mentioned above, there is a greater gap between the player and the protagonist.

From a purely technical point of view we are faced with a functional video game, despite of the shortcomings. While the battles are very often really pyrotechnic, with extensive use of special effects to want to call them so to vary a little. What is sinning is instead the exploration of the world, often not up to the other characteristic.

As already mentioned above, the sketched settings and the quirkness general help a lot the feeling of atemporal game but do not allow the player to connect with what is played too much; you breathe in the smells that permeated Yume Nikki sometimes, but the magic often ends there.

A series of paragraphs apart we have to take them to talk about instead of musical sector. Music in Everhood is very important, since it is the engine of the preponderant game mechanics. We like to think of Everhood as the funniest of all the visualizers ever to appear in the world of computing, with interactivity and a background narrative. Everhood's soundtrack does not reach the absolute peaks of very famous things, often due to melodies not always perfect but we swear by the quality of the groove.

Everhood never skimp on banger, be they electronic or electric: from metal to funky, through EDM and chiptune music.
The battles of Everhood they are always equipped with music on point and very often even jingles end up being whistled. Missing is a stylistic fil rogue between the pieces, sometimes distant from each other for mood and lacking those photonic hooks that made Toby Fox (well, we said it) what he is.

Everhood is an experience that we definitely recommend you do. The title is a bizarre melting pot between radically different experiences which, however, find a square in the experiment. Despite some problems of narrative and non-narrative solidity, between characters a bit meh and a technical aspect on which one could push more, the final product is absolutely worthy of being tried and appreciated by those who are tired of the usual video games and are looking for a something visually powerful and genuinely fun.
A little Undertale, a little Guitar Hero (but on the contrary), lysergic at times like just tempest 2000, Everhood is a surprise for strong palates.