Thank you Foreign Gnomes for sending us the review code!

Everhood is where immortality meets death, where existentialism meets decision, and where rhythm gaming meets the Earthbound-style RPG. Within this game, the previous ideas are juxtaposed masterfully, all packaged with a complex and engaging gameplay loop, beautiful and sensational tunes, and entrancing and psychedelic visuals. There is so much attention to detail and little things that add up to the incredible work of art that is Everhood.

The world that presents itself to you in Everhood dons a very odd and malleable world. Taking the form of a living doll that was found in pieces, your mission is to reunite with your right arm, which was stolen from you by a strange blue-hooded gnome. Following the perpetrator brings you through a few fights, but you find him in a similar situation as you’re in, when his boss, Gold Pig, stole his legs alongside your arm. With a now united villain, the gnome, Blue, and the doll, Red, travel together through many strange areas to be finally led to Gold Pig’s lair to take him down. In doing so, you are reunited with your arm and have completed the first half of the game.

To combine a rhythm game and RPG isn’t something one should think is easy, but this interpretation of the idea is done quite well. In a fight, you are face-to-face with your opponent, and can control Red to be in one of five lanes. Every opponent has their own theme, and projectiles spawn in a specific pattern charted to the rhythm and progression of the song. Before you obtain the arm, the objective is to survive through the end of the song by dodging and jumping over the projectiles until the enemy gives up. Once your right hand is part of you, you gain the ability to attack the enemy by catching and returning their charges. To do this, you must catch two of the same color attack and then shoot them back. I personally really like this system of combat, but it does result in a lot more time being spent if you’re not so good at the game, or at least more time than usual.

You can tell that the developers had an incredible time making Everhood. However, it might make it a bit harder for you as the player, as the amount of effects they use sometimes becomes very disorienting and seemingly unfair. There are some times when the playing field in a battle is visually distorted to the point of you barely being able to see what’s going on, paired with background visuals only to be compared to an acid trip. It does add a lot to the vibe of the song and opponent, but I feel it’s worth mentioning the potential issues.

Being a rhythm game, one would expect Everhood’s music to fit the role. Of course, the many musicians involved all delivered a beautiful product. Exploring many different genres, the tunes throughout the game blend recorded guitars, chiptune, electronic, dance, and many more ideas together to create truly unique music. The music wouldn’t have as hard of an impact, though, if it weren’t for the amazing visuals, as well. Outside of battles, the game isn’t particularly interesting, but the fight scenes have many very pretty sprites and lights. Each character has a pretty detailed set of animations for their battles, and some of the conflicts feel like an interactive movie with how much is going on while you play. The game also feels very good to play, with simple controls and little to no bugs.

I don’t really know what to say about the moral issues with Everhood. There is violence, but none of it is graphic in any way. The story does, however, involve you killing people in the second half of the game, but to avoid spoilers, I won't go into that. No foul language at all is used, and I can’t think of any other clear issues.

If you have your eyes on Everhood for any reason, I fully recommend that you check it out for yourself. It’s only ten bucks, and has some decent replay value for having several endings and an option to play specific battles to get a better calculated score.  There's an Everhood Eternity Edition that has an additional sixteen battles, that version sells for $12.99 on consoles.  As an experience, I think Everhood is worth trying out.