Screenshot: Everhood
There have been a lot of interesting genre mashups with lots of heart lately—haunting stories with poignant messages that usually subvert the norm of video games altogether, where killing everything actually has a negative impact.
Everhood is such a title: a genre mash-up that surprisingly shares many elements with
Undertale while providing a experience of its own—but just barely.
Everhood is an adventure game with rhythm game sections and other genres thrown in occasionally. In the time its been released, I’ve seen many people describe it as
Guitar Hero meets
Undertale, and while that’s not entirely accurate, it’s hard to deny that characterization. In
Everhood you play as a wooden doll whose arm has been stolen by a blue gnome. As the wooden doll, you wake up in a strange land full of interesting characters. Sometimes you’ll have to bypass these characters by playing a sort of rhythm game that resembles
Guitar Hero as well as a few other genres, including a racing game segment.
Screenshot: Everhood
While
Everhood isn’t really about tight gameplay mechanics, its rhythm game is actually sort of fun. It was hard for me to play at first, since your goal is to avoid lasers ON the beat, which is usually when you would try to hit those notes in a normal rhythm game. You can either jump over the ‘notes’ or dodge left or right to avoid them. Some of these laser notes are too tall to jump over. There are situational variations on this gameplay. Those rhythm sections can also be incredibly unforgiving. Even with quick reflexes, it’s possible you may need to play them a couple of times each to get through them. While most of the rhythm gameplay requires you to merely survive to the end, in some cases you’ll have to do some action or a meet a goal before you are able to proceed—especially after you get the ability to deflect some beats back.
While I enjoy the rhythm sections, they don’t feel as thought out or have the same impact on the narrative as the bullet hell sections of
Undertale did. Also, the music that you dodge lasers to is pretty good, though all of the music would probably show up as B-Sides if they were composed by Toby Fox. The music in
Everhood is serviceable, but not quite as memorable as
Undertale’s.
While you’re not playing rhythm games, you’re exploring the dark, surreal world of
Everhood and its characters. Again, the similarities with
Undertale can’t really be ignored here. Characters are quirky in similar ways to those in
Undertale, and even tout a similar character design style.
Everhood’s world is an interesting place to inhabit, and there are secrets and story nuance to uncover.
I found
Everhood’s story to be similarly derivative of
Undertale. While it certainly tells its own story, it tends to hit similar beats, themes, and tone. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, however. I wouldn’t say that
Everhood is a rip-off of
Undertale—it brings enough to the table—but
Everhood is definitely paying homage to that game.
Screenshot: Everhood
It’s hard to deny
Undertale’s influence on Everhood. I think part of what made
Undertale so successful was how novel it was.
Everhood, on the other hand, seems to be full of concepts that have been explored elsewhere. There’s nothing wrong with homage, though, and Everhood’s amalgamation of various IPs makes it into something somewhat unique. Even though its heavy reliance on explore, interact, battle, and its art style make it seem more like an
Undertale ripoff, that doesn’t stop you from being able to enjoy
Everhood’s poignant underlying story.
Everhood is available now
on Steam and for
Nintendo Switch.
If you like the video game, tabletop, or other technology content that Third Coast Review has to offer, consider donating to our Patreon. We are the only publication in Chicago that regularly reviews video games, and we cover lots of local Chicago-based events and more. If you want to contribute to our coverage of Chicago’s video game scene (and more) please consider becoming a patron. Your support enables us to continue to provide this type of content and more. Patreon.com/3CR
You can also catch us streaming games we’re reviewing and staff favorites on our Twitch channel.