Everhood

Everhood: An Ineffable Tale of the Inexpressible Divine Moments of Truth is a 2021 video game developed by Chris Nordgren and Jordi Roca. The game's plot involves a red doll-person trying to recover their stolen arm from Gold Pig, an immortal inhabitant of the land of Everhood. Along the way, the player allies with a small creature by the name of Blue Thief, and encounters a variety of characters who either attempt to aid or deter the player on their quest to retrieve Red's arm. It was released on Microsoft Windows and Nintendo Switch on March 4, 2021. Everhood: Eternity Edition was released on September 28, 2023 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. A sequel, titled Everhood 2, is scheduled for an early 2025 release.

Gameplay
Everhood was described by Screen Rant as an adventure RPG that focused on having its battle system based on a rhythm game as opposed to a standard strategy or turn-based combat system. Similar to Guitar Hero, the battlefield consists of five lanes that the player can move between freely. Each enemy in the game has their own battle theme, and will time their attacks to the song's beat. However, unlike standard rhythm games, the player is meant to dodge the enemy's attacks rather than hitting them. At the beginning of the game, attacks can only be avoided by jumping over them or dodging to the side, but after acquiring Red's stolen arm, the player can absorb attacks and fire them back at the enemy. Initially, the player must survive for the entire length of the song to progress, but later-game battles loop until the enemy's health is drained by deflecting their attacks.

Setting
Everhood 's world is composed of multiple separate areas, such as a carnival, a mushroom forest, and a desert. Many of these areas are not directly connected, but can be accessed from the central Cosmic Hub through different doors, in a similar fashion to Yume Nikki. These areas are inhabited by a diverse cast of characters, with some named after colors. This is the case of the player character itself, Red, as well as Blue Thief, Professor Orange, and the Green, Purple, and Brown Mages, among others.

It is gradually revealed that Everhood is the tattered remains of an ancient realm of immortals. Its remaining inhabitants mostly don't enjoy existence, but some are trapped by their fear of oblivion. The player must choose between killing them and leaving them to their existences.

Story
At the beginning of the game, a disembodied voice directly addresses the player, asking them to "abandon their humanity and accept immortality" to enter the land of Everhood. After accepting, the player is given control over Red, a mute wooden doll who awakens after their arm is stolen by Blue Thief. Following Blue Thief’s path, they meet Frog, who engages in a battle serving as the game's tutorial. Upon completing the fight, Frog clears the way.

Red continues forward into a nightclub. Guards and patrons bar Red's way to a backroom where the hostile Gold Pig, who keeps Red's missing arm, awaits. Gold Pig throws Red into an incinerator, an almost-unwinnable battle. If Red loses, the disembodied voice offers the player an "Absolute Truth" and brings Red back.

Whether they live or have to be brought back, the incinerator breaks down, Red exits it, and discovers that Gold Pig has stolen Blue Thief's legs and abandoned them. They set out together to find Gold Pig, retrieve their stolen limbs, and understand the nature of Everhood. Along the way, the two meet and are attacked by characters such as a sentient trash can, Professor Orange and their assistant Grundall, and the insane Green Mage.

After losing to Red and being pressured by previous characters, Gold Pig returns Blue Thief and Red’s limbs. After retrieving their arm, Red is interrupted by Frog, who reveals that Everhood’s inhabitants are eons-old immortals, and tasks the player with ending their existence.

Red is then returned to Gold Pig's temple, and begins their mission to end the realm. They can now engage and kill the characters they have met along the way, with many of them refusing to die and only a few accepting their fate. Alternatively, they can avoid killing anyone, to the anger of Frog.

If the player chooses to kill everyone, the recurring Lost Spirits guide Red to killing the sun itself, which was keeping them stuck in Everhood. Afterwards, the disembodied voice from earlier begins a process of "Reconciliation", in which Red faces the spirits of those they’ve killed, until a humanoid figure named Pink interrupts the fight and reveals themselves to have been using Red as a vessel. They were previously given the player's role of ending the world's existence earlier on, but quit partway through.

The spirits accept Pink’s explanation, and Pink leaves to kill the disembodied voice, revealed to be universe itself. After doing so, they, the spirits of everyone else, and a figure resembling the Buddha say their farewells to the world in the form of one last battle.

Alternatively, if the player refuses to kill anyone, Frog attempts to force the player to do so via a battle. If Frog is not killed during the battle, they reveal themselves to be a Lost Spirit trapped in the world, and the disembodied voice lets them out. From this point, the player may leave the world, or keep going and kill the inhabitants.

Reception
Zoey Handley of Destructoid praised the music in the game, but noted that the story threw in too many plot twists and critiqued spelling errors and long load times within the game. Nintendo World Report's Jordan Rudek praised the game's rhythm-based combat and humor and called it "an instant classic", while also noting the grammar and spelling errors within the game and long loading times.

Sequel
In June 2023, publisher Foreign Gnomes announced a sequel aptly titled Everhood 2. It is scheduled for an early 2025 release on Microsoft Windows and Nintendo Switch.