Thank you Foreign Gnomes for sending us this game for review!

Everhood came out in 2021 and was a surprise success. People fell in love with its characters, colorful world, and music. Many people, including myself, didn't expect a sequel due to the game’s ending. So when Everhood 2 was announced in 2023 people were rightfully excited and surprised. The first game didn’t seem to lend itself to having a sequel, and it looked promising. It seemed like it would expand upon the battle mechanics as well as provide more customization options for your player character. After seeing all of these changes, I knew I was interested.

This game’s story starts with you answering questions to get your “soul color.” Afterwards you’re faced with a being known as the root of all evil, who you can’t defeat. You get saved by a Raven who decides to send you on a journey to be able to defeat this being. You’re given a seemingly small task to complete first, defeat a dragon. To do this you need to go through wacky worlds with their own cast of characters and challenges.

The main core of the first Everhood was its multiple worlds with unique appearances, gimmicks, and even characters. The sequel is no different. Right as you start you’re thrown into a seemingly alien planet with animal-like enemies forcing the natives to work in mines. Immediately after that you can visit multiple other worlds, all of which have their own cast of characters. Each world has a set goal that can be completed at any time. One massive improvement in this game’s worlds is the introduction of chests. In these you can find experience, equipment items, and a stone that can upgrade your weapons. Unlike the original, the worlds here aren’t properly connected outside of a recurring duo who appear throughout the game. Because of this, a lot of characters just don’t have much screen time and aren’t that memorable.

The worlds aren’t just for exploration though, throughout your journey you’ll now encounter enemies outside of boss fights. These enemies can range in difficulty from something you can beat with a few hits to something close to a boss. There are even times when multiple fights can happen in a row. Each enemy is reused in their respective world quite a few times so if you spend enough time in an area they can be repetitive.

With more enemies comes more combat, and that combat has been greatly improved. Unlike the first game, you unlock the ability to fight enemies right off the bat. Similarly to the original, in battles you’re bombarded with attacks in a battle arena with five lanes, which you can freely move between. Your main method of attacking enemies is to absorb two or more notes of the same color, with more notes giving you more damage, and sending them back at the enemy.

Outside of basic encounters there are quite a few larger boss fights. These can range from a slightly stronger enemy to a fight with unique mechanics. Most of these unique mechanics come down to messing with the camera. Bosses will mirror your controls, obscure your vision, or even block off lanes. All of these bosses are well made with quite a few standouts. There are achievements for taking out a boss in one hit, as well as an area to fight them again in case you missed one or its achievement.

Visual style is important to Everhood. One of the highlights of the first entry were the colorful visuals and often strange graphical effects, and the sequel is no different. Every world has specific details that make them stand out from the others, every character has a memorable design, and all of the items that you use have that one small touch that stands out in your mind. This amount of detail goes into the battles in the enemy animations and visual effects.

Since Everhood’s combat is rhythm-based, the music needs to be good, and it is. Most of the music is new, with the few reused tracks being area themes or themes that fit a scene. The individual battle songs are short and easily loopable, but overall good. The boss themes however are mostly good. After completing the game I had quite a few of them stuck in my head, with some of them still in my head. Though none of the tracks hold a candle to the original.

One thing that I loved about the first entry was its replayability and multiple endings. Because of this I’m saddened to say that this game ditches most of that. While in the original you had multiple choices that changed the story’s outcome, here you just have one ending. It took me around eight hours to reach the ending, and I found out that you need to play through it multiple times to fully complete it.

Morally, Everhood 2 can be messy. The battles are mostly bloodless, with one enemy having small red splotches that are possibly just tomato juice, but one area has a bit of environmental blood. I only saw one use of b*****d. One scene features two characters going into a room to sleep together. There’s a slime girl who’s technically naked, and every character in the game is referred to as they. There's also a mushroom in the game that features the trans flag colors and is named Transhroom.

The largest issue with its morality is the spiritual side. The entire story revolves around the concepts of enlightenment and the soul. Most of the themes are Buddhist and there’s even a mechanical Buddha that appears a couple of times. However the worst aspect comes when you’re told to “kill god”. This is treated as the main goal of the game. One of the notes in the battles flashes between different religious symbols, including the Cross.

I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy my time with Everhood 2, but I would also be lying if I said the game was perfect. Repeated battles, lackluster characters, and a boring ending all made my experience worse. There are definitely highlights, but in the end I felt like there was something missing. From extra research, it seems like the main selling point of this sequel was its updated mod support, and it shows. If you liked the original Everhood’s gameplay, then I recommend this game. If you wanted a proper follow-up or story, I’d think twice before diving into Everhood again.