Secret of Evermore (SNES - Released 1995)

What is it with the year 1995?? I'll tell you what it is.. it was a great year for RPGs. And Secret of Evermore was no exception. This game was released by Squaresoft of America two years after Secret of Mana was released, and is in the same style as SoM as well. This was the first game SoA had control of, and I personally think they did a fine job.

This is more of an action RPG. It has elements of traditional games such as leveling, leveling your weapons, and adding a new take of spell casting by earning recipies for alchemy, and an array of other cool things that Evermore and Mana made popular during the nineties. The game is littered with pretend movie references as the main hero is a movie fanatic. What a dream come true for a young boy to enter a world of his dream. Just look at the cover of the box! That boy and giant, flesh eating bug-demon look like they are having fun. See? They are about to play catch!

Synopsis:

Secret of Evermore takes place in the world of Evermore, when a young nameless boy/hero wanders into an abandoned mansion looking for his companion, nameless dog. He finds himself transported to a world where dreams came true, and turned into nightmares. The hero will traverse the ancient past, the Greek era, the medieval times, and a futuristic space station on par for the last part in the game. The Boy and The Dog fight together, and this game features the option to have 2 players simultaneously.



Full Description: Secret of Evermore - Wikipedia

The Good Points:

Secret of Evermore was a pretty fun game. If you had played Secret of Mana a couple years earlier, then you'll be familiar with this game's style of control. Instead of traditional menu's, SoE features a quick menu, accesable by pressing Y for your character, or X for your canine companion. From here, you can change how you fight (when not controlling one or the other char), change your weapon skills, equip armor, and drop items on the fly. Combat is also action orientated. Pressing B will attack with your equiped weapon, and some weapons can be used to clear parts of the landscape in order for you to move on.

SoE featured some great puzzles. When exploring the Greek Temple, you'll actually have fun beating monsters, popping switches, moving around corridors, etc. This type of game is really fun, almost Zelda-esq to some extents. SoE's take on magic was always something I had fun with as a kid playing this game. You had to take the time to learn Alchemy, and had to have the right ingredients in order to properly cast the spell. Supportive NPC's you meet along the way will be crucial to keeping you alive. Early into the game, the little girl Fire Eyes will bestow to you Call Beads, powerful amulets that can be dispensed to summon powerful alchemy. Using alchemy properly takes a little bit of a curve to know which enemies are weak to what, and when to say screw magic and hit that bitch with your axe. Some of the bosses of SoE are bullshit cheaters though. The Muck Bug can cast acid rain on you, and it seems that he likes to pick the weakest member of the team to cast it on. It's not impossiblly difficult, but it offers great challenge to this game, and keeps gamers pressing on further to reach it's conclusion.

Weapons were utilized in a unique way to this game. At the beginning, you are blessed with a femur bone to wield. Who knew you could beat dinosaurs and bugs with just a flimsy bone. Later on as you progress, your weapon can level with you, and you can upgrade your bone to a real sword pretty early on. Also available are Axes, Spears, and eventually even a bazooka that deals maximum damage. Your dog will level up his bite on his own, and sometimes he can deal more damage than the hero.

The OST for this game was composed very well. Some reviews have bashed Evermore's soundtrack, but vetran music composer, Jeremy Soule took this game to creepy new levels with it's haunting soundtrack. The Introduction theme is one of many gamer's favorites, and personal favorite track of mine too. The soothing tune of Horace's Camp can easily get stuck in your head with it's greek inspired sound, perfect for a peaceful moment before traveling the bleak desert sands. The song in Ebon Keep (where you navigate the castle maze as your dog) is another great track, focusing more on a feeling of stealth rather than action.

The Bad Shit:

Secret of Evermore does piss me off from time to time. And it's because of hit detection with that stupid Spear weapon. You can walk SIDE to SIDE to strike an enemy fine.. but walk towards them UP or DOWN and start swinging but oh shit, you undershot. It's so fucking retarded to have to get just a little closer.. a little closer.. okay NOWWW I can hit you. Then you get too close and get hit. Another thing in regards to combat, the charge system. If you execute a charge hit and then you yourself got hit.. your blow doesn't count. You have to charge up again.

There's nothing too fatal with the game's design, like I said, if you played Secret of Mana in '93, then you already know how annoying it can be to hit monsters with certain weapons. Some bosses are a little obscure too, taking an extra moment to have to learn where to move, when to hit, and when to run. Villager offer little in the way of help, though the NPCs do serve a purpose from time to time, and mainly in Ancient Greece during the trade sequences.

Conclusion:

It's a good game. I wouldn't say it's better than Secret of Mana though, everything about Mana was awesome. SoE played on that style, succeeded, but fell to the back burner due to release of Chrono Trigger soon after SoE dropped. I think sometimes people want to play the little brother of SoM, and Evermore does well in providing hours of fun in that style.

Rating:

 3 / 5 Cave Skulls: Fight Sideways.

Official Site: N/A

Ebay Link: Secret of Evermore SNES

Best Fansite: RPGClassics SoE