Everlasting Journey

I've been watching Everlasting Journey since the early days, when it was just a wee baby that'd never grow up. Well, it's finally grown up and (comparing it to those first versions years ago) has grown up quite a lot.

Everlasting Journey puts you in the shoes of a down-on-his-luck one-man cleaning crew by the name of Sparrow. He's a hard drinking, hard brawling (when he's been hard drinking, anyway) sort who hates his boss and his job in a way only an angsty teenager can pull off just right. Things come to a head in his life when he meets a strange girl named Athesis (she gets to keep this name the entire game so a single pun can be made about it, poor lass) and he decides to go on, what I can only assume, is an EVERLASTING JOURNEY.


Without giving much away, Sparrow's journey is spurred along by some jerk trying to get his grubby paws on Athesis and Athesis trying very hard to keep those grubby paws off of her. Sparrow joins in this crusade to keep Athesis free of grubby paws (those not his own, at least) and they set off, ever attempting to gain distance on their pursuer(s).

The overall story tends to be a bit too much of a railroad for me (I have no problem with linearity in games, but when one character commands the entire course of the game based on her whims I get a bit annoyed). It serves to throw the player into ever more complicated situations which, normally, I'd be fine with. I think the problem I have with it is that it effectively becomes: Do what Athesis tells you: The Game and all the wacky hi jinx stem from her inability to plan well. Mind you, I don't have a big problem with it. Many games use fate or some shadowy character pulling the strings in the background to spur their characters into action (I know mine does!) and its a trope that does get a big bland after awhile. I just wish that Sparrow had a bit more drive. It would be nice to him actually having a plan of his own, even if it coincided with Athesis'. This, at least, would make me feel like my avatar (Sparrow) wasn't just a gormless henchman.

Eventually, Sparrow does start speaking up a bit more about his own destiny. The problem is that his voice is the voice of an unmotivated, apathetic teenager. Even when he's crackin' wise, he always ends up doing what other people tell him to. He does this for so long that when he eventually breaks the cycle it seems completely out of character for him to do so. NOW I'VE BLOSSOMED INTO A BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLY, CAPABLE OF LIFE CHOICES! I mean, there is an underlying subtext of why he's willing to do this (which I get) but the writing so effectively shows him to be an uncaring layabout that it's hard to swallow when he acts heroically.

Speaking of effective writing, let's move on to some of the strong points of the game. Firstly, I felt the writing was solid throughout. I liked all the characters, even when they were being jerks, which I think is a testament to them sounding like real people for the most part. Even Athesis, who could easily have come off in a less positive light, is a very likable character. It's obvious Pepsi has a bit of trouble writing for ladies (not being one himself, I don't blame him), but that only pokes its head out once and awhile. Most of the plot is displayed and advanced quickly and efficiently (railroads notwithstanding) and when Pepsi approaches the 4th wall he does it with a kind of irreverence that I never found to be immersion-breaking.

Perhaps the strongest suit of this game? The graphics. Sure, there's RTP. Sure, there's Mac n' Blue. So? There are so many edits and so much custom stuff that its hard to fault it for staying true to where it all began. Everything works together very, very well, which is probably the most important thing any RM* game can do. This is one of the best looking Rm2k3 games I think I've seen. The graphics are bright and colourful and, though for the most part lovingly detailed, remain quite simple. They also do something many games (commercial and independent) fail to do, and that's compliment the story well. The end result is a light-hearted atmosphere that lines up very nicely with the light-hearted story.

The dungeon design is also quite good, albeit a bit too basic. Most areas are suitably different in both style and, when applicable, gimmick; I never felt like I was traversing the same areas over and over (except perhaps the forest at the beginning, which I did traverse a few times). The dungeons could use a few alternate paths, but their current setup makes it very hard to get lost (and therefore harder to get frustrated, always a good thing) so they are fine for what they are. Presumably, dungeons get more complicated later on, as this demo only showcases some of the simpler, earlier areas.

Of course, filling the dungeons is something far more sinister than I could have imagined: The battle system. Contrary to certain others, my problem with the battles didn't stem as much from the player-side (ie skills) but rather from the enemy side and the way the battle system is balanced. At the beginning of the game, battles are laughably easy. Suddenly, the enemies (monkeys) have five times as much HP and I've only gained one level. Wait, what? OK, a bit of grinding never hurt anyone. By the (SPOILERS OMG) fire cave I was back on track, with the battles being tough but overall quite fair, I felt. Then I arrived at a certain castle where I had to acquire a certain THINGY so I could chase a certain character. Fighting the guards and their dogs was like pulling my own teeth with a monkey wrench. In an area filled with back attacks (which automatically grant the monster party free shots) I found my entire party confused or asleep before I had a chance to act pretty much every second fight. This is pretty inexcusable battle design, since to my knowledge there's no way to prevent this via items. If I managed to survive the storm without losing any characters, I was then met with what I estimate was a 75% miss rate for normal attacks (at one point I missed 7 attacks in a row). WHAT? I have no problem slamming the space bar sometimes, but I do expect it to DO SOMETHING. Unless, of course, it's Sparrow, who was doing about a fourth as much damage as Phillip or the Flobster anyway. The main character shouldn't be the main item distributor.

OK, OK, I got through that area, despite being confused or asleep (The sleep skill does damage, by the way. At one point two of my characters were continuously put asleep until they DIED while the third was ANGRY and his miss rate went up even more! FUN!). The boss fights were pretty OK, although for some inexplicable reason the second of the two had condition-immune enemies (IMMUNE!).

Unfortunately, after a brief (though welcome) interlude, the game became unplayable. I got to the (SPOILER?) Isis Tower before I could continue on no longer. With only two characters in your party you are pretty much doomed to be constantly Confused (or dead, as using a Phoenix Up gives just enough health to be one-shotted by the enemies within), Asleep or otherwise screwed. I tried several times, I tried spamming my best attacks, but no matter what that first battle in the Isis Tower (which you have to engage in and have no way of preparing for) killed me. By the time one of the enemies was dead, the other two had invariably shut down my party with Confusion, which has a higher chance of working than my attacks do of making contact.

Regardless of the horrible end my party came to repeatedly, I was a fan of this game. There was lots to enjoy. Chests to find, NPCs to chat up and pretty graphics to guide me through all helped to keep me coming back. News areas are presented readily and tend to vary wildly in terms of presentation, which means you rarely have to look at the same chipset more than once. More to do in terms of side quests and hidden bits of story and a bit of a stronger main character would help this immensely. The battle system is already receiving an overhaul, and I hope its next iteration doesn't give Confuse or Sleep to every frigging enemy past Firam. I'll definitely check it out when its presented, which is thanks to a solid first (second, really) demo from PepsiOtaku.

Graphics
9/10
I'm only giving this a 9 (and not a ten) because I couldn't enjoy all the graphics this demo had to offer (since I had to stop playing, and all).

Sound
7/10
Some of the songs (like the world theme) fit very nicely, and there are no annoying tracks to be found that I can remember. However, the battle themes don't really fit and there isn't a lot of sound outside the occasional chest click.

Gameplay
5/10
Not much to do, I'm afraid, except fight, which becomes more and more of a chore as you progress. Puzzles or minigames would help this out quite a lot.

Immersion
7/10
Good graphics and believable (or ridiculously unbelievable) characters help this, but a bit too much crackin' wise means you're constantly reminded of the fact that you've played these tropes before.

Design
6/10
With exception to some horridly unbalanced battles, everything works the way you'd want it to. I felt like the characters were suitably varied in their roles, although some overlap would be nice, especially when characters start to get shuffled around. Removing the sprint key (and making the player move default speed) would also be a good idea, since it just meant I had to hold it down CONSTANTLY and it caused a goodly number of problems when interacting with other events.

Overall (not an average)
3/5
There's a lot of work to be done before this game wins any awards (outside of graphics ;D) but it stands on a very solid base, I feel. Puzzles can be added, dialogue can be tweaked, the battle system can be fixed, all without major overhauls of the plot or gameworld. I look forward to future releases!