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While in the first section of this shrine I'll try to refrain from giving spoilers to both games, but just know in the later section I will talk about stuff that does get into spoiler territory. Also theres alot of rambling in this so keep that in mind if you don't want to read walls of paragraphs. (Being an Everhood fan and trying to find someone to ramble about the game with is lonely I tell you.)
The Everhood series is a series of psychedelic rhythm based bullet hell rpgs created by Foreign Gnomes, with its first entry releasing on march 4th of 2021 (dear god I can’t believe it’s been 5 years I feel old). Everhood is my all time favorite thing ever and has helped me in so many aspects of my life, I am very passionate about this series and this shrine is dedicated to my love of Everhood.
Everhood started its development around the august of 2018 with the first ever public appearance gameplay testing brought to an event in September 29 2018, what this test consisted of I don’t really know, I guess you can say its… “LoSt MeDiA”. Though I guess a more “official” release would be with the vertical slice demo posted back in September 29 of the same year on both game jolt and itch.io.
It wasn’t until around march 19th of 2020 that the games steam page would be put up, along with a new trailer and updated demo, from the trailer it was stated it would release within Q4 of 2020, though as someone who discovered everhood in Q4 of 2020 I can confirmed it didn’t release around that time, that was because the game got delayed due to complications outside of the game itself, pushing it instead to a march 4th 2021 release (which as someone who was there for the game on that day I can confirm, it did release on that day).
Kind of what I described in the beginning of this shrine, Everhood is a psychedelic rhythm bullet hell adventure rpg with musical elements, the game follows Red, a wooden doll who gets their arm stolen by a blue thief, its up to you to retrieve your arm back while battling various characters on the way. Well at least that's the short in a nutshell version that doesn’t delve into spoiler territory, honestly my description doesn’t do it justice, theres alot more to this game that I can probably go on hours about but I’m not really going to do that (If I did this shrine would probably be like 20x longer than it already is).
Though if the game interests you I recommend checking it out yourself, any sort of description I give to the game I don’t think will ever give justice to the games experience, though I do warn of one thing. If it wasn’t obvious with it’s themes of psychidelica I don’t recommend this game to anyone who’s epileptic, some battles within the series can get intense visual wise and while there is a way to tone down the visuals, I know stuff like this can affect everyone differently so it’s up to you if something like this is worth it to you.
The game would also be re-released in September 28th of 2023 under Everhood: Eternity Edition, which would feature more content such as extra boss battles.
Reception wise while this game isn't like super popular, like of course this game didn't reach the levels of like Cuphead or FNAF, hell this is probably your first time hearing about this game, though upon release (and still now) the game got alot of positive reception, along with it being played my various popular youtubers and streamers. Which honestly deserved, (in my opinion) I would consider Everhood as my personal game of the year for 2021 (with Inscryption following very close). To me Everhood feels like such a unique experience that I don't think any other game can replicate.
So I kind of skipped timeline I was trying to do here but whatever I’m typing this late at night and I’m tired. Anyways back to where we were, info about Everhood 2’s existence would first appear publicly around 2022, and just like with the first game not only would it get a demo but it would also release on march 4th (though in 2025 instead of 2021 obviously). Everhood 2, while having similar gameplay (with some differences) does have a different premise, with you now playing as a light being (who soul color is different depending on how you answered the questionnaire, yes there's a questionnaire and it can ask you if you played fortnite) and now you hold the task by trying to retrieve your voice while trying to slay the mind dragon. At least thats the non spoiler in a nutshell version that doesn’t do any justice, just like with Everhood I can go into hours about this game.
Now how was the fan reaction to this game…
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Half of the Everhood fandom be like:
(ummm I couldn’t find the clip but insert that one clip of matpat looking sad and saying “it sucked man”)
So yeah to say that Everhood 2 is… divisive can be an understatement, some fans really enjoy the game, some fans really (and I mean really) hate the game, and some just find it okay. Personally I fall into the “really enjoyed it category” and while I do understand where alot of fans disappointment comes from (and I’m not going to deny that I do have some nitpicks myself) theres so many things in the game that I personally loved. I would also like to admit that I was kind of nervous getting into the game from how alot of people were talking about it, but when I did get around to playing it I can gladly say I was pleasantly surprised, and while I do like the first game more, I can tell there were multiple aspects that gained improvement compared to the first game, even in things I didn’t know could be improved on. (Like I know the phrase “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” exists, but kind of feels like the devs just looked at that went fuck you and somehow made it work).
So would I personally recommend it if you’re only someone who’s played the first game or is looking to get into Everhood, that’s honestly up for you to decide, I think if there’s one thing to take away from the little ramble above is that you shouldn’t let people affect your opinions/first impressions of something, this includes me, I may be an Everhood 2 defender until the day I die but take everything I say with a grain of salt. If you think Everhood 2 is personally up your alley or not that’s all up to you, if you think that you might enjoy it then thats fine, or if you feel like you might pass on playing it thats also fine. At the end of the day media is subjective and we all have our opinions on what is good or bad and thats fine (just be respectful about it).
Okay sorry for getting into an off topic rant I probably should have put that whole ramble in another section now where was I oh yeah, something Everhood related is on March 4th 2026 a trailer for a new game called Everhood Hunters, while this game isn’t out yet (though I’m betting for a March 4th release) but what I do is that unlike the other games it’s going to be a rougelike along with featuring multiplayer. But other than that that’s all for the Everhood series timeline.
This section is just dedicated to misc rambles, note that there will be spoilers in this section.
As someone says before getting blasted in the head with a 49er, if theres one thing to never ask an everhood fan is if everhood is a “undertale-like” game (or fnf like). Though it should be stated that yes, one of Everhoods big inspirations was Undertale, though it should also be noted that Everhood has many other inspirations other than that and honestly if you even looked into the game for maybe like, 5 seconds you can realize how different of a game Everhood is compared to Undertale, to me the both of them feel like separate entities.
And while people comparing other indie games(or event at times outright accusing games of plagiarizing/bootlegging) Undertale, I won't deny that at least in the early years of Everhoods existence it felt like the Undertale comparisons were just alot more egregious compared to alot of other games. And honestly I also won't deny that I’m still kind of peeved when people compare the two (though I do try to give the benefit of the doubt if it’s someone who just found out about Everhood and isn’t doing it maliciously). I think moral of the story here is please don’t be annoying with comparisons, or at least understand how two things can have similarities but should be treated as their own thing.
Just like with any piece of media, Everhood went through some changes before the final product, these changes can be seen within both the 2018 (or vertical slice) demo and the 2020 demo, list of changes include (but are not limited too):
- Reese’s sprites in the vertical slice demo being changed within all other everhood versions
- An entire cut battle from the vertical slice demo with the white skeletons section being longer and with it later changing it to a 3d skull, the song used in this battle is also cut and unused from the final game
- In the demo version of the game, in Ziggs battle in the background there are multiple silhouettes of humanoid figures, though these figures have been removed in the final game
- In the vertical slice demo, there is no incinerator fight, instead its a sequence where Red is slowly being pulled into the incinerator
- Also related to the incinerator in the 2020 demo after the incinerator fight it appears the same, unlike how it the final game it appears damaged
- In the post mortem battle pink is shown to have both of their arms unlike in the final game
- Purple mage doesn’t appear during the scene where you first meet Gold pig
- Multiple names were changed from the demo’s to the final, such as white mask becoming lost spirit, guard becoming blue stonegaurd, and purplehair becoming reese
So as I mentioned above I ended up discovering it through the demo, or at least a gameplay of the demo. I still remember the day I found out about this game, it was a november night in 2020, I just got finished from doing something and decided to watch some youtube in which I found out about AlphaBetaGamer, I started binge watching the channel and the game that stuck out to me the most was Everhood, in fact it stood out to me so much that out of all the games I saw I went to go look for more stuff regarding it, and from there I wasn’t the same.
Honestly something I still think about is how different of a person I would have been if I didn’t find out about this game, something I should be honest about is around late 2010s to early 2020s I was in a very dark place, dealing with alot of a internalized shit and surrounding myself around online spaces that only fed into those feelings, I was unknowingly falling down into a downward spiral, though after I found out about Everhood I feel like in a way it helped me become a better person (along with some other things but Everhood was kind of the start to my growth and healing), in a way I still kind of question if I would have been the same without Everhood, would I have been the worse version of myself, would I still be alive today? Everhood is a game I hold very dear to me, it saved me and I still revisit the game as a source of comfort during my lower times in life, and I don’t know how I would have turned out without it.
Okay thats enough of the sappy shit lets get into some of my favorites.
Songs:
Everhood: Alot of these are probably basic choices but some of my favorite songs include Soul Cottage, Beyond Human Recognition, Euthanasia Rollercoaster, At Peace, Revenge, You Want Gnomes, and Frogs Are Friends.
Everhood 2: Just like with the first game I have alot of favs (and some are probably basic), they include Playing With Insanity, Neon District, Shade Dance Battle, Bobo The Midnight Jester, Cazok Battle, Pink Battle, The Dragon, and Sun Room.
Characters:
Everhood: I find alot of the characters to be likable but my favorites are Red, Pink, Frog, Brown Mage, Green Mage, Purple Mage, Zigg, Blue, Rasta Beast, Sam, Irvine, and Yellow.
Everhood 2: Just like with the first game I have alot of favorites too and… ignoring the obvious if you have seen my selfshipping shrine (if you haven’t its Bobo…) I also really like Shade, Lucy, DMITRI, Raven, and Evren.
Boss Battle:
Everhood: Both Gnome fights, High being fights, and the Cube fight, I’m also a fan of alot of the early fights such as with Frog or Zigg, but that’s mainly for nostalgia reasons (is it too early to get nostalgic for this game?).
Everhood 2: Also the Gnome and higher being fights, the Shade fight, and the Mind Dragon fight.
The tracks 72 and Heavy are actually just rearranged versions “MEGAFAUNA” and “nOISE gATE” by HALLEY LABS (And listening to both songs yeah I can totally tell, though I feel as though I’m left with more questions than answers, for what exactly I’m not telling).
Besides from developer self inserts, every character in the everhood series is technically genderless, keep this fun factoid in mind because it's very clear some people don’t 🤩 (watch me as a pull a kris dreemurs pronouns section with the 72 citations but with every fucking character in this series).
Red was originally going to be a character for another game, though after said game got cancelled Red was recycled and used for Everhood.
If you wait a few minutes without picking up blue, they will slowly crawl around the pathway.
Surprisingly Everhood does happen to have a couple of collabs with other games.
For the most part this comes in the form of characters from Rhythm Doctor, Slipstream, Mago, and Fight’N Rage appearing in Everhood: Eternity Edition, though in August 13 of 2025 there was a official collab with the game Crypt of the NecroDancer with a few Everhood themed levels.
On a now private scratch project that was simply just an animation meme to celebrate Everhoods anniversary I remember in the description I went on this paragraphs long rant about how pissed I was that stuff that got popular (or re popular) around 2021 was getting more attention than Everhood and dear god its all so very embarrassing, I don’t know if you remember me talking about this in my interests section but I had a vendetta towards most things that got popular in 2020-2023 because I felt like the things I liked deserved the spotlight… dear god I was so cringy.
As someone who’s been a day one-er I still remember when Pink was the most hated character in the fandom, though at least from what I see now I think we’ve past those days and I’ve seen alot more appreciation for the character, but it’s really funny looking back on this period.
Another thing I remember in the early days were before any announcement of an official Everhood 2 someone made video that was like “Everhood 2 trailer”, said video was a prank for April fools as it just lead to some flavor of rick roll or troll from what I remember, obviously it was a joke but I kind of wonder if it was an omen to come.
Speaking of scratch I used to ramble alot about the game and made like multiple projects about lore, theories, technical stuff, ect, alot of these are gone but I sure did love telling random children all about this one game I really liked. (Also can you tell I’m on the spectrum if everything else outside of this shrine wasn’t obvious enough.)
Also on a similar topic to any Everhood fans who may have been aware of my existence around like 2021-2023, I apologize for being cringe ;-; (I mean I still am, but I’m an adult now with a somewhat more developed frontal lobe).
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