ROMiniscing: Secret of Evermore (Super NES)
[ Superior ] Epic Legendary
Any SNES\Genesis\TG-16\Neo Geo gamer can opine about the long list of games that never made it to the North American and PAL region markets, but how many can name one that never made it into the Japanese? And with Action RPGs having their origins in Japan, wouldn’t you be surprised if this game fit that bill too? Well then get surprised, because today we ROMinisce about exactly that: Secret of Evermore.
Evermore excels at defying conventions. Your “party” consists of two characters: you and your dog (who hasn’t been himself lately). Not four characters like most RPGs, and not one character like most action RPGs… two. The storyline is paper-thin in an almost self-deprecating way. In simple English: the game knows it doesn’t have an epic story to tell. The adventure begins when your dog chases a cat into a laboratory that conveniently houses a transporter of some sort. You are teleported into a multi-era Imaginationland and embark on a mission to get back to Podunk, USA (your appropriately-named hometown). Hilarity ensues, including the always appreciated breaking of the fourth wall. In Mike Nelson fashion, the main character has an arsenal of terrible B-movie references that provide an odd but enjoyable collection of non-sequitors.
What makes this game a treat is that it’s such a divergence from RPG standards. Though games from Legend of Zelda to Fallout have given us Action RPGs galore, in 1995 this sub-genre was still relatively new. Pushing the envelope further, Evermore trades MP for alchemy materials (and likewise spells for formulas), throws out “parties” for only two PCs, and swaps traditional spell and weapon progression for a “Level up by use” system similar to the StarOcean series.
The game does have some weak spots. For me, video game music is more than just mood music, it’s a beloved indulgence. Evermore’s 1-minute loops of generic melodies are dull no matter what you want from a game (although the composer, Jeremy Soule, has gone on to do great things). Additionally, the bosses range from “cool but easy” to “dull and easy.” I suppose they wanted to keep the game accessible to young gamers, but most of these bosses go beyond stupid. But if you asked me to pinpoint the thing I was most annoyed with, I guess I’d have to say making me walk through the Dark Forest like 5 fucking times for 5 x 40 screens of boring bullshit.
But anyway… I still love playing this game. Between collecting all the secret items and spells, reliving all the bad puns and sarcasm, and scouring every zone for alchemy materials, there’s always something to come back for. If the game had been marketed correctly it may have had greater success, but instead it remains a quaint, underrated gem of American gaming history. Brian Fehdrau (lead developer) says, “I’ve enjoyed seeing people discover Evermore via PC emulation.” So make the man happy by firing up ZSNES and playing this all-American game, patriots! U-S-A, U-S-A!
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Tags: action rpg, company-square, company-squareenix, emulation, erdtirdmans, reviews-try, ROMiniscing-superior, rpg, single player, snes
July 4th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
[…] to NFOpocalpyse, who’s review and photo gallery helped me with the images. AKPC_IDS += “19538,”;Stephen Greenwell combines the […]
July 12th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
The same team went to form their own company called Crave, and did another ps one game called shadow madness. This was actually released by Square, and was a creation purely of the american branch (square l.a.? i forget.) Both games were forgotten, although both were well recieved critically.
I wonder if we will ever see a legit emulation release, the games deserved wider audience than they got.