The (Amazing) Secret of Evermore! Ah, The Secret of Evermore where to begin, this game was phenomenal for its time, get pulled into a little world filled with amazing music, interesting characters, amazing scenery and bosses as well as a unique battle system and of course terrible references/puns. Before the game begins you there is a little cut-scene that shows the events of what happened 30 years before the game begins. You come from a town called, not surprisingly "Podunk", as you leave a movie theater your dog chases a cat into a abandoned mansion where an inventor used to live before mysteriously vanishing 30 years ago.
Unable to find the cat you find your dog in a secret room, he starts chewing some wires and a machine zaps both of you into the strange world of Evermore, upon arriving in what appears to be an advanced space craft you are then found by the inventor and his butler Carltron who then proceeds to use an escape pod to get rid of you and send you to the surface of a the planet, and somehow you arrive in a prehistoric world with raptors and other prehistoric beasts, not only that but your dog has changed as well, as far as the story I'll leave it at that and let you discover the rest of this amazing game and with that lets talk about the game itself.
COMBAT and A.I. SETTINGS
So the combat is very intriguing, like a game by a similar title "The Secret of Mana", you are able to control the human character or you can even just play as your dog, a fantastic design in my opinion cause who wouldn't want to save the world as a dog, truly mans best friend. Which ever you choose to be the other will be controlled by the A.I. (which is pretty decent in this game). As the human you have the ability to equip various types of weapons ranging from Swords to Spears and if you're lucky by the end of the game a Bazooka. You also later in the game will gain the ability to use "Alchemy" which are pretty much spells you can cast in the game, but unlike other games you don't have a set amount of mana/magic that regenerates but rather supplies like "Wax" and "Charcoal" etc.
Weapons: The cool thing about this game is that you can charge attacks, below your health there is an "Energy Bar" that fills up to 100% and disappears every time you swing a weapon, and the more you use a weapon the more it levels up and each level you have in that particular weapon allows the charging of said weapon by holding down the attack button. The charge can go up to 3 times the normal strength and it has different effects on each weapon, for example you poke with a spear at level 1 but by the time the weapon is level 3 and you fully charge it you will be able to spin and throw the spear through multiple enemies all the way across the screen, also like many RPG's there are various types of armor.
Alchemy: Like the weapons, the more you use a certain spell the stronger the spell becomes, however as stated before you will need to purchase the ingredients or find them with the help of your dog, which while in A.I. mode will sniff out areas and if he stops and sniffs you can press the action button where he's sniffing and find ingredients. Though there is a slight problem with the A.I. in the game so you might need to move a little around where he is sniffing in order to find it.
A.I. settings are a plus as well, you can open the menu and actually
select how passive or aggressive your partner will be, need help killing something set it to all the way to aggressive, are they low on health and you want them to avoid combat set them to Passive, I personally kept it a little more on the aggressive side not quite balanced.
Music
The music is phenomenal, each world, battle, person, and setting have their own unique themes. Ranging from the sounds of prehistoric animals chattering in the background while you hear a slow flute to the intense music of a boss battle. Every tune in the soundtrack has definitive themes and not just some idle filler music you can easily hear the tune the song has. And if you want to be convinced as to how good the music is well it was the soundtrack was composed by Jeremy Soule, don't know who that is? Well ask yourself, have you ever listened to any of the music to the Elder Scroll series? That's right The Secret of Evermore was Jeremy's first soundtrack he made and its beautiful.
LENGTH and DIFFICULTY
Surprisingly this game is actually a long one especially on your first play through, there are about 3 continents to play in as well as the space station, each has a massive area to roam and play in as well as what could be called dungeons with mini bosses and bosses. Later in the game you will get a flying machine and be able to visit each continent as you please.
The difficultly is difficult to explain, some parts are easy to play in while others have sudden changes in difficulty, also if you find a certain alchemy spell to do in the game (I won't name it) you can actually blaze through the game and their bosses easily so I don't recommend using the unnamed ability too often or it will ruin the experience for you.
GAME PLAY and STORY
Now to be honest as I said before the dialog can be a bit cheesy at times, and the story is a pretty decent one but it isn't the best, however each continent has its own mini story and problem that needs fixed.
One of the biggest things that kept me playing was seeing how interesting the worlds enemies were as well as leveling up every weapon I ever received, the types of weapons you get are Sword, Axe, Spear, and Lance (not including the bazooka which is the only gun). Each you can level up and each world has it's own versions and I leveled them all up cause I wanted to. When you hit an enemy numbers for damage are displayed which is a bonus cause you can see how much damage you are dealing and you will also freeze yourself and enemies when you cast a Alchemy spell, likewise you are frozen in place when an enemy casts a spell.
It also offers a fair bit of exploration, though like I stated before you will be restricted to each continent until you get a flying machine and its not quite open world like The Legend of Zelda a Link to the Past but you will definitely want to explore around to find those precious materials you can't buy in stores.
GRAPHICS
The graphics are what you would expect from a Super Nintendo but unlike a Link to the Past that has a cute chibi look to it, this game has a much more realism and detail similar to Super Metroid.
Overall I love this game so much and throughout the years I constantly replay it or listen to the soundtrack, and recommend it to all my friends and anyone who is a fan of RPG's or have played the Secret of Mana.
Pros:
- It offers a unique type of game play I've only seen in one other game
- Fantastic Music and environments
- You level up and so does your spells and weapons (I mean how many games level up weapons?)
Cons:
- To be honest the menu controls can be a little difficult as you do not press start or
select to access them, and you have to use the D-pad to click cycle through the different sub menus like spells, items, etc.
- The opening is a bit lengthy so you'll be watching it for about 4 minutes before you can actually start playing.
Sound
10 Addictive
9 Depth
9 Story
8 Difficulty
6
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