We Like the Strategy RPG Roguelike Evertried, At Least When It Doesn’t Crash
Evertried tries to bring a really interesting concept to the roguelike genre. It’s a tactical grid-based strategy RPG mixed in with slight action-adventure elements molded all together into a puzzle game, with an emphasis on its puzzle aspects. It is absolutely unforgiving, cutthroat, and places you in this world with very little explanation, which is why I’ve been playing it longer than expected, putting in almost 15 hours, and not even seeing the game’s ending as of yet. Even with its solid mechanics, the technical prowess of its gorgeously detailed and designed NPCs, and its strikingly, darkly, intricately crafted enemies, it left me deeply frustrated, and not for any of the right reasons a game such as this should.
The game places the player right into this world with a short cutscene about its grid-like environment. You play as a warrior’s spirit attempting to journey through this tower trying to ascend to the very top, alluding to a goddess of some kind of this realm. You meet different distinct NPCs on different floors. These characters either try to aid your ascension to the top of your amnesiac journey or are trying to figure out how they themselves can thrive in this world.
Each character I spoke with pushed me to hear more about their own storied backgrounds. You have Mallow, a large purple animal trying to strive in growing a flower. A simple task it may look like in this realm, but Mallow feels it is all it can do as its primary goal. Sir Laden Inken Flame attempts to find solace with you as another warrior with amnesia to find resolve in past deeds. Then there’s Vitas Varnas, whom I found compelling in every interaction. A spirit wearing a mask similar to those theatre comedy/tragedy masks with a corporeal form spouting philosophical quandaries, Vitas Varnas would interact with me about philosophy—even using the word itself—as well as light, dark, and the body, mind, and spirit. It reminded me of playing Eternal Sonata over a decade ago, an overtly philosophical game whose ending espouses arguments and dilemmas about dreams, reality, free will, and destiny. Evertried very much had me dwelling on these themes alongside the issues of war as the warrior’s spirit is just trying to figure out his own reason for being here.
Each level is on a 7 by 7 grid totalling 49 units for the warrior’s spirit to traverse. Each enemy moves or performs an action after your own. Each action you take will be the end of your turn, be it taking a step, moving two spaces through a dash step, or attacking in a certain direction next to an enemy. They’re very simple, easy to understand mechanics similar to other strategy RPG games. The game does not tell you much, but it lays these foundations in an exemplary manner with a quick tutorial. To beat each floor, you need to defeat all enemies before ascending to the next.
At the same time, even though you have all of the time to assess your situation, there is a Focus Bar on the top right. Attacking enemies will increase the bar, and it will decrease when you’re hit by enemies or take too long to decide your next action. So at the same time, you have to be both quick and precise in your actions to keep your Focus from dropping.
Focus Levels determine activating passives through Modifiers bought from the Shopkeeper. Modifiers also give additional stronger passives by sustaining higher Focus Levels. Shock will stun an enemy after it attacks you, but if your Focus Level is high enough it will also damage the attacking enemy. Being able to incorporate a swift, timely, and precise plan on each floor will have you rewarded greatly.
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