I’m a sucker for cosy games. I won’t deny it. Give me something cute and colourful, and I’m there. One genre that I just can’t seem to get enough of is farming sims; no matter how many keep flooding the market, I’m always intrigued to try out new titles. So when I saw the trailer for Everafter Falls, I knew I had to give it a go. I reached out to the publisher, and they very kindly gave me an Xbox key so that I could do this Everafter Falls review.
However, even though the key was given for free, I will only include my honest opinion. I always make sure to give my genuine thoughts, so don’t worry about that! In this review, I’ll cover every aspect of the game to help you make an informed purchasing decision. At time I’ve writing, I’ve played through the first season (summer), and put in around 12 hours. So without further ado, let’s get into it!
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Story – Wakey, Wakey, Player One!
The game starts off a little jarringly – After you design your character, you watch a cutscene where… Well, I won’t give spoilers, but let’s just say your character has had better days! When you wake up, you meet Dog, who tells you that you’ve been in a simulation for a year. Apparently this is something you do regularly, as none of the townsfolk seem at all perturbed by the fact that you’ve lost all your memories of them.
The game progresses primarily through quests, although sometimes certain actions will trigger cutscenes. I’ll admit, I would’ve liked to see a lot more cutscenes, but maybe they’re more prevalent in later seasons. I really enjoy finding out more about the world and the lore, so I relish every bit of story development.
I also really like the humour in Everafter Falls. It’s not overt, and I wouldn’t describe this as a comedy game or anything. But the dialogue often has comedic elements, and it’s implemented very well. It’s not cheesy or cringe, it’s written excellently, and helps flesh out the world by making you feel invested in the story.
Characters
So much wasted potential here, unfortunately. Firstly, I want to clarify, I genuinely really like the characters. The designs are lovely, and each one has a distinct personality. Unfortunately, you don’t get to experience that personality very much as you can’t befriend them! I don’t know why this decision was made, potentially to cut down on having to write as much dialogue, but it definitely detracts from the experience.
I’m fine with farming sims not having dating, in fact, in a game like this, I prefer it. I love the idea of just having a cosy platonic community. But just because there’s no romance, shouldn’t mean there’s no friendship. I wish we could give gifts to the NPCs and improve our relationships with them, getting cutscenes as you go, but alas, no such luck. You get a few lines of dialogue each, changing depending on the day, and that’s it.
My favourite character is probably Fin. He’s a little frog who talks in third person, and seems to just be living in his own world. I love how wholesome he is, and he makes me smile every time I interact with him. Ren definitely has the prettiest character design, but sadly I haven’t done any quests for her yet, so I haven’t had much chance to get to know her.
Gameplay – Yet Another Farming Sim
I won’t lie, there’s not much originality in the gameplay. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, I wouldn’t have picked the game up if I didn’t like the standard gameplay of a farming sim. It has all the usual elements, and they’re handled very well. Everafter Falls was clearly made by someone with a lot of love for the genre, and that shines through.
The movement is pretty smooth, with responsive controls, which is excellent. There’s nothing that turns me off from a game quicker than poor movement. However, I do find my character sometimes getting a bit caught on the edges of steps or things like that, which is a bit frustrating. I also find that there are issues with my character facing the correct way. Sometimes she seems to turn around of her own accord, which can be a problem when I’m trying to select a tile in a particular direction.
There’s plenty of different gameplay elements to get to grips with, so I’ll cover my thoughts on each one.
The Four Fs.
- Farming – I appreciate that they’ve tried to do something a bit differently here. Instead of digging and watering everything yourself, you mark out the tiles that you want, and your pet does it. However, whilst a cool idea in theory, it ends up taking more time as you have to wait for him to finish before you can queue more tiles. You can get water drones to automate it, though.
- Fishing – A really unique minigame which I enjoy a lot! You tend to see the same mechanics for fishing across farming sims, but Everafter Falls employs something I’ve not seen before. You have to stop a spinning circle so that the open segment aligns with your reel. There are two layers to this, and two different types of fish you can potentially catch with each cast. There’s a shadow of a fish on the water surface. A very cool way to do it, and no complaints here.
- Foraging – There are mushrooms growing around the town, either on the ground or on stumps. To collect them, you have to pause in front of them and wait for the game to register that you’re there. It’s a minor complaint as it only adds a second or two, but I wish you could just press A as you passed, and it would collect them automatically.
- Fighting – The fighting mechanics in Everafter Falls could use a bit of work. They’re incredibly simplistic, as you just swing your sword repeatedly until all the enemies are dead. My issue is that you can’t move while swinging your sword, and it limits the amount of skill involved. I wish I could dodge or block or something, seeing as I can’t move while attacking, as I can in other games like Stardew Valley.
Crafting and Machines
When I think of crafting in Everafter Falls, the word ‘convoluted’ comes to mind. Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it certainly adds to the longevity of the game. You don’t want to be able to craft everything in the first season, after all. There has to be somewhat of a ramp-up period. However, I do think this game may have ended up being a bit too far over on the difficulty scale. You end up needing to make so many different machines just to get the one you want.
For example, if I want to make a delicate tapper, two of the things I need are silk rope and maple syrup. So I need a Silk Farm, to produce silk cocoons. But then I also need a Spinning Wheel to turn that into silk rope. And to make a Spinning Wheel, I need bricks, so I’ll need a Shell Crusher. Then for the maple syrup, I need maple sap, so I’ll need a Tapper. But then to turn that into maple syrup, I need an Evaporator. To make an Evaporator, I need Super Glue, which means collecting resin from trees, so I need more tappers. I also need a Glass Maker, which in turn needs black bricks. And to make them I need a Furnace. Etc etc. So the list of things I need to do gets so long and complicated.
It’s also tricky to know how to get certain materials, such as black bricks. You can make information signs, but those only work when you interact with the correct machine. I assumed that black bricks would be made with the Shell Crusher, since that’s what produces bricks. But instead, you have to put bricks in the Furnace. So it’s not very intuitive.
Collecting Resources
To do all your crafting, you’ll need to collect various resources. The most common ones are wood, stone, and fibre. You can get fibre by chopping grass with your sword, and grass can be found all around the town, especially on your farm. It doesn’t always produce fibre when you chop it, it’s probably more like 1 in 3 or 4 that gives you fibre. Then wood is gained by chopping down trees, and you get stone from hitting rocks with a pickaxe.
Ores can be found from rocks inside the dungeons. It took me a while to figure out how to do mining in Everafter Falls, but once I found the dungeons, I enjoyed it as much as I do in any other game. The main ore types are copper, iron, gold, and mithril, which can all be used to upgrade your tools.
You can also use pixies to collect resources for you. These are magical sprites that can be summoned at Pixie Shrines and collected using pixie bottles. Different coloured pixies do different tasks, so think carefully about how to use them. Simply place the pixies on the item you want them to harvest, and they’ll get to work. It’s convenient earning passive resources this way.
Audio and Visuals – A Cute and Colourful Adventure
The art style in Everafter Falls is cute and consistent, and helps with the immersion. You really feel part of this cosy story, and the simplistic style works well for the vibe of the game. I might have preferred it had the graphics been the same as the style used for the cover art, but it’s still great. I especially love all the character designs, including the enemies in the dungeons.
However, one big issue with this game’s graphics is the size. I don’t know if it’s as much of a problem on PC, but on Xbox, the writing can be very hard to read. It’s fine for dialogue, but item descriptions and mail are almost impossible to read off the screen. The map is the biggest problem, as you can only view it in a tiny square in the middle of your screen, and you can’t zoom in. I have to really squint to see the names of characters or shops. I hope in future updates they allow you to change the font size or to zoom in.
The music is generally very good. It’s a gentle retro beat that fits the aesthetic perfectly. I can easily listen to it for hours without it feeling repetitive, and the sound effects are satisfying too. The only exception to this is the soundtrack for the dungeons. It’s way too peppy and upbeat and affects the immersion. I would have preferred something darker, especially when there are enemies in the room.
Miscellaneous Thoughts
- Events – Each season has a couple of events, which help to contribute to a sense of community with the town. My favourite event in summer was the Duck Race, where I chose a coloured rubber duck which had to swim round a short outdoor course. There was a pile of rocks which you could throw at the other ducks, and meant I was able to help my duck to victory!
- Calendar – There’s no calendar in this game, which feels like an oversight. I would’ve liked seeing in advance which day each of the events was on. I also found it odd that the seasons have 30 days, when most farming sim games will have seasons with 28 days. It meant I had no crops for the last couple of days of summer as I hadn’t planned for those extra 2 days.
- Map – I’ve already commented about the size being too small, but that’s not the only issue. Not every landmark is visible on the map (such as the Aquarium, or character houses). You also can’t navigate around the map manually, you have to select a character/ shop, and the map will centre on it.
- Character customisation – I’m glad that you can change the look of your character, and there are a decent number of options. I think that modern games have spoiled me for choice, so I’m trying to judge the character creation screen on its own merit rather than comparing it to other titles. There could definitely be more options for customisation, but it’s by no means limited.
- Inventory – You have a rather limited inventory size which cannot be increased. Instead, you can buy support drones to follow you which have a few additional spaces, but also create visual clutter. I wish you could just upgrade your bag size.
Verdict
Overall, this is an enjoyable game, and a solid entry into the farming sim genre. If you’re a fan of cosy games and you love trying out new titles, then Everafter Falls is definitely worth a play. I’m certainly planning on playing it for a bit more, definitely to at least finish the first year. Is it as good as other titles such as Stardew Valley or Coral Island? No. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still have a fun experience with it, and sometimes it’s fun to try something new.
Even though I enjoyed it, the game did crash and freeze a few times, so I can’t in good conscience rate it any higher than 78. With a few tweaks, it could get into the low 80s, so I’m intrigued to see if it improves anything with future updates.
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Everafter Falls
£16.74
Pros
- Calming and well-produced soundtrack
- Enjoyable and unique fishing minigame
- Satisfying gameplay with smooth movement
- You can add most items into the Museum
Cons
- Map interface is way too small and can't be manually navigated
- No tutorial, can be complicated to get to grips with
- Cannot befriend the NPCs
- The game crashed/ froze a few times
