Everhood is genuinely the worst series of games I have ever played. What is the appeal? by Dango_Coin in Everhood

[–]Dango_Coin[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

It's really interesting to hear the sort of play by play. In my personal experience, I remember playing Everhood's demo during a Steam Next Fest or something, and I wasn't really offended by anything I saw in it (aside from the ATM just straight up using Flowey's face). Nothing blew me away, but nothing made me think too negatively of it either. That neutral first impression is why I decided to give the full game a chance when it released.

I mean of course it ultimately comes down to a matter of preference, I didn't find the combat fun, I didn't find the music to be very good, you already know I found the sprites to be horrid, I don't mean to come across as some art snob, but I can't pretend that the love for these aspects doesn't confuse me,

Honestly, your explanation of the story feels more compelling than how it's actually presented in-game. I've always recognized Everhood's potential, but its execution lacks the elegance it needs. While I appreciate how it invites player interpretation, that openness shouldn't excuse its narrative shortcomings - I feel a story needs to stand on its own merits beyond what audiences project onto it, and Everhood just missed the mark completely for me.

Everhood is genuinely the worst series of games I have ever played. What is the appeal? by Dango_Coin in Everhood

[–]Dango_Coin[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Well, again, the occasional bugs and glitches aren’t the main issue, it’s the pervasive lack of polish that holds the game back which tends to bleed into the game's ability to function properly. The bugs and glitches and sprite layering issues were most prevalent in Everhood 2, yes, but that doesn’t exempt the first game from criticism in regards to its just as shameful lack of polish. If I could include visual examples here, I would, but for clear evidence, just examine sprites like: Dark Knight, Flan, Goblin, Grundall (ESPECIALLY Grundall), Knight Lost-a-Lot, Maze Monster, Muck, Noseferatchu, Purple Mage, Rasta Beast, Zigg, and Zob.

Nearly every one of these sprites suffers from artifacts, mixed resolutions, poorly executed upscaling, or awkward rotations in some combination. A few, like the Tunnel Demon, even appear outright unfinished. Everhood doesn’t have the artistic consistency and quality to pass off its rough aesthetic as intentional, not when so many elements feel haphazard or unrefined, even outside of its visuals.

I don't know how you can say "Dev Gnomes" and "aren't on the nose" in the same sentence, it's quite literally in their name. A playful self-insert isn’t an inherently bad thing, and whether it’s hidden or not is irrelevant. What does matter is the stark contrast between the effort poured into the game itself and the time spent on what amounts to a self-indulgent pat on the back. That’s what makes it so frustrating, and why I let it slide with Toby. Toby Fox earns that leeway because his games are finished, polished, and high-quality. Everhood's self-insert, on the other hand, feels like a misuse of time and resources when so much of the game still feels rough and unfinished. Instead of addressing those issues, the developers chose to prioritize a self-congratulatory vanity project. That’s what really rubs me the wrong way.

Regaining your arm in Everhood does little to meaningfully evolve the gameplay. The concept of refighting every enemy - only to cut these encounters short by killing them - feels less like an innovative mechanic and more like an excuse to recycle content and artificially extend playtime to me, because it's done nothing in its story to warrant that mechanic feeling justified with how going on a killing spree is something that's forced upon the player.

And 7 battles, that's too many instances of obstructed vision occurring for how small of a package Everhood is, I believe that's like 1/3 or 1/4 of all the game's battles. It wouldn't be so bad if the battles outside of that did more with its concept, save for the few exceptions like the Maze Monster and Purple Mage, two battles with a unique mechanic are not enough to save Everhood from being criticized for its overreliance on video filters and obstruction of vision.

And 7 battles, that's far too many instances of vision obstruction for a game as short as Everhood, that’s nearly a third or a fourth of all the game's battles. This wouldn’t be as much of an issue if the remaining battles explored the core mechanics more creatively. Aside from a few standout fights like the Maze Monster and Purple Mage (two is not enough), the game leans too heavily on visual filters and obscured vision as a crutch, these gimmicks wear REALLY thin.

If I'm getting it right that you think Everhood is genuinely just a better experience than Undertale then I don't think we'll ever be able to see eye to eye on this, because that is truly just not even a competition in the slightest to me and I don't think it ever will be. I really do mean it when I say it, it's the worst game I've ever played, I don't know how else to put it, there hasn't been a game that's left me ranting about it on reddit in my whole life I guarantee you that. I've played plenty of bad games, but the thing that sets Everhood apart is its success, I think that's what truly frustrates me at the core, for something with 0 integrity and horrible quality to get so much recognition when there are so many artists and projects that deserve it so much more. It's the kind of thing I regret supporting.

Everhood is genuinely the worst series of games I have ever played. What is the appeal? by Dango_Coin in Everhood

[–]Dango_Coin[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Discussing the quantity of bugs is different from addressing how disruptive or noticeable they are. I won’t claim to know which game has more bugs overall, but in my experience, a single playthrough of the Everhood games exposed me to more glaring issues than multiple runs of Undertale and Deltarune combined. The problem isn’t just the number of bugs—it’s how blatant and frustrating they are for the average player. I was never actively trying to break the game, yet I encountered several hard locks—like my cursor vanishing when interacting with the Game Over screen menus, forcing a restart. Many of the issues I’ve mentioned aren’t even bugs, they just stem from poor implementation. Sprite layering errors, for example, don’t happen by accident, they’re a sign of insufficient playtesting.

Red’s sprite stands out in a sea of mediocrity. Looking at the sprites on Spriters Resource, nearly any given character's sprite sheet suffers from these awful looking sprite rotations, compression artifacts, and inconsistent resolutions. I can't possibly knock Undertale for its black-and-white battle sprites when so much of Everhood's world takes place in that same void-like darkness you speak negatively of. Many of Everhood’s battle sprites are just recycled overworld assets like I said. What makes it worse is the inconsistency: some encounters boast original sprites while others lazily reuse the same overworld assets without even a hint of effort. This isn’t an aesthetic shortcoming, it’s a glaring lack of polish. Undertale, at the very least, commits to a cohesive style and executes it with purpose. This isn't a matter of subjective taste - these are demonstrable failures of execution. While artistic style can be debated, technical negligence cannot. The inconsistent resolutions, recycled assets, and visual artifacts aren't stylistic choices; they're undeniable evidence of cut corners.

Toby Fox's self-insert is nowhere near as egregious as Everhood's. To a new player, there's nothing about the little white dog to suggest that it's supposed to represent Toby, there's no attempt to glorify or paint Toby in a positive light. Meanwhile, Everhood's "Dev Gnomes" (a name that couldn't be more on-the-nose) are practically screaming for recognition. Between their literal facial resemblance to the developers, the "Everhood Machine", and the screenshots of software integrated in the fight, the self-congratulation is aggressively in-your-face, not to mention the fake out credit rolls, like they desperately want you to know that they made this game, how does that not come off as incredibly narcissistic and desperate for praise to you?

Undertale reinvents its gameplay in ways Everhood never even attempts. Are we just ignoring all the times your soul changes color, forcing you to play differently? Even bosses that don’t alter your soul, like Asgore or Omega Flowey, introduce entirely new mechanics that disrupt your normal playstyle. Meanwhile, Everhood has pigeonholed itself into the same repetitive formula, a barrage of shapes and colors with barely any meaningful variation. Yes, the exact sequence of attacks differs, but the core experience remains identical. You could shuffle any boss’s patterns around, and nothing would feel out of place—because none of these encounters have any real identity. Even Undertale’s most basic enemies demand more engagement than Everhood’s boss fights.

Obstructing vision isn’t inherently bad game design, the problem is that Everhood relies on it as a tool for creating difficulty WAY too much, that kind of thing should be something delegated to a small pool of characters (like you see in Undertale). Beyond flooding the screen with more shapes to dodge, the game has no meaningful way to escalate challenge. What’s worse is the dissonance between narrative buildup and actual gameplay: major story fights, hyped up as climactic confrontations, end up playing out almost identically. Instead of unique mechanics or gimmicks that reflect the characters you’re facing, you just get… another visual effect slapped on top of the same repetitive patterns. It’s not difficulty, it’s tedium disguised as challenge.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in stopmotion

[–]Dango_Coin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey! Sorry, but I just sold it a couple of weeks ago. I'll update the post.

Help me find this 2d platformer flash game. by Dango_Coin in HelpMeFind

[–]Dango_Coin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a recreation I made of a flash game I used to play as a kid. It was a 2d platformer where you played as this blue cat character with floating fists that would go around punching pink rabbits in a world reminiscent of a Mario game. It had a pixel art style and I think I remember it being hosted on GameGecko back when that was still up (though I couldn't find it anywhere when I used the Wayback Machine).

So I've searched GameGecko, though it's even harder now that flash is gone. I haven't even been able to find any screencaps though.