Everhood 2

Genre: Music-Rhythm

Players: 1

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Review:

Everhood 2, released in 2025 on PC and Nintendo Switch, is a Music-Rhythm game that follows in the footsteps of its 2021 predecessor, and in order to review it properly, I’ll need to discuss some things that will be gameplay spoilers for the first game (yes, not plot spoilers, but gameplay stuff introduced well into the game). I tried avoiding getting into this in my review of that game, so if you want me to give you the short version: Everhood 2 plays like the latter part of the first game, and I suggest you play the first game before this one.

Okay, now that we have that out of the way, Everhood 2 sees a return to the Guitar Hero-style lane-based “battles” of the prior game, but where the first half of the original game was purely focused on avoiding notes sent down by your opponents, this game very quickly returns to the mix of dodging and action from the second half, where you could absorb and deflect attacks. This system has had a few tweaks made to it, but this time around the game indicates that a “pacifist run” isn’t in the cards, and you’ll be trapped in looping songs with enemies until you subdue them.

In some ways I appreciate this, as the button-tapping for absorbing and attacking works better in a Music-Rhythm game, in my opinion, and it’s nice to get to it sooner rather than later. However, it still is disappointing to see this game taking away that choice. More than this, Everhood 2 shifts more in the direction of an actual RPG in ways that I’m not sure work out for the best.

Rather than just fighting in showpiece “boss battles”, this time you have plenty of smaller enemies to subdue, each often only taking a few minutes. This is irritating not only because the looping music seems far less impressive than what was in the first game, but because you may find yourself fighting the same few enemy types repeatedly in the same area. And it’s not like the game’s RPG elements amount to all that much, anyway, with you mainly just getting experience and leveling up stats, and with the game’s world and “story” being fairly linear. There are a few other elements here, but these are once again added much later into the game, and I won’t go into those here.

Also, speaking of the story, I didn’t think the first Everhood’s story was one of its stronger qualities, but in Everhood 2 it’s even more disposable, with players taking the role of a blank slate of a character with zero personality even to their look, and with their purpose and motivation in the game’s world nebulous, other than that everyone refers to them as a “Light being”.

The world itself is also absurdly random, with players walking around a hotel with Carl Jung, Genghis Khan, and Grigori Rasputin one moment, and then the next they’ll be getting into a battle with a massive genetically-modified watermelon in a war between fruits and vegetables. There may be some deeper meaning here – the game starts by giving the player an extensive personality test. However, whatever that meaning is certainly isn’t clear.

The visual presentation here is in line with the prior game, with lots of bright neon colors against frequently black backgrounds, though the game does play with the medium some and mix 3D elements with the 2D presentation, have occasional segments like a classic Nintendo Entertainment System JRPG, and an abundance of trippy reality-bending effects that… well, goes a bit overboard actually, often making it far too difficult to see the gameplay. It still looks cool, but it’s just not as conducive to gameplay, and I felt the prior game made these moments special and unique where here you’ll see screen-warping and haze and kaleidoscope effects often enough that it ceases to feel novel anymore.

And then we come to the music, and I have to say… I’m pretty disappointed here. To be clear, the music in this game isn’t bad, but there’s so very little here that strikes me as truly memorable and noteworthy, and that’s a huge step down from the first game, which won my award in 2021 for Best Music.

Despite all my complaints, Everhood 2 is still enjoyable, but it feels so disjointed and aimless, and what was wild and unpredictable in the previous game kinda’ just feels like a sloppy mess here. I do think fans of the first game will likely still enjoy Everhood 2, and there are some elements I like better here, but overall I can’t help but feel like this game lacks much of the spark that was present in the original.

tl;dr – Everhood 2 is a Music-Rhythm game that plays much like the latter half of its predecessor right off the bat, which is a plus. However, otherwise this game seems like a mess with various elements that are poorly-considered, like taking the freaky elements that were a highlight of the first game and overdoing them to the point where they cease to be special. Add to this a soundtrack that, while good, just can’t stack up to the original game, and Everhood 2 is a disappointing sequel, although it’s still enjoyable despite its issues.

Grade: C+

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2025 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Music-Rhythm Game, Most Disappointing

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