Escape From Ever After

Genre: Turn-Based JRPG

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game was selected by Patreon donors to be reviewed in the May 2026 Patron Poll. If you want to participate in this monthly poll, donate $5 or more to join in!)

Escape From Ever After, released in 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch, is a family-friendly Turn-Based RPG very clearly inspired by the classic Paper Mario series, specifically the first two games in the series. As more recent games in that franchise like Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Paper Mario: Color Splash, and Paper Mario: The Origami King have increasingly distanced themselves from the series’ more traditional RPG origins (the 2024 remaster of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door notwithstanding), it seems like indie developers are increasingly picking up this slack, as we’ve seen before in games like Bug Fables and to a lesser extent Underhero. So, how does Escape From Ever After fare against these games? Let’s have a look!

The story of Escape From Ever After stars Flynt, a plucky hero aiming after years of failures to finally take down the fire-breathing dragon Tinder, but upon heading to the dragon’s castle, he discovers that things have… changed. The place has been taken over by the titular corporation, Ever After, Inc., who has evicted the dragon from his own home and is spreading their corporate takeover to various other storybook worlds. After confronting the corporation’s low-level manager Mr. Moon (a literal anthropomorphic moon from another storybook), Flint finds himself tossed into a dungeon cell alongside a shrunken and de-powered Tinder, the pair grudgingly agree to temporarily put aside their differences and take on these corporate invaders, which soon enough transforms into a mission from the inside as they take jobs as employees while scoping out ways to destroy the company.

The writing here is excellent, with plenty of wit, humor, and delightful characters. Tinder in particular is fantastic as a once-mighty character only barely constraining his rage and disdain for pretty much everything around him, including his own team. Plus, we get plenty of delightful parodies of classic stories, as well as amusing office workplace humor, such as in an early side-quest where you’re tasked with collecting supplies for Pinnochio’s office birthday party (despite that no one likes him because he’s a weirdo), and another where you’re tasked with adjusting the lighting to make for a more productive work environment (by having Tinder light torches).

As you would expect from most Paper Mario-alikes, this game uses colorful 3D environments with cartoony 2D characters that are fairly well-animated. This game doesn’t really address the 2D nature of the characters, it’s just accepted without note. This is joined by a jazzy big-band soundtrack that’s not really to my personal liking, but that may just be a personal preference thing, and its boisterous over-the-top nature fits well enough with the rest of the game that I’m sure others will enjoy it.

When it comes to the gameplay, you have all the traditional Paper Mario standbys. In combat there are timed attacks and defending with different kinds of inputs, with some attack types needed against some types of enemies or in some situations, such as enemies with pointy weapons at the ready needing to be countered with ranged weapons, and enemies with wooden shields needing to have their defenses taken down with fire attacks. These character-based moves can be used for puzzle-solving outside of battle too, and in a nod to the Mario & Luigi games you’ll even occasionally need to combine abilities, such as setting a fire with Tinder and then having Flynt toss his shield through it to carry the fire to a distant target.

Other classic features of the Paper Mario series are present here as well – the game has something like Paper Mario’s “partner system”, there’s a badge system (called trinkets here), and level-ups come with your choice of one of three options – you can increase your characters’ health, their combined pool of MP (“caffeine” points here), or their capacity to equip trinkets. The inability to improve your basic attacks is a bit frustrating, though – over the course of the game you get ink to improve your special attacks, but attacks that don’t cost any MP remain weak throughout. This isn’t horrible, since attacks and enemies throughout the game remain extremely low-scale compared to most RPGs (again, much like Paper Mario), but it does take some of the fun out of grinding, for players who are inclined to grind.

Honestly, when it comes to gripes, I don’t have much here. It’s a bit frustrating that you don’t heal at save points and must instead spend money at vending machines to restore health and MP, or conversely use your “synergy” meter to restore a small fraction of each after correctly timing attacks or defenses in combat, and this does drag down the pacing a bit as it can make for even more grinding. And I suppose since we’re comparing to the Paper Mario games, it’s worth mentioning that this game is nowhere near as inventive and creative as the epitome of the series, Thousand-Year Door. But then, we are talking about a $25 indie game, and honestly with that being the case it’s impressive that Escape From Ever After manages to get so close to the same heights as Paper Mario’s greatest triumph.

Putting aside the Paper Mario comparisons, is Escape From Ever After a great RPG? Yes, absolutely, especially for players looking for something lighthearted and humorous, and especially especially for fans of the Paper Mario games. Nintendo may not be in any rush to give us another experience like Thousand-Year Door any time soon, but with games like Escape From Ever After available on Nintendo Switch, I don’t feel like we’re missing out too much there.

tl;dr – Escape From Ever After is a family-friendly Turn-Based JRPG about a plucky hero who heads to a castle to defeat a fire-breathing dragon only to find the castle is the latest victim in a hostile corporate takeover, and so the hero and dragon grudgingly join forces to work for the corporation with the goal of taking it down from the inside. It’s a delightfully ridiculous story with a presentation and gameplay that is a loving tribute to the early Paper Mario games, and it gets pretty much all of this right. I have a few issues with pacing and the soundtrack, but overall this is an outstanding RPG that should be considered a must-have for fans of the genre craving something lighter, and especially for Paper Mario fans.

Grade: A-

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