You are taking a walk in nature looking for your sister. Suddenly a terrifying creature pulls you through a giant portal. It seems real enough, but it couldn’t be. This must be a dream, right? You get out of bed as you always do and start the day with an unsettling feeling. Everyone you meet seems to recognize you. Some of them even appear to be your friends, but you can’t remember them. The only thing you know is that you must find your sister. You decide to go along with it and see where it goes, what choice do you have anyways?

Everholm is a difficult game to categorize in just one genre. The developers describe it as an open-ended RPG. It also features heavy farming sim elements including farming, fishing, raising animals, and a lot more. It’s unique and differs from others of the same genre. The focus is on the narrative and more importantly on the relationships you create with the Everholm’s citizens.

You play as a young girl named Lilly. She is intent on finding her sister, Melanie. This town is full of secrets and it’s up to you to discover them. Everholm even has a resident sorceress that can help you use magic. The goal of the game, beside finding your sister, is to uncover why you are stuck on this mysterious island. You do this in many different ways, but the main one is by talking to the residents and through their dialogue you’ll start to find answers. Each scrap of information you learn is a piece of the puzzle. You do all this while taking care of your homestead and making it the coziest place to live. There are even dungeons with monsters and rewards, but you’ll have to find them first.

Everholm’s artwork is gorgeous. It’s colorful and so adorable. The game is rendered in a beautiful style. It gives a really cozy vibe even when the mood gets spooky. The atmosphere in general is relaxed and charming during the day, but as soon as dusk sets in it switches to an ominous vibe. When you’re out at night it feels like something could happen at any moment. The soundtrack is well suited to the art. Together they create the perfect ambiance for this stunning game, however it does get repetitive since there are not multiple tracks. I think there should also be at least one different track during the night with a more spooky vibe. It would have been perfect.

You navigate the world with your typical WASD controls. The farming, fishing and other actions uses the mouse. I’ve used a controller to play and personally found it more intuitive. On the other hand I found that the farming was much easier with the mouse, so I ended up using a hybrid controller and mouse combo. I saw that the creator’s last patch updated the controls so that might not be your experience when you play it. I found the fishing to be quite difficult to master. It took me a bit to get the hang of it. Once the fish has bit, you need to play a minigame to catch it. The problem is that it involves clicking over and over in just the right way to catch the fish. It was a fun challenge to learn, but was very frustrating at the start.

Another aspect that could be improved is the map. The choice was made to identify the buildings by the name of the owner instead of by what they sell (carpenter, seed shop, etc.) It make sense since the game is character-centric, but it was difficult to know where I needed to go at the start. I feel like just adding their title could have lead to less initial annoyance.

Having a bigger inventory at the beginning would have been easier. You start the game with 18 slots, but the starting tool kit itself takes 5 plus the fishing rod that you acquire early on. One of the introductory quests is to clean up your land, so once you add the fiber from grass, the wood, the rock, in addition to the fishing rod that you acquire early on your starting inventory is quite limited in what you can add. It would be nice to add a couple more slot for convenience.

I love how well the creator wove the narrative into the game. You get bits and pieces as you play, and it’s up to you to put it all together. The dialogue is where you get the most information, but there are also a couple of cutscenes. Depending on your friendship level and which quest you decide to answer to, you’ll get more or less information from the characters. One feature that I loved is the daily newspaper. Every morning, you’ll find a rolled up newspaper waiting on your porch, once read it’ll changed into a folded newspaper. In it you’ll find one big article about something happening in Everholm or someone that is asking for help. You also find a ‘Fortune of the Day’ that you actually pick yourself, some small news, and the weather. There also a ‘Tip of the Day’. The tips are helpful gameplay information about the game that you might not know. As an example, the first tip that I got was about the spirits that you can see from time to time on the ground. It said that if you hit them with a hoe it reveals hidden items. These tips are truly helpful. It’s a very creative way to help and gently guide the player to complement the tutorial.

It’s obvious while playing this game that the creators have poured their heart into it. Everholm just oozes creativity. The world is filled with stuff to see and do. I enjoyed walking around the town and admiring my surroundings. There is so much to explore in the town of Everholm. There are so many interesting little details that take this game to the next level. I had a fantastic time playing it.

Everholm is a game with a stunning aesthetic, lovable characters, and a not so cozy atmosphere that keeps you on your toes. The narrative is light, but still engaging, and the combination of cozy and creepy is masterfully achieved with lots of creativity. Despite a couple of details I would like to see improved, I loved every minute of it. I recommend it to any farming sim enthusiasts or anyone who loves a good mystery.

Positives

• Engaging narrative and a mystery to uncover
• Stunning aesthetic
• Interesting details take the game to the next level

Negatives

• The controls are finicky
• No achievements
• Not enough inventory slots at the beginning