Simulation games have come a long way, not just in the time of Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon, but even in the resurgence thanks to titles like Stardew Valley. Whether you like to farm, fish, cook, or just live a relaxing life, there is a game out there to fulfill any life simulation need you may have. But what about all of the above, and more? Everafter Falls strives to be all that and more.
Story
Everafter Falls sets up the game with the player walking on a rainy day. But right as you’re crossing the street, you get hit by a car. Instead of dying though, you wake up and find out you’ve been in a simulation of life on Earth for about a year. So you’re back in your regular town and can get back to your regular life, right? Well…things aren’t that simple. You appear to have amnesia, so you’ve forgotten all of your friends and the general knowledge about Everafter Falls. But never fear, as your friends encourage you to take your time and get settled, with the hopes that your memories slowly come back to you.
The story is trickled out as you progress in the game, both in terms with speaking to characters in town and in cutscenes that show after going to sleep. And when I say trickle, I mean trickle. You’ll be investing quite a lot of hours into the game before you start to crack into the story in meaningful ways. While listed as a story-driven game, it takes a while for the story to slip its way into the game.
Quests
There are many quests that you’ll have the opportunity to take on in Everafter Falls. Most of these quests are fetch quests, with characters asking for a specific item. Most of the time, the items are easy to craft or find. Every once and a while, you’ll be thrown a curveball where it takes you a moment to actually figure out how to deliver a character’s request. For example, a character may ask for some maple syrup. They’ll give you one of the items needed to harvest sap, but you’ll have to figure out for yourself how to actually create syrup. What does that entail? Well, let’s just say it’s not as simple as harvesting the sap from the tree.
A lovely feature in Everafter Falls is that your quest log will alert you when a character has a quest ready for you. These quests tend to be important to advance the story, so seeking out these characters is always a good idea. And if you need to locate a specific character, you can look as your map to see where that character is at any point.
Gameplay
Everafter Falls is a life simulation game where you’re interacting in several gameplay loops and passing your day to day as you settle back in your life in Everafter Falls. Along with farming, you can gather items, fish, mine, fight monsters in dungeons, craft, and upgrade your equipment. Your days are how you decide to make them, so they can be as busy or laid back as you want them to be. There is a day and night cycle, with midnight being the hard cutoff to go to bed (which the game will enforce). There are no consequences for staying up late. Along with that, there is no stamina. This lets you perform any action in the game to your heart’s content without having to worry about getting tired.
Combat
Combat is action oriented, where you can attack with a sword in the dungeon mines. This is the only location where you can fight against monsters. That being said, there is no leveling system. There are stats that can be managed, such as attack and luck, but those are managed with equips, mods, and your actual sword. As you progress to a new room in the dungeon, there will be a set amount of monsters that you have to defeat in order to unlock the doors to the next rooms. Once you’ve unlocked those doors, there’s no need to fight against any newly spawned monsters, outside of not wanting to be attacked while mining.
At the start, you only have one attack to make use of. Combat is very simple, with you taking damage as enemies attack you. Monsters attack in a set pattern, so you’re able to dodge them when you notice them telegraphing their attacks. But honestly, even if you do get hit, it’s not a big deal since you have a lot of HP. You’ll get some potions in some early quests that can heal your HP, and eventually you’ll unlock a way to get a steady stream of potions so you don’t have to worry.
As you explore the dungeons, there will be some rooms with treasure chests. Chests can’t be opened until the room is cleared of monsters. Afterwards, they’ll spit out a few rare minerals, as well as an equip item (either a ring or a necklace). Rings and necklaces have set stats that they can increase, such as movement speed or attack. Some rings also have notches that allow you to attach ores that can give an additional passive stat increase.
Farming, Gathering, and Fishing
Given that there isn’t a major emphasis in any one gameplay loop, outside of what characters request of you in quests, you can focus your energy where ever you feel best. Want to develop your own farm? You can do that. Want to gather a bunch of mushrooms and seashells to turn around a profit? Go right ahead. Destroy the river ecosystem by catching as many fish as humanly possible? The sky is the limit. Of course, to maximize profits, doing all three (and many more) is always best and more fulfilling than leaning into any one gameplay loop.
With farming, instead of tilling and watering the field yourself, you have a pet that you designate tasks to. Truthfully, it doesn’t really save much more time having your pet than if the game allowed you to do it yourself, but it is a cute quirk. Each crop has its designated season and a set amount of time before it can be harvested, similar to other farming games. You’re also able to have your pet manage multiple plots in a row rather than moving from plot to plot one at a time.
There are mushrooms, shells, and other miscellaneous items that you can gather all across Everafter Falls. A major issue concerning gathering though is your inventory space. You have a limited amount of items that you can carry early on and will have to make use of several inventory boxes if you tend to be an item hoarder (who knows when you’ll need that one piece of rock that you found by the river?). Along with the limited space, you also have to be holding onto specific items if you’re looking to craft, which means you’ll be doing quite a bit of inventory management. You can use your axe to cut down trees to collect wood, a pickaxe to mine for stone and ore, your net to catch bugs, and your sword to get grass. When you first pick up an item, you’ll see a blue star next to it, which indicates that it hasn’t yet been donated to the museum. The museum acts as your collection log, letting you know what items you’ve gathered.
Fishing is the last major gameplay loop that you can consistently take part in. But unfortunately, it starts out a bit convoluted. There are three wheels with a small opening that are turning and you have to stop the notches so that your hook falls into the holes to catch the fish. However, if you’re not able to get all the way down to the fish, don’t despair. Getting past the first level does guarantee you a creature, at least. But like many of the other minigames and mechanics, Everafter Falls prefers the player figure things out themselves rather than tell them what to do.
Festivals and Events
Once in a blue moon, there will be events that take place that you can participate in. You’ll usually be alerted via your quest log or via mail when these events are coming up, as to give you the chance to participate. The character in charge of the event will give you the rundown on how things work before setting you free to play through the game. The nice thing is that you don’t have to participate in these minigames if you don’t want to. They don’t make or break the game, but are there to help spice it up a bit. Some events will give you an item for participating while other events expect you to clear a certain goal before awarding the player.
Crafting, Card Skills, and Upgrading
One aspect of Everafter Falls that’s interesting (and most convoluted) is its crafting system. There are a variety of items that you can craft using items that you can get from gathering. But one of the things that this game suffers from is having a machine for almost every type of item you need to craft. Want to make rope? You need a spinner. Need to make maple syrup? You need an evaporator. The list goes on and on and after a while, it just becomes tedious managing all of the machines that you need. Adding to the fact that the game isn’t upfront about what exactly goes into crafting certain items, and you’ll find yourself spending a good chunk of time online trying to figure out how to craft certain items.
At the beginning of the game, you’ll get an axe, a bug net, a fishing rod, a pickaxe, and a sword, all of which will help you navigate your day to day activities. But after a while, you’ll find that you need better equipment to progress (you’ll first notice this with your pickaxe, since you can only mine regular rocks and stones that have copper ore). The blacksmith will offer to upgrade your items in exchange for a fee and some crafted items. Upgrades for your machines (which is mainly just crafting better version of them) will have to be handled by yourself.
Another one of Everafter Falls unique characteristics is how it handles its skills. Rather than using a leveling system, skills are handled using cards. Once you gain a card, you’ll have to eat it in order to make use of its effect. These effects vary in usage, such as raining every ‘x’ amount of days or allowing your pet to participate in battle.
Aesthetics, Soundtrack, and Performance
Everafter Falls takes on an interesting art style that can make it easy to brush it off compared to other simulation games. But as you play through, the art does grow on you. The environment is beautiful and vibrant, adding life to the small town that you call home. The animal residents are cute, if a bit simple in design. As for the soundtrack, the music is just as cute, almost reminiscent of music from the Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS era.
When it comes Everafter Fall’s performance on the Switch, this is another stumbling point for the game. The loading in key points of the game is atrocious. This is most evident when the game is first booting up, but the loading between falling asleep and loading to the next day is noticeable as well.
Conclusion
Everafter Falls aims to stand alongside other simulation games of the genre, and while it adds some interesting elements to the mix, the game does stumble in some areas. Inventory and crafting management is a headache at times. And with the wide variety of gameplay loops, none delve much deeper than the initial introduction given to the player. So for those looking for deep level of farming or combat may find themselves disappointed. However, it is very easy to fall into a rhythm of fulfilling quests, gathering and crafting items, and exploring the dungeon. While it is a competent game, the hiccups that do appear may turn off players looking for something more under the surface.
Rating: 6/10.
