Day 52 of Eric Vs. 365 brings us to another one of Eric's childhood favorites - Secret of Evermore. This SNES JRPG often gets overlooked since the SNES was packed with great role-playing-games, but it is a real treat if you give it a try. Read on for gameplay and more info.
Secret of Evermore was always interesting to me because it wasn't a typical JRPG. You just play as a sort of normal kid transported to a new land rather than some mythical hero destined to save the world and I liked that. I also really enjoyed the different worlds you visited - each with its own culture and weapons and items (and dog transformation) - that gave the game a lot of variety and made progressing through the game exciting because you never knew what you'd come across next. I also loved that the kid was a contemporary '90's kid spouting pop culture references constantly. He's super relate-able. Also, I just realized while typing this paragraph that Secret of Evermore was an isekai long, long, long before the genre became popular. Neat.
Because this is an RPG this video is a little different. I think a lot of people want to start a game (especially an RPG) from the start if you're going to make a video, but that seems boring to me. The beginning of RPGs is always boring as hell. So, instead, I played a few hours and got to what I estimate to be roughly 40-45% through the game so there would be interesting stuff to show off. There's some boss fights and neat stuff and I talk a lot about my history with the game. I recorded a full hour of footage but cut a lot of it out because I got stuck in a labyrinth for a long time and you spend a lot of time just walking back and forth between stuff.
One thing that kind of surprised me while playing Secret of Evermore again was that it is surprisingly brutal and difficult. I really struggled playing through the opening "prehistoric" world and died a ton. I was honestly concerned that maybe the game wasn't as good as I remembered and nearly quit playing entirely. There was something about it that kept pulling me back in to give it another try, though (which is usually the sign of a good game) and I'm glad I did. I eventually got over the hump and started playing smarter and things got easier and a lot more fun.
This was surprising to me because usually when I go back and play SNES RPGs they're a lot easier than I remembered. I originally played these games as a kid / teenager and struggled a lot, but when I play them as an adult I blast through them with no problems. Not Secret of Evermore. Like I said, though, I figured it out eventually and had a great time with it.
I also want to add that I played Secret of Evermore on a hacked SNES Classic via hakchi. Most online discussions will say it doesn't work, but it obviously does. The problem is that the Preset ID that everyone says to use is wrong. Sorry I can't remember the exact order, but they'll tell you to use "EF10" but you need to use "10EF" instead (or maybe it's the other way around ... just try it out). People say it also has sound issues, but I didn't notice anything particularly out of place.
