Ever Oasis - Review in Progress (3DS)

There’s always one game that’s released around E3 each year that makes that makes
it difficult to review.
And despite trying my best, I just wasn’t able to finish Ever Oasis in time for the
embargo making me hesitant to call this a full review.
Despite that, the game is absolutely worth your time and I wanted to give my impressions
of what I’ve played so far.
For those curious, that’s a little under 20 hours with me reaching the third dungeon,
of which I think there are four, and recruiting about half of the possible residents into
my oasis.
So let’s talk about Ever Oasis.
The game puts you in the shoes of Tethu, a young boy or girl Seedling whose older brother
runs an Oasis.
Only Seedlings born of the Great Tree are able to create oases in the vast desert and
they grow larger based on the amount of residents and their happiness.
But just before a festival, an essence known as Chaos infects the Oasis and Tethu’s brother
saves him in a final act.
It’s then that Tethu learns that he’s the last Seedling who can actually create
an oasis and works together with the Water Spirit Esna to become a bastion of hope for
the people while also attempting to learn how to stop the Chaos.
It’s a simple story that doesn’t get too in-depth while still pushing you along a path.
You can explore at your own pace and take the story missions on when you’re ready,
but there are gateways preventing you from getting too far ahead.
The story’s been enjoyable enough so far, but the real star is the characters.
Nobody gets a ton of development but enough personality is shown for the 60+ potential
residents that I never really minded.
Some stand out more than others, but the charm definitely wins out in this case.
Gameplay-wise, Ever Oasis is an even split between managing your Oasis and heading out
into the world to fight monsters and gather materials.
The way these two aspects interact with one another is what continually drew me into the
game.
Every resident can be a member of Tethu’s 3-person party.
The residents can be one of four races, the hammer-wielding Serkah, the lancer Drauk,
the twin leafblade users of the Lagora, and the Seedlings.
In addition to being able to use a host of different weapons, the Seedlings can grow
shops in Tethu’s Oasis which then become his main source of income.
Every day the passive Noot race will visit the Oasis and spend money at the available
shops which can then be collected.
But there’s a few caveats to all this.
For one, it’s up to Tethu to provide the shops with the material needed to sell their
wares.
No materials, no sales can be made.
Additionally, if a Seedling is part of Tethu’s party he or she obviously can’t sell anything
so a bit of a balance must be struck.
But honestly, this is more of an issue in the early game.
Once you have plenty of residents, it’s pretty simple to manage.
The interplay though is great as characters can only level up if they join Tethu, but
their shops can be ranked up as well providing new abilities and a boost to stats.
It provides a level choice that ensures no two Oases will be the same.
It’s also nice to see your Oasis gradually grow, expanding how many shops can be placed,
how big your garden can become, and just visually showing it becoming greener and more hospitable.
This also unlocks shortcuts for the player, allowing you to fast travel to where you need
to go and even assign residents to manage the garden or go out and explore themselves
in order gather more materials.
There’s a great sense of efficiency as you progress and it never felt overwhelming as
I could go at my own pace.
And this bleeds over to exploration and combat as the greater the level of your Oasis and
the happiness of its residents, the more bonus health Tethu and his party are granted when
they leave.
Combat in general starts very simple with no combos even available.
But as Tethu and the other characters level up, more combos become available although
they’re still not that complex.
This didn’t detract from my fun as the monsters were designed with this limited combat in
mind.
I could go for the longer attack chains, but it would leave me open to their attacks and
they can do a lot of damage.
It’s all about reading each enemy, dodging out of the way in time, and having the right
weapon on hand as each type of monster is weak to a certain kind of weapon.
It encourages you to change up the party constantly.
And this is doubly true when it comes to exploration.
Certain characters can dig up up holes, mine, use flowers to cross gaps, or even block rolling
boulders.
And there’s many more that kept me on my toes.
Fortunately, there’s an excellent fast travel system that allows players to quickly return
to their Oasis in order to swap out for the necessary character.
It can be a bit annoying in spots, but I thought it worked well overall.
And that’s the key thing about Ever Oasis.
It’s a cute, engaging, action RPG that consistently held my interest.
Even the desert setting never got old for me as they found ways to keep things varied.
Really, my biggest issue is that the whole process of managing your Oasis can feel really
repetitive.
Like I said, there’s ways to negate that, but it would still get to me after a while.
There’s still a lot more to Ever Oasis.
I haven’t mentioned the dungeon gameplay, the accessible arena, or even how each weapon
feels different to use.
But in my 20 hours of playing it, I found it to be a complete delight.
Even the music is catchy and fitting with each area.
But, this being an RPG, it’s hard to say if things might change.
And that’s why I’m not confident enough to give it a full review.
But if everything I said appeals to you, Ever Oasis is absolutely worth your time.
Thanks for watching and be sure to subscribe to GameXplain for more on the 3DS and other
things gaming.

Ever Oasis - Review in Progress (3DS)

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