Everhood is a lovely surprise. It's formatted like a 16-bit JRPG, meaning you'll walk around a world from a top-down perspective, chatting to locals and occasionally getting into battles. But every other aspect of JRPGs has been ditched: there are no stats, no items, no levelling, no spells. Instead, every battle is a tense rhythm game.
Battles are purely defensive: you win, seemingly, by exhausting your opponent. As they fling waves of energy from the top of the screen, your one-armed doll character reacts by hopping left or right, or by jumping, to avoid them. Get hit three times and you die (although your health will restore if you don't take damage for a while).
The strange disco underworld, the colourful characters and the font reminded me of Undertale, while the banging soundtrack, and general musicality evoked Crypt of the Necrodancer. It's a great combination, and hopefully we get to play an expanded version of the concept one day.
For more great free experiences, check out our roundup of the best free PC games.
