Confetti’s Cozy Corner: Everholm Review
From crafting, to creating your dream farm and epic adventures, Everholm has a little bit of something for everyone in this cozy farming sim where the main character Lily steps into a magical portal that transports her to the mysterious Everholm.
Lily is in search of her sister Melanie who went missing under mysterious circumstances. When Lily wakes up in her supposed home and farm she walks around the town with no idea who anyone is, but for some reason they all know her. Lily walks around asking Everholm residents not only who they are, but if they have seen her sister.
All clues to Melanie’s possible whereabouts lead to Everholm but it is clear to Lily that this will be no easy task. While you establish your farm and home, you must connect with the residents of Everholm, and uncover the secrets of this mysterious island.
There is magic, exploration, ranching, fishing, mystery and romance in Everholm, which are qualities of many farming simulators. But, what sets Everholm apart from your average farming simulator is the story and mysterious atmosphere of Lily’s surroundings.
From the beginning there is an air of tension and apprehension, because everyone seems so close knit to each other and Lily, while Lily claims she doesn’t even know anyone’s name. This atmosphere creates an ‘edge of your seat’ feeling while wanting to know what comes next in the story. For me, investigating strange occurrences, solving mysteries and completing quests became more interesting over the traditional farming sim mechanics.
The graphics and music are beautiful, really adding to the welcoming vibe Everholm has. But do not be too distracted because mysterious forces lurk closer than you think, and you must collect spells, complete quests and secure powerful items in order to stay prepared and alive.
While you build your strength and resources, Lily must also rely on the expertise of the citizens of Everholm to find Melanie. So it is very important to develop relationships. The citizens of Everholm have so much personality, and it can vary if they want to be around or even see Lily. Marry is always inviting Lily, while folks like Pedro may take more warming up in order to get close to.
The game controls are a bit funky on the Steam Deck and while playing with a controller. While using my Xbox controller I found that I often was watering crops or chopping wood in the wrong spot than what the grid was aiming for, which got frustrating at times. Hopefully this is just a temporary bug that can be fixed in a future update. On the Steam Deck, the controls feel hypersensitive where, like with the controller, actions are taking place in incorrect spots.
The fishing mini game is fun because it adds its own spin to fishing mini games where it feels like you are reeling but the odds are not totally stacked against you.
The map is a good size and has many places to explore. Moreover, time can be adjusted in the menu, which is a feature I love in farm/life sim games. I do wish the font and text were a bit bigger and perhaps in a more legible color. You can adjust the UI in the menu; however, I think at a base the font could have been a bit bigger and there could have been a slower conversation speed when interacting with NPCs
Due to the sheer number of crops and the price of many crops in the game, it is apparent that there may be some grinding needed to be done in order to get the more expensive items. But compared to other farm/life sim games, if you know what items to sell then it is possible to make money fast. However, if you are not familiar with other farm/life sims like Stardew Valley, Coral Island or Harvest Moon, then some of the mechanics in the game may not come as straightforward for you, as there is no tutorial that explains many things like crafting, blueprints, upgrading, and the basics of farming sims.
Not everyone who plays games knows all things about farming sims/life sims, so it is important to assume that not all gamers will simply know what to do, how to play a game, or know to wait for in-game mail to get a blueprint needed to progress in the story.
Everholm is magical, fun and has a very compelling dark mysterious story. I have been enjoying my time with the game and am excited to see how everything comes together in the end!
Thank you to Indie.io and Chonky Loaf for the review code, and congratulations on your launch!
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