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[[File:soe_mccoy_8385.png|frame|[[Law and Order|Jack McCoy:]] Not appearing in this game.]]
{{quote|''"I'm not really sure where 'here' is, to tell you the truth ."''|The Boy}}
The game stars a [[There's No B in Movie|B-movie-loving]] [[A Boy and His X|boy and his dog]], who stumble upon an abandoned mansion in the middle of [[Everytown, America|Podunk, USA]]. After a mishap with a mysterious-looking device, the boy and his canine companion get transported to [[Another Dimension]], and find out that four other people have been trapped inside for decades, the disastrous result of the Evermore experiment 30 years ago. His goal becomes to explore this strange new world, learn the history of the Evermore project, and find a way to get everyone back to Earth. While the story isn't nearly as involved as it might sound, the game isn't without its highlights, the aforementioned soundtrack being one of them, the subversions of some path-of-least-resistance video game economic tropes being another.
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Each 'environment' in Evermore seems to exist in its own biome; each is separated from the others in some way (Fire Eyes' village is on a massive plateau, some areas are only reachable by travelling through sewer pipes, and the final area of the game isn't part of Evermore at all). Likewise, each area has its own distinct life-forms, which are unique to the region and do not appear in other locales.
A long-dead post in the ''Secret of Evermore'' [[GameFAQs]] forum featured an extended (and very interesting) discussion with one of the game's programmers who happened to stumble upon the conversation
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Abandoned Laboratory]]
* [[
* [[Absurdly Spacious Sewer]]: There are several of these, and each is a maze that must be successfully navigated to proceed.
* [[Adipose Rex]]: A female variant
* [[Adventurer Outfit]]: Horace.
* [[Air Vent Passageway]]: In Ivor Tower, the player must guide the Dog through one of these.
* [[A.I. Is a Crapshoot]]: Ruffleberg outfitted
* [[Analogy Backfire]]: Before facing [[Gladiator Games|Vigor the Indestructible]], the
{{quote|I think [[Oh Crap|the hero got pummeled]] in that picture."}}
* [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever]]: Verminator.
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* [[Bazaar of the Bizarre]]: Located in Nobilia, and itself the subject of many a FAQ. It's possible to make lots of money with smart trading... or lose lots with the dumb variety.
* [[BBW]]: In the real world, [http://shrines.rpgclassics.com/snes/soe/characters/camillia.shtml Queen Bluegarden] isn't afraid to flaunt it. Good grief.
* [[Beard of Evil]]
* [[Bee-Bee Gun]]: The notoriously inconspicuous "Sting" spell. It launches a small swarm of bees at opponents.
* [[Bonus Boss]]: "The Faces".
* [[Boss Arena Idiocy]]: The first phase of the final battle consists of destroying some Fans and Speakers, which are virtually indestructible unless you hit bombs at them.
* [[Boss Rush]]: The final area is one, in lieu of a final dungeon.
* [[Brick Joke]]: In Antiqua, you find a boulder suspiciously similar to the ones you levitated in Prehistoria. Do the same here, and Tiny comes out and demonstrates his superior strength by picking up the boulder and throwing it away. Far away. When you inevitably end up at the southern end of the desert again, the boulder will land and form a bridge for you to cross. Lampshaded by the
{{quote|'''
* [[Broken Bridge]]: There is an actual broken bridge in Crustacia cutting off access to the west bank of the river. Only the dog can jump across. There is also a raised drawbridge in Gothica cutting off direct access to Ebon Keep.
* {{spoiler|[[The Butler Did It]]}}: As anyone who's read old crime novels would expect. [[The Untwist|Seriously]].
* [[The Cameo]]:
*
**
* [[Canine Companion]]: The hero's dog, who has his own health bar and attacks.
* [[Chain of Deals]]: Used in the desert city, Nobilia. You start out buying small items, and trade your way up to items that give you permanent stat boosts.
* [[Charged Attack]]: Like in ''[[Secret of Mana]]'', each weapon has multiple levels of charge. At first, you only have a choice between a piddly little swipe and a full swing, but as your skill with a weapon improves, you can charge [[Charge Meter|up to two power meters]] into a single blow.
* [[Chekhov's Volcano]]: The Volcano in the middle of Prehistoria.
* [[A Child Shall Lead Them]]: Elizabeth.
* [[Climax Boss]]: Aegis is one for Nobilia; he's not the last boss, but he's unleashed by the villain's plan.
* [[Cognizant Limbs]]: Thraxx, and later his stronger [[Palette Swap|Palette Swapped]] offspring, Choleoptera. Their ribcages shield their [[Achilles' Heel|hearts]] from damage.
▲** Ingredients are priced according to where the seller is located, and the patterns are fairly logical. Water and Clay are cheapest when bought from the man who gives you Acid Rain, and he lives next to a river. The alchemist in the Bugmuck has the cheapest Oil and Wax, and he lives next to tar pits full of bugs and skeletons. Limestone can only be bought from Blimp, and he lives near what looks to be a limestone cliff. Aside from Omnitopia, the best price on Ethanol is a merchant who lives near a pirate city (keep in mind what ethanol is used to make).
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: Pre-production materials and commercials imply that the game was supposed to be moodier than the final product, but was changed up near the end of development.
* [[Degraded Boss]]: Robot raptors and Rimsala Eyes are crawling all over Omnitopia.
** This theme extends even to the scenery; Aegis's face is built into the basement walls.
* [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything]]: Give the
* [[Diagonal Speed Boost]]
* [[Dinosaur Doggie Bone]]: "Well, it's not exactly a stick, but it'll do."
* [[Dolled-Up Installment]]: The game's original title was just "Evermore"; "Secret of" was tacked on to cash in on the success of ''[[Secret of Mana]]'', as well as the recycled use of the ring menu system. However, this plan worked against the game's favor when Square decided not to produce an English localization of ''Seiken Densetsu 3'', causing ''Mana'' fans to believe that the decision was made to avoid competition with ''Evermore''.
* [[Eleventh-Hour Superpower]]: Energize. See [[Game Breaker]] on the YMMV page.
* [[Empathic Shapeshifter]]: The
* [[Establishing Series Moment]]: The game opens with the
▲* [[Establishing Series Moment]]: The game opens with the boy having just seen a cheesy movie, and he makes many references to similar movies.
* [[Eternal English]]: All four lands use the same language. Justified in that they're artificial constructs, not "real" locations.
* [[Everything Trying to Kill You]]: Most egregious in the desert area, where the player is attacked by a malevolent ''tumbleweed
* [[Evil Knockoff]]:
*
** There's
* [[Eye of Newt]]: The alchemy ingredients, often taking the form of chemicals, minerals
* [[The Ferry Man]]: There is a desert ferryman who will ferry you across the desert to the Nobilia Trading Market... at the cost of [[No Hero Discount|one Amulet of Annihilation]]. He's chatty for a skeleton, constantly remarking on the desert scenery like a tour bus captain.
* [[Fireballs]]: At least four different spells have this effect in varying degrees. Most are very effective with a little leveling.
* [[Fisher Kingdom]]
* [[Flashback Effects]]: The prologue is told in [[Deliberately Monochrome|Deliberate Monochrome]].
* [[Foreshadowing]]: After taking out the Guardbots with his bazooka and descending down a floor iris, the
▲* [[Foreshadowing]]: After taking out the Guardbots with his bazooka and descending down a floor iris, the Boy runs into his dog again, which barks a greeting at him. At first, you notice something off about it, but you figure maybe it's just all the metal around where the Boy's currently located distorting his barking. Turns out that it was an [[Early-Bird Cameo]] of the Toaster Dog.
* [[Garden of Evil]]
* [[Girlish Pigtails]]: Fire Eyes.
* [[Global Airship]]: Tinker's [[Those Magnificent Flying Machines|flying machine]]. Later, one of the Omnitopian escape shuttles.▼
* [[Global Currency]]: [[Averted Trope|Averted]]. Each world the
▲* [[Global Airship]]: Tinker's [[Those Magnificent Flying Machines|flying machine]]. Later one of the Omnitopian escape shuttles.
* [[Guide Dang It]]: Good luck finding some of the Alchemy formulas without one. Sting, the formula in the desert, is probably the most annoying one.
▲** The bazooka does have some drawbacks. The recoil forces the Boy backwards quite a bit, which can be disadvantageous, and using it like a club is woefully underpowered. That being said, ammo (even without the infinite ammo glitch) is very cheap, so you'll likely never run out once it becomes available. The hand-to-hand weapons are more fun, but certainly less useful.
* [[Hedge Maze]]: Chessboard Plateau.
* [[Heroic Dog]]▼
* [[Hello, Insert Name Here]]
▲* [[Heroic Dog]]
* [[Hollywood Acid]]: The Acid Rain and Corrosion spells, which call down a bubbling, burning raincloud and a [[Standard Status Effects|slow-acting deluge]] respectively.
* [[Hope Spot]]: Thanks to {{spoiler|Prehistoria's volcano}}, the heroes are catapulted high into the air. Luckily, they fall into an upended turtle shell that floats them gently downstream. {{spoiler|And then dumps them over a waterfall
* [[Hurricane of Puns]]:
{{quote|'''
"Or Evermore will be nevermore [[Shaped Like Itself|forever more]]!"
* [[I Don't Like the Sound of That Place]]: The '''Desert of Doom'''.▼
* [[Inevitable Tournament]]:
{{quote|'''Announcer:''' "And the challenger!... some loser with a stick!" ''(Then the crowd hurls garbage at the player...)''}}
** [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|The announcer says (slighty) different things depending of the weapon you have equipped]].<ref>"
** The
{{quote|'''
* [[Inevitable Waterfall]]: What first greets you after {{spoiler|escaping Prehistoria}}.
* [[Instant Plunder, Just Add Pirates]]
▲* [[I Don't Like the Sound of That Place]]: The '''Desert of Doom'''.
* [[Ironic Nickname]]: Tiny the Barbarian.
{{quote|'''
'''Tiny:''' [[Hulk Speak|Yes. Tiny likes irony]].
* [[Kleptomaniac Hero]]: There was one chest in which there was a subversion; you would get an alchemy spell and a new place to buy ingredients if you walked up to it and didn't open it. It was fair game ''after'' said transaction took place
* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: As a result of growing up on cheesy B-movies,
* [[Late to the Party]]
* [[Lean and Mean]]: {{spoiler|Carltron}}.
* [[Little Miss Badass]]: Elizabeth, Professor Ruffleburg's geeky, pre-adolescent granddaughter. When she offers her assistance, and the hero [[Just a Kid|dismisses her as a little girl]], she calmly and explosively demonstrates why the local villagers call her [[Eye Beams|"Fire Eyes"]].
* [[Load-Bearing Boss]]: Several, but {{spoiler|Carltron}} is the most outstanding example -- offing him causes Evermore to begin breaking up due to the lack of [[Balance Between Good and Evil]].
* [[Long List]]: In Nobilia, one guard will inform you of all the things he will not permit you to do in the city square. These include laughing, crying, moose-calling, juggling mummified cats, eating pancakes on Monday - and of course, barking like a seal
* [[Lost Forever]]: There's a lot you can miss in this game without even realizing it, a lot of the optional Alchemy formulas and trade items are a case of [[Guide Dang It]]. Probably the worst offender is Gothica as a whole: the alleyway shops close once you kill Mungola, the castle doors once you return the worker's key, and if you open the wrong chest in Lance's house, you won't meet Lance or get the Alchemy formula of the same name. The various trade items can be acquired in multiple places if you miss them, but it's still very easy to accidentally trade the wrong item away and never see it again. Furthermore, the merchants around the world who trade you these items will offer you something different if you already have what they'd normally offer (Merchant A normally trades the Jade Disk, if you already have it he'll trade the Silver Sheath, thus Merchant B who normally trades the sheath instead trades the Chocobo Egg, and so forth). So not only can certain trade items be lost forever, but which ones you can lose depends on which ones you already have.
* [[Lotus Eater Machine]]
* [[Mad Scientist]]: Sydney Ruffleberg and his surface counterpart
* [[Man of Wealth and Taste]]
* [[The Maze]]: The desert south of Nobilia, where east and west eventually wrap around to each other. A tame example, compared to the trope's use in other games, since you only have to run straight north or south to reach your destination; but this one contains a difficult-to-find alchemy spell named Sting.▼
* [[The Maze]]:
** Bugmuck Swamp, full of lillypad paths that only appear when you kill certain enemies that need you to take the long way around to get to.
▲*
** Gothica is chock full of these. Among them: the [[Garden of Evil|hedge maze]] around the chessboard, the [[Everything Trying to Kill You|Dark Forest]] (complete with a [[Mirror Boss|boss fight]] in the center, and another at the end), and the sewers under both castles to a lesser extent. This isn't even taking into consideration that you have to go through a teleporter maze to even get to Gothica!
* [[Meaningful Name]]: Each of the game's 'worlds', not to mention the protagonist's hometown.
** Fire Eyes.
** Tinker's brother
** There's a good reason why you can't go through the Omnitopia Greenhouse with the lights on: it contains ''Flowering Deaths''.
* [[Meganekko]]: Elizabeth makes her coke-bottle [[Nerd Glasses]] look cute.
* [[Mirror Boss]]: Bad Boy and Bad Dawg. {{spoiler|And Dark Toaster}}.
* [[Money Grinding]]: Lampshaded in one case, where a shady character is offering the amulet you need to get a ride across the desert and charging an outrageous price for it. To come up with the money in the local currency, you'll most likely have to do a lot of this. When you actually do return with the money, the shady character says something like "You must have been out fighting lots of bad guys to get it!".
* [[NameTron]]: Carltron.
* [[New World Tease]]: The
* [[No Name Given]]: The
* [[The Nose Knows]]: The
▲** They would be lethal, but the boy exclaims "Boy, I'm glad we missed those spikes at the bottom!". They also don't do any damage and serve nothing more than either a [[Broken Bridge]] or an annoyance for those timed bridges.
* [[Not Rare Over There]]: Annihilation amulets. 10,000 gems to get one if you don't want to cross the desert on foot, and once on the other side, you can easily buy a couple others in the marketplace.▼
▲* [[The Nose Knows]]: The Dog can be used to hunt out alchemy ingredients with a touch of a button.
▲* [[Not Rare Over There]]: Annihilation amulets. 10,000 gems to get one if you don't want to cross the desert on foot, and once on the other side you can easily buy a couple others in the marketplace.
* [[Ominous Multiple Screens]]: The hidden room behind Omnitopia's shopping mall.
* [[Our Founder]]: A statue of {{spoiler|Carltron}} decorates Nobilia square.
* [[Perverse Puppet]]: [[Meaningful Name|Mephista and Old Nick]], a pair of enormous, staring marionettes from the land of Gothica. The king just ''loves'' to watch them dance
* [[Power-Up Letdown]]
* [[The Present Day]]: Released in October of 1995, takes place a non-specific date from that same year.
* [[Puzzle Boss]]: Tiny.
* [[Quicksand Sucks]]: There are appearing/disappearing hole of quick sand that send you back if you get caught.
* [[Reality Warper]]: The different worlds are manifestations of each of the inhabitants' personal [[Utopia|utopias]], as are the superhuman powers each one's developed during their stay.
* [[Recurring Boss]]: Stronger copies of the game's bosses appear in Omnitopia, where their originals were built.
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* [[Robot Master]]: {{spoiler|Carltron}}. Who better, right?
* [[Ruins for Ruins Sake]]: Literally, since Antiqua -- a land based on a pastiche of [[Ancient Egypt]], [[Mayincatec]], [[Ancient Grome]] and [[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything|Pirates]] -- is created from Horace Highwater's ideal utopia, which involved archaeology.
* [[Running Gag]]: In Nobilia and Crustacia, mummified cats. They're part of the desert tour, they're on tapestries, in juggling acts, and in the Great Pyramid, they even show up as enemies.
* [[Scary Shiny Glasses]]: Elizabeth's Call
* [[Scenery Porn]]: The game is surprisingly beautiful in certain places. ''Especially'' Gothica. The music helps add to the atmosphere, as well.
* [[Schizo-Tech]]: Evermore was specifically designed to be so.
* [[Shifting Sand Land]]: The [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Quicksand Field]].
* [[Shout-Out]]: When the
* [[Simple Score of Sadness]]: The music for "Abandoned Ebon Keep".
* [[Sprint Meter]]: Shared with the [[Charge Meter]]. If you power up any weapon to level 3, you can use the sprint button to run almost indefinitely.
* [[Sprint Shoes]]: The Jaguar Ring.
* [[Squishy Wizard]]: In an interesting twist, the main character is one in this game. Although there is no actual magic in this game, the
* [[A Taste of Power]]: The
▲** [[Magic Knight]]: Once he's been outfitted with better armor; and his weapon selection always qualifies.
▲* [[A Taste of Power]]: The Boy starts out with a bazooka, but it's quickly lost when his space pod lands. Cecil gives it back to you in Gothica.
* [[Temporary Bulk Change]]: The Atlas spell causes your hero to spontaneously bust out in [http://shrines.rpgclassics.com/snes/soe/images/atlas.gif ridiculous muscles] for a moment. [[Rule of Funny|It's anyone's guess how his clothes survive.]]
* [[There's No B in Movie]]: The main character is a big fan of these.
* [[Third Person Person]]: Tiny.
* [[Token Minority]]: Horace.
* [[Too Awesome to Use]]: Call Beads, so long as you don't exploit a glitch (see YMMV).▼
* [[Tomorrowland]]: Omnitopia.
▲* [[Too Awesome to Use]]: Call Beads, so long as you don't exploit a glitch (see YMMV page).
* [[The Unfought]]: Ruffleberg comes to the rescue and switches off {{spoiler|Cartolron}} before he can fight you properly.
* [[Useless Useful Spell]]: A couple:
** Reflect:
** Explosion:
** Super Cure:
* [[Video Game Cruelty Punishment]]: Go ahead. Taunt those chickens. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HDmSUMD32Q We dare] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5ulqdDq4Vs you].
* [[Video Game Settings]]:
** [[Big Fancy Castle]]: Gothica and Ebon Keep.
** [[Blackout Basement]]
** [[Bleak Level]]: Ebon Keep, though it is more melancholy than anything.
** [[Bubblegloop Swamp]]
** [[Build Like an Egyptian]]: Great Pyramid.
** [[Circus of Fear]]: Mungola and his puppets.
** [[Decade Dissonance]]: Evermore was designed with this in mind.
** [[Down the Drain]]
** [[Down in the Dumps]]: Omnitopia's garbage heap.
** [[First Town]]: Fire Eyes's village.
** [[Gang Plank Galleon]]: Crustacea. Yar.
** [[It's All Upstairs From Here]]: Gomi's tower.
** [[The Lost Woods]]
** [[Medieval European Fantasy]]: Gothica.
** [[Noob Cave]]: South Jungle.
** [[Tomorrowland]]
** [[Toy Time]]: The chessboard.
** [[Womb Level]]: The giant skeleton in Bugmuck Swamp.
▲** Which ends with an inverted [[Heads I Win, Tails You Lose]] boss battle. If you're successful in fighting off the raptors at the end, you get some free stuff, but if you fail (and you likely will fail), you just continue on with the plot.
* [[We Will Spend Credits in the Future]]: Omnitopia's local currency is the credit.
* [[Where It All Began]]: The
* [[Who Names Their Kid
* [[Year Outside, Hour Inside]]: Prof. Ruffleberg's initial experiment with Evermore took place in 1965. Thirty years later, when the
▲* [[You Must Be This Tall to Enter]]: Comes in three varieties. First, the weeds that your starting bone weapon can't cut down until you get the Spider Claw. Second, the switches in a dungeon have to be hit from a distance, and your spear is too light to do the job so you have to find the heavier Bronze Spear. And then there's stone barriers and blocked doorways that your current Axe is too weak to demolish so you have to find an upgrade.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:The Nineties]]
[[Category:Eastern RPG]]
[[Category:Super Nintendo Entertainment System]]
▲[[Category:Secret of Evermore]]
▲[[Category:Video Game]]
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