Secret of Evermore: Difference between revisions

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 -- topics covered before the thread 'died' ranged from what the programmers did after work, to an explanation of what the Gourd does (it doesn't do anything, incidentally), and even some personal anecdotes regarding the design process itself.

* [[Adipose Rex]]: A female variant -- Queen Bluegarden, whose derrière is the size of a Buick.

* [[Air Vent Passageway]]

* [[The Cameo]]: Cecil Harvey from ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'' shows up as a shopkeeper in Ebon Keep, and even [[Shout-Out|makes references to his adventures from that game]].

** Also, during the [[Gladiator Games]] in Nobilia, you can see [[Final Fantasy VI|Terra, Locke, Mog, Strago, Relm and Umaro]] in the spectator stands.

* [[Canine Companion]]

* [[Chekhov's Volcano]]

* [[Commonplace Rare]]: Some of the alchemy ingredients. How is water so expensive?

** Most likely, it's ''pure'' water, which would be pretty rare in the first two civilizations (and the last two don't sell it).

** 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).

** Toaster-Dog is also a [[Game Breaker]], landing critical hits [[For Massive Damage]] with almost disturbing frequency.

* [[Evil Knockoff]]: Elizabeth, Horace and Camilla each have robotic clones of them running around and making trouble. Clones of the hero and his dog are encountered during the [[Final Boss]] fight.

** There's also a battle on a bridge, where the hero has to fight three clones of himself. Which leads to the line, "[[If My Calculations Are Correct|According to my calculations]], [[20% More Awesome|you're three times stronger than yourself!]]".

** The third to last battle involves a clone of the hero (no harder thsm any of the three aforementioned ones) and the dog (who is a much stronger opponent).

* [[Guns Are Worthless]]: Averted; the bazooka easily equals or outmatches the various melee weapons you put to use.

** And even if it somehow runs out of ammo, the hero can still wield it like a club.

** The bazooka does have some drawbacks. The recoil forces the hero 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.

*** Actually, the Neutron Blade wins out for highest damage potential if you know how to use it. Trap an enemy in a corner and use a Level 3 attack, and you can potentially hit the enemy three times for 1000+ damage. That's enough to one-shot almost any non-boss enemy in the game.

* [[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.

* [[Mad Scientist]]: Sydney Ruffleberg and his surface counterpart, Tinker.

* [[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.

** Tinker's brother, Gomi. ''Gomi'' means "garbage" in Japanese, an appropriate name considering the ramshackle tower he lives in.

* [[Non Lethal Bottomless Pits]]:

** They would be lethal, but the hero 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.

* [[Power-Up Letdown]]/[[Useless Item]]: The Magic Gourd, which serves absolutely no purpose other than to deprive you of a valuable [[Shout-Out|Chocobo Egg]].

** There's a spot in the Desert of Doom where you can get free 99 Rice and Spice. Trade this for something profitable in Nobilia, and you can accrue the 10,000 Jewels a monk is asking for to buy an Amulet of Annihilation in Crustacia (the shipwreck place). He also throws in a Chocobo Egg, as he probably feels guilty about selling you a piece of crap. You can use this to trade for The Magic Gourd, and you can get your Chocobo Egg back when you reach Ivor Tower in Gothica.

* [[Quicksand Sucks]]

** [[Magic Knight]]: Once he's been outfitted with better armor, and his weapon selection always qualifies.

** Reflect: It reflects magic. The problem is, by the time you get it, it's only useful on the optional boss. And almost immediately afterwards, you can get the [[Game Breaker]] spell Barrier, which negates all damage anyway.

** Explosion: More in the sense of its in-game description. Supposedly, it can cut through barriers. The problem is, nobody in the game uses barrier spells. And you can get a more powerful version, Nitro, within an hour.

** Super Cure: It combines Cure (removes status ailments) and Heal (restores HP); however, by the time you get it, status ailments don't pose much of a problem and Super Heal (completely restores the HP of both characters) has been a staple alchemy spell.

* [[Warmup Boss]]: The Raptors.

** 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.

* [[Year Outside, Hour Inside]]: Prof. Ruffleberg's initial experiment with Evermore took place in 1965. Thirty years later, when the hero finds them, they're not any older, and even comment in the ending that life will be much different now.

** This may be more of a case of [[Who Wants to Live Forever?]] as everyone is well aware of exactly how much time has passed since the experiment, but none of them have aged a day. This makes them want to return home all the more.