Everhood 2
Everhood 2 is a 2025 video game developed by Chris Nordgren and Jordi Roca as a sequel to the 2021 game Everhood. First announced in 2023, it was released on Microsoft Windows and Nintendo Switch on March 4, 2025. Though it is not a direct sequel to Everhood, taking place in the same universe but telling a new story, its gameplay mechanics are largely similar, and several characters from the first game make an appearance.
Plot
Setting
The setting of Everhood 2 is stated to be the same as that of the original Everhood. It is later revealed that this story takes place in one of EverhoodStory
Everhood 2 opens with the player being asked several questions, ranging from technical to personal. This determines the color of the non-gendered player character, which appears in a crudely drawn house on a vast white plain. They chase a stopwatch that bounces across the plain into a hole. Jumping down the hole, the player engages in battle with a mysterious shady figure, before being carried away to safety by Raven, an anthropomorphic raven.Raven explains that the entity who attacked the player is the Root of All Evil, and in order to defeat it, the player must strengthen themselves by collecting Power Gems scattered across the game's many realms, and obtain their "Soul Weapon" by defeating the Mind Dragon, a physical manifestation of the player's anxieties and trauma. The player is largely free to explore the different realms in any order they choose, among them a kingdom of sentient vegetables at war with a band of rebel fruits, the rooms of various residents in the "infinite" Hillbert Hotel , or a time machine that sends the player to an alien planet in different eras of their civilization. Along the way, the player allies with Sam and Irvine, two minor characters from the first Everhood, along with a tiny frog named Riley who is searching for a figure called the Boatman.
Upon defeating the Mind Dragon and obtaining their Soul Weapon, the player is escorted by Raven to the Mushroom Bureau to seek audience with the wise Divine Mushroom. The Divine Mushroom informs the player that their actions are ultimately meaningless, and that they ought to simply "enjoy the ride." Nevertheless, the player and their allies set out at Riley's suggestion to find the Boatman, the pilot of an interdimensional spaceship, and ask for passage to the Root of All Evil. After passing a trial run, the group finds themselves in Pandemonium, a nightclub at the "end of time," whereupon the player can go back to tie up any loose ends before boarding the ship a second time.
After re-boarding the Boatman's ship, the voyage is diverted by the arrival of the Jester God, Bobo. Defeating Bobo reveals the Root of All Evil, now known as Shade, to have been controlling the player's enemies all along, and now that they are finally "out of puppets" they decide to battle the player one-on-one. Regardless of whether Shade is defeated or not, the player is sent through a lengthy sequence of many different realms before once again confronting them directly. Shade asks whether the player wishes to "become God," but then explains that since the game's world was created for their entertainment in the first place, the player is already its God. Shade instead grants godhood to Riley, who proceeds to take over Everhood and rule as a tyrant.
The player is sent back to the game's world, where they regroup with Sam and Irvine and set out to defeat Riley. The player eventually confronts them alone, but Riley suddenly collapses and dies in the middle of their battle, with Shade reappearing to remark that Riley's body couldn't handle their power. The game abruptly cuts to credits, after which the player has one final encounter with Shade. Shade explains that they are not evil, but simply a manifestation of the player's desire for more action and battles, having set the events of the game into motion for their own enjoyment. Shade challenges the player to one final battle, after which they announce the game's end, but invite the player to come back occasionally as they "find their attention intoxicating." Shade sends the player back to the moment right before they board the Boatman's ship, at which point they can return to the ship to experience the ending sequence again, or explore the game's worlds at their leisure.