UnexpectedGames

Forspoken isn’t the first time SquareSoft tried to make a game with international appeal. Before “Isekai” became a term more commonly used today, back in 1995, SquareSoft released a game called Secret of Evermore on the SNES; an action-RPG about a B-movie-loving boy and his dog who get transported to a fictional world. Although it’s not made clear where the boy was from, the game’s intro takes place in “Podunk, USA”, which one could assume is a rural town in the Midwest. Developed by the North American SquareSoft division, Evermore shared similarities to SquareSoft’s very own Secret of Mana, but the game carried a distinct look and sound that differentiated itself from its contemporaries. Evermore was grounded and arguably more gritty than its Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger brethren. Jeremy Soule, now known for games like The Elder Scrolls and Guild Wars, composed a unique, atmospheric soundtrack that didn’t sound like anything else on the SNES at the time. While the core gameplay resembled Secret of Mana, Evermore had a crafting system where you would gather materials to craft magic spells. Your dog’s appearance, as well as the local currency, would change based on the realm you were in, too.

Now that Forspoken has released, what if Luminous Productions (the development team behind Forspoken) made a sequel/successor to Secret of Evermore as their next project? Evermore has held a cult-classic status as time has passed, so it’s relevancy and popularity is debatable. Over the past year or so, Square-Enix has been releasing a plethora of remakes, remasters and spiritual successors, however. Live A Live, an RPG from 1994 that never made its way to the west released for the first time in 2022, fully remade with HD-2D visuals. Valkyrie Elysium, a new entry in the almost-forgotten Valkyrie Profile series, saw the light of day despite how different it was compared to its predecessors. Even tri-Ace was given another opportunity to make another Star Ocean game with The Divine Force! While a remake of Parasite Eve in the same vein as the more recent Resident Evil remakes seems to be the most desirable reboot amongst the fanbase (and more likely to happen), I still think Secret of Evermore deserves a second chance.

See you next time!

-Matty