Is the 1st better?

[Andrew R]

I'm sure it is a matter of opinion but I just realized barely scratched the one hour mark in the original.

Will probably reinstall....

[Gekker]

yes

First one is an experience. It has meaning, purpose, it's complete on its own.
Second one is a hatemail. It feels like "you want a sequel? here's your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sequel, shove it up your ass, now get lost!".
Elaboration: first i was concerned about red flags appearing one after another (forcing player out of challenges, grinding(why????), softlocks(literally), errors that appear even in savefile), then i lost all purpose to keep playing (the only good part is few songs).

idk what happened to the devs for them to make this. And even without comparison to the 1st game I wouldn't enjoy this.

[Royal]

in the gameplay department, no.

in the story department, absolutely.

[ogle]

first, id say you'd better finish the first before playing the second but, personally I think the story of the first is better while the second is definitely more upgraded on the gameplay end of things, I love them both

[ya boi]

Second is better IMO. It start slow, but after 2h mark, the game basically changed. The more I played, the more I liked it. They did fighting mechanics way more enjoyable, there are way way more and better music overall

[Aumires]

The 1st game is a much more impactful experience. This one dillutes its tight packed theme of "Anti Undertale" for a more general RPG under the "Anti Deltarune" guise.

The gameplay is expanded upon though. Again, dilluted in what's more "typical" battles. It's not so much a "this character has a song with a long composition of notes to confront" but a "this character has this (set of) pattern(s)". This tends to downplay the fights a little, although some are still very good.

The story is expanded too. I wouldn't say dilluted though. It's more... generic. It's, so far, a Sisyphus myth story under the guise of a Hero's Journey. Which doesn't hit quite the same as the first one, and I am pretty sure it has rubbed a little badly with some people - not me, I found it quite fascinating and bold.

Tl;dr This game's a sidegrade to the first. You might like the first a lot more.

[Nukular Power]

yes. so far EH2 is pretty good but does not live up to the original imo

[Bl1ndF1re]

I like both, and have yet to beat this one yet...but the ending of the first game was god tier for me.

[Пятнистая Рысявка]

Got bored 40 minutes in.
Better combat system, more risk - more reward, but

Repeating fights? Wth, is it jrpg now?
Lame songs so far. Meh story, which isn't helping to get involved.

Had high hopes

[Bonny]

A few minutes ago I replied to a similar quesiton like this, so, I will copy paste it

"I loved the first game due the Story and then the boss battles along the music

As you encounter new bosses, they had a unique theme, you were fighting them through a whole arrangement before being able to actually kill them... or at least it let you listen to it before being able to actually kill them. Dunno, every song seems "long" enough to personalize each of the characters you encounter. Now, in this game, uh… it focusses on gaining XP so the songs are way shorter, you don’t get to familiarize with the character since is killing a few clones they put on your way, so, you don’t grow attached to them or get to know too much about them unlike the first game. I know I’m talking about the fights but…. The fights in the first game felt part of the story
Here? Fights seem rather impersonal and not being part of the story at all, just a battle to keep going and see what’s next

Speaking of such, the story seem lackluster in various aspects, since your purpose is bit of a confusion, you are being told a “lie” then finding the truth isn’t as shocking, just helping a few dudes as the game takes you to help them, it feels like… random happenings rather that having something coherent

I remember the first one takes you through a silly path, fun one, getting to know the characters, then having this twist and weird climax where you don’t know if you should keep going or rather, having to keep going!
And here….. is more like… eh… no twist, there aren’t enough dialogues to get attached too much to them, is like everyone is just doing their things, even the companion you have ends not having too much attachment to you to get shocked later….. I don’t know, I feel like the story is all convoluted (perhaps like this text, lol)

But yeh…. Still, fun game to play, love some of the joke, I just feel bit disappointed, I know is unfair to try to compare of what the first game was about and how the story went, but even if not comparing to the other game, the story is like………….. not that good written, this would be one of those games to play just because the battles are fun to play"

[King of Games]

yeah

[Malkraz]

The first game is twice as good for half the price.

[Tinkuwu]

The first game's story is amazing.

Second game has more varied gameplay than the first, as well as a kind of "Hey, keep playing, I'm sure people will make more content for you to enjoy." kind of deal. I'm seeing the second game as more of a Bonelabs while the first in Boneworks, if you've ever played those two VR games. Basically Bonelabs is just a short story with the tools to create your own experiences, while Boneworks is an actual story with set levels and gameplay.

That's not to say Everhood 2 doesn't have a story, it has one, but it's all over the place, and I'm unsure if the devs even planned for it to be finished where it ends, considering there's three separate endings, not as like a "Choose your ending" kind of thing, but more of "This is the ending, thanks for playing! Why are you still playing? Oh you thought there was more? We'll give you more!" and it just all builds up on itself with no solid foundation. So the end is kinda poor.

I understand the message, and without spoilers, it's still not a good story. It's trying to be more meta than the first game, but it's more "in your face" about it this time. The first one worked so well because of the connections you made with the other characters in the world, so the ending starts to make you feel guilty. Was it all worth it? In the second game, it's a "haha you're a light person, but actually you're god. But wait, you're not god, you don't have time, you exist outside of time, nothing ends here because time doesn't exist." like FFS dude, pick something and try to roll with it. Give us at least an assumption, but don't directly tell us what you want the message to be, and then rip it away like it didn't matter.

[Fracture94]

Everhood 2 its a shame. Im forcing myself to finish it because of the visuals and the music, everything else is a mess.

[Oslash]

you know, both games are an acid trip, but i feel the first one is completely justified to be an acid trip because of its story

the second one... i dunno, feels like the devs just did another trippy game for the sake of it, even going in horror game territory for no reason at all

gameplay wise is pretty good, it just needs a few more patches here and there to fix some bugs

i do hate the fact that there is no NG+ though, specially when there are missables and rpg mechanics

[goobie snoobert]

Originally posted by Royal:

in the gameplay department, no.

in the story department, absolutely.

i really struggle to imagine how someone could think everhood 2 is better in the gameplay department
do you really enjoy fighting against the same enemy 5+ times? do you think that's a better experience than fighting 1 enemy that has ten times more personality and charm? the gnome fight near the beginning of everhood 1 is more memorable than every single fight in everhood 2 combined
sure, you have weapons and level ups, but what do they actually add to the core gameplay loop? they're just fluff