Learn More About Ever Oasis' Characters and Gameplay System

We are eager to see more details about Ever Oasis in the latest Weekly Famitsu. It is an action-adventure RPG created by Koichi Ishii of the Mana series fame and developed by his company Grezzo which also handled The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D and Majora's Mask 3D, where the player must develop the last standing oasis in the desert world of Vistrahda.

Main & Party Characters

The protagonist is a Seedling that has special powers and is called the "Child of the Big Tree". The protagonist's gender can be set to male or female, and their appearances such as eye and skin colors can also be customized. With the help from Esna, the water spirit who can only exist in places with water, is only visible to the Child of the Big Tree, and sees a dream of desert dwellers living in peace without ever getting attacked by Chaos, the protagonist can create and develop an oasis.

Multiple races of Beastmen dwell in the desert world of Vistrahda. Although Beastmen cannot create oases, they are strong in battles and can be recruited as party members. The Beastmen races known so far are as follows:
Ua Tribe: Lizard-like Beastmen that excel in using spears. They normally form closed societies, but there are also some of them who travel outside to train themselves.
Serke Tribe: These rocky goblins are adept in using hammers, and many of them live as miners. They are powerful and like things that are tasty.
Licos Tribe: Beastmen that look like a mix of rabbit and squirrel, which mainly use dual swords. They are brimming with curiosity and love doing fun things, but they often lament on the lack of water in their settlements.

The player will create a party of up to 3 characters, consisting of the protagonist Seedling and the partner Beastmen. Together they will explore the desert and fight against Chaos Monsters that attack them, such as Panther Rat, Spiked Armadillo and Shark Cobra.

Gameplay Flow

The gameplay flow in Ever Oasis is as follows:

1. Explore the desert and find travelers - Defeat Chaos Monsters that roam the desert and find travelers to invite them to visit the oasis.
2. Fulfill traveler requests to add them as partners - Travelers will give requests such as building certain Bloom Booths before they are willing to stay in the oasis and join the party.
3. The oasis levels up when more partners move in - The oasis can be developed further after it has leveled up, so the player needs to find even more travelers in the desert to improve it even further.
4. Build Bloom Booths to liven up the oasis - Use Aqua Gems to build the flower-shaped shops that will attract more visitors to the oasis.
5. Distribute materials to stock up merchandise - Bloom Booth clerks will request certain materials for them to stock up merchandise that they are going to sell.
6. Collect money from the sales - Noots (Pencrows in Japanese version), the half-penguin and half-owl birds that love shopping, will come to the Bloom Booths to buy the merchandise available there.
7. Synthesize weapons and items to strengthen them - Equipments can be synthesized by using materials obtained from foraging the desert and beating Chaos Monsters.

And the flow will loop back to the first point.

Gameplay System

Three features in Ever Oasis' gameplay system are highlighted in the article.

• Character switch - The player can switch the controlled character at any time. For example, they can control the protagonist to solve gimmicks with the Wind Magic, then switch to a stronger Beastman during battles.
• Use special skills - Each character has unique skills that have various effects from foraging items to removing obstacles. If a character's skill cannot solve a gimmick, try switching to other characters.
• Wind Magic - The protagonist has Wind Magic as their special skill, which can be used for various things from getting rid of sand hills that block roads, extracting fruits, moving some gimmicks, to collecting Aqua Gems from Bloom Booths in the oasis. It can also be used in battles to damage enemies, however there are also enemies that are resistant to the Wind Magic, so it is advised to switch to another character when encountering such enemies.

Ever Oasis will be released for Nintendo 3DS on June 23 in North America and Europe, and July 13 in Japan.