Platform: Playstation 2

Genre: RPG

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Akira

ETA: Q3 2002

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Everblue

So, who likes putting on a really bad French accent, while wearing a quaint little toque and hopping in the tub pretending you’re a deep sea explorer?  We’ve probably all done at one time or another when we were kids, finding untold buried treasures in the murky deep, while giggling in delight as a “gaseous fissure” releases its bubbly payload.  Now European PS2 owners can relive those memories with Everblue, which will allow players to explore the ocean in search of sunken treasure…presumably minus any “gaseous fissures”.  

While it may be tempting to want to look at Everblue as a sort of spiritual successor to the Treasures of the Deep games, this title is going for a more methodical approach to diving, not the faster, almost arcade-styled pace found in the old PSOne series.  In the game players will take control of Leonardo, a rookie diver who must set to work in the Daedalus Sea looking for all manner of buried loot and artifacts, with the ultimate goal of finding a particular treasure that has plagued his family for years.  

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The gameplay is looking like a cross between a simulation and an RPG.  Players will need to take heed of remaining oxygen, their depth, and will have to watch their hit points as Leo takes a few bumps and bruises during his exploration.  With each treasure that is recovered there’s money to be made off of its sale, at which point players can use the money to buy better equipment so to more aptly navigate the watery depths.  When in town shopping for more diving gear, players can also talk to the locals, getting the lowdown on possible jobs and rumors of places to find treasure also.  

Since the central theme of the game is exploration, players will also have a Free Swim mode at their disposal.  In it you can just swim wherever you please, taking in the sites and exploring the sea.

There just aren’t very many games that take place underwater outside of those involving fishing or submarines, console gamers may have a little something to look forward to here as Everblue tries to close this rift somewhat.  No word on a North American release as of yet, but who knows, it may find its way over here eventually.

- Mr. Nash

(March 10, 2002)