Parents' Guide to Evertale

This adventure game has some good points, but the amount of information can potentially confuse players looking to fully understand its combat strategy. Evertale has numerous areas to explore and characters to meet, and the graphics are often impressive. Players can find hidden monsters in bushes that shake gently, bright lights blare when contact is made in battle, and opponents disappear in a puff of smoke when defeated. The two main activities in the app center on conversations with other characters and fighting monsters. Players can capture some of the monsters they face off against, and then choose those creatures -- or other characters -- when they customize their lineup to ensure the strongest possible team will be used in battles.

The gameplay involves a number of elements, which can take some time to fully understand. The plot feels secondary to the frequent battles, and it unfolds fairly slowly. Random factors can change the outcome of battles, so anticipating the outcome of each move can be tricky. Similarly, some battles you stumble into, while others are preceded by conversations and conditions where you can't advance unless you win. That becomes a source of frustration because it slows the game down -- particularly when the battles suddenly seem to get more difficult or spawns new monsters in place of ones you've killed. Plus, if you have to replay a mission, you have to sit through any tutorials for that fight all over again without skipping. While there are some tools added to help direct players, it's still possible to feel lost during each chapter, which could lead people to use in-app purchases to make steady progress. Without a strong hook to draw players in or guidance on improving their performance, they may enjoy testing their luck against opponents for awhile -- but ultimately might not opt to spend much time in Evertale's fictional world if they just keep getting stuck in battles they have to repeat.