Here’s a lesson in never judging a game by the way it looks. Escape from Ever After features some clichés and, honestly, somewhat overdone, cartoon-like graphics.
If I had to make a comparison right now, I’d say it doesn’t look unlike web browser games from the early days of the internet, specifically the Adobe Flash era. Not quite what you’re hoping for in 2026, am I right? I figured that the story wouldn’t be doing this game any favours either. It is set in the world of children’s books. How old were you when you first read “Three Little Pigs”, and would you really be jumping at a game that has a retelling of the story?
But now, I say differently. 10 hours into the game, quite confused, staring at my screen. There’s a closed door, and a rat that seems to be scuttling about the room that my character is in. The rat is somehow important in opening the door, I know that. What am I missing here? I wonder. And that, readers, is when I realised that this game had truly won me over. In a few hours, it managed to make me look past the childishness of it all and ponder over something that, to an outsider, would look insane.
The game follows the story of a not-very-good children’s book hero, Flynt, and his undefeated nemesis, a dragon named Tinder. They have found themselves as the unwilling slaves of a corporate enterprise called “Ever After Inc.”; their powers reduced to a fraction of what they were before, and the world as they knew it has been taken over by this capitalist entity. Ironically enough, continuing to be exploited by the enterprise and climbing up the corporate ladder is how they could escape their predicament. Their jobs involve diving into other storybooks and doing the bidding of their employers. It’s not all happy endings in all these books, and in fact, one of them is set in the world of Lovecraft and there’s a boss battle with the mythical Cthulhu.
The more important thing is this: the game is actually a really serious and complex turn-based RPG. Everything around you could be a threat, and you must be prepared with the right move slots and the characters required for combat. You can’t just walk around without a single care; carrots could jump out at you from a vegetable patch, and a unicorn could suddenly decide to go rogue. What I liked is that it wasn’t just your usual ‘Pokémon’ auto-battler. Winning the battle is a lot more active. You can’t simply choose the right moves and sit back to watch the cutesy animations play out. Your reflexes are engaged, and there’s always a follow-up action to carry out. Like clicking the button on contact with the enemy, or aggressively punching a combination of keys to enable a bonus attack. You simply have to pay attention. It’s also quite similar to Clair Obscur from 2025, in which actively blocking the enemy’s moves plays a big part in winning battles.
Far and away, my favourite part of the game, however, was the traversal puzzles. Each story unlocked new areas of the map, as well as new characters with special powers. With each new character came fresh new issues — locked rooms, ledges that you can’t quite climb, and buttons that were just out of reach. Most of these puzzles were quite baffling, and I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I had to keep calling in my husband to come and solve them for me. Even if I had help with it, it feels so rewarding to solve it as a team. Like your brain did that, it figured it all out, and you come out of it feeling just a little smarter. It’s a feeling that I’m desperately trying to cling to in an age where we seek out AI to solve most of our problems.
Would I recommend Escape From Ever After for everybody? Probably not. If you’re looking for a purely puzzle-based game with a good story, you might be a bit put off by the complex turn-based components. But if you’re looking for an all-round great RPG, and you’ve been missing some of that Clair-Obscuresque action, this is the game to reach out for.
The game is currently available on all major consoles. It’s best played with a controller.