Even the Ocean

Even the Ocean is a 2D action-platformer with RPG bones, made by the small team behind Anodyne. You play as Aliph, a lowly technician for Whiteforge City's power grid, whose routine maintenance trip spirals into something much larger and stranger than she bargained for. The game splits its time between side-scrolling platforming sections and slower, dialogue-heavy story beats, and the balance between those two halves is really what the experience lives or dies on. If you come in expecting tight action gameplay, temper those expectations now. If you come in wanting a game that actually has something to say, you are in better shape. The platforming is built around a light-dark energy mechanic. Aliph absorbs either light or dark energy as she moves through levels, and her health bar shifts accordingly - too much of either and you are in trouble. It is a simple system but it gives every screen a quiet tension, forcing you to think about movement rather than just blast through. The level design is modest by genre standards, never dazzling, occasionally frustrating in the mid-game where pacing dips and a few sections feel more like obstacle courses than meaningful spaces. Filler platforming is not absent here. But the mechanic ties into the story thematically in ways that feel earned rather than bolted on, which is more than most indie platformers manage. Where Even the Ocean genuinely distinguishes itself is in its writing and its willingness to be politically earnest without being preachy. Aliph is a working-class protagonist in a very literal sense - her job is infrastructure maintenance, and the story stays grounded in that mundane reality even as the world around her expands. The cast of characters she meets across Whiteforge City and beyond are drawn with real specificity. The game's central relationship, between Aliph and Aliph's companion Hiu, carries emotional weight that builds slowly and pays off in ways that feel human rather than scripted. Themes of labor, urban development, and whose interests cities actually serve run through the whole thing, handled with nuance rather than a lecture. It is the kind of writing that rewards paying attention. The RPG elements are light. There are no deep build trees, no stat-heavy character sheets. Think of it more as a narrative RPG in the Anodyne tradition, where the role-playing is about inhabiting a character's perspective rather than optimizing numbers. Choices in dialogue shape your understanding of the world more than they branch the plot dramatically, which will disappoint players who want mechanical consequence from their decisions. But if you care about character arcs and whether a game's ending feels like it was worth the trip, Even the Ocean mostly delivers. The final stretch has genuine emotional stakes. It is not a long game - most players finish in five to eight hours - and its rough edges show its indie budget clearly. Some environmental storytelling goes underexplained, a few character threads close faster than they open, and the music, while distinctive and made with Melos Han-Tani's characteristic chiptune sensibility, will not appeal to everyone. But for a game this small, the ambition and follow-through are real. It sits in a specific niche: thoughtful, slightly awkward, more interested in ideas than spectacle. Players who bounced off Anodyne for being too abstract may find Even the Ocean more approachable. Players who loved Anodyne's strangeness will feel at home. Monika, Scout Team