As you discover various members of the other tribes in Ever Oasis’ world - the spear-wielding Darkus, the strong, hammer-flinging Serkah, and the Lagora, agile masters of the twin blade - you’ll be able to recruit them to your party, and most likely to come live in your oasis as well. Other than that, however, combat is fast, fluid, and fun, and though it starts out simple, you’ll unlock more combos and moves as you go. ‘Y’ activates your magic - or puts away your weapon so you can run away from foes faster! - and also bears our only real issue with the system you have to hold ‘Y’ for slightly longer than a normal button press to get magic out, and while it probably has to do with the ability to charge it up and choose a direction to fire, we frequently whiffed the windup.

Whether you’re extracting cactus juice or cutting down enemies, the controls are easy and smooth: the Circle Pad moves your character, ‘A’ acts as a weak attack, ‘X’ as a stronger follow up, ’B’ performs a dodge, and a tap of the ‘L’ button lets you lock on to a nearby enemy, or switch between targets. Exploring feels natural, so that you’ll often pop out after one of those goals and then end up following up with several more we’d often go to gather a resource for a Bloom Booth product - cactus juice, say - and then end up spending a half-hour getting as far as we could in a newly uncovered dungeon. Once you head out, you’ll control your Seedling from behind-the-shoulder perspective, traipsing across the map in search of resources, enemies, recruitable residents, and puzzle-filled dungeons. Outside the confines of your oasis, the game’s other side shines: exploration and action-RPG combat. To solve both of those problems, you’ll have to leave the comfort of your watering hole and venture out in into the desert. Of course, if you want more shops, you’ll need to recruit more residents, and that’s not all - it’s a dangerous world out there, and your shopkeepers aren’t exactly equipped to go gather the materials they need to sell in the face of Chaos. Once they do, you’re able to take a share of the profits in the form of dewadems (Ever Oasis’ currency of choice), and use that capital in turn to upgrade and expand the oasis. These Bloom Booths sell everything from potions and juices to robes and turbans, and you won’t be the only one benefitting from them other residents, as well as adorable penguin-like creatures called Noots, will gladly buy up stock from the Bloom Booths in town. In terms of the town, that means expanding your population by recruiting new residents, and having them set up shop in Bloom Booths - personalized stores that eventually start to line your main street.

Once you do find a friendly water spirit - the charming, Isabelle-like Esna - and use your seed to start a new oasis, you’ll be starting from scratch, and in order to build up your oasis - now the last known refuge in the desert - as best you can, you’ll need to balance town-building and exploration in equal measure. It also feeds into a fantastically fun gameplay loop. It’s a relatively simple setup, but we loved learning more about Ever Oasis’ world - the imagination and care that’s gone into the lore at its heart is wonderful to watch unfold. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long for Chaos to encroach upon the oasis, and as your brother tries his best to hold off the evil, you’re told to flee, wander the desert, find a water spirit, and use your special power - as a Seedling and a Child of the Great Tree - to grow a new oasis. Inside, the oasis is a haven of calm and bustling commerce, but beyond, a force known as Chaos threatens to envelop the desert, turning animals into monsters and ravaging travelers. When the curtain rises in Ever Oasis, you’ll find yourself (as fashioned in a gender- and skin-tone-inclusive character generator) in a thriving oasis headed up by your elder brother, the chief.

A mix of action-RPG and town-building elements set in a beautifully colourful fantasy interpretation of ancient Egypt, it’s also some of the most fun we’ve had on the 3DS, and comes as a real treat late in the system’s life. Ever Oasis might be a new IP, but it comes from a long and storied pedigree: the brainchild of Secret of Mana creator Koichi Ishii, and developed by Grezzo (of the 3DS Zelda remakes and StreetPass Garden/Flower Town fame), while it certainly reflects the influence of its creators’ earlier works, as a full package it feels fresh and undeniably new.

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