The Dead Tree of Ranchiuna
The Dead Tree of Ranchiuna
Game
Game2020
Ever Forward
Developer Pathea Games
A girl trapped in a strange world somewhere between reality and imagination. Help her find her way in this adventure puzzle game. From the Steam store page
88 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Mastodon, Bluesky) · newest Jul 25, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
81
LovedLoved
62 positive · 15 negative
95% range 70–88%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 62 | 15 | 0 |
| Mastodon * | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 3 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
67 of 82 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
81% recommend · 65 yes, 15 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 80 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (240 of 291 positive).
Players praise the game's beautiful visuals and emotional story. [1][2][3] Some find the puzzles challenging and clever, while others find them frustrating and tedious. [1][4][5] Several reviewers note the game is short, with a playtime of around two to three hours. [6][7][8]
Liked
Representative posts
- [5]
Ever Forward has a surreal aesthetic to it with an intriguing story arc. The mellow synth soundtrack and wonderful use of color palettes made this puzzle platformer easy on the eyes and ears. Unfortunately, that's where I stop giving glowing praise for this game. The puzzle mechanic developed within this title is rather frustrating most of the time. You're required to carry blocks to specific end points while …
- [1]
Ever Forward is beautiful puzzle game with an emotional story. Depending on the way your brain is wired, it will either be pretty easy for you or quite hard. It was the latter for me, but I got there......finally! The bones of the story is that the mother is a very busy scientist and has little time for her 12 yr old daughter. Government officials have stated that it is too unsafe to go outside, so you're stuck home …
- [2]
Pastel-toned graphics, an emotional storyline, and challenging puzzles offer a fun and engaging experience. However, the game unfortunately ends before you can fully immerse yourself in the gameplay and story.
- [3]
Beautiful game with good story and unique puzzles
- [4]
This is a really cool puzzle game with good looking graphics and challenging puzzles. Just wanted to give it a try and already spend 3 hours. If you enjoy games like The Talos Principle or Portal then you should definitely play this.
Summarised from 34 of the 91 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 13, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Ever Forward sits at 81% positive across 77 opinionated reactions from 3 sources. Fresh or rotten — where do you land?
Reactions
60 of 88 · most liked firstEver Forward has a surreal aesthetic to it with an intriguing story arc. The mellow synth soundtrack and wonderful use of color palettes made this puzzle platformer easy on the eyes and ears. Unfortunately, that's where I stop giving glowing praise for this game. The puzzle mechanic developed within this title is rather frustrating most of the time. You're required to carry blocks to specific end points while traversing various platforms and avoid sentry turrets. It's a scenario that is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ever Forward is beautiful puzzle game with an emotional story. Depending on the way your brain is wired, it will either be pretty easy for you or quite hard. It was the latter for me, but I got there......finally! The bones of the story is that the mother is a very busy scientist and has little time for her 12 yr old daughter. Government officials have stated that it is too unsafe to go outside, so you're stuck home all the time. [A reason was never given for this] You start designing your…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →https://youtube.com/watch?v=d3_Eb7lBPhA Ever Forward is an indie puzzle game where you play as a girl named Maya. The game starts off when you on an island kind of area and you progress through levels by going to some distorted shapes which transports you to another area where the puzzles are. Here they start off simple where you sneak around surveillance without getting caught while having to transport a cube from one place to another. As you progress the difficult ramp up and some are kinda…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I very much wanted to like this game, but unfortunately the only thing it really has going for it is the graphics. I haven't beaten the game, so I'm not sure about the story. But I got bored and frustrated by the puzzles real quick. The puzzles involve carrying blocks from one point to another while staying hidden from sentry turrets. Not only are the puzzles tedious and slow, but they are very frustrating as there is not a very clear line to the mechanics of the sentry turrets, and their line…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It looks beautiful but that's pretty much all there is going for it. This game has a habit of not explaining its own mechanics so you have to learn everything with trial and error. Not the way I prefer to solve puzzles. There were a few that were pleasant to solve, but not many. The others either have mechanics that I would've never figured out in a million years or frame perfect timing on button presses, which is not fun. Weirdly enough, they also introduce a bunch of new mechanics in the last…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pastel-toned graphics, an emotional storyline, and challenging puzzles offer a fun and engaging experience. However, the game unfortunately ends before you can fully immerse yourself in the gameplay and story.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Just finished this lovely game, Ever Forward. 1.Visually, I was met with a vibrant and appealing world design. The main character is cute, although I would recommend the devs used a more realistic voice actor for the child. Her excited and general tone always sounded forced, which is unappealing. 2. The story, although I'll admit I have mixed feelings about much it actually will hit home with most people, was interesting enough to allow you to make up your own mind about what was going on.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →ridiculously overpriced ~2-hour (or 1 if you watch it on youtube) 3d puzzle platformer from the people behind my time at portia and its various ridiculously overpriced reskins. non-rebindable controls, a removed demo and lots of trial & error due to all the timing, stealth, lack of clarity and unresponsive controls. jumping is on a delay for some reason, feels weird. tutorial prompts can be missed easily if you keep moving. there's also a lot of pointless walking between puzzle levels.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I want to iterate that while I recommend this game, it's purely to give some support for the developers since the game has a great foundation. I personally had some issues with the game. These issues have nothing to do with how hard the puzzles were, as I've finished the game in 2.1 hours. The main points I want to touch up on are the Story, Puzzle Design/Mechanics, and Game Length. Before I touch upon these things, I do want to say that the game is beautiful. I love the art style. I will do…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →First off I want to say I got this game as a bundle with the soundtrack and additional puzzle for $13.50 USD including tax. So the majority of the puzzles are good... until they start making you wait which only gets worse as the levels progress. There was not too many puzzles and I have yet to try the additional puzzle but it took me less than 3 hours to beat the base game (with a little help from a walk-through) Each level you beat you get an achievement which is named along with what happens…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Check out the new review of Ever Forward for PS5! thegamehoard.com/2026/07/06/e... #gaming #videogames #indiegames
neutral · AI labelView post →Charming little puzzle game with simple yet beautiful visuals in an interesting setting. The puzzles start simple and scale up slowly. The latter puzzles had me scratching my head a little with the last couple involving plenty of trial and error to solve them. Overall an enjoyable package that I am happy I got to play. If you are starved of a neat puzzle game to try out this could be for you. Some may say its a little pricey for the playtime however it seems reasonable to me.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →2/10 for interesting. 3/10 for fun. It's a subpar game. The story seems to be about the day-to-day life of a little girl who is slowly losing her mind in quarantine; a much too real plotline to be brought by a Chinese company in 2020. Well, that may not be what the story is about because after five cutscenes without any substance whatsoever I lost interest in it completely. I see a lot of reviews saying it is a beautiful game. It looks... alright. Frankly, the colour scheme is great but the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/43083373/]Clever games curator review: 6.5/10. A very pretty 3D puzzle game. Puzzles are demanding in terms of reflexes, intellect, and observation. They mostly consist of avoiding cameras (stealth); while you can jump it’s not really a platformer. While there aren’t that many puzzles, each one is rather different and all depend on that aha moment when you realize what the trick is, ie none are obvious. Almost all feature stationary sentinel bots…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really nice aesthetic but that's the only point that initially caught my attention. After playing I can say the subtitles are not properly synced, sometimes missing (I didn't understand the ending for this reason). The story in general may be a bit forced too. And finally, some of the levels felt too convoluted to me. I don't know if it's just me or not because I played other puzzle games such as Monument Valley (recently) and Manifold Garden which mess around with perspective and gravity…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Maya is a little girl who lives alone on a peaceful island far, far out at sea. The waves are calm, stone pillars loom out in the distance like faraway guardians, and a huge tree stands tall and strong with its roots entangling the earth. Maya isn’t completely alone though, Hestia is Maya’s floating companion cube, a quiet friend who is with her always. One day, out on the beach, something strange appears – a familiar building manifests and a puzzle appears, leading to a memory Maya has…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's beautiful in that dream-like way. It has some clever puzzles and an adorable protagonist. My gripe is that the logic of the puzzles is inconsistent. IE. Sometimes you can use the cube thing to fly, but other times you can't. The cube locks into the squares to turn the bridge on but is then stuck there until you have finished the puzzle when it would make just as much sense for it to pop back out after you had crossed. Many of the puzzles would be easily solved by just flying to the end of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Beautiful game with good story and unique puzzles
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a really cool puzzle game with good looking graphics and challenging puzzles. Just wanted to give it a try and already spend 3 hours. If you enjoy games like The Talos Principle or Portal then you should definitely play this.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ever Forward is a puzzle and adventure game. In short, and without spoilers, it's about a girl named Maya who is searching for her mother after she left her. The story begins there. The story is fairly good, and I enjoyed it. The music is also great. The puzzles are somewhat similar to Portal, but Portal is much more difficult. The puzzles were average, except for the last part of the story, which had one that was somewhat difficult. However, it depends on how difficult you perceive the puzzles…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What clicked me was the visual. It looks beautiful scenery and has a calming atmosphere. Unfortunately, I found the story a bit hard to follow, though it seems emotional and maybe even sad. As for the puzzles, some felt like trial-and-error. A few of them rely on its mechanics system and frame perfect timing, which feels unfair rather than clever. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3531577980 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3531576972
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ever Forward 10/10 Related mom. Jokes aside, it's a beautiful game with an interesting storyline. With it's bright colors yet dark past, it does make one good game to spend your time on.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I liked this game the story was realy good. Only the puzzels were a little frustrating but overal a good game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really enjoyed this game. I recommend picking this game up if you enjoy progressively challenging puzzles with a story. Summary: You play as a 12 year girl named Maya who goes back in forth in dreams solving puzzles and back to reality where you learn more about the story between her and her mother. Mechanics: This game feels like a cross between portal and style of mirror's edge. As you progress through the game the puzzles will increase in difficulty. If you like challenging puzzles this…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's okay. Just need a little polish to the game and it be better.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →ChatGPT reviews are wrong, this is the prequel to Portal: Cube You play as little Caroline and her cube—I don't care I even added an em dash to make it factual
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Feels something like a student assignment, rather than a published game. Clunky controls and puzzles. Poor localisation. Story that's hard to follow or care for.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Schedule Update! Wed: More Onimusha 2! I think I'm halfway through the game. Fri & Sat: Moar Yoshi with the hopes of getting to Bushin this week! Afterwards going to play the next game from the same creators of Gris, Neva. Then playing another indie game, Ever Forward. Please look forward to it!
neutral · AI labelView post →Difficulty : 2.5/5 (A bit Hard) Global : 2.5/5 (Good) A nice game on pretty much every aspect with good and challenging puzzles.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great storyline, some difficult puzzles
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ended up asking for my money back sadly. The puzzles weren't the type I personally like. I love this company and wanted to support them as I'm a big My Time at Portia fan. I will just wait for their next 'My Time at' to support them then. I do want check mark No Box only due to my personal disliking of the puzzle type, but because the story and graphics being amazing, I decided to check the Yes Box. The story really had me wanting to keep playing. The dev were very understanding and kind. Thank…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cool puzzle game! Very challenging, I wasn't able to finish it (yet)... Beautiful graphics, and so far an interesting story. You get a new glimpse at it for each puzzle you solve. I wish the bot detection area was clearly visible. So many deaths just while testing how far you can go. Also, in the cutscenes the subtitles aren't timed too well with the speech. Definitely recommended if you enjoy puzzles and don't mind them being timing-based :)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What are you doing here? https://youtu.be/5txahzh2N7U
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It feels like an experiment between abstract meaning pulled from cut scene story telling through the medium of puzzling sprinkled with the mildest platforming and annoying precision waiting. Hell yeah I recommend it! The "hidden ending" threw me out of the experience though so beware and be prepared for that. :)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Short puzzle game with a story behind it, although the story is somewhat lost due to it not being translated completely to english so if you don't speak chinese you won't understand some parts of it. Only recommended on a steep sale.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →By playing this game I have achieved enlightenment. This game is amazing, smooth calming graphics, cool challenges and great music. I have elevated to Zen Grand Master because of the puzzles. I can now bend the laws of physics. I have placed a singularity on the tip of my finger and blown it away like the seeds of a dandelion into the breeze because of this game (I might have imagined all that). Game play reminds me of the old fashioned Sukoban or more recently Gravity Field (It's the block…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good game but too short and easy. Only 4 puzzles were difficult. The story was ok, the aesthetics were cool, but I have done 3 playthroughs (one finished) and I have only fewer than 6 hours on it. I really wish there were some more difficult puzzles. However, the 4 difficult were extremely hard, so you spend some time on them.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Before I purchased this game, I was a virgin with no friends and no chest hair to speak of whatsoever; I considered my mere existence to be a dismal ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on the already tattered tapestry of human history, but all of that changed when I found Ever Forward. I was dubious at first, I don’t generally consider myself a puzzle gamer, it was actually the title and description that struck a chord with me; I thought maybe if I could help a cartoon child move forward in her life, perhaps I could do…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →In simple words "complete rubbish".Don't waste time on this. There plenty good games.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I had received the beta copy for this game and had ended the game before its release, and I must say it happens to be one of the games of this year that I will not ever be able to forget. I usually play AAA games or competitive shooters, and for the first time I can say, this platformer-puzzle game has blown my mind away. I wrote a detailed review if you want go in-depth about my views here - https://gameffine.com/ever-forward-review-pc-the-art-of-games/ However I will cover this gist of the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A puzzle game with a great art style with a nice story along with it. The game is a bit short for my taste however for the experience that it gave I did enjoy it! Those expecting a simple puzzle game with a ton of atmosphere should consider Ever Forward!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So, I'll be quick here. 3.5 hour playtime. The story is good, though a bit confusing near the end. The gameplay is pretty spot on, puzzles have a good range of difficulty. The hints are a bit annoying as they don't appear near you automatically, they appear in set locations. Graphics are fantastic. It's cute, and fun. At $15 dollars, I would say it's worth it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →had some time in the prologue version, so I whizzed through the intro stuff. Game is good, the graphics are neat looking, there's some flashy RBG displacement effects when you enter new puzzle areas, but it's a neat effect. Game performance is pretty bad, I have to drop my settings to keep a steady 60fps Nvidia 1660 GTX 16 GB Ram it's fine, however; as the game is still pleasant to look at with slightly lower graphics. But the framerate does chug a bit here and there. Luckily, this only seems…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →trash do not waste your money
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ranking of Video Games Beat in 2023 39. Ever Forward (NSW) ~40. Contra (NES) 41. Severed Steel (NSW) The first Contra does not have a lot going for it in terms of variety but still a fun game where it can be brutal to be one hit killed. Old School game that shows how old it is.
neutral · AI labelView post →Cute & Challenging Puzzle game. The graphic, music & atmosphere was really great. But some of the Puzzle was really Hard, especially the last 3 Puzzle. Overall 8/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →C'mon... ya can't just leave Maya in such a predicament, can you? ;)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Kinda mixed feelings. Atmosphere is awesome, nice music, neat graphics. Puzzles are solid, I don't like that it becomes more trial and error to the end, was quiet frustrated. You can set your own save points, this is nice (so it's my own fault to forget about it everytime, Commandos style) Controls are way too clunky, often I found the problem in the game and not in my skill. And it's quiet pricey for around 3 hours. Few bugs are in it and I do not have a clue what the story is but overall I…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ever Forward is an indie puzzle game where you play as a girl named Maya. The focuses on a an avoid the surveillance, puzzle solving and story telling. The plot showcases the relationship with your mom and how it evolved. After each puzzle one of the cut scenes is presented. The game has a really beautiful graphics and sound design. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmwSrBiGdGk
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is amazing so far!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really liked the storyline in the game, and some of the puzzles had me stumped for quite a bit till i was able to finally figure out what to do - i definitely recommend the game for those who like puzzle games.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I loved this game beginning to end. From easy puzzles to frustrating ones that took an hour to figure out lol, definitely well worth the play. An amazing story full of emotion that impacts the main character in many ways. Still can't really say for sure what was happening outside of her perspective, but, it didn't effect anything since you basically got the idea of what happened and how things were playing out as it went. I highly recommend this game to anyone desiring a fun puzzle game (with…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ever Forward Review Ever Forward is a fairly solid puzzle game. It’s a bit rage inducing and its story can be a little confusing, but I enjoyed the experience nonetheless. Intro Hello everybody, I’m back for yet another review! In this one, I’m covering an indie puzzle adventure game called Ever Forward by Pathea Games. Unlike many of the games I review on our blog, I actually knew what I was getting into with this game since I played through the prologue (Demo) for the game prior to its…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Beautiful looking small game.. The puzzle concept was really good.. The connection between the imagination and reality was really amazing.. In game assist for puzzles if you are left puzzled could have been done better because sometimes you just dont know how to approach it.. Overall really enjoyed the game.. Price wise though seems like a really small game, in that aspect felt could have had a bit more to it.. Music is also really soothing and gentle..
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Just get the game. It is on sale right now, and it is a really great puzzle game that can be very challenging and hard midway through toward the end. Once you figure out how to do the puzzles, they become easy and nice for exercising your mind every once in a while. The story is interesting and heartbreaking, and it is exactly how the developers intended to present the game in the trailers. Good game. Buy it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I had a lot of fun solving these puzzles. I felt they were quite unique!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TLDR; Good graphics, puzzles ez besides timing puzzles due to unintuitive-ness, story lacks punch As other reviews mention, graphics are good. Puzzles are easy enough, except I personally don't consider the last one or two 'puzzles' to be puzzles. They're mainly timing based with barely enough intuitive mechanics to actually understand the timing. Personally, the story is meh, as the ending doesn't personally hit enough due to no character building/emotional attachment to said characters.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →About 2.5h long. A walking simulator with a few puzzles and story bits inbetween. The story consists of slice of life scenes and doesn't explain much. There are three somewhat challenging puzzles, the rest is easy. Two missable achievement ("A Tree Reborn" and "Leafless").
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ever Forward, developed and published by Pathea Games, is a contemplative puzzle-adventure that blends quiet storytelling with increasingly demanding logic challenges. It follows Maya, a young girl caught in a surreal limbo shaped by fragments of memory and emotional trauma. Rather than presenting its narrative directly, the game unfolds through symbolism and environmental cues, asking the player to piece together meaning from scattered moments. This restrained approach gives the story a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game, recommended if you like puzzles.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
Posts are quoted from public profiles with links to the original. Want yours removed? Contact us.