I just finished Everblue on my PS2! :D
This is certainly what I would call a hidden gem, especially if you're an adventure gamer! You take on the role of Leo, who's more or less coerced by his childhood friend to dive in search of ship wrecks and the treasures they hold. You soon come across a strange, jewel like object, and it seems to be related to stories about a curse on the ocean itself.
The game uses a point & click interface when you're in the town. The NPCs in town serve multiple purposes: Some are collector's whom you can give objects you find in return for eventual rewards; Some are merchants who will sell and buy goods; Some are there purely to help along the story or add some lore to the world; And some are there with more specialized purposes, like synthesizing of items, auctions, or for taking you out to sea, where the main gameplay is.
The main gameplay is underwater exploration, which happens in first person. When just having left the town, and diving more or less randomly in the sea, it's easy to get a bit annoyed by the fact that you can't move your character or the camera up or down. This annoyed me as well, until I realized that this part of the gameplay was more like a "world map" than anything else. And being able to move vertically there is not even needed, anyway. You basically swim about underwater, and you can use a sonar to look for treasure. The type of items the sonar reacts to depends on the "elements" you equip it with - so you can have it find metal and glass items, or wood and clay items, etc. These elements are items you need to find or purchase to be able to use. Soon you will also find sunken ships which you can enter, and when you do, that's where the real gameplay lies.
Once you've entered a ship, you have full maneuverability: You can now also move up and down with both your character and the camera as you wish. You can also pick up almost any item you can find, although not everything is possible to pick up at first due to there being limits to how much you are able to carry. Once you get better gear(which can improve the amount of oxygen and stamina you have, how much you can carry, how deep you can dive without freezing, and how fast and maneuverable you are), you are also able to take larger and heavier stuff with you. Your stamina will also improve by time.
For those who enjoy games where you've got collectables that you can complete, there's certainly more than enough of that in this game, as well. You've got titles which are given to you by different people based on things you do(dive down X amount of meters, find a certain treasure, etc.), coins that are given to you as a token of trust and friendship, and collectors who want one of every item of specific types(for example, one guy wants to taste all the different types of liquor you can get). These things are all optional though, and you don't need to do them at all if you're not into it.
There's certainly more than enough to do in this game, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys exploring and treasure hunting in games!
