Even the Ocean is a narrative action platformer about balancing the Light and Dark energies that hold the world together. Aliph, a lowly power plant technician for Whiteforge City, finds her world turned upside-down after a routine maintenance trip goes awry. Now, working directly with the city of Whiteforge's Mayor Richard Biggs to face the unknown menace of the Geomes, three giant Animalistic Abominations that are destroying the generators powering Whiteforge, Aliph must navigate her newfound power and influence to balance the light and dark energies and save the city.
Even The Ocean provides examples of:
- Alas, Poor Villain: Turns out the Geomes were only destroying the stations to stop their damage and rebalance the world's energy... which might have averted the real threat.
- Ambiguously Human: Sharon, an NPC found at the Great Falls, seems to be able to teleport, has a bigger sprite than the other characters, and refers to Aliph as a human, suggesting that she isn't one herself despite her normal-sounding name. It's also unclear if Enoch, an NPC found at the Great Cliff, is also a human or not. Averted with Humus, who outright confirms they're not human.
- Anti-Villain: Mayor Biggs turns out to be the one responsible for unbalancing the world with the generators he had built, but he shows himself to actually care for his people, especially Aliph to whom he behaves as a Reasonable Authority Figure towards, and was trying to bring the citizens prosperity. When Aliph confronts him, he is trying to save what little people he can from the flood he caused.
- Anti-Frustration Features: The game has several modes and settings to make the game easier or even cut out the platforming levels completely and focus only on the story, if you’re struggling. There's even an option to disable dying! The game also allows you to start from any point if there are specific parts you want to replay without restarting the whole game, which is useful for acquiring missable achievements.
- Big Bad: The three Geomes are the giant monsters that threaten the city of Whiteforge and seek to destroy its generators. Until it is revealed that they were doing so to save the world from the environmental imbalance that the generators were causing. The true antagonist is Mayor Richard Biggs, who has the generators built in the first place.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Yara is quite cold towards Aliph at first, but later apologises for her behaviour and befriends her.
- Developer's Foresight: There are different outcomes depending on the order you visit the power plants. For example, if you visit the power plant at Boreas before the one at Dreamdram, then when Paxton tells Aliph she should have gone to Boreas to find Lopez first, she'll tell him she actually did that. Additionally, you'll always find Paxton dead at the first power plant you visit in Act 3, regardless of which one you choose to go to first.
- Downer Ending: In the end, it's too late to stop the world from being destroyed by the flood. However, Aliph and Yara ask Humus (who has lived through past civilizations) to tell the story of what happened in the hope that the next apocalypse can be prevented by the next civilization.
- Energy Absorption: Standing on certain surfaces or pads, or being hit by certain energy can cause this for Aliph, the effect varies depending on the colour, but too much of either colour is dangerous.
- "Everybody Dies" Ending: Everyone in Whiteforge is killed to hammer home the Green Aesop: a last minute fix can't save the planet.
- Green Aesop: The story as a whole has a strong environmental theme. The conflict comes about because the Whiteforge generators threw the world off-balance, and this is what threatened the world; in the end it is effectively too late to save anyone in Whiteforge, and the ending of the game makes it explicit as Aliph and Yara try to figure out how to tell their story to people to learn from their mistakes, with Humus promising to tell people, becoming the Storyteller.
- Leitmotif: Even the ocean is a recurring piece of music/lullaby within the game that plays/is sung whenever Yara or Aliph are upset and trying to comfort themselves and/or each other.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Aliph when she realizes that the Geomes were trying to stop the environmental destruction brought about by the generators.
- Narrator All Along: Humus is revealed to be the Storyteller at the end, although you might realise it sooner if you pay attention to the sound used for their voice.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Aliph, by repairing the generators and destroying the Geomes, just allowed the generators to continue unbalancing the world and destroyed the very beings who had the power to fix the mess. She tries to stop it by turning off the one in Whiteforge, but by that point the damage has been done and The Great Flood comes anyway.
- One-Note Cook: Yara can cook muffins no problem, but admits that is the limit of her current culinary skills.
- Post-End Game Content: When you complete the game, you'll be able to reload your last save, travel to the statue on the Northern Continent, and access earlier versions of various rooms and levels from when when the game was still in development, as well as commentary from the creators spread throughout. There's also a warp feature so you can travel between places more easily, and a setting to move faster.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Aliph, Lopez, and Paxton are given the task to drive the Geomes away from three of the power plants, Lopez decides she doesn't want to deal with the pressure of it and goes into hiding, leaving Paxton with a letter and directions on where to find her, which Aliph discovers after he dies.
- Story Difficulty Setting: The game has three different settings: There's the normal game, then there's Story Mode (which takes you right to the core when you enter a power plant, silo, Geome, or the final level, where there's only one puzzle left for you to do), and Gauntlet Mode (which consists of only the power plants, silos, Geomes, and the final level).
- Together in Death: Yara comforts Aliph and they sing Even the Ocean together even as the first giant wave comes to claim the city.
- Womb Level: The Starfish at Restview Beach, which you have to travel through to get into the area's power plant. The Geomes may also count.
