The Neverhood - Plot

Plot

Klaymen, the protagonist, wakes up in the nursery of a surreal world of clay, without knowing who or where he is and what he is supposed to do. After escaping, he finds the hall of records, a very long scrolling screen. Its walls contain the The Neverhood Chronicles (written by Douglas TenNapel and Mark Lorenzen), eight separate books and occupies 38 game screens. While reading it is not necessary to complete the game, traversing the 38 screens it occupies is.

Klaymen finds disks throughout the game that unlock pieces of a video showing Willie Trombone explaining how Hoborg created the neverhood and Klogg taking Hoborg's crown and being corrupted by it. After that, Klaymen can visit a demolition shack (where he makes a statue of himself with dynamite), a wasteland with a large red tree covered in yellow mulberries (which cause Klaymen to burp, longer with each one) and a green music box which causes the "Weasel", a large, insect-like monster to burst from the wall and chase Klaymen back across the wasteland, forcing him to hide in the demolition shack. Klaymen defeats the Weasel by feeding him the dynamite statue of himself. Willie eats the exploded weasel's claw.

After the Weasel's defeat, Klaymen takes a large red tram car and pushes a white button. He finds an orange one in the hall of records. The blue button is in a house that requires the player spitting into five jars. The top jar music must match the lower jar music. When Klaymen enters the house, he is greeted by a TV guy who says "Hey, Klaymen! Say "Knock knock"!". In the attic, Klaymen finds a blue button and a string that causes a large beetle, named Frenchie, to fall onto his face and lick him when pulled. After pushing all three buttons, Klaymen unlocks a door that leads to a cannon, and another section of the Neverhood. Klaymen uses the cannon to blow a hole in the lake wall. Then he creates a bridge from pieces that are on the table. He pushes a down arrow on the bridge and it turns into stairs. Klaymen falls down the stairs into the drained lake (the only place Klaymen can die by jumping down the plug hole where the water went). He rides a green version of the red tram car he used to push the white button and finds four interesting things; Willie Trombone's house, A sign that says "The cannon was put here by Hoborg" with "Hoborg" crossed out and replaced with "Klogg", a radio in the wall that plays Willie's favorite song and 3 beakers with different coloured liquids. In a yellow house with a satellite dish, Klaymen finds a purple radio. To turn it on, Klaymen must pull the ring closest to the door in the nursery. When the Radio is on, Klaymen must remember the song the radio on the wall was playing and turn to the station that is playing it.

When he passes the radio puzzle, he finds a machine with the word "Bobby" on the side. Klaymen must remember the letters and turn the crystals of the machine to the right colour (Blue, Orange, Blue, Blue, Yellow), causing him to shrink. He returns to his normal size when he finds a chemical lab and fills up the beakers with the same amount of coloured liquid that he saw on the cliff. He must find a statue with what looks like a ladder on his head and push a button above the statue's head, causing a ladder to descend. Klaymen climbs it and comes across a green clam like teleporter. He pushes a button that warps him to an island that is attached to Hoborg's castle by a chain. Klaymen pulls the pin that holds the chain in place, causing the Neverhood to become one again, unaware that Klogg is watching him.

Soon after, Klaymen enters a red mushroom with a revolving object that makes the house descend when twisted. Klaymen uses this to descend to a lower level (Accidentally killing a green fwa-sheep in the process). When he exits the house returns to the upper level. If the player steps forward and turns left, Klaymen will face the castle and if the player clicks on the castle, Klogg can be heard laughing. Klaymen enters a cave and falls into a hole in the floor. He manages to hold onto the sides but a small purple creature with a hammer comes out of a door in the wall and whacks him down it. Klaymen escapes using a teleporter similar to the one he used to warp to the chain.

After walking down a tunnel, Klaymen hears Willie yelling "Klaymen! Up here!". If the player investigates this, Willie will look out of his window and drop a flowerpot onto Klaymen's face. Klaymen eventually finds Big Robot Bil trying to get at a blue teddy bear. Klaymen must memorize how many times he saw three pictures in a memory match puzzle from a building with a mouse and some cheese. Klaymen pushed a button to send the mouse, the cheese and a purple camera like object to the castle. The puzzle to the purple puzzle was trying to get the mouse to the cheese. The player easily solved this puzzle by clicking on the doorway the mouse wanted to go in. When Klaymen solves the three picture puzzle, the Teddy bear is out of harm's way. Klaymen uses the cannon he used to blow up the lake wall to blow off Bil's cranium, Allowing him to get inside and put Bil's switch from "Bad" To "Good" and the two begin to make their way to the castle, but not before they save Willie from a purple Weasel.

While the heroes make their way to the castle, Klogg sends out his guardian, The Clockwork Beast, which steals the teddy bear from Bil rips its head off. Bil becomes angry and attacks the Clockwork Beast, who is ultimately defeated when Bil uses his "Jump out of Hole" springs to throw the Beast off the Neverhood. Bil approaches Hoborg's castle where Klogg is hiding and pries open the front door, allowing Klaymen to slip inside. Klogg produces a remote control that commands the cannon from earlier in the game to target and fire at Bil. Bil is hit in the chest by the blast and collapses, falling off the Neverhood with Willie still inside.

After collecting the last few tapes from inside Klogg's lair and watching all of them in sequence, Willie appears on the screen during a hidden, final scene and declares that Klaymen will "need this" and pushes a key through the screen into the world for Klaymen to pick up. The key allows Klaymen to open a door on the ground level of the lair that leads to Klogg. When Klogg is confronted, he hands Hoborg's crown to Klaymen tells him that he must wear it. Klaymen then has to choose whether to give the crown to Hoborg (Good Ending) or keep it for himself (Bad Ending).