Evoland 2 (2015)

The second Evoland entry is a RPG from Shiro Games that builds on the concept of its predecessor by taking you on a journey through the history of video games. The game evolves visually and mechanically as you progress, starting with 8-bit graphics and gradually moving through 16-bit, 3D, and modern HD styles, each introducing new gameplay elements. So no big news on this regard, the game has practically the same mechanics of the first title, plus new and more polished additions.

The MC is called Kuro, an amnesiac boy, and his companions as they travel through time to prevent a catastrophic event. The story is filled with humor, clever pop culture references, and nods to classic games, providing a nostalgic yet engaging narrative. This time around we have way more funny scenes than the first title, the devs were more authentic and less shy on this one since the previous title was relatively successful.

The gameplay is diverse, blending action RPG mechanics, turn-based combat, platforming, rhythm challenges, and fighting sequences. This constant genre-shifting keeps the experience fresh, though it can sometimes feel jarring for players who prefer a more consistent style. It is amazing how well it transitions between the genres, you can even sometimes play a bullet-hell, and the a couple of moments later, you are playing a turn-based RPG, there are very few games which tries to implement this, and I find this awesome.

Some people have praised the game for its creativity, inventive approach, and homage to gaming history. Its "Very Positive" reception on Steam reflects the appreciation for its charm, humor, and imaginative design. While not flawless, Evoland 2 stands out as a unique and memorable RPG that appeals especially to fans of retro and classic gaming, there is no excuse to skip this one if you liked the previous title, and I think it is a must-play if you like adventure RPG games in general.

I finished this one a while ago and just kind of forgot about it. And that just about sums it up. :) It's a cute game, abandoning most of the joke-i-ness of the first, and using the evo bit in a different way. The game is divided into 4 time periods, each defined by graphic and music quality, basically looking like Game Boy, NES (well, more like NES +), SNES, and glorious 3D HD. While the first incorporated a few play styles, they were basically all action RPG tropes with a turn based area thrown in. The sequel lays much more on the table, with levels inspired by numerous genres and games. There are shades of Bomberman, Chrono Trigger, match 3, beat em up, fighting games, side scrolling shooters, stealth, platformers, turn based strategy, shoot em up bullet hell, plus a fun collectible card game throughout. I'm not sure if the card game references one that exists elsewhere, but it's fun. Much better than Tetra Master. :) The last game just stole Triple Triad (and called it Double Twin, lol).

I will say, you get a (flying) vehicle a little ways in (the boat doesn't count), which is helpful, but travel anywhere takes FOREVER. They FINALLY give you something that lets you freely move between time periods, but otherwise, expect to spend a LOT of time, and I mean AAAA LOOOOOOOOOTTTT of time getting between the time warp points. If you wait until you get the time travel device to do everything and tie up loose ends and side quests, the game's basically over and it's not even worth it.

It's fun to play, a little confusing at times figuring out what you're doing as you move between times. But, as it goes on, the story starts making less and less sense. At least to me. The ending, especially. It's like it kind of tells you what's going on, but not really. Oh well. Music and graphics are serviceable for what they are, nothing at all groundbreaking but not bad by any means.

Playtime: 56 minutes

Intro

Evoland 2 is a more serious action-adventure (think old-school Zelda) than the first game. It barely pokes fun at game design and instead uses the change in gaming evolution to go back to a simpler time.

The Good

• Far fewer "hidden" items.
• Slightly more interesting gameplay.
• Has an actual settings menu now.

The Bad

• The jokes about gaming tropes were one of the few good things about Evoland 1.
• "New game" is still the default menu option.
• Changing the controls is bizarre. Press button for L? What's L?
• Sometimes too vague (doesn't tell you you can push logs, flippable levers are hard to recognise).
• Dialogue is slow and there's no speed option.
• Attack and use are different keys now. Why?
• Poorly balanced boss battle that you have to cheese (attack from off-screen).

The Ugly

I quit nearly an hour in because there's an annoying endless stealth section accompanied by repetitive music with loud whistling tones.

Conclusion

Two steps forward, three steps back. Without the humour it's just a subpar Zelda-clone.

As compared with the original Evoland, the sequel steps up a great deal on the story. It ditches the regular flirtations with classic games plot-wise and had me play as an amnesiac adventurer who sets out with new friends and happen upon world-changing conflicts. An important factor is the time-travel, where each time period are characterized by the - you probably guessed it - game graphics technology. I must say that there's a nice deal of ambition invested into the open-world story regarding themes of evolution, moral philosophy and internal physics (because there's a bit of self-consciousness within this game, as well). By the open-ended conclusion of the game where the story leaves some loose ends, the fan community has been left figuring out theories of what actually occurred in its own timeline to this day.

The RPG gimmicks are still around to vary the gameplay and entertain nostalgics, so there are lots of new contents to be found during the story and on the sidelines. Some of them are really enjoyable (ie. trading card game, tactical strategy), some are decent though they might overstay their welcome (bullet hell shooter) and a few others don't seem well executed beyond their appearance (match-3 duel and especially the optional guitar hero mode for a collectible item). How well they work comes down to personal preferences but overall, Evoland 2 manages to entertain and keep me busy learning new game mechanics to progress the story or complete the achievements.

Evoland 2 is an ambitious product with a rich game diversity, a plot with some depth in an otherwise accessible, charming premise, countless tributes paid to video game classics and a unique graphics feature that defines the game by its name. It's well accomplished to the point that the original Evoland comes off as a tech demo (which wouldn't be a surprise if that was the case, given the dev team's scope of vision realized here).

tl;dr: This game is nostalgia bait and the devs don't know game design. Go find a better indie game to play, there's loads out there, and you deserve better.

This game is a shining exemplar of what I call "nostalgia bait" games. It's derivative and shallow in every way. It's so, SO bad. There is nothing of substance in this game, it is essentially "'member??? xD" but in a juuust-playable game form. 'Member BomberMan? 'Member chiptunes? 'Member airships? 'Member the obligatory mine level? and so on and so forth...

I guess the devs thought they were being especially clever by simply going down the TV Tropes page for RPGs or whatever, but all we, the players, get is a game with shallow, not-fun-to-play mechanics. They don't actually do anything subversive with the tropes they point, other than to point it out. Yes, that is literally the joke.

They include references to all sorts of games, from Bomber Man to SRPGs like FF Tactics or Fire Emblem. But they don't grasp what made those games enjoyable, why we still remember them fondly (or not so fondly) either in terms of game mechanics or story telling. The controls for every one of these sections is clunky and awkward.

The mine/Bomber Man level is an exercise in patience. It's tedious - all you do is place the bomb and wait... wait... for it to finally go off. You can't throw the bombs, you can't use different types of bombs. There's no joy or fun like what I experienced playing Bomberman Tournament as a kid.

Sometimes, like with the Street Fighter part, you get tossed in with little or no guidance on the changed controls for that part. The SRPG part is the easiest cheese-able thing. 1- Keep everyone in a square around the tank unit. 2- ??? 3- Profit? I could go on and on about all the shallow imitations.

The time-travel-and-the-game-graphics-change-with-you gimmick is just that - nothing more than a gimmick. The "future" aka 3d part of the game has not been optimized at all. Seriously, my laptop runs Overwatch better than this. Frame drops occur even running through town, and don't even get me started on the bullet hell section. The frame drops were so bad, it was nigh unplayable.

The story and world building is nonexistent, with forgettable characters, playable or otherwise. I wish I could expound on my complaints but it's literally been years since I played the game, and they are THAT forgettable.

The basic premise is solid and well-executed. It's an action RPG with time travel elements, but when you travel back and forth in time the visual fidelity of the world adjusts accordingly. The past has more of an 8-bit aesthetic, the present 16-bit, the future 32-bit. It's a fun idea, and while it lacks the polish of a major studio franchise like Legend of Zelda, the execution's pretty darn good for an indie title.

But where the game falters for me a bit is when it incorporates not just different eras of gaming, but different genres. Platforming, fighting, endless runner, bullet hell, turn-based RPG, arcade, beat-em-up and puzzle sequences will interrupt the normal gameplay. I found these to be a mixed bag... some inject a great amount of surprise and variety into the experience, others felt frustrating and disruptive to the story's momentum. There is an optional card game that's really fun... I think if some of these sections took a similar "optional side quest" approach, they'd feel like less of a chore.

Evoland started as a Global Game Jam gag, turned into a so-so full game and now has turned into an actually pretty fun take on JRPGs. The gimmick of moving between three eras of JRPG graphics works well as a time-travel device and the wide variety of throwaway game mechanics (from beat-em-up to shmup to Bomberman) keeps things varied. However, I found that in several places the game either leads you by the nose to the next objective or absolutely doesn't give you enough hints to go on and I ended up giving up on completing it after tiring of going to the walkthrough time after time.

As usual, YMMV.

First thing I notice playing this is how nice the GameBoy green pallette is in higher resolution. Both in this and the first, this really looks good. IT is too bad the detail of this only lasts a a brief amount of time, in this one, it's about a good 30 seconds.

Immediately launched into 16 bit generation, and seems to... hold there. The focus seems to be some generic action-RPG. Very different initial impressions.

Control feels solid, play is okay. Feels like zelda though the sword arc on the outer side of player body feels a bit short despite the animation showing a bit further... You get used to it though. There is a weird XP orb harvesting from foes system. Not getting a solid feel for what levelling actually does (other than raise HP cap) the music is fitting and full sounding (and at times diverse and not limited to some kind of SPC700 16bit sound alone. Somewhat involved switch-type puzzles. I didn't like the puzzles in the beginning but Wow, I was really impressed with the variety of puzzles and different context in which they are done. I hate puzzles in games like this, they usually are boring unimaginative and repetitive. No eleemnt of this game stays the same for too long.

This game gets interesting, takes a very different direction. Stronger story (I guess? It is a JRPG...) It adds in a lot of puzzles and minigames. Not a fan of puzzles but they aren't too tough. The Questing is actually really good. and rather straight forward or limited to the vicinity you are in (If you find yourself stuck stay in the area) They threw out the TBT battles and added in some better 2d/metroidvania in the early parts (Tombs and Treasure) They also added in some other things (if you look it up) just for fun. the cutscenes are nice. There are animations and a lot of detail in little areas. TBH this doesn't feel like an indie game in terms of production. There is a ton of content in this game, and it is fairly cohesive. Some eleemnts of the game that are just 'mini-games' or small segments are actually really well done. I love the Demonia Campaign in this, and the side scrolling shooting scene with the guardian. the best by far is the beat 'em up sections. I played the Collesium for over an hour and got to Wave 41. (This dev knows how to make a damn good beat em up.) The controls in general are just really good for the action bits.

+- While it goes for a more multifacted time travelling (somewhat like chronotrigger) Sometimes, I do wish there was a more linear progression dynamic like the first that took one through historical development,

+ I think the GB era looks really nice and clean. (The way voices were represented was expecially really cool) You come back to it, it is considered the 'minus world' which fits in nicely with the flavor and story but it just looks so clean, and I wish there was more of it and it's not just a place outside 'past' 'present' and 'future'.

- I dont like the text/dialogue boxes one bit They don't change with the times, and stand out and look awkward due to the portrait art. You have to have good text box aesthetic in a game like this. (The sound of the text typing is fantastic however. it is semi-random semitones that even uses higher and deeper pitch tones to differentiate between gender and characters.)

+ later gen graphics become the mainstay of the game quickly, but... it looks nice. The different generations all look very authentic. SNES era you have great vegetation, trees, backgrounds and stuff like that.

+ cutscenes. Look nice.
+more interaction with environment. Power moves

+Well done minigames.

+Lots of really good references to all kinds of things. Highly literate, full of content and diversee in overview of games.

+_ The way things get mixed up (various game modes, not just metroidvania) is not bad at all and doesn't feel so gimmicky considering they are at decently done. However at times the era transition 'evolution' theme takes a backseat in this sequel IMO but you get a full fledged JRPG that lets you do time travelling, rather than linear progression. It sounds like Chrono Trigger, and at times it feels like Chrono Trigger. But is it Chronoo Trigger? Not at all. It is very much it's OWN thing, and not trying to rip CT off.

As far as JRPGs go, its very playable and very good. Easily beats a lot of things out there. It feels cohensive rather than jumbled together and plays nicely. You can revisit a lot of the game modes later on if you like them too, such as the (beat em up or shoot em up) and a lot of the areas in which you fight bosses are also replayable (though not all) As I play this I can actually tell a lot of time and consideration were put into a lot of things (I haven't been able to get stuck, etc, found myslef wanting to skip certain areas or found things too difficult)

I found this game to be rather awesome. It's full of stuff to do and satisfying to play. Some parts of it were a bit slow but there is enouhg in it and it changes enough that I found myself continually interested. People who don't like JRPGs could possible get into this if they simple like old games, there is enough in it for someone not in that crowd to appreciate, and it's not nearly as grating as some JRPGs. 79% Completition (Cards and Stars) I must say, love the MtG/Hearthstone card combat game. Every battle you win you get a hopefully stronger card. Tempting to get 100% completion but I'll just look the alternate endings up on youtube... the plot/story is really crazy: https://steamcommunity.com/app/359310/discussions/...

Pros:
-- Nostalia-laden trip through a variety of game styles
-- Smooth difficulty curve walks you right through the game with very little frustration
-- For as much variety as it tries to cover, it covers them well... but......

Cons:
-- ...it almost tries to cover too many things too sparingly, leaving any particular idea undeveloped and a little shallow
-- For being an RPG, very little in the way of actual character/equipment customization
-- Being forced to play strategy-RPG style, which I can't stand :p

Check out my full review at TheKlotzNet