![]() I appreciate the novelty of Evoland and the quick trip down memory lane it affords. Even doing every possible thing in the game to unlock all achievements will probably not take more than five hours, but some of these accomplishments are silly enough to be worth seeking out, and a significant portion of the game world is optional to encourage exploration at the conclusion. Death is dealt with by tossing the player back to the last save point, but automatic saves are frequent enough to prevent much progress from being lost. While it is very easy to die in the first few minutes of Evoland, before a life bar and saving are unlocked, afterward the game is not very difficult. Most of the music is solid without being memorable, although the random battle tracks differ by rocking rather well. Aurally the game is less impressive, although the shifts to new levels of synth complexity are noteworthy. While even the most impressive visuals showcases would not strain most current hardware, the variety depicted here is quite appreciable. Brevity would be a good point of such a tale, but even with the relatively small amount of text in Evoland several obvious typos appear to jar the player.ĭon’t worry, the pixel count will go up real fast!Įvoland‘s visuals have a big job, covering the gamut from black and white 8-bit pixellation to smooth polygons that would fit in with current handhelds. The narrative which emerges is a clichéd one of an evil overtaking the world’s Mana Tree, and is personified by a nasty being who must be destroyed, along with a bland second party member to help out with exposition. ![]() Including a plot in Evoland was an odd choice of the developers, because in the early going only text that introduces new mechanics is displayed. One short segment that forces the player to run around a town talking to every NPC for a fetch quest manages to be aggravating in its own right, though this admittedly is an accurate depiction of the genre staple. When random battles switch to polygonal creatures reminiscent of PlayStation-era Final Fantasy titles, they come with obnoxiously high encounter rates, as if to fully emulate that aspect of the RPG past. A couple of dungeons inspired by The Legend of Zelda are included, and wandering through the whole of the locales takes a significant amount of time for such a short game. Yep, we’re in the RPG zone.Įven with its brevity though, Evoland manages to linger a bit too long with some areas. ![]() Combat is quick and to the point, without extra options to vary the means employed for beating down adversaries, but it gets the job done effectively in a game of this size. These titles are directly referenced in the credits, making it clear that Shiro Games knew what it was doing, and the variety in this short game helps keep things from getting stale. These two styles alternate, with a few additions, for the remainder of the game except for one area that plays like Diablo instead. At first it strongly resembles The Legend of Zelda‘s straightforward overhead action, but soon the protagonist escapes onto an overworld where random encounters that follow the ATB standards of multiple Final Fantasy games occur. ![]() The pace slows down after the polygonal era is reached, but new things are still being unlocked right up to the conclusion.Ĭombat takes place in several ways as Evoland progresses. The opening half hour of the game is very much like this, with the player constantly accessing new enhancements that introduce color, enemies, combat ability, a life bar, saving, and numerous other mechanics to the proceedings. Doing this opens a treasure chest that unlocks the ability to move left, and in that direction is found another chest with the ability to scroll between screens. Even as a slim title that can be completed in under three hours, it manages to drag in a few spots though.Įvoland begins on a black and white screen with a player avatar rendered in Game Boy-level pixels only able to move to the right. Evoland does exactly what this idea would indicate, allowing players to blast through years of change in the genre. Shiro Games had an interesting idea for Evoland: put together a quick composite of RPG history that is also a playable game, and not simply a tech demo.
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