Review #713: Evoland - Legendary Edition

 Two evolutions for the price of one.

 About five years ago, a short while after I got a fancy new computer, I decided to get into PC gaming and try a few fancy PC games, including this quirky little game called Evoland. Well, lo and behold, the game got a rerelease, alongside its sequel, on the Switch, called Evoland - Legendary Edition. I didn't even know it had a sequel! As poorly written as my initial review of the game was, most of what I said still holds water, so I'll be brief as far as the first game is concerned.

Evoland

 The game is called Evoland because it's about the evolution of videogames, particularly RPG and adventure games such as Final Fantasy and The Legend of Zelda. There's a reason our main character is named Clink and looks like the bizarre lovechild of Cloud and Link. The game starts in black and white, with a chest to your left and a chest to your right. So you move right, the only direction you can walk in, and open the chest, only to unlock the ability to walk left. Open the chest on the left, and now you can walk up and down! A few minutes later you'll unlock 8-bit colors, music and even sound effects. This is the kind of game Evoland is. Most chests, particularly early in the game, contain mechanics or technological improvements, so before long you'll be unlocking HD textures, NPCs, an overworld and even a card game. Each unlock comes with a sometimes funny one-liner. You'll even unlock gameplay types, so that dungeons play like Zelda, the overworld plays like a turn-based RPG and there's even a Diablo-like area!

 The game's finest moments are the beginning, as you unlock more and more features. It keeps the pace brisk, and since you're always changing how the game looks or plays, there's always something new to look forwards to. At least at first. Later in the game, chests will start containing Stars, which add nothing but bragging rights, making chests turn into a disappointment, as well as cards for the Final Fantasy 8-inspired card game, which if you're not into it, also feel like filler. Some of the music tracks were quite... bad, the first music track in the game started grinding in my ears quite fast.

 Back in the day, I claimed that the game ended just before it started getting boring. Now, I think it ends shortly after it gets boring. It's a pretty short game, and the gameplay is very basic. The parody elements start losing their luster when the unlocks become more sparse, and a few jokes were spread too thin, such as having to speak to every single NPC in a town in order to progress. That said, the game's premise is very fun and entertaining, so I think the game's worth a look.
 6.5 out of 10

Evoland 2

 They had a few different ways of tackling the sequel, the first game felt pretty much like a proof of concept, so they could've just repeated the same concept and ideas, but with a bigger budget and on a larger scale. But they didn't. There's still multiple styles, 8-bit, 16-bit and 3D-graphics, but they represent different eras in the game's world. Instead of unlocking mechanics, the game instead mimics different kinds of games throughout its course, such as Metal Gear Solid and Proffesor Layton. It's a very different game, with a very different flavor.

 The brunt of the game plays like your average top-down Zelda adventure, but with RPG elements such as experience points. That said, at numerous times the game will switch genres to parody other games. You'll get shallow recreations of other genres, such as a Puzzle Quest challenge against Vikings, a one-on-one Street Fighter fight against a boss, a stealth segment in which you hide inside a box, like Metal Gear, a Twinbee-like shooting stage, tough Professor Layton puzzles(With victory/failure poses included!), a boss fight that plays like classic Donkey Kong, a beat'em up section and.... and I'll stop there as not to spoil the surprises. Besides genres, the game also contains numerous references to other games and even anime.

 Since it contains so many different genres, there are a few issues. For instance, every section that does't play like Zelda is very shallow, and sometimes, janky. The SRPG battles have little to no depth, even though you can develop units in different ways. The Beat'em up section may have a neat variety of moves, but hits don't feel crunchy, which makes defeating enemies quite unsatisfying. Jumping is very slippery, making platforming feel imprecise. Having these many genres also means that you'll probably end up hating a few parts of the game.

 That said, in the game's defense, there's quite a lot to do and find. Midway through the game you'll unlock the ability to travel through time, and you'll have the freedom to gather the five McGuffins in any order you like, as well as to visit new areas or revisit old ones. You'll also unlock the ability to travel by boat and even by air. Once the game opens up like this you'll probably enjoy exploring every time and place, gathering items in order to enhance your main character Kuro. The useless 30 Evoland Stars return, which ironically end up feeling like downers, like, I'd much rather get a new piece of equipment or key item instead of that useless garbage. But trust me, there are a ton of secrets and collectibles to find.

 I didn't tell you about Kuro, did I? The game features a proper storyline this time around, and it can get quite interesting at times. Sometimes it tries too hard to sneak in references to other stuff, and it can go overboard with its silly, unfunny humor, but the overall plot has its moments. It helps that you get more and more hints about who Kuro and his companions are as you travel along the different timelines, or finding out why the future is like it is.

 All that said, the game has performance issues, at least on Switch. The 3-D sections run like butt, every time a new animation plays when you enter an area, such as slashing, summoning a companion or killing an enemy, the game stutters for a bit, probably because it's loading the animation and putting it on memory, so that the next time the animation plays it won't stutter again.... at least until you enter a new area. But that's the least of the game's issues, the biggest one is that the game can't be finished. I researched online, and I'm not the only one, and the Switch ISN'T THE ONLY PLATFORM in which the game crashes when you try to fight the final boss. For some people it crashes after defeating the flying boss, it did for me but I reloaded an old checkpoint and the game proceeded just fine, but trying to enter the anomaly crashes the game. I found at least one user claiming that they finished the Switch version, so this crash might be related to your completion rate, I don't know. What I DO know is that the game can be unbeatable and that it can happen on mobile and on PS4 as well. The game is busted, end of.

 Evoland 2 is relatively fun, for the most part, but having such a common gamebreaking bug is inexcusable. Being such rudimentary-looking game and running this poorly is disappointing. But I'll admit that I had my fair share of fun because I was unable to finish the game.
 4.0 out of 10

 As a whole.... well, Evoland 1 is a fun gimmick, and Evoland 2 could be more enjoyable if only you could finish it, thankfully you can play through 90% percent of the game, so that's something, right? I think including Evoland Classic, an even shorter version of Evoland, which was also the first game in the franchise, would've been a nice extra, but being able to finish Evoland 2 would've been even better. I can't in good faith recommend a broken game, but I think that Evoland 1's gimmick is charming enough to warrant a look.
 5.0 out of 10