I came for the recreations of multiple eras of gaming technology, I stayed for the surprisingly good time-travelling RPG.
I’d played the first Evoland before but revisited it in this “Legendary Edition” bundle of both games. It’s a kind of tech demo/parody RPG which blends top-down Zelda with a lot of Final Fantasy 7, together with a neat system of “unlocking” game features and technological advancements. For example, you start in a small, monochrome strip, opening treasure chests to acquire extra spatial dimensions, more colours, and new gameplay styles. It’s only a few hours long, but even then can drag at times with some long dungeons or backtracking; its strength is in showing in a short space of gameplay how these kinds of games evolved over years of development iteration, while fast-tracking through a generic fantasy RPG plot.
In contrast, the sequel is a much more fleshed-out experience. Over 22 hours I had a great time with what’s essentially a Chrono Trigger homage but packed with tons of genre pastiche and a fun evolution and integration of the first game’s ideas into a compelling story and game world. The main gimmick is that the three main time eras you jump between broadly represent 8-bit, 16-bit, and early 3D games (and later a fourth Game Boy-based era), mostly in graphical terms.
On top of the novelty of swapping between visual styles, the game tells a time travel story very well; examining the consequences of changing the past, with characters discussing the implications from their individual perspectives, as well as you seeing the impact on the world that comes from your actions. Plus there’s plenty of fun time loop shenanigans and mysteries that continually unfold over the course of events.
The characters themselves surprised me. They’re fairly archetypical, but written with enough wit and heart (plus the odd bit of subversive humour) to make them likeable. You mainly play as the (sigh) silent cypher, with your three accrued buddies showing up for special attacks; these can be upgraded by finding one of the many types of hidden collectibles. I got very attached to them by the end.
I touched on how the game plays, but it’s worth underscoring how varied Evoland II attempts to be. A lot of the time it’s a top-down action RPG with some puzzles, sure, and works well enough at that. But there’s also several sidescrolling action-platformer segments, a few shmup bits (both vertical and horizontal), and a recurring card game (a bit more Yugioh/Magic-like than the Triple Triad clone from the first Evoland) that you build up a deck for by finding hidden cards or winning them from various characters in the game world. Besides all that, there’s individual sections each with their own play gimmick, including a very Chrono Trigger dungeon, a belt-scrolling brawler, a Puzzle Quest match-3, a 1v1 fighter, a Professor Layton homage, a Bomberman dungeon, an autorunner, a turn-based strategy, even a Guitar Hero-style rhythm minigame. And for the most part they each work really well!
Considering I came at this to finish up a series of playing “retro recreation compilation” games, I was very pleasantly surprised to find something that I can add to my lexicon of Chrono Trigger followups, along with my plays of Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy Dimensions II last year. The influence is obvious and lovingly executed on, on top of which there’s all the fun genre hopping and graphical shifts, not to mention the compelling original story. I really loved this (although I regret impulse-buying the Switch port on sale, as it suffered from some stuttering, particularly in the 3D era… I’m sure it probably runs better on other platforms). Great stuff!
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