Evoland is a great digression into the history of role-playing games. It seems that there is everything from the very first jRPGs with moving around cells to modern 3D graphics. The game opens up new pages in the history of the genre. It adds more and more new elements to the gameplay. However, over time, the question arises before the player – what is it, a full-fledged game or an interactive historical reference? A trick question.
Evoland damn reminds DLC Qest. No, not graphics, and certainly not gameplay. They have a certain general delivery of new game mechanics. In the case of the DLC Quest, we collect coins and buy everything in the game in the form of add-ons – from jumps and enemies to horse armor (hello, Oblivion). And Evoland presents this in the form of chests, opening which, we will unlock some improvement.
It all starts with a character who can only move to the right. Once in his adventures to the right, he finds a chest that opens up the possibility for him to move to the left, and the travel starts! Full-fledged movement in two-dimensional space, new weapons, sound, graphics improvements, two-dimensional backdrops in settlements, turn-based battles. For 4 hours, almost the entire history of jRPG with a small Hack & Slash battle is flashing before our eyes.
At the same time, Evoland rarely, but subtly parodies the features of the genre. How do you like the yellow ostrich-like Choboko birds? Or inventory with a couple of dozen cells and earrings +0.1 to protect your ears? There is also a villain with a memorable name to any fan of the genre. In general, it would seem that Evoland has everything to make a journey from the origins of RPG to their present.
But one thing is missing. The abundance of game mechanics should make the game incredibly diverse. But in practice, you probably get bored between opening new things. In order to torment the gamer, the authors bring crowds of enemies where we don’t need to, throw random battles on the global map like in Final Fantasy every 3 seconds.
Evoland copes with its task perfectly, showing the development of the genre gradually and in strictly chronological order. Apart from the little things that make it difficult to quickly run through the story, Evoland is not the most interesting game, but an excellent visual encyclopedia on the evolution of RPG. Of course, it will bring the greatest delight to veterans, because the opening of the next chest gives rise to a whole heap of warm memories.
An avid gamer and owner of geek-blog.net, I immerse myself in the world of geek culture, from gaming to comics. Creator of the YouTube channel GameDigger, where I reveal the history of games and create exciting tops.
