Evoland: A Journey Through Video Game History

Adventure games are definitely one of my favourite genres of video games. All through the years, I’ve enjoyed playing different adventure games. But the team of Shiro Games probably thought, “What if there was a game that evolves through the different genres of video games? What if the game play mechanic also gives an adventure of its own?” That idea led to the creation of the video game known as Evoland.

In this post, I will be talking about the two games Evoland and Evoland 2.

Evoland is an action-adventure video game developed by Shiro Games and released in 2013 and it's sequel, Evoland 2 was released in 2015.

The thing that got me interested in this game was the main gimmick which was the evolving gameplay that offered a form of exploration through video game history.

In Evoland, you start off the game in a Gameboy colour themed environment with no sounds. As you play through the game, more things get added into the game like colour, sounds, enemies, save points, NPCs, health mechanics and other things until you get a finished looking 3D video game.

Evoland seems to be mainly inspired by Final Fantasy and the Legend of Zelda. The main character’s default name ‘Clink’ is a dead giveaway. I believe the name is gotten from the combination of ‘Link’ from the Legend of Zelda series and ‘Cloud’ from Final Fantasy 7.

Along with its evolving looks and mechanics, the entire gameplay also changes too. At one point, it is a classic Zelda-like experience, then it changes into a JRPG, and then into a hack and slash RPG.

There is also a trading card game called Double Twin where you try to capture as many of the opponents cards on the board as possible by having a higher number than the opposing cards depending on the direction (I don’t exactly know how to explain how it works). I played this mini-game for a while, and it is pretty decent.

I really do like the concept that Evoland presents. However, the game doesn’t feel very polished. It feels really rushed and quite clunky. But the game is still interesting to play through even with all of this.

However, Evoland is nothing compared to it's sequel. It takes all the things from the original game to the next level.

This one has better visuals, more mechanics and it even comes with a properly written storyline this time, and it is an interesting one.

Just like it's predecessor, Evoland 2 also uses the evolving gameplay mechanic. But rather than assets getting added while playing through the game, everything is already set. Leaving the only changing features to be the visuals and the gameplay.

Since the game’s story deals with time travel, a different graphic style is used to represent a timeline. 8-bit art is used to represent the past, 16-bit art is used to represent the present, and 3D visuals are used to represent the future.

As I mentioned earlier, there are also gameplay changes just like in Evoland. In addition to the ones from the previous game, it adds other genres like metroidvania, fighting games, beat ‘em up, shoot ‘em up, tactical RPG, and even rhythm games.

The trading card game, Double Twin also makes a comeback in Evoland 2. The gameplay of this one has been completely changed. I found this one to be a lot better than the earlier version of the game.

Just like the prequel, Evoland 2 is also packed with Easter eggs and also various fourth wall breaks which I find to be entertaining. I actually like the fact that the developers sprinkled these around the game.

Evoland 2 finishes the job that Evoland couldn’t. It takes the concept that was explored in the first game and actually integrates it properly. Unlike Evoland which felt like random bits and pieces held together with flex tape, Evoland 2 is more like a fine piece of machinery that was put together properly.

The original Evoland is quite short and took me between 2 and 3 hours to finish. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to complete Evoland 2 yet, but I found that it takes about 20 hours to complete a game, which is a huge jump from the prequel.

Luckily, none of the games corelate with each other. So, you could play Evoland 2 without the need to play the prequel.

While I do find the evolving gameplay mechanic to be interesting, I also believe that it may become a bottleneck for some people since it is not optional to skip game modes. For instance, a person may struggle with the fighting game mode (Like myself. I suck at games like Street Fighter) where you'll have to fight against some buff prophet that goes 'Ni' all the time or you may be bad at bullet hell games and you'll have to play it. Don't even get me started on the puzzles that you'll go through in the library. It took me almost an hour to solve them.

On another note, I played the Android version of the two games, and I find the on-screen controls for the games to be equally horrible. Evoland 2 allows you to adjust the control positions on the screen unlike the first game. Even with that, the controls are still awful.

At it's core, the gameplay of Evoland is a bit bland; but the inclusion of the gameplay changes, its storyline and the video game nostalgia trip it offers make this game quite charming to pick up. This is a game that I would recommend to give a shot. But I recommend getting the PC version instead, unless you have an external controller for your phone or you enjoy suffering. I would rate Evoland a 6 out of 10 and Evoland 2 an 8 out of 10.