Evoland is the game debut of French based indie developers Shiro Games. An adventure RPG, Evoland is a throwback to several styles of RPG game, as well as direct references to specific games series’ such as Final Fantasy, Legend of Zelda and Diablo. The game starts with the player standing between two chests on a screen only a few blocky pixels high. Upon opening these chests, the ability to move in different directions is unlocked and now you can move up and down as well as left and right. Opening chests in this game is often used to unlock more functions and advance the technology. As a result, the game ‘evolves’ through the different technologies that were introduced over the years . The visuals, music and gameplay all start to change as a result of these chests. By introducing monsters, weapons, random battles and companions, the game begins to flesh out and starts to resemble the adventure RPG’s of the past. However, it doesn’t stop there. The visuals become 3D and HD, the loading screens are removed, the player movements become smoother and it starts to grow organically into a modern game. This does make it an event when you see a chest, and you know you might be about to unlock a new feature. To be honest, I was already giddy with childish excitement before I’d even left the first area.

The controls in this game are fairly minimalistic. And by ‘fairly’, I mean that you move and interact; those are your 2 controls. The simple controls work well, as you don’t find yourself bogged down with the game constantly introducing new buttons you need to press. And, thinking back to my memories of adventure RPG’s, most of them only utilize simple controls too. Maybe it just seems more noticeable because I’m using a keyboard. Speaking of which, this game does not support the use of a gamepad. That’s neither a criticism nor a praise, it just doesn’t  I guess I just found it odd, especially considering there are no mouse controls in the game, and many of the games it is paying homage to were console games. But this doesn’t pose much of a problem as the keyboard controls work fine.

Right, time to peel the nostalgia goggles off look at this game objectively. Firstly, this game is short. Very short. After 4 hours of play, I managed to complete the whole game with almost a 100% completion rate. Now, this is because the game is a more fleshed out version of a flash game that the developers entered into Ludum Dare. So this game doesn’t have a lot of content, or much replay value. But with the game being as cheap as it is (roughly $10 on Steam and GOG),  it’s not as though you’re not getting value for money. Also, the simplicity of the controls does mean that the extent of the gameplay is walking towards enemies and attacking. And with most of the enemies dying in one hit, they don’t pose much of a challenge at all.

So, how do you pad out a game that could probably be completed in an hour or 2? Collectables, of course. Now, I’m not against collectables in games. I just think that when they are included, they should serve some sort of purpose, rather than just making 100% completion harder to reach. Speaking of which, I can’t help but feel that a completion percentage is very out of place in an adventure RPG. Surely it should be about the adventure and less about finding all the collectable stars. Yes, this world is full of collectable stars, like you’ve stumbled across Mario and Kirby’s secret stash. Collecting individual stars doesn’t grant you any bonuses, and having completed the game without finding all of them, I can’t imagine finding all of them grants you any game-changing reward. Most likely you just get an achievement. Oh joy.

The other type of collectable in this game are cards. What are these cards for? Well, I hope you liked the irritating card games from Final Fantasy VIII and IX, because for some reason they made their way into this game. So you use the cards to play the card game. But you will notice quickly that you have no idea how to initiate the card game with any of the NPC’s. That’s because there’s only one person in the entire world who you can play cards against. So the entire side quest of collecting cards is just for beating this one guy at a pointless card game. And what to you get for beating him at the hardest difficulty. Yes, an achievement. That’s it. So these collectables only serve to pad the game time with searching for them and solving puzzles for them. Although, credit where credit’s due, some of the puzzles they have made to block the path to the collectables are actually quite fun, one in particular involving time travelling between 2D and 3D. But still, these collectables are pointless, as is the inclusion of the card game.

Conclusion:

Overall, I had fun with this game, even if it was short-lived. The nostalgia factor gave me a sense of child-like wonder, and even the music in the game is enjoyable. However, it does rely very heavily on nostalgia. So, if someone who doesn’t have fond memories of those old games played it, I’m not sure if they’d get as much enjoyment. I’d recommend this game if you have a passion for adventure RPG’s, particularly if you grew up with the Zelda and Final Fantasy series’. Not to say that if you didn’t play these games you shouldn’t buy it, maybe this game will convince you to go back and take a look at what you’ve been missing.