The price of Evoland Legendary Edition is worth it for the first game alone, which is legendary in its own right. Mileage on the second one may vary depending on a player's tolerance for frustration if they are not so good at platformers. With over eight hours spent completing the first game and six hours attempting the second there, is a lot of fun to be had in this special edition, which is the only way to get both titles on the Nintendo Switch.
Evoland: Legendary Edition plays like a kind of a museum on JRPG, an interactive lesson on this section of the gaming world which allows players of all levels of experience to enjoy. It might not have the most fascinating plot and the execution of some mechanics could certainly be better but Evoland: Legendary Edition is certainly a game to should go into the map of RPG enthusiasts.
Traveling through eras, graphic styles and video game genres has never fulfilled me so much.
First of all, the lifespan has almost been increased tenfold compared to the first Evoland, since it takes about 25 hours to reach its end with the side quests, while 3-4 hours were enough to see the end of the first one.
Indeed, after making Evoland first of the name, which did not have a well developed scenario but which was content to create a plot full of nods to RPGs and other anthology games, I did not expect to have a stunning scenario, but just to find an experience similar to the first game.
But where Evoland 2 is stunning is that in addition to being better in all the points that were the strength of the first opus - namely the diversity of video game genres present which constantly renew the gameplay, the easter eggs to everything goes that will speak to and please video game veterans, the successful artistic touch for each era as well as the magnificent OST that will almost bring you a few tears - this time it is equipped with a scenario which, although it does not Looks like nothing at first, turns out to be much more advanced and complex than it seems from the second part of the adventure. Scenario bordering on perfection, as it is well done throughout, leaving us with a few clues here and there, which we do not notice (or cannot understand) at the time, but which take on their full meaning once reunited and arrived at the end of the journey. Because yes, understanding this real script puzzle - at least in its subtleties - is by far the greatest and most beautiful challenge of this game, and it allows us to somehow close the loop.
A perfect game in short, which I can only recommend to all players!
Evoland Legendary Edition packages two great titles but I’m pretty disappointed with the performance. Even when you unlock smooth scrolling in the original, it stutters here and there and feels like it has a lot of input lag. If you have another platform to experience these games on, make sure you do. They are absolutely worth your time.
Taken as a whole, Evoland: Legendary Edition should probably be viewed as just including Evoland 2, since that game is, for the most part, totally alright. I’d look at the first game as a nonessential bonus. It’s a solid gag, but that’s about it. The second game also veers into that humorous minefield, but at least it can precariously hang with decent action-RPG elements and amusing writing.
If they ever offer a college course on the history of video games, Evoland: Legendary Edition should be a required read (or play). It's a fun title that takes you back through time and provides an interactive guide through the development of gaming from then till now. While the first game in the series is a fun, albeit short experience, the real enjoyment comes with its sequel. It's just a fun (and hilarious) experience that anyone who just wants to chill will find a lot of enjoyment with. I won't spoil all the surprises and throwbacks featured in these games, but anyone who grew up playing classic games will quickly find themselves grinning from ear to ear.
Evoland 2 is a French JRPG with nice graphics, excellent music, an intensely uninteresting story about demons and time travel, and a lot of minigames to make it not look like a JRPG. Evoland 1 is really just a proof of concept with a flimsy story wrapped around it, so in a sense playing Evoland 1 takes some of the novelty out of Evoland 2.
I found there to be way too much walking around talking to everyone to find the action to trigger the next bit of story, but this is a JRPG after all. I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to be doing a lot of the time to advance the story, and there's no way to replay dialogue or get a hint from your crew, so you can just end up wandering around for ages until you get frustrated and check a walkthrough.
The minigames throughout Evoland 2 are of wildly different styles, and some of them work very well, but some of them really don't, and all of them would benefit from more on-screen prompts to let you know what is going on. There are countless bits that introduce a fun new mechanic out of nowhere, only to take it away just as you're starting to get the hang of it. The game loves to throw a new style at you and immediately test your ability to learn it with no introduction, sometimes forcing you to endure a cutscene over and over as you struggle to figure out what you are supposed to be doing.
The majority of the minigames in Evoland 2 are only used at their specific point in the story. You can return to some side-scrolling sections, but they play exactly the same after completion - and once you restart one, you have to finish it again to get back to RPG mode. Some of the minigames feel unbalanced or even unfinished, like the Street Fighter and Double Dragon sections, which are best completed by mashing the same special attacks over and over again. I thought it was a shame that some of the better minigames (like the bullet-hell shooters and the XCOM section) weren't available as procedurally-generated games to come back to, to give Evoland 2 some replay value; it seems like a bit of a waste of all the work creating the content for each of these short sections.
The game can be fun in certain parts, I just wish it had been at most half as long as it was, and only included the good parts. I also wish the writers had chosen a consistent tone and hadn't tried to be funny, because the dialogue is all over the place and the attempts at humour can be very jarring. Maybe it's a JRPG thing, but I found all the characters completely forgettable and annoying, and I was relieved when their interminable story was over.
Another big mark against this game is its instability. I played this on Nintendo Switch and it crashed to the Home screen a few times due to getting confused about save files. Each time I was able to remedy it with some Google searches, but this really should not be happening on a Switch game.
This port has some issues. Evoland 1 is perfect and a genuinely enjoyable experience, one that I'd want anyone with even passing knowledge of modern video games and tropes to have. It's close to 4 hours in length and every minute is fantastic. Evoland 2 however, surpasses Evoland 1 in almost every way. The soundtrack is amazing, the storyline reminds me of old school SNES RPGs, and the one off segments that introduce new mechanics are all a blast to play. (My favorites were the top down shooter segment and the street fighter-esque bit.)
However. The reason this game doesn't get a high rating from me at all, is because this game has an unskippable bug that completely prevents you from finishing the game. Towards the end of the game, there's a side scrolling segment that ends with talking to a specific purple NPC, then the 'zone' crash lands... and the game crashes. This port has been out since February 2019, and as of writing this in October 2019, it hasn't been fixed. If you want to finish this amazing game, do it on literally any other platform.
SummaryEvoland is a journey through the history of action/adventure gaming, allowing you to unlock new technologies, gameplay systems and graphic upgrades as you progress through the game. Inspired by many cult series that have left their mark in the RPG video gaming culture, Evoland takes you from monochrome to full 3D graphics and from active...