[Review] Evoland

We all know that I started out my career as a gamer with a big ol' helping of JRPG adoration, right? Right? Right. Evoland, a small indie RPG available through Steam, is a trip back in JRPG video game history, with all of its pitfalls and glories. As you work your way through the game, you unlock developments in gaming history. Evoland started as a concept game, and it plays very much like one, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable.

 Your first two unlocks are the ability to move right, then left, and then scrolling, better scrolling, etc. You gain color (16-bit, then 256-bit), eventually move onto 3D, get HD, all the while moving through the gameplay styles of Zelda and Final Fantasy, with a little bit of Dragon Warriors thrown in there for good measure. Ye classic card game mini game is available-- always a good, if occasionally tedious time-- and. Well. Let's put it this way. Your name is Clink. Your companion's name is Kaeris. You have Claud's sword. Kaeris' uncle is named Sid. Let me unpack that for you, just in case you aren't a giant dork. Cloud/Link. Kairi/Aeris. Claud = Cloud. Sid = Cid. Let me unpack that further. Final Fantasy VII, Zelda, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy VII again and again, and all of the Final Fantasy series in general with Cid. And yes, Sid does have an airship.

The game is also in many ways a testament to all kinds of geekery, with references to Skyrim, like the one on the left, and even a reference to Terry Pratchett's A'Tuin, the World Turtle, as pictured below. The storyline is thin, the monsters are few, and the game only really ventures from JRPGs with a Diablo-style segment toward the end. If it had really wanted to begin with RPGs at the very beginning, it would have started with Adventure, but it didn't, thus placing its focus firmly on JRPGs. It also limits its focus pretty narrowly on The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy VII.

It's a very short game. I wouldn't say it was worth the ten dollars I paid for it, so I suggest you grab it on sale. But it is definitely worth buying in general for a very interesting game, a great concept piece, and a fun time playing "spot the reference." I feel that it did lack some focus. It didn't actually follow all RPG history, and if it was only going to follow JRPG history, it shouldn't have included Diablo, unless it was going to use that as a stepping stone for something resembling Dark Souls. The game was too short to include all that, though, so it ended up feeling a bit out of place. I would feel a bit better if it had started with Adventure references, honestly. The game was made in a rush, and it's obvious that they didn't have any time to do any research, so they just used whatever came to mind. However, in polishing the game up, they should have tried to do a bit more than they did. It still works, but it could have been a smoother journey.