Evoland 2:
ngl, it was dissapointing
Evoland 1 was a very short and sweet game where the game mechanics were consistently evolving (as the name implies) so it never overstayed it's welcome and constantly felt fresh, evoland 2 is a lot bigger in scope, it's longer and they had more of a budget, but I think a lot of what made evoland 1 good was lost in evoland 2
Evoland 2 doesn't share that same core idea of starting at retro gaming and moving into modern day, instead, it's closer to a chrono trigger inspired RPG, with the gimmick that it consistently changes it's playability with each section. You got your zelda type combat like in the first game, you also got your ATB combat which still fucking sucks ass I hate ATB but that is a lot more reduced, in top of that you throw in tactic combats like in fire emblem, shoot em up/bullet hell mode like in touhou, beat em up combat like streets of rage, etc
I don't dislike the playability of any of these modes (except atb), but as they're just short segments they don't really go indepth, this was also the case for evoland 1. If the section is going to be short and sweet you're not going to actually put all the complexity of fire emblem or a turn based combat as carefully designed as chained echoes, again, the problem is that in evoland 2 these sections are way longer, so that lack of depth and progression really start to hurt the game
it's also a lot more confusing, while evoland 1 was a very lineal game with every new unlock giving you a clue on what you need to do to move onto the next segment, evoland 2 doesn't have that same sense of direction now that you're not constantly unlocking mechanics. It doesn't help that at one point in the game you're just told you need to obtain 5 thingies and that you can tackle them in any order. Still, it's not as confusing where you MUST use a guide to understand how to progress, if you put in the time you will find the way forward no problem, but it's still enough of a inconvenience that for me it was just more fun to open up a guide
the plot is there, it exists, and it's way more of a focus than in evoland 2. It brings out a few interesting questions with the time travel stuff, problem is that they do their best to avoid answering the questions in a way that feel meaningful. For example, in the plot the future is fucked and the protagonist wants to change it, but the hero's party also has a member that is from the past, and from their pov the present of our protagonist is actually apocalyptic and they argue that they should the past to prevent their present. Problem is that in order for them to solve this fairly interesting point they just introduce a cosmic beyond-time big bad that everyone can agree that they must defeat. So that whole point of whose future should be preserved is just left in the dust
sadly placed in D tier, still, pretty good to get both evoland 1 and 2 out of my plan to play, thay had ben there for a couple years
----
next: metro 2033
ngl, it was dissapointing
Evoland 1 was a very short and sweet game where the game mechanics were consistently evolving (as the name implies) so it never overstayed it's welcome and constantly felt fresh, evoland 2 is a lot bigger in scope, it's longer and they had more of a budget, but I think a lot of what made evoland 1 good was lost in evoland 2
Evoland 2 doesn't share that same core idea of starting at retro gaming and moving into modern day, instead, it's closer to a chrono trigger inspired RPG, with the gimmick that it consistently changes it's playability with each section. You got your zelda type combat like in the first game, you also got your ATB combat which still fucking sucks ass I hate ATB but that is a lot more reduced, in top of that you throw in tactic combats like in fire emblem, shoot em up/bullet hell mode like in touhou, beat em up combat like streets of rage, etc
I don't dislike the playability of any of these modes (except atb), but as they're just short segments they don't really go indepth, this was also the case for evoland 1. If the section is going to be short and sweet you're not going to actually put all the complexity of fire emblem or a turn based combat as carefully designed as chained echoes, again, the problem is that in evoland 2 these sections are way longer, so that lack of depth and progression really start to hurt the game
it's also a lot more confusing, while evoland 1 was a very lineal game with every new unlock giving you a clue on what you need to do to move onto the next segment, evoland 2 doesn't have that same sense of direction now that you're not constantly unlocking mechanics. It doesn't help that at one point in the game you're just told you need to obtain 5 thingies and that you can tackle them in any order. Still, it's not as confusing where you MUST use a guide to understand how to progress, if you put in the time you will find the way forward no problem, but it's still enough of a inconvenience that for me it was just more fun to open up a guide
the plot is there, it exists, and it's way more of a focus than in evoland 2. It brings out a few interesting questions with the time travel stuff, problem is that they do their best to avoid answering the questions in a way that feel meaningful. For example, in the plot the future is fucked and the protagonist wants to change it, but the hero's party also has a member that is from the past, and from their pov the present of our protagonist is actually apocalyptic and they argue that they should the past to prevent their present. Problem is that in order for them to solve this fairly interesting point they just introduce a cosmic beyond-time big bad that everyone can agree that they must defeat. So that whole point of whose future should be preserved is just left in the dust
sadly placed in D tier, still, pretty good to get both evoland 1 and 2 out of my plan to play, thay had ben there for a couple years
----
next: metro 2033
