(Cross-posted at Across Moon River)

I almost bought the Android version of Evoland from the Humble Bundle a month or so ago, thinking I had not yet bought a copy for the PC. Luckily I checked my logs and found that I did buy a copy. 2 years ago. Oops. Well, I finally got around to playing it and thankfully it’s a short game. It’s a nice tribute to popular games from the 8-bit era up to present day, but I was reminded why I wouldn’t be able to play those old RPGs now.

Evoland evokes a nostalgia of gaming on platforms and the original Game Boy, before I started playing on the PC. Aside from not being able to resize the game and a few failed starts, I was soon sucked into Evoland thinking I’d stop playing at the next checkpoint only to push forward. Actually, often it was wondering when I could save because I didn’t want to lose the progress I had so far.

I remember that was a common theme in older RPGs, though often you could save on the overworld map whereas I didn’t seem to have that option in Evoland. Another “good times” moment was not being able to walk more than 3 tiles on the overworld map before being sucked into a random fight. What was particularly evil was 1-hit game-overs in the beginning of the game. RPGs were sure brutal back then.

The start and premise of the game is interesting. You’re granted direction to move: right. To the right is a chest which grants you another direction to move: left. To the left is another chest which lets you move around in 2D space, though not diagonally. That “gift” is in another treasure chest later on.

As you progress through the game, you start to unlock and evolve the world via treasure chests, moving from 8-bit graphics and music to 16-bit graphics and music, eventually to 3D with fancy textures. It was really weird playing full-screen on my 27″ monitor in 8-bit mode (plus I generally play games in a smaller window, if possible). By the time I hit 3D, I didn’t want to go back to that awkwardness.

The game has a good amount of tongue-in-cheek humor and references to popular games like the Final Fantasy, Legend of Zelda, and Diablo series. The story is fairly cliche – save the world from an evildoer who has somewhat of a backstory. The hero is directed to a village where he has to do some tasks in order to move beyond the village to see what’s going on in a cave. In the cave, the hero meets the heroine and we start to learn more about the evil that is spreading. Eventually the hero gets access to an airship, essentially bypassing ground travel and the more-than-enough random encounters to do side quests before finishing off the story.

Is it as shallow as I am making it? Yes and no. There are elements that are parodies/tributes to the RPGs of old, but there was one element that was pretty neat. There is a maze that allows the hero to time travel by whacking big blue crystals. Time traveling means switching back and forth between 2D and 3D, with elements in 2D being “younger” in the concept of time. For example, trees turn into saplings. There were also elements that were maneuverable in 3D that aren’t in 2D. It was an interesting play on the “evolution” theme.

I’m glad it was a short game, though, because I don’t have the patience to do the random encounters or wander around a map trying to figure my way around hedge mazes. I was also a completionist in the Zelda series but I found myself feeling okay to not get 100% in Evoland. I also opted out of most of the side quests before calling it and finishing the final boss.

What kept me playing was mainly the nostalgia – what elements would I recognize from other games? The old RPGs typically had deep stories and I would play out that story. Evoland didn’t really have a story that drew me in. However, because it is a short game, I think the lack of a deep story works out in its favor.

I’m not sure if Evoland is a good “beginner’s RPG” because it does have some difficult elements (like the 1-hit game over) that might frustrate or discourage new players. But, if you played RPGs in the 80s and 90s and don’t want to pick up the epic-length games from that era, Evoland is a nice game to play.