Misses the point of an RPG.

For fans of 90’s style RPGs this may be an interesting deconstruction of the genre, but what it lacks is the whole point why RPG’s have ultimately garnered a special place for gamers. It is an interesting concept to basically upgrade the game visually while you are playing through it. But when have the visual and audio aspects of an RPG ever been the most important elements which cause for people to conect with it? I can go back and play Chrono Trigger, or Final Fantasy, or The Legend of Zelda today and still enjoy them not just because of nostalgia alone, but because they are genuinely great games, with intriguing stories and inventive play styles. This game essentially just gives you a poorly redone spattering of these games while quipping on tropes that exist within them. The Game Play mechanics don’t live up to the games that it is imitating. And it’s story, yes it it purposefully poking fun at tropes in many old RPG’s, but that doesn’t mean that this game should just completely write off the opportunity to make it’s own story. Yes most, RPG’s, even the best one’s follow a generic, linear plot line and feature many reoccuring elements; it’s funny to poke fun of those, but they exist for a reason and the best RPG’s find ways to build on that plot structure. I would have been much happier if the game would have pointed out that many RPGs can be broken down to key points, but then taken more effort to “evolve” the story as it progressed.

The game as a whole is very short and can be completed in one sitting, but I am in some ways glad that it is so short because I really am not sure if I could have continued playing for much longer. RPG’s are highly dependent on rewarding the player for their effort, and overall there is very little reward given through the game. There are only two playable characters, the main character never gains any new abilities, the girl/mage can only do TWO spells. But even more frustrating is that the reward system is not continuous throughout the game. You will be playing one section which requires you to play a FF type game where you gain XP and level up. But then the next section will switch to a Legend of Zelda type part where your previous work is completely worthless.

I would feel as though a lot of this would be forgivable if it wasn’t as expensive. It is a very interesting game and deserves to be tried out, but when I consider that I can also get many classic FF games, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana and many others in the App Store for about the same price, it makes it hard to justify the cost of this game. I’m interested to see what they do in their sequel, because I feel as though there is a lot of potential for a game like this if they can make it worthwhile and rewarding to the player.

lchatel about Evoland, v1.0.0