Much later on, the combat gets properly frantic, even throwing in a few nods at combos.Īnd it's those JRPG moments that are a millstone around Evoland's neck. (Switching between the modes changes what you can access based on graphical rules, setting up some splendid puzzles, and creating a section that really stands out as an idea worthy of a game of its own.) However, other times you'll be in a more JRPG-styled turn-based combat, you on the right, enemies on the left, choosing attacks and defences from a list.
#Evoland final boss free#
Depending how far through history you've advanced, you'll be running on the axes, then given free movement, and eventually in the game's best moments, the ability to "time travel", switching back and forth between its most modern rendition of 3D, and its 16-bit, top-down nostalgia. Often you'll be equipped with your sword, and later bows and bombs, running around in real-time, swishing at the baddies. The game mixes combat styles along with everything else. Except for, and wow is this a big one, bloody random encounters. It's this smartness with balance, throwing in references but not labouring them, that gives Evoland its charm. There are a couple of underground dungeons, replete with traps, collapsing floors and combat challenges, but they tick two important boxes. But Evoland, to an extent, avoids this reasonably well. Ironically embracing the most familiar tropes tends to ensure your game is a collection of tired tropes. It's risky territory, riffing off clichés of a genre. And they especially effect the style of game you're playing, as you drift from GameBoy-ish simplicity to Diablo-esque complexity.
These take the form of big leaps, like updating to 16-bit graphics, and tiny details, like the inclusion of volumetric lighting. By opening chests, new innovations in console RPG gaming become unlocked. Starting off in black-and-green, your character - only named once you've evolved enough through the genre for such things - begins only scrolling left and right. But impressively, this playable tour through the history of Zelda-like RPGs manages to feel like a game in itself at the same time. It would have gotten away with it too, so strong is that gimmick.
Mixing together elements from Zelda, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Diablo, is the result the sum of its parts, or falling through the cracks between? Here's wot I think.Įvoland could have been just a gimmick. As you play, the genre evolves around you. Beginning life as a LudumDare #24 winner, Evoland is now a complete, released game, that sets you on a journey through RPG history.
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