Evoland Legendary Edition

There's a ~5 minute fighting game segment in the second game that actually features motion inputs. It would have been more than enough to have a janky mashing input system, but the devs went out of their way to implement a fireball (and the rest of Ryu's kit). Both games in this edition feature many different genres (often in parody fashion), and all of them are well done. Evoland 1 is a showcase of how RPGs developed over time and has you progress the genre's progression. It's a couple hours of innovative gameplay that's very memorable. Evoland 2 is an actual JRPG style game that has you travel through different times with different art- and gameplay-styles. It throws in a different genre's gameplay whenever it can and tells a generic story that consists completely of references and jokes. It's way longer than the first game and sometimes it drags on for too long, but it's alright. 100% achievement completion boils down to finding every hidden star and card in both games (and a couple extra items in Evoland 2). There's also a couple optional challenges in Evoland 1 that need some extra attention, but everything else comes with going through the story. Nothing is missable.…

Technically, I've played Evoland 1 two times and Evoland 2 three times. 100% the 2 games over time. Evoland 1 was played twice because I own bother versions of the game. :P When Evoland 2 first came out there were no Steam achievements tied to it. Then Steam gave it achievements and I had to play it all over again. XD Now that Steam came out with the Legendary Edition, I just had to play them all over again. Most of the 2 games I remembered by heart so it was a breeze. The first game is pretty much linear, with minor side questing in late game. The second game stays linear until you get to open world exploring. You get to pick and choose where you get to go, but at the same time it is linear enough you know where or what needs to be done. Just need to back track a little and find the right path to get those 100%'s. The only thing that really made me go, What am I missing??? Was the stinking Cheese Pizza in Evoland 2. And that happened to me all three times I played it. XD

Tropes and cliches are boring. This game is bland on bland.

Having just finished Evoland 2, I can say with certainty that I will remember it as one of my favorite games of all time. Evoland 2 is a fantastic action-adventure game, taking significant inspiration taken from the Zelda franchise. That said, the game also pays homage to and incorporates gameplay from many, many other genres, including 2D platforming, beat 'em up, bullet hell, deck-building (especially Magic: The Gathering), endless running, fighting, Metroidvania, shoot 'em up, stealth, tactical RPG, turn-based RPG, and others I'm not knowledgeable enough to name. The game uses different graphical styles throughout the story, including 8-bit, 16-bit, 3D, and graphics inspired by the Game Boy. The way the game switches between these genres and styles is very creative and fun. This is a great game for anyone who wants to sample different genres and styles. Personally, I was surprised to discover that I really enjoyed the tactical RPG and top-down shoot 'em up portions of the game. Although the story is slightly too intricate for my taste, and the cutscenes a bit too long, I have to admit that it's a sweet and meaningful story, with lots of heart and plenty of humor. I did run int…

The first game has a fun concept, but the turn-based combat sucks ass and barely - for a lack of a better word - evolves. On a subjective level, I don't like turn-based gameplay to begin with, but this game's interpretation does the absolute bare-minimum for the ENTIRE game. You start to dread random encounters every time you're in danger of them - not for the sake of the risk, but because they drastically impede your progress and slow the game down every time. When the pinnacle of your strategy is attack -> get hit -> heal -> get hit -> attack, and there's no room to improve, players will get bored. Excluding the basic combat you start the game off with and one random Diablo-inspired dungeon, the game is just this one playstyle. I played about 20 minutes of the second game before quitting. The story just was not interesting and the main gimmick that drew me to the first game was drastically nerfed and felt superfluous.

This is a review of how this series, Evoland, is distributed in the Steam store. When someone buys 1 and 2 individually because the "legendary edition" comp is overlooked, this someone has overpaid. And this sucks because spamming the games in the store is anti-consumerism. I suggest the distributor of this series either take down those individual offerings and just sell legendary edition, or visa versa. I'd prefer legendary edition stay because it is the best value of the three current offerings. As it is on the Steam store now, don't buy anything in the series until this change has been made.