This is an ongoing list where I attempt to complete, rank, and decide what is the greatest video game of all time.

Let's get right into this one, since we have two games to cover, so no fun story about me growing up, this time. Evoland 1 & 2 are games that on the surface look like they are trying what many other indie games do and draw inspiration or mimic games of the past. Evoland 1 in most of it's screenshots looks to be cribbing from Link to the Past, and Evoland 2 is a hybrid between Link to the Past and Chrono Trigger. For my sensibilities, if you are going to draw comparisons to two games, there aren't a lot of better ones to pull. The discourse of Chrono Trigger and LTTP are both that they are amazing games, but we aren't here to dissect how good those games are. Now, obviously the big draw of both Evoland games is essentially right there in the title, and it involves evolving, but more specifically how the game evolves.

For Evoland 1 the gimmick is the exciting part of the game. When you start the game you are playing a very basic Gameboy game. The colors and controls, how the character moves and acts all line up to a game from that era. As you wander around you can find some chests that "evolve" the game as you play it. There are fun simple things like, opening a chest to unlock monsters on the map (as previously it was barren), the ability to open a menu, or even to unlock music that plays. Outside of those evolutions, the game plays like games it is paying homage to and there really isn't a lot to digest here. The early part of the game eventually plays like a gameboy Zelda, you walk around slash enemies and bushes with your sword, collect money and hearts, and make your way through the map. The two big changes are obviously bigger evolutions that take you through graphical overhauls. You graduate to essentially Super Nintendo, and then PS1 era graphics. With the change to Super, comes all of the gameplay tweaks that go in line with LTTP, your character can now move outside of the 4 cardinal directions, you have to now do some light puzzle solving to get to items and the game opens up more for a grander adventure. When graduating to the PS1 era, it shifts notably to try and capture the feel of FF7. Combat switches from an overhead action game to a turn-based combat system complete with random encounters. Moving between areas pops up a fake loading disc image, that you might have seen playing early PS1 RPGs. Ultimately once you go forward by collecting a chest, you can't go back in the evolution, the game is always moving forward.

Whether it was intentional or not, the game also takes on some of the bad that those genres had as well, which can make this a flawed experience depending on both how recently you played the games it is cribbing from, and how much you enjoyed those games. To start, if you are in this for a story, there basically isn't one, and to hammer that point home, one of the evolution chests you later find is "a plot." Obviously the overall plot, if you read between the lines is a love letter to these video games, but if you want a deep story, this isn't the one. The two biggest issues I have is that in the Super world, the camera is stuck in location, but there are multiple chests/areas etc. that love to hide in the recesses of where the camera won't show you. While this isn't a deal breaker it leads to a lot of time spent, bumping into walls, or trying to walk in corners, because once a game shows it is willing to go to that well more than once, you assume that will be the case for the whole game. I can tip my hat, to maybe doing this move once and having it lead to a chest that "evolves" into having camera control, but hiding things with a fixed camera perspective is not a clever technique for whatever you are trying to show. The other big issue, is once you switch to turn-based battles in the PS1 era, you get to enjoy all the fun of random battles and all the headaches they come with. Not only do they happen too frequently, but they also are too easy, which means that you can really get bogged down towards the end of the game just trying to push through.

Evoland 1 is an interesting indie game that for the most part captures what it sets out to do, or what I think they set out to do. I found myself more interested/excited to see a treasure chest and figuring out what the next evolution is going to be. While I knew the game changed while playing it, it was fun to almost look at this history lesson to think about all the advancements that RPGs have had, and some things you don't realize you are missing, until you open a chest and get it. There are collectables in the game, such as Gold stars that are hidden throughout the game, that impact essentially nothing (unless you are achievement hunting) as well as Monster cards so you can play your own version of Triple Triad (FF8 Card game) against some townsfolks. I think I clocked in at around 5 hours to finish the whole thing, and that was with nearing a 100% completion. I do think the enjoyment someone might get out of this game is more based on how many of the old games you have played in the past. I can't imagine my kids having the same enjoyment out of this game, because they could care less about the games it is paying homage to, and frankly it never plays as good as the original. Which is the most damning thing I can say about it, if you want to play Zelda or FF7 those original games play better than this game in those sections, but even with that said the game was a fun 2 day journey.

Evoland 2 takes everything from 1 and cranks it up 30 times, both the good and the bad stuff. To shorten the plot and really not do it justice, mix the plot of Zelda and Chrono Trigger and you have Evoland 2. While it's nice to have a plot, at least in my opinion, it does get a bit convoluted. You wake up not knowing who you are, eventually a calamity starts affecting the world, and you can time travel to figure out what is happening and attempt to fix it. Oh it turns out you were the hero of time all along. There were times when I was left scratching my head and wondering what this game was trying to say as a whole. The ending certainly didn't help, and (no spoilers) made me feel like I just wasted my time.

There are couple changes right off the bat, Evoland 2 doesn't really have the small progression of Evoland 1. You aren't opening chests for maps, music, and monsters (the 3Ms), but rather playing the full fledged games that is being mimicked at the time. Instead of the mechanic that the game constantly evolves and then you just move forward in a linear fashion, instead this game allows time-travel, and each era represents a different era of videogames. There are essentially 4 eras, Gameboy, NES, Super, PS1, and you can get to a point in the game where you can travel between the eras pretty freely in order to solve puzzles or progress the story. Also this is a much longer game than Evoland 1. I think my final time clocked in at around 22 hours, which if I am honest is about 5-6 more hours than I wanted to put in.

Evoland 2 suffers from bloat more than any other game on my list. Unlike Evoland 1, each era in 2 all play like Zelda, you can walk around, slash things with your sword (use items if you have them) and summon help from a team member (usually a puzzle solving mechanic). This can be a small blessing because for the most part it means that it all controls the same. However, the issue arises that this game also tries to cram in every other genre into this single game. There are sections that are: Turn based fighting (Final Fantasy), Tactical (Fire Emblem), Fighting (Street Fighter), Side scrolling shooter and vertical shooter (Gradius), Brawler (Double Dragon), Puzzle (Professor Layton), Bejeweled, rhythm game, a runner, etc. There are probably more that I am forgetting, and while the first one I came across made me go, "huh, ok, that's cool," by the 30th time I was just upset that it was still happening. Some sections are short, for instance the street fighter mode is just one boss, but others stay well past their welcome. Even sections of games that crib from games that I love, I felt went on too long. At some point it is a noble endeavor that they were able to cram so many genres into this game, but by spreading themselves so thin, none of the sections feel particularly great and all seem really bare bones. The best I can say, is that if this was the first game you played, maybe you can then find other genres you enjoy, but that's a stretch.

Here is the dilemma and a paragraph I have started over about 100 times because I just can't get the wording out correctly. Evoland 2 is almost certainly a better game than Evoland 1. It has more polish, is more robust, has a plot, but I found myself enjoying it less, or just being more critical. When Evoland 1 took something from Zelda or FF7, I found myself saying they are paying homage to it, however when I noticed that the plot of some portions of Evoland 2 are so similar to Chrono Trigger, I felt the game was ripping it off and not paying homage. When Evoland 1 had a triple triad clone, I thought "I like Triple Triad", but when this one had mini gwent, I loathed playing it. I understand that not all sequels are better than the original, and just because Evoland 2 is longer, doesn't make it better. However, in comparing the two games, I am basically saying that I like the game-jam version of Evoland, and hate the fleshed out version. Perhaps its just me, perhaps I have a broken brain (well I know that to be true), but I also think Evoland 2 suffers from the existence of Evoland 1. While obviously they both don't evolve in the same ways, the surprise of seeing a gameboy game and PS1 game in the same package was more interesting to me in the first version, than the 2nd time around. Maybe this is all because of which game I played first, and if I would have started with 2, I would have been bored with 1 instead of vice versa, but ultimately I won't be able to see the other side of that coin. I really do wish I would have enjoyed Evoland 2 more, it steals/borrows/pays homage to a lot of my favorite games and genres, but I felt the bad outweighed the good on this one, while in comparison to Evoland 1, that at least broke even.

Are any of these games the Greatest game of all time: Not in this era.

Where do they rank: I don't know how passionate the Evoland community is, but I am going to do the unthinkable and rank 1 higher than 2. Evoland 1 is the #15 greatest game of all time, sandwiched between #14 Octodad: Dadliest Catch and #16 WCW/NWO World Tour. Evoland 2 is the #21 greatest game of all time, between #20 Knowledge is Power and #22 Adam's Venture Origins.

Up Next: Wilmot's Warehouse

Anyone looking for it: here is the link to the list and more if you are interested in following along with me (this is not a self promotion). Here

Thanks for listening.