Evoland 2: A Sequel with a Marginally Shorter Subtitle

"After a few years, you'll probably only remember this as 'that game about stuff from other games.'"

That's a quote from my post about Evoland: A Short Story of Adventure Video Games Evolution. Yes, that's the full name of it. This is the one that took first place in the 2014 Ludum Dare competition. I blogged about it nearly two years ago, so I understand if you forgot. Hell, I typed the thing and it still managed to slip from my memory. Well, did you know a sequel, Evoland 2: A Slight Case of Spacetime Continuum Disorder (Yes, that's the full name of it), was released on Steam and gog.com back in August? Really? Shit, I wish you had told me! I didn't know that!

Thanks to the Steam winter sale event, I discovered its existence while speeding through my Explore Your Queue list. I bought it at half price, because it was during the winter sale (duh), but don't listen to anyone claiming this indie isn't worth its $20 price tag. Shiro Games significantly improved upon the original, providing roughly fifteen to twenty hours of varied entertainment, and that's if you're only focused upon reaching the end. I clocked in thirty-seven, but I also have a tendency to leave the game running while doing equally-unimportant things. Plus, I took the time to earn all the achievements.

Beat'em up mode with Ababa and his pirate crew.

As with the original, Evoland 2 periodically swaps out the mechanics of one genre with another. One of the reasons I bought this was to answer the same questions Paul had when I told him about it: "Didn't Evoland already give us an acceptable history lesson on various adventure titles? What more could the sequel provide?" In retrospect, it's a bit odd that neither of us thought about delving into other (non-adventure) genres, because that's exactly what E2 did. Seamlessly, too. For something that tackles (in no particular order) platformer, match-three, rhythm, shmup (horizontal and vertical), fighting, brawler, stealth, tactical rpg, action adventure, active time battles, tcg, and puzzles, one would think there'd be a loading screen once in a while. Not only that, but the damn thing is constantly auto-saving. When it isn't, reaching a save point will restore health and mana, and boss battles supply health, experience, and cash that carry over even if the player fails. Sounds like excessive hand-holding, but we're typing about an assortment of genres here. Someone might be a badass when it comes to handling a bullet hell, yet still has trouble timing his jumps across a series of temporary platforms. It's impressive for Shiro Games to take this into consideration, especially since parts of Evoland 2 are not half as easy as their simplified mechanics might lead you to believe. I had my ass kicked a few times for underestimating the situation.

With regard to story, something vaguely existed in the original. It's successor, however, took heavy inspiration from Chrono Trigger, which includes waking up at the start, a lot of time traveling, and an ending that leaves the player with several unanswered questions. There's a war going on between demons and humans in the past, which is being remembered with a 50th anniversary festival in the present, and your team includes a pair of women with particularly familiar characteristics. One is the obvious love interest with a headstrong and ill-mannered personality, plays the role of healer at certain points in the game, and also happens to be the daughter of a village leader. The other is an intelligent, rational lady who becomes the go-to for answers when things become weird, and she isn't afraid to close in on her enemies and bonk them on the head with a hammer the book she's carrying.

Didn't she use to wear a hat?

Might as well make the lawsuit from Square Enix a reality by having Kuro shoot bolts of lightning from his arse while a talking, armour-clad frog defends himself with a rainbow-coloured banjo. Then again, The Exogarth is no substitute for Lavos, and a racing segment is the one thing Trigger does include that Evoland 2 forgot about ...unless there is a racing portion in Evoland and I'm the one who forgot. Hmmm.... Anyhow, here's The Exogarth!

"Run for your virtual lives! It's a giant turd with wings!"

Outside of mechanics, anyone with even a shallow pool of entertainment knowledge to drink from will spot references overladen throughout the journey. It's not just game-related content, either.

As if anime doesn't reference DBZ enough, here's two more to add to that list.
The shield is fairly obvious, but you might not spot the "ACME" label on the barrel.

Here's a line of references the game referenced earlier now making a reference of its own. 

Reminds me of one of my neighbors.
yuk yuk yuk yuk yuk

Unintentionally, Evo2 even pays homage to the glory days of Barry Burton.

This shouldn't surprise anyone, since Shiro Games is an indie developer from France.
Still, I wish their lines were voice acted. That could have been amazing!

I experienced very few bugs in my playthrough. The game did freeze three times, but, as I mentioned, it autosaves so often that I lost nothing as a result. Other than that, I noticed a handful of amateur loose ends, like having a character refuse to follow you into a particular location only to do so right before the game assumes you're about to leave, triggering the character's return to your party. In some parts, the player is given a choice, but the alternative cutscene for completing an event can also be triggered depending upon where you go after finishing the first. And, of course, there's some clipping, because there's always clipping.

Oh, Kuro. You so craaazy. Now take that filthy barrel off your head!

I can't vouch for Evoland's replay value. None of its achievements are missable (That's a poor excuse to force anyone to start a new game anyhow!) and, for all that it does, there's nothing specific I would deem outstanding. Everything ranges from average (story; gameplay; boss battles) to above average (character development; humor; the soundtrack), and its scores reflect this. I do wish to highlight its encouragement towards reaching 100% completion. Not only does the Everything under the Sun-dar item aid the player in finding all the chests, dragon balls, and collectible cards (except for one in the mines, and, for that, just smash the wall directly in front of the entrance) throughout the world, it also rewards you with a slowly-rotating 3D model based upon that percentage.

Here's what I received the first time I completed the game.
I assure you, it's missing a few things.

A speed runner can complete the original Evoland in roughly 31 minutes at any %. Evoland 2's top runner so far does this in just under 5 hours. That's further reason to justify spending an Andrew Jackson, right? But if you want to be sensible and pick it up during a Steam sale, consider purchasing the soundtrack DLC along with it. There's 51 songs (1 hour and 42 minutes) of decent variety on that thing, including Castlevania, so I'm sure you'd find something to your liking. I figured there would need to be at least seven songs on that soundtrack to justify paying $6.99. You know, about $0.99 per tune. I enjoy thirty of them, with eleven being in my Top Rated playlist. That's seven bucks well spent.

Overall, I am quite satisfied with Evoland 2, and I hope to see more from Shiro Games in the near future.

What do think, Wedge?