Thank you Shiro Games for sending us this game to review!

Long ago there was an advanced civilization known as the Magi, that had discovered many now forgotten secrets. The Magi however mysteriously vanished, which brought about a new era. In the year 950 a war broke out between humans and demons; the humans won, but at great cost. Fifty years since the great war, the city of the empire is preparing a ceremony in remembrance of the victory. Things however are not as peaceful as they seem.

You play as the silent protagonist Kuro (Unless you name him Evoland or something), who awakes inside of a small village. He is told that he was found unconscious in the nearby forest, though you don’t remember anything. So you eventually head to the forest to see if you can recognize anything, though things take an unexpected turn which ultimately leads to a grand adventure through time.

Evoland 2 is the sequel to Evoland, which is a short story about the advances made in games. Evoland 2 however differs a lot in terms of gameplay. While the first game was constantly changing through upgrades such as moving left, save points, color, higher resolution graphics, etc, Evoland 2 has you travel between different ages with each one graphically reflecting a different game generation, such as 16bit graphics in the past, 32bit in the present and full blown 3D in the future.

Now I normally try to avoid mentioning other games in reviews, but the Evoland series seems to have made it a point to reference other games wherever possible, and even a few non-game related things as well, which in a way adds to the charm of Evoland. Though the game mainly focuses on gameplay inspired from Legend of Zelda, Secret of Mana and in some areas Megaman-esque platforming, there are segments where the genre will change into a fighter like Street Fighter and at another time like Double Dragon, or into a turn based strategy much like Fire Emblem. One thing that remains consistent with most of the different genres are partner abilities. When you get your first partner you will be able to have them use their abilities by holding down the attack button which will fill up a loading bar, which when full, the selected partner will unleash their attack as soon as the attack button is released. While the different partner abilities can support you in combat, they will also help you in getting past obstacles in your way. Partner abilities can also be leveled up by collecting maana spheres and presenting them to a person who can use them to awaken a partner's powers.

Maana spheres aren't the only collectibles. The collectible stars from the first game make a return (and still serve no purpose other than to collect.) Orikon Ore is another item that you can collect, which can be given to a blacksmith to forge the finest gear in the game. There are also cards that you use to play a card game called "a game of cards" that you can play with several NPCs to win new cards to add to your deck.

While obtaining all the collectibles is enjoyable, there can be an annoying amount of retreading when searching them out. Fortunately, the Evoland 2's music is overall really nice, though some of the tracks are rather forgettable and can even be a bit repetitive after a while. While the game’s different ages reflect different game generations the music remains modern, save three or so tracks. The graphics for every one of the different ages all look fantastic. Key characters also get neat portrait art when talking, although those surprisingly don’t change depending on the character’s feelings, which can be a slightly odd sight when they are expressing the opposite of their portrait.

There have been reports of bugs in the past, though they all have been fixed since then. I did however run into a bug where textures failed to load while I was in the future; it got to the point where the the next area wouldn’t even generate. Fortunately everything went back to normal after closing the game completely. I did also manage to come across a couple of typos.

In terms of moral issues, there are quite a few things. The h*** word is used twice. While you fight against mostly monsters and at times demons, you also fight against quite a few humans. The death animation for enemies varies; usually it will be in a puff of smoke though at other times it will be a small explosion of the enemy’s pixels. You also can get put into some odd situations; in the past you can take a part time job at a manor, in which part of your job is to spread false rumors to as many people as you can within two minutes. Another part of the same job requires you to serve tea to the master of the house, however the only way to satisfy him is to also give him whisky to add to the tea. There is another situation in the future where three little girls help you get into the town's library on the condition that you promise to bring them back a book; unfortunately the only book you can bring back is labeled "50 drinking games". While you don't have to give them the book, it is required if you wish to collect all the stars. Another thing I should mention is that one of the main races in the game is the demon race; in addition, one of your partners is a demon. Despite their race’s name, they aren’t portrayed like the Bible describes them. In the game they are a fairly civil race, which were suddenly attacked despite a truce they had with the humans; their origins are also vastly different. I should also bring up that one of the partners that joins has some of her midriff exposed, though it's only really noticeable in the future and her card's artwork. Additionally, in one part of the game you are temporarily helped by a fairy that looks as if she is wearing a skintight suit. Lastly if you beat the game after having collected everything, you'll be shown a little still 3D scene with all the main characters in swimwear having a beach party.

The game over all took me roughly 20 hours to beat with everything collected. Despite all the influences and parodies from other games, such as all the Chrono Trigger elements, Evoland 2 manages to feel like a solid game of its own; one that I would recommend to anyone who loves a wide range of genres. Although do keep in mind all the moral issues before making the final decision.