A Tales of Two Games: Evoland Legendary Edition Review

I did a preview of Evoland Legendary Edition last week. This week, I want to give you my final opinion on these games. Evoland Legendary Edition, as noted in the preview, is two games: Evoland 1 and 2, collected into one package. My review will look at both games individually and then come to a conclusion about the whole package. Is Evoland Legendary Edition worth downloading from the Nintendo Switch eshop?

Evoland 1

While Evoland 1’s story is pretty simple and evolves into a spoof of Final Fantasy 7 later on, the gameplay presented is very unique. The gimmick of finding parts of the game in treasure chests is fun and never gets old. I can’t imagine that this game was easy to develop.

Evoland’s graphics and gameplay change a lot throughout the course of the game. And surprisingly, I saw no major glitches during the experiance. Evoland 1 is a short game, but its a very sweet experiance, especially if you are an rpg fan.

The game’s graphics are nowhere near the best you’ll see on the Switch and they are supposed to be. Evoland 1 is a tribute to classic rpgs: everything from 8-bit to PS1. It does the job well.

I really enjoyed this game. Sure, its story isn’t great, but the graphics and gameplay are everything an rpg fan would love. I think fans of the genre will really dig this game.

Evoland 2

A part of me wants to sing the praises of Evoland 2 and another part of me wants to say that the title is way too ambitious and not as good as the first game.Evoland 2 has a split personality.

During its 2D sections, Evoland 2 is actually better than the first game. The graphics are more detailed, the combat is better (I especially loved the turn-based battle system later on), and the world map is amazing. I did notice some minor glitches, such as walking through a character in town, but nothing major pops up until the game goes to 3D.

In 3D mode, Evoland 2 is obviously trying for a late PS1, early PS2 rpg style. The graphics are not horrible, actually they look good, but there is a glitch when you go into the world map that almost the breaks the game.

When you go into the 3D world map, a lot of the map will be in the ocean and part of the scenery will often block your view of where you are going. This glitch was so terrible that I thought I’d have to stop the playing the game. I didn’t know if I’d be able to continue on. I got out of it but I hope there is a future update that fixes this. It does drag the game down in my opinion.

I also feel like Evoland 2 was trying to do too many things. I loved all the rpg elements, but there’s also a shooter, a beat ’em up, and other genres included in Evoland 2. Some of it was pretty neat and there were other things I wish I could have skipped. I definitely could’ve done without the Professor Layton puzzles.

The best part of Evoland 2 is the story in my opinion. The story is vastly improved and much longer then the first game. The gimmick of changing graphics is folded into a really cool time travel plot. I like all of the main characters too! The story and rpg elements, despite the game’s flaws, are really good and I think rpg fans should play this game.

Together, Evoland 1 and 2 form Evoland Legendary Edition for Nintendo Switch. Do I recommend this game?

Evoland Legendary Edition isn’t perfect. The story in the first game is nothing to write home about and the second game has 3D graphical problems and tries to include way too many game styles. Together though, Evoland 1 and 2 are fun. If you love the rpg genre, you’ll love all the call backs, in both games, to the classics and I think rpg fans will really like the second game’s story.

I recommand Evoland Legendary Editon to rpg fans. Its another great addition to the Nintendo Switch’s library. Hopefully any glitches it has will be fixed in future updates. And I hope for an Evoland 3 on the Switch!

Evoland Legendary Edition gets an 8.5 out of 10.

Thanks to Stride PR for providing a digital copy of this game. Evoland Legendary Edition is now available on the Nintendo Switch eshop!