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New Video Game Evoland Turns Technological Advancement into a Game in its Own Right

Philip Kendall Jan 31, 2013
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Evoland Blended title

While it’s true that a number of the world’s best-selling action RPGs – including those that this new video game emulates – hail from Japan, we have to admit that we’re taking the unusual step of reporting on non-Asia specific news with this article; the reason being that it’s simply it’s too awesome not to share.

What you’re about to witness is a short promotional video for Evoland, a new game from Boreaux-based Shiro Games that’s just a few weeks away from release. But this is no ordinary video game. Imagine playing a game that quite literally evolves as you progress; its graphics, sound and gameplay mechanics gradually changing from those of the early 80s to the multi-million dollar standards set by this generation’s sprawling action RPGs.

Taking its cues from industry greats like The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, Evoland allows players to experience first-hand both the growth of the genre and the technological advancements that the video game industry has made over the past three decades, meaning that the game you finish will be almost unrecognizably different to that which you originally began.

Under the premise of “playing through the history of action adventure games”, Evoland starts players off in a simple black-and-white 2-D action RPG world. Rather than simply unlocking new abilities to use within that world, however, players unlock real-life technological advancements. Progress far enough and your dull, monochrome game is given a splash of colour; go further still and you’re rewarded with sound and the ability to move in eight directions instead of just four; before you know it you’ve got 3-D character models, turn-based battles and beautifully animated boss characters. Evoland is undoubtedly a title made by gamers for gamers, acting as an interactive whistle-stop tour of action RPG history right through to the present day.

▼ Remember when games looked like this?

▼ And then we got full colour!

▼And 16-bit games like Secret of Mana showed up and blew our minds.

▼Mode 7 world maps! Truly we live in a glorious age!

▼Borrowing from the Final Fantasy series, Evoland also features command-based battles.

▼Before we know it, we’ve gone 3-D!

▼And then things start getting gorgeous.

▼ And epic…

It’s often easy to write off independently-made games that borrow from existing franchises as “generic” or for simply trying to cash in. (A quick look at some of the games available for iOS or on the Google Play Store, for example, reveals dozens of clones and poor imitations of much-loved classics that come dangerously close to copyright infringement.) But when a game celebrates its foregone heroes so lovingly as Evoland and turns the evolution of the genre into a game in its own right, it’s hard not to be completely enamoured from the start.

The game is not yet available to play, but if it’s anything like its much simpler predecessor Evoland Classic – which is available to play for free right here – it ought to be an absolute blast. We’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on this one!

Evoland is scheduled for a PC release sometime before the end of March this year. For more information about the game and its creators, visit Shiro Games’ official website.

Source: IT Media

Title image: RocketNews24