Video Game / Evoland

After centuries of peace, an ancient evil has finally resurfaced to threaten the world of Evolandia.
You are one of the few remaining members of the Order of the Dragon Knights, whose purpose is to travel the world to help the needy and fight evil.
Those centuries of peace clearly mean you haven't had a whole lot to do recently, but it looks like business is picking up again!

— Opening Crawl

Evoland is a game developed by Shiro Games, originally made for Ludum Dare 24.^note The original entry can be viewed here. An expanded and refined version of the game was released for Steam on April 4th 2013. You can play the original game (known as "Evoland Classic") here.

The game is themed all around the evolution of video games. You play as the hero Clink, starting in a Game Boy-esque world with few abilities. As the game goes on, you unlock more and more features, and see the game world itself get upgraded, from more advanced sprite graphics to full 3D.

In 2015, the game got a sequel, Evoland 2, and in 2019, both Evoland games got a Compilation Re-release known as Evoland: Legendary Edition, released for Steam and consoles.

---

Evoland Classic contains examples of:

• Captain Ersatz: If his name didn't give it away, Clink is one of Link, being a blonde, green-clad, sword-fighting hero, and the gameplay for large parts of the game being similar to top-down Zelda games.
• Cosmetic Award: Finding all the chests in the game.
• The Internet Is for Porn: One of the awards you get is the "P0rn banner", adding a banner parodying dating site ads ("Meet cute monsters near your home!")
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: At least until you get "Diablo mode", which gives you a life bar.
• Save Point: Unlocked early on, and much appreciated, as dying without saving forces you to restart.

The enhanced version of Evoland contains examples of:

• 100% Completion: Of secret stars and duel monster cards.
• Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Parodied with the "Expensive Merchant" in Aogai Village, where all the purchasable items are around triple the price compared to those in the First Town, with the upgrade lampshading how endgame villages always take advantage of the world coming to an end to price-gouge people.
• Art Shift: The game starts out with Game Boy-inspired graphics and slowly works its way through NES and SNES era graphics, all the way up to full 3D.
• Background Boss: The final battle with Zephyros has him in the center of a ring platform, forcing you to run around to attack or avoid attacks.
• Beef Gate: Past Aogai Village are enemies that only the most stubborn players can get past before Kaeris rejoins the party.
• Big Bad: Zephyros is a generic evil guy who Clink fights for poorly defined reasons.
• Blob Monster: One of the enemies in the overworld are Slimes.
• Bonsai Forest: Trees and bushes aren't very tall, not even in 3D mode.
• Bullfight Boss: Dopple, the evil Clink, can only be harmed after he runs into a wall.
• But Thou Must!: Lampshaded when you meet Kaeris for the first time, since the "No" option is Gray Is Useless.
  You got Forced Choice
  Looks like the scenario is lacking proper branching here...
• Convection Shmonvection: Some of the dungeons have lava in it, but only deal damage if you fall in.
• Critical Annoyance: Lampshaded at any point after you get the Life Hearts upon clearing the Crystal Caves.
  You got Annoying Sound
  When you have low life, the game will make sure you know!
• Department of Redundancy Department: When Kaeris temporarily leaves your party to learn a new spell.
  You got Member Leave Party
  Being alone feels a bit lonely.
• Dragon Knight: The Storyline defines Clink as a Dragon Knight whose job is to protect people.
• Evil Knockoff: The boss fight in Noria Mines is against Dopple, a shadow version of Clink.
• Evil Tower of Ominousness: The Black Citadel is a large, imposing black tower where you face Zephyros.
• Excuse Plot: Shortly into the game it gives you a Storyline, but the plot is little more than a case of "some evil guy is terrorizing the land, we need you to go kill him", which is just an excuse to include sidequests, boss fights, and various references to supplement the monster-kiliing and game evolutions.
• Expy:
  • This time around, Clink is a Composite Character of Link and Cloud Strife, taking the green clothes and fantasy hero status, then having him acquire a Buster Sword-like BFS called "Claud's Blade", most of the other characters being expies of plot-relevant characters from the franchise, and later on a Global Airship.
  • Kaeris is one of Aerith with her pink outfit, staff, healing magic, and plot demanded death.
  • Dopple is based on Dark Link, being a dark-colored Evil Knockoff of Clink.
  • Zephyros is one to Sephiroth.
• Genre Shift: The game starts out as an Action-Adventure inspired by the various eras of The Legend of Zelda, but eventually transforms into a Role-Playing Game based largely on Final Fantasy
• Global Airship: As part of its later references to Final Fantasy, a late-game aspect is getting an airship from a Cid Expy, with which you can easily fly to every area on the map without worrying about monsters or needing to backtrack through dungeons, along with being the only way to reach the water-locked The Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
• Green Boy Color: The game starts with a greenish, Game Boy-esque color palette. Eventually, you can unlock first color graphics, then 16-bit graphics, then full 3D graphics.
• Healing Checkpoint: In Papunika Village, saving is done by resting at the inn for 10 glis, which also heals Clink. Over the game, you unlock a Life Fountain in the Crystal Caves and get access to a bone-mender in Aogai Village,, which do the same thing but for free.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: You can name both the main character and the healer (and her uncle) whatever you want.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: The first tool that's acquired is the sword, to attack enemies and cut down bushes.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: Part of the first battle against Zephyros.
• Indecisive Parody: Starts out as a parody of old 2D adventure games, with some pretty clever puzzles. When the 3D comes into play, however, it abandons the clever puzzles and starts playing things more straight.
• Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: The Dimensional Stones, like they suggest, are completely impassable in 2D... but when you're in 3D, you can walk right over them. Meanwhile, Tree sprouts are unpassable in 3D, but they can be walked past and burned away by fire in 2D mode.
• Interface Spoiler: In the Ruins of Sarudnahk, one chest is in the middle of an area that has been marked with a skull on the Minimap. You could see where that is going...
• Item Get!: A fanfare plays every time you open a chest, and the hero holds up said item if there is one.
• Kamehame Hadoken: Zephyros does one during the first battle with him. He even cries out, "Ka... me... ha... me... HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
• Kill Enemies to Open: The "Path Unlocked" item after learning to defeat enemies to open paths.
• Last of His Kind: Zephyros, after the rest of his race was hunted down for their horns.
• Loads and Loads of Loading: Parodied—in Aogai Village, screen transitions are padded with a loading screen until you buy the "Fast DVD Player" upgrade.
• Lost in Translation: Checking a flower pot in the Shopkeeper's store in Papunika Village references the concept by name:
  "All your chest are belong to us": lost in translation, I guess.
• Luck-Based Mission: The monster cards you can use in Double Twin are randomly chosen from the ones you currently have, so unless you intentionally limit yourself to only the high-power cards, necessitating either memorizing the locations or looking up a guide, you'll have to just hope and pray the cards you get in the harder levels allow you to win.
• Money Spider: All mobs in the Ruins of Sarudnahk and in the Overworld drop glis when defeated.
• My Name Is ???: Clink, Kaeris, and Zephyros all get this treatment.
• No Ending: You defeat Zephyros. That's it. You do not get an epilogue of any sort.
• Not Now, Kiddo: The adults in Papunika Village refuse to so much as give Clink a chance to speak to them, let alone explain how he's a knight on a quest to save the world, viewing him as just a rambunctious kid. He need to find the special growth seed in the Papunika Village well for a Plot-Relevant Age-Up before they'll even entertain the idea of talking to him.
• One-Hit Kill: The Long Sword lets Clink kill the enemies outside Papunika Village in one hit, instead of multiple like before. But monsters from before the overworld are one-hit kills too.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Outside of the overworld, Clink dies in a single hit from monsters, until you get the "Life Hearts" upgrade, giving you a health bar showing you how much health you have left, other than in Turn-Based Combat "upgrade" since it also unlocks Random Encounters.
• Party in My Pocket: Kaeris spends most of the game in this state. In the Ruins of Sarudnahk, however, you have the choice of playing as her instead of Clink.
• Permanently Missable Content: Not getting Place Names before turning the Meadow into a Village means that Place Names is lost forever.
• Plot-Relevant Age-Up: In the starting town, the Shopkeep won't sell weapons to children like Clink, and the city guardsman acting as a NPC Roadblock not only won't let him past without a better weapon but like the other adult NPCs won't even bother acknowledging him, so he needs to find a special growth seed in the Papunika Village well to become an adult and continue forward.
• Prepare to Die: The Undead King says this right before you battle him.
• Random Encounters: The message upon getting Overworld warns of random encounters, but they're not unlocked until Turn-Based Combat is picked up.
• Reference Overdosed: The game uses a lot of homages to classic RPG games to show evolution in gameplay. There are segments that play like The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy and Diablo, alongside multiple story nods to Final Fantasy VII to the point of Affectionate Parody.
• Retraux: The game starts in a simple pixel art style with a Game Boy palette, before eventually turning into 16-bit pixel art and 3D graphics.
• Ring-Out Boss: One room in the Noria Mines features an enemy that is impervious to any direct damage, requiring opening the chest for "The Hole" and smacking it until it falls in.
• Scripted Battle: The first fight against Zephyros forces Kaeris to die and Clink to unlock his Burst mode.
• Sdrawkcab Name: The Ruins of Sarudnahk, a hack'n'slash section of the game, is Khanduras, one of the kingdoms of Diablo, spelt backwards.
• Sequence Breaking: Even if you manage to get past the Beef Gate between Aogai Village and the Ruins of Sarudnahk without Kaeris, you can still play as her in the hack 'n slash segment.
• Starter Equipment: Unlocking the Overworld and checking the Inventory reveals that there's a Potion in there that came from nowhere.
• Talk to Everyone: Getting the bombs requires talking to nearly every villager in Aogai Village.
• Tennis Boss: The final boss's third form shoots projectiles that can be hit back to him with your sword.
• Took a Level in Badass: During your first visit to Aogai Village, Kaeris decides that she shouldn't rely on Clink to protect her and proceeds to learn the X-Crystal spell while Clink goes looking for bombs.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: After the game had overall been going through a Genre Shift from Action-Adventure to Role-Playing Game, then comes along The Ruins of Sarudnahk, which thrusts you into a Diablo-style Hack and Slash. Every further level resumes the RPG style it was building off of.
• You Have Researched Breathing: This game lives off it with every chest containing a element of the game that's initially missing. At first, you can only move in only one direction, with the tutorial being simply to collect the first few chests, giving you full movement, a weapon and proper scrolling.

---