I still have a special place in my heart for this game, ever since I got it in Christmas of 2002. It was one of the first JRPGs besides Pokemon I ever played through and beat. I still pick it back up and play it every once in a while. When I first beat it, it was the first time I ever got emotional over a game’s ending, and I still shed a tear when Linear does to this very day. I really want to make memes of this beautiful, if imperfect, masterpiece only someone would upload some raw voice clips of the characters during cutscenes and battle for me to use.
This game is a work of art. Like most works of art, it has mistakes. But that shouldn't stop you from enjoying it! It's great to see I'm not the only one who loves this game!
I'm glad more people are remembering this. I had a lot of fun playing that back in the day. Some parts of the OST are still nice and it's from that vague smear of time when I would play that, Empherial Phantasma, and Time Stalkers. All of it blended together into weird JRPG jank. But this was really good jank. It was like a short running anime series that had a lot of dungeon crawling and grinding on the side.
As someone who grew up playing it yeah I do think it has some of that "good jank." And I totally agree with the anime observation. I have a pretty big soft spot for the story because of this. If it doesn't come across in the review it's because I tried to put most of my biases aside.
The attacks in this game are so over the top, how can you not love it? Pepper beating the enemy into submission, then making them blast off, Gre killing his enemies with his goddamn cooking, and Carcano's crazy transforming Cyframe that does it all, except for healing! Also it's important to keep in mind all these games came out before Pokemon's second generation (except the PS2 one). They're almost as old as that franchise!
I LOVED this game. The problem is, theey combined evolution and evolution 2 from the sega dream cast, but they cut out alot of content from evolution one in this port. alot of enimies and dungeons did not make it into evolution worlds that was in t he original dreamcast games.
Oh and as for the gold rings around the portraits, those rings usually signify that your character has a new skill available, via the TP system. And if you have multiple skills available at the same time, the gold ring also gets cool little ✨ star thingy that circles around it too. That's something I managed to figure out, since those gold rings go away once you've used your freshly unlocked skills
Definitely remember playing the heck out of this when I was younger. I picked it up for like $5 at an EBgames and honestly for the price I had about a week of fun out of it. Great video! You evoked the nostalgia of too much soda and late nights in my family’s game room. Cheers man.
Thank you so much for covering this game! Evolution Worlds was the first game I've ever played, I'm not afraid to admit that I cried my eyes out when it was over and I learned there wasn't a sequel. To this day it still really saddens me a lot. I have a lot of bias for this game but I agree with most of this review. Overall the game to me is a very enjoyable, nostalgic yet sad experience. The fact that it's notoriously easy combined with the somewhat lack-luster combat really hurts... As you said in your review, you can really tell the devs cared as the game is almost overflowing with personality. As a game developer I'm hoping someday to get the rights to this series. I wanna do it a justice in a remake and a sequel. With all of that being said, thank you SO much once again for covering my favorite game. Just like Evolution Worlds, your TH-cam Channel is criminally underrated.
I remember seeing a article about this game in the game cube magazin way back when. Forgot what the name was tho, but it still stuck out to me, glad that 17 years later I've finally found it. Thank you.
I remember long ago, an old friend from Elementary school gave me the game as a farewell present, because I think he was moving away. Twas a good game indeed, I have very fond memories of playing this for hours.
I played it... An unknown rpg for most people, I guess. But for me... It was one of the games (if not THE ONE) that got me into JRPGs. It made me fell in love with dungeon crawling. And it also taught me english (it's not my mother language) I'll never forget it. Mag, Linear, Yurka, Chain, Gre, Pepper, Carcano, and so on. Mostly its music, and most of the moments in the story. Everything is still hold in my heart. I always wanted to visit the legendary Evolutia tho :(
What got me is that this could be expanded on so easily and have an anime. It was a hard game when I was a kid but it was also fun. Xenoblade is probably the closest in plot wise with an ancient civilization and exploration but there is still the money issue that I found odd. This game at a base level had no money exploitation and actual set limitations that most JRPGs have, which albeit refreshing. On a side not Chain's Cyframe is probably an old fashion can opener with jet packs attacked, very digimon vibes with the design :D. I still have yet to play the originals but it is on my to do list.
Yeah the world (no pun intended) has a lot of untapped potential. I imagine if it had more of a cult following there'd be some sort of continuation done. IIRC Sting is still in business too
Actually there is another game, one that's even older... The first Grandia! I'm serious, everything is about an ancient civilisation and exploring their ruins. Even the theme of "twins" is present.
I only remember the evolution series because i remember barely playing it on the dreamcast and loving it. When i saw this game at gamecrazy/hollywood video back in 2004, i immediately bought it and was hooked on it. My only main gripes with this game was that it wasnt open world and certain places were closed off once you progressed through the story. And dont get me started in the final boss. He was beyond a pain the ass. I dont remember how many times he beat me, i would grind the last dungeon to level because he hit ridiculously hard. But it was so satisfying beating him
I remember buying this for GC bc the box art caught my eye, we got to Eugene rather quickly, and I got stuck and couldn’t beat him. My brother liked Gre’s design, so he started his own file and put Gre in his party. Found out Gre gets some pretty busted early game moves, and essentially can one to two shot Eugene. Needless to say I leveled Gre on my own file pretty quick lol.
This game holds a special place in my childhood, i still wish the story had continued in some sort of medium like even a manga. I always wanted to know what happened to mags father and flesh out linears backstory with him. I remember trying to get a high score at the end thinking a perfect SSS would unlock a secret ending....i could never get anything past B. all those appraisal items and idk how anyone could finish the game in under 14 hours with the TOWER. I still hope one day this game gets some sort of reboot. Hahahaha i remember thinking Eugene had pooped his pants.
Enjoyed your assessment. This game's setting really did have a ton of potential that was wasted on a low effort dungeon crawler. Cyframes in particular are a wildly imaginative concept that we see too little of across two games.
I'd love to try out the Dreamcast versions of this game. Before making the vid I thought the GCN version was a 1:1 (more like 2:1 I guess lol) port but it's more like an abridged version of the originals. I wonder how much better the pacing is in those since that was a pretty big problem with this one.
@@TectonicImprov Evolution 2 was the same as the Dreamcast version but was more difficult due to starting at lv 5. Unlike the GameCube version and as for Evolution 1..85% of the game was scrapped unfortunately. In my opinion I like Evolution 1 better than 2.
@@TectonicImprov The Dreamcast version of the first game (mostly) lacks voice acting. But the pacing issue is COMPLETELY fixed. It also (sort of) explains the pre-rendered cutscenes. I would strongly recommend picking it up if you're able to. They cut out a lot of dungeons and story. I was amazed at how much was taken out!
What's amazing is I was underleveled in spite of the fact that I did the optional dungeon so I can't imagine how far behind someone has to be if they don't complete that level.
I still have a special place in my heart for this game, ever since I got it in Christmas of 2002. It was one of the first JRPGs besides Pokemon I ever played through and beat. I still pick it back up and play it every once in a while. When I first beat it, it was the first time I ever got emotional over a game’s ending, and I still shed a tear when Linear does to this very day.
I really want to make memes of this beautiful, if imperfect, masterpiece only someone would upload some raw voice clips of the characters during cutscenes and battle for me to use.
This game is a work of art. Like most works of art, it has mistakes. But that shouldn't stop you from enjoying it! It's great to see I'm not the only one who loves this game!
I'm glad more people are remembering this. I had a lot of fun playing that back in the day. Some parts of the OST are still nice and it's from that vague smear of time when I would play that, Empherial Phantasma, and Time Stalkers. All of it blended together into weird JRPG jank. But this was really good jank. It was like a short running anime series that had a lot of dungeon crawling and grinding on the side.
As someone who grew up playing it yeah I do think it has some of that "good jank." And I totally agree with the anime observation. I have a pretty big soft spot for the story because of this. If it doesn't come across in the review it's because I tried to put most of my biases aside.
The attacks in this game are so over the top, how can you not love it? Pepper beating the enemy into submission, then making them blast off, Gre killing his enemies with his goddamn cooking, and Carcano's crazy transforming Cyframe that does it all, except for healing!
Also it's important to keep in mind all these games came out before Pokemon's second generation (except the PS2 one). They're almost as old as that franchise!
I LOVED this game. The problem is, theey combined evolution and evolution 2 from the sega dream cast, but they cut out alot of content from evolution one in this port. alot of enimies and dungeons did not make it into evolution worlds that was in t he original dreamcast games.
Oh and as for the gold rings around the portraits, those rings usually signify that your character has a new skill available, via the TP system. And if you have multiple skills available at the same time, the gold ring also gets cool little ✨ star thingy that circles around it too.
That's something I managed to figure out, since those gold rings go away once you've used your freshly unlocked skills
Oh man, I remember borrowing this from a friend way back as a kid
Definitely remember playing the heck out of this when I was younger. I picked it up for like $5 at an EBgames and honestly for the price I had about a week of fun out of it. Great video! You evoked the nostalgia of too much soda and late nights in my family’s game room. Cheers man.
Thank you so much for covering this game! Evolution Worlds was the first game I've ever played, I'm not afraid to admit that I cried my eyes out when it was over and I learned there wasn't a sequel. To this day it still really saddens me a lot. I have a lot of bias for this game but I agree with most of this review. Overall the game to me is a very enjoyable, nostalgic yet sad experience. The fact that it's notoriously easy combined with the somewhat lack-luster combat really hurts... As you said in your review, you can really tell the devs cared as the game is almost overflowing with personality. As a game developer I'm hoping someday to get the rights to this series. I wanna do it a justice in a remake and a sequel. With all of that being said, thank you SO much once again for covering my favorite game. Just like Evolution Worlds, your TH-cam Channel is criminally underrated.
A third Evolution game would be absolutely sick
stumbling onto obscure video essays about videogames is always such a joy
One of my favorite games! So underrated.
I remember seeing a article about this game in the game cube magazin way back when.
Forgot what the name was tho, but it still stuck out to me, glad that 17 years later I've finally found it.
Thank you.
Hey no problem. It's a game I played a lot as a kid as well and it was cool to revisit it.
I remember long ago, an old friend from Elementary school gave me the game as a farewell present, because I think he was moving away.
Twas a good game indeed, I have very fond memories of playing this for hours.
I played it... An unknown rpg for most people, I guess. But for me... It was one of the games (if not THE ONE) that got me into JRPGs. It made me fell in love with dungeon crawling. And it also taught me english (it's not my mother language)
I'll never forget it. Mag, Linear, Yurka, Chain, Gre, Pepper, Carcano, and so on.
Mostly its music, and most of the moments in the story. Everything is still hold in my heart.
I always wanted to visit the legendary Evolutia tho :(
What got me is that this could be expanded on so easily and have an anime. It was a hard game when I was a kid but it was also fun. Xenoblade is probably the closest in plot wise with an ancient civilization and exploration but there is still the money issue that I found odd. This game at a base level had no money exploitation and actual set limitations that most JRPGs have, which albeit refreshing. On a side not Chain's Cyframe is probably an old fashion can opener with jet packs attacked, very digimon vibes with the design :D. I still have yet to play the originals but it is on my to do list.
Yeah the world (no pun intended) has a lot of untapped potential. I imagine if it had more of a cult following there'd be some sort of continuation done. IIRC Sting is still in business too
Actually there is another game, one that's even older... The first Grandia! I'm serious, everything is about an ancient civilisation and exploring their ruins. Even the theme of "twins" is present.
I only remember the evolution series because i remember barely playing it on the dreamcast and loving it. When i saw this game at gamecrazy/hollywood video back in 2004, i immediately bought it and was hooked on it. My only main gripes with this game was that it wasnt open world and certain places were closed off once you progressed through the story. And dont get me started in the final boss. He was beyond a pain the ass. I dont remember how many times he beat me, i would grind the last dungeon to level because he hit ridiculously hard. But it was so satisfying beating him
Yes I did play it, and re-play it every year or two. It's one of my favorite games ever, and it sadly completely flew under the radar.
Mag has it pretty rough tbh
Both times he saves the world he gets a huge bill instead of the thanks he deserves
Oh man I remember enjoying the hell out of this and finding out later that Mr. Ratburn was the voice of Eugene.
Holy shit I never knew that LOL
I would have been more surprised if he wasn't. Recognized Arthur Holden immediately.
I remember buying this for GC bc the box art caught my eye, we got to Eugene rather quickly, and I got stuck and couldn’t beat him.
My brother liked Gre’s design, so he started his own file and put Gre in his party. Found out Gre gets some pretty busted early game moves, and essentially can one to two shot Eugene. Needless to say I leveled Gre on my own file pretty quick lol.
This game is charming af gret video mang
This game holds a special place in my childhood, i still wish the story had continued in some sort of medium like even a manga. I always wanted to know what happened to mags father and flesh out linears backstory with him. I remember trying to get a high score at the end thinking a perfect SSS would unlock a secret ending....i could never get anything past B. all those appraisal items and idk how anyone could finish the game in under 14 hours with the TOWER. I still hope one day this game gets some sort of reboot. Hahahaha i remember thinking Eugene had pooped his pants.
Enjoyed your assessment. This game's setting really did have a ton of potential that was wasted on a low effort dungeon crawler. Cyframes in particular are a wildly imaginative concept that we see too little of across two games.
I did rent this back when I was 13, though I never got that far since I didn't have a memory card at the time
Love the style of this game
I would also see ads for this in Nintendo Power but never was ever able to get my hands on it
The ring means you have enough tech points to buy a new skill in battle.
Oh no kidding. Thanks for answering my question after all these years
This is a fun game. But I would recommend playing the original Dreamcast versions. This game sure brings me back ☺️
I'd love to try out the Dreamcast versions of this game. Before making the vid I thought the GCN version was a 1:1 (more like 2:1 I guess lol) port but it's more like an abridged version of the originals. I wonder how much better the pacing is in those since that was a pretty big problem with this one.
Thats how I know this series, from the dreamcast. LOVED THIS SERIES! I own worlds but never actually played it.
@@TectonicImprov Evolution 2 was the same as the Dreamcast version but was more difficult due to starting at lv 5. Unlike the GameCube version and as for Evolution 1..85% of the game was scrapped unfortunately. In my opinion I like Evolution 1 better than 2.
@@TectonicImprov The Dreamcast version of the first game (mostly) lacks voice acting. But the pacing issue is COMPLETELY fixed. It also (sort of) explains the pre-rendered cutscenes. I would strongly recommend picking it up if you're able to. They cut out a lot of dungeons and story. I was amazed at how much was taken out!
@@juanreynoso5091 I'm playing evo 1 right now. Thank goodness for emulators
wait, there was more going on in the gamecube version??? i only played the dreamcast version and it ended at the fight with eugene…
The gcn version crams both Evolution games on the Dreamcast into one title. The first game ends with the Eugene plot.
Lol I got stuck in the last dungeon too. I remember feeling I was under leveled for the area.
What's amazing is I was underleveled in spite of the fact that I did the optional dungeon so I can't imagine how far behind someone has to be if they don't complete that level.
This is lowkey 7 reskins on dream cast to game cube as an different emulater
I remember this thinking this looks like ps1 BUT otherwise it was alright
Yep loved it
I wonder how the Japanese game play tho
I got stuck early and quit