Evolution 2

"Sequel to RPGs have never been made as fun as this!"

Evolution 2 stands out completely as a terrifically cool sequel to its older brother, Evolution. Despite many bashes it got from many other reviews, it’s actually one game that I find extremely exciting with an intriguing story line which made you want to know more about it. Furthermore, lots of new special features which made Evolution 2 a more fun game to play.

Graphics – 10
What can you say about the graphics? They’re interestingly cool with sharper and clearer graphics compared to Evolution. Very detailed graphics, colourful pictures and scenery, added with nice, modeled background make this game better. The rendered characters themselves are certainly great to look at. Enemies at least now have better and scarier looks instead of fighting against insects always.

The colours are managed accordingly and the lighting effects are used more often already. At almost all ruins you’ll notice the new feature added. Ah, Sting has really done a great job creating Evolution 2. The FMV sequences, set at certain parts of the game are definitely nice with the combination of several graphical elements. Realistic.

Music – 10
Thankfully enough, Sting has done it again by enhancing the background music, making them suitable at each right moments. If you’re a rapid player of Evolution, you’re sure to notice the difference in the music. Moreover, the clear and realistic sound effects of explosions, hits and others are better than before. Best of all, the remaining voices of each characters could be heard at last, including cute Linear. Most of the time (during dialogues and automatic sequences), you will hear them though they’re in Japanese.

Gameplay – 10
More than a sequel! Evolution 2 has been added with more features with a refreshing new look to it that reflects the capabilities of Dreamcast and Sting, for producing this type of RPG. Not that I want to say that Evolution is now not a nice game all together but Evolution 2, you know, it’s longer and fun.

As a normal RPG would have, you’ll expect to find HP and all other similar stuffs. This game follows almost the same as Evolution, having a Cyframe, a type of weapon that adventures would use, special attacks which would drain FP out together with a new option to the game, Talent. Talent will automatically upgrade to a better one when you use it more often without telling you what it has upgraded into. The downside is, some characters’ talents are restricted to a certain number of times while some can be used always but must be ‘recharged’ first.

More types of parts for the Cybernetic Frame (better know as Cyframe throughout the game) which an extra attack for all characters which you can also get but harder. In order to learn new skills, you’ll need to use TP, which are automatically earned throughout the battles. This new enhancement makes the attack much stronger and more effective against new enemies.

Fortunately, Sting has decided to remove the ‘automatically generated ruins’ through the game which made ruins more easily to be navigated. Only one part of the game which has this old type of feature, the Tower of Despair, a special tower created for you to practice and upgrade your skills here. The floors will be much higher the more ruins you’ve been and conquered and at the highest floor, you’re sure to get a special item, be it a special part for your Cyframe or just a cool accessory of item.

Talk about accessory, you can now equip two instead of one as restricted before. Whenever you buy your items, you can see whether it will upgrade your status or downgrade yours instead of telling after you had bought it as in Evolution. As you’re now in the new town of Museville, you can buy special tickets for the lucky draw by using Prehistoric Coins which could be found in ruins and battles against enemies.

You can now take more items, as the adventure goes on. You can even combine items into much more powerful ones or just make it into one full set in order to save space for other items. Find more appraisal items and the correct ones can be combined into Rare Appraisal Items which you can sell in a higher price and get more money. When you had finished the game, you’ll see how you rank yourself, whether, S, A, B, C or lower so collecting appraisal items, what level you are now, how many battles you’ve gone through and etc. affects this.

There is also one new character you can play as, other than your good old main character, Mag Launcher, the mysterious girl Linear, the Launcher’s family butler Gre, Mag’s rival Chain and Pepper. So many choices, you’ll find it hard to choose who to select into your party (only three in one party) as every character has their own special abilities and attacks.

Story – 10
If you had played Evolution, you’ll understand what had happened and what battles they had gone through before. If you don’t want to buy Evolution just to know the story, you’ll know it here. Just a brief one what had happened (some from Evolution 2 official website), in Evolution, Eugene from the Eight Empire Army head to Pannam Town in search of Evolutia, the legendary Cyframe.

Eugene kidnapped Linear and found out that Evolutia was really Linear (then why can’t we choose Linear in her Evolutia form?)! Mag, Gre and his other best friends, Chain and Pepper crash-landed on Eugene’s ship and went for a huge battle. Linear used the power of Evolutia to restore Mag back to life and rescued him.

It has been a half-year after the riot with the Eight Empire army. The Society field office in Pannam Town received a request from the Society museum in Museville, which is located far south of the Palldian continent. The request was to send the best adventurer in Pannam. Never one to avoid challenge, Mag Launcher rises to the call and boards a transcontinental train with his friends, Linear, Gre and Chain to heard to Museville. Uncertain as to why he has been called, Mag's new adventure begins the moment his train leaves the station, against a new, secret enemy with a struggling story line of Evolutia!

Replay Value – 7
Replay? I won’t expose any spoilers but Sting has managed to do something in order to let you replay the whole game again, while accomplishing a new task (if you are an Evolution player, you’ll guess it right) that you haven’t and won’t do when you start a new game. When you replay all together, this don’t really fit in the near-ending story line but oh well, if you’ve got nothing to do, you can re-sharpen your fighting skills again. The downside? You’ll start at Level 6 once more, no matter how high your level is before.

Overall – 10
A fun and longer sequel and I’ve always made the right choice on Dreamcast games. Sting managed to surprise us once more with its English and Japanese version of this game (mind you, get the English one!) and better English translations with almost no grammar and spelling mistakes. As I had explained thoroughly to this game, grab enough money out of your wallet and you’ll see that Evolution 2 don’t really burn your pocket.

Mag
- Better and enhanced graphics!
- Voices in Japanese! Cool!
- Longer, better and super sequel!

Launcher
- Ruins, ruins, ruins…
- Few bosses are a bit hard.
- Replaying it is a bit disappointing.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/04/00, Updated 09/04/00