Evoland's double pack was a surprise hit with me and I don't know why it took me so long to get around to playing it. The first game is a purely tongue-in-cheek celebration of gaming's tech progression and a grab bag of references that's brisk and quickly finished in an afternoon if you don't bother too much with the minimal side content. It was originally a game jam project for Ludum Dare 24 and it shows in its length and simplicity, which is fine by me (if you're curious, that version is still available if you search for Evoland Classic)

Evoland 2 on the other hand still keeps the satirical edge and novelty gimmicks, but does a crazy good job of blending it with a genuinely interesting and sincere 12-15 hour or so time travel narrative and a great cast of characters, main and supporting. Despite this and the original release of Evoland 2 both weighing in at an average 1.5k reviews here, it might be one of the most underrated indies I've played and doesn't get talked about enough.

It helps that Evoland 2 is also genuinely funny even outside of the frequent references. There's a lot of little interactions, gags and dialogue that got me with Menos usually being a particular stand-out, and it reminded me of another one of my favorite character-driven indie RPGs, Crosscode.

Evoland 1 is mostly a JRPG/Zelda-like hybrid with a funny gimmick here and there. 2 is more strictly Zelda with elements of Zelda 2 in the leveling and occasional 2D sections, but has a lot more variety of gimmick stages, most of them being decent and not too overly drawn out - spoilers in case you want to keep the surprises: the only ones I can see being a sore spot for some people are the shmup stage (which I have fun with but admittedly lasts a bit too long) and the beatemup stage (which I did NOT enjoy because it lasts too long, it's slow, and it's easy to get stunlocked).

I also could've done without the Professor Layton puzzles (not a spoiler cause you're given one at the very beginning,) although it's entirely possible I'm just stupid with some of them. I think the problem is that they give you instructions line by line, but don't show the entire thing at the end, making it easy to forget what you were supposed to do (but idk, some people on the forums say a couple are poorly explained!) - yet at the same time, they're way too easy to brute force since there's no penalty for failing. On the other hand I absolutely LOVED the Bejeweled RPG stage and wanted an entire game based around that by the end - and that exists because it looks like that section was a reference to Puzzle Quest, a "Match-3-RPG" series that started on the PSP/DS!

The games are also pretty polished, minus some grammar/spelling mistakes and the one singular gamebreaking bug I encountered during a boss fight that just required a reload to fix. I've heard the games were buggier on release and had a small drama involving an online-only launcher at one point, but that all seems to have been patched up by now. Both were rock solid on my Steam Deck, aside from rare hitching and slightly longer load times in 2's future (probably due to the 3D assets) which probably wouldn't be there at all on my PC.

Also, I will say: there is zero reason that I know of to buy the original separate versions of these games when this one exists. It's the same price as standalone Evoland 2, but with 1 bundled in. The standard $20 asking price for this is pretty good IMO if you're considering dollars per hour, but it's also really solid on sale too and the QUALITY of those hours matter to me more than the amount of them, and in that case I was a happy camper.

Note: This release contains both Evoland games so I will split my review accordingly.

Evoland: A Short Story of Adventure Video Games Evolution

A delightful journey that pays tribute do action-adventure games and early JRPGs.

From a Game Design perspective, this is a great way to consider what game mechanics aid the player vs what is nice but not a necessity. I also commend the developers for the amount of work put into essentially making a game twice (with several art styles), and adding mechanics unique to some areas. Especially impressive when this was all done in 48 hours.

I believe that this game will inspire anyone thinking of making their own game. Even if you're not a developer, it is worth experiencing this love letter to the evolution of adventure games.

Evoland II: A Slight Case of Spacetime Continuum Disorder
Review coming later this year.

An overall enjoyable collection of games.

The 1st is decent, very short but gimmicky and shallow. The humor is cute and tongue in cheek, but there's not much substance to be had.

The 2nd is much more substantial. It starts off slower and a bit weaker than the 1st game but after a few hours it really picks up. The gimmick sections are much more developed with their own intricacies and the writing is more focused on genuine storytelling rather than relying on strictly reference humor.