As a Puzzle Platformer: 7/10
As a Visual Novel: 5/10

If you aren't into puzzle platformers, I'm not super confident this is for you. If you are, this game has some fun challenges and incredible artwork/sound design.

I knew I wasn't into puzzle platformers going into this, moreso interested in a good story. There were reviews mentioning the puzzles could be skipped anytime, and that the story was good, so I gave this a shot.

Judging the story based solely on the first half of the game, I really really enjoyed it. Just enough to make me recommend the game. There are some really great moments of dialogue, plus I enjoyed Dysis and Clover's characters.

Unfortunately, the weight of the story falls apart for me about halfway through. Some people might see it as a bittersweet twist, but I just found myself disappointed.

The idea for the twist isn't bad, either. I can see they were trying to tell a story that asks the questions: Is it better to die happy in a lie? And whose choice is that to make?

But the problem is with how they executed it. Andre setting up for Clover's perfect death by predicting both Clover and Dysis' actions undermined their agency as characters and removed any tension from that point forward. It also raised a lot of questions about what Dysis knew going into this, which don't get answered.

TLDR: The story became too self aware in my opinion.

This is a fun puzzle platformer. The puzzles are challenging enough to be interesting but don't require pixel-perfect jumps or anything like that and the story is engaging and interesting if a bit convoluted.

Evan's Remains is nice puzzle game weaved into a mysterious story with a few twists. You play as Dysis, sent to an uninhabitated island in the Pacific Ocean, on a mission to find Evan Goldstein, a genius recently gone missing. On said island you find mysterious structures, monoliths to be exact, which, according to Clover, another person "visiting" the island, seem to represent words in an ancient language. After teaming up and helping each other, you start to uncover the secrets of this island.

The gameplay is very simple, since you can only move and jump, but that's all you need to solve each and every single puzzle. The puzzles generally consist of platforming your way across a massive wall, the path to which is blocked or does not yet exist. Mechanics such as the platforms disappearing when you leave them are only a part of it. The difficulty of the puzzles is alright overall and while it seems to be all over the place in terms of progression of difficulty, there is a reason for it to not just linearly get harder but instead be a mix of harder and easier puzzles.

The art style is a nice pixel art style which beautifully conveys the surroundings as well as the characters. While simple in animation, it doesn't really need much more to feel sufficient.

All in all, very much recommended if you like story and/or puzzle games.