Seriously, though. If you haven’t played this one, there’s nothing else quite like it in the SNES library (or any other library for that matter). If you have played it, then you know how special this one is. It just does a bunch of neat things that nothing else was doing at the time (and few have done since), like temporary powerups that only happen once, save slots for your loadouts, and a pixel-art character that changes appearance with each customization, and there are a bunch to choose from.
The music is moody. The atmosphere ranges from very dark to very light and it all still makes sense as a cohesive whole. There is a split part-way through that lets you take one of two three evolutionary paths, and it’s dang cool.
I’ll be playing it again this month for sure.
EDIT: I’ve never seen the JP box art before, and I honestly think the NA cover might be better. More dinosaurs, less things that are not dinosaurs. And the way the dinos’ heads overlap the logo is neat.
E.V.O. is a super neat game that I’m not sure I have the patience to replay, haha. I seem to recall a sudden jump in the dinosaur chapter that had me sit around leveling the character for a long while.
I haven’t played the game in about a decade and a half, so I don’t remember at all. I’ll let you know when I get there.
Just finished the World of Water, and it’s just as charming as I remember.
Thoughts:
I really love how the upgrades sometimes have major drawbacks, like that the swordfish horn makes your bite weaker if you already have the zinichthy’s jaws, and increasing body size makes you a lot slower. These are great surprises for the first time that may make you panic if it happens in a tight spot.
I do not like that the kuraselache’s dorsal fin does not match the color of your body.
We can all agree that Koichi Sugiyama was a turd, and the world is better now that he’s dead. The music is pretty good though. Part whimsical, part moody and introspective. You can just tell something ominous is happening.
The water effect on the overworld is beautiful, as are the wavy underwater backgrounds in the caves. Ecco the Dolphin wishes it looked this good.
The first boss is just as bad as I remember. Cheese those bosses. Cheese them to death.
This is one of the first games I remember hearing about on emulation forums as like one of those cool games you probably hadn’t played. They were right, I hadn’t!
I think the idea of this game might be a little better than what it actually is, but I imagine it’s still fun customizing your little critter as it evolves.
I’ve actually had 46 Okunen Monogatari ~The Shinka Ron~ in the back of my mind for a while as something I should look at. Which is not this game, but it’s kinda this game. I’m sure I’ll hit my PC-98 phase eventually and I’ll cover it then.
This one has been in my backlog for a very long time, so what a better time than now to get back to it. Been a few decades since I last played it, on a Super Wild Card as well, so looking forward to revisiting it. Nice choice @Death_Strandicoot!
The other creatures all exist to be eaten by you. Kill them, eat them. (After typing that out, I’m not sure why I like this game. I’m vegetarian).
Use the select button in levels to bring up the menu. Spend points here to evolve.
You can instantly heal yourself by evolving. Use this to cheese bosses, or get out of tight spots. Changing size or installing/uninstalling a cheap horn are inexpensive and low-impact ways to heal up.
Use the select button on the overworld to bring up the save menu.
Double-tap a direction to dash.
Press A while dashing to tackle. (Becomes super important in Chapter 3)
If you dash into another creature and you have a horn, it will hurt them.
Try stuff out!
You can exit an area you’ve already cleared by pressing R
If you have a cool build, save it using the “Record of Evolution” option in in-level menu. You’ll have a way to revert to it later. You can save up to 50, so don’t be shy.
Ok, so I just finished the Dinosaur chapter (chapter 3)
Thoughts on chapters 2 & 3:
The graphical style was best underwater, but hey, you gotta adapt to survive!
Boss 2 of chapter 2 was as bad as the chapter 1 boss, but the others weren’t so bad.
You can make a really cool looking amphibian creature! (I’ve been taking screenshots, but I’ll post them later in the month after others have had a chance to play).
I did not find the dinosaur chapter to be grindy, but I definitely see how it could be if you’re going for the strongest dino and building your bite like in previous chapters. Knowing to use your tackle instead makes it much cheaper to get a few upgrades that make things go quickly.
Then, I went the bird route at Mt. Brave. I can see how this would seem suuuuper grindy as you have to start back at square 1. But I also know about the secret sky maze, and the secret alien above the maze that gives you 9999 EP. From there, getting the best jaws and farming the nautilus creatures that give 500 EP in one bite let me fully upgrade the bird in like 2 minutes flat. If you replay, I suggest using a guide for this chapter. It really does fly if you know the secrets. Plus you get to be a dragon for a bit!
There are some cool “bad endings” along the way so far.
In chapter 2, after the Debustega boss fight, the elder ikustega comes out with a child. You can kill them both, but Gaia gets angry, and if you eat any of the remains, they give you -999 HP and you die instantly.
In chapter 3, you can choose to side with the Tyrasaurus and you get a fake ending where you get killed by meteors and your fossils wind up in a museum.
There is some terrible music here. It just loops a few notes. This makes grinding feel horrible. I didn’t remember that at all! Minus 2 stars on the music rating. Screw you again Sugiyama.
There is another bad ending available. The Bird King offers to let you join him like the Tyrasaurs did. If you choose yes, you get a fake ending and rejected to the world map, but there is a very funny drawing of a boy with a huge nose (screenshot forthcoming later in the month).
The bosses are really easy to stun luck in this chapter, at least if you’re a mammal, and can kick the yetis.
The fact that you can start this chapter in one of three different evolution lines (dinosaur/bird/mammal) is super cool.
I still love this game, but playing it now has given me much more perspective on it.
Overall:
The music is much more of a mixed bag than I remembered.
The bosses are way too hard. Or way too easy. None of them are fun.
The evolution mechanic is still so cool. The first time I played the game, I finished as a bird. This time, I finished the game as a human. I’m going to go back to my save at the start of chapter 5 and finish it again as a four-legged mammal. There are some secret evolutions in the Final Sea that I have never seen.
The ending is neat, but the tone is off. I don’t think there is a good pay off for the sinister darkness you get glimpses of along the way. I mean, goofy green Martians? It kind of kills the atmosphere.
Sadly, the game peaks in chapter 1. The sea is just so well done. The only only part that was as atmospheric as the underwater sections was the sky maze. I would have loved blizzards in the ice age areas, rain in the swampy marshes of the amphibians, dust storms in the arid dinosaur plains, etc.
This game is still a favorite, and still one of the coolest things in SNES, but man those boss battles and that one song that is just 16 looping notes…I would love a 2D-HD remaster of this one, especially with re-done boss mechanics and expanded songs.
