Video Game of the Day is a daily show available on Amazon Alexa devices and here on this website. Each day, we briefly discuss the history of a single game, randomly chosen. If you would like to listen on your daily flash briefing, you can enable Video Game of the Day here: https://amzn.to/2CNx2NJ.
Transcript:
Hello and welcome! My name is Katosepe and I’ll be your host for today’s Video Game of the Day.
Looking back on the Sega Dreamcast, there are several RPGs that deserve attention. Skies of Arcadia and Grandia 2 are the first two that often come to mind but there were several others as well throughout the consoles lifecycle. At first, though, The Dreamcast had very few games for RPG fans and those that existed were typically pretty terrible. So at the time, many were willing to overlook the flaws in today’s game to appreciate the good that was there. Today’s game is Evolution: The World of Sacred Device, developed by Sting and released on the Sega Dreamcast in 1999.
Evolution follows two kids named Mag Launcher and Linear Cannon. Yeah, everybody in this series is named after weapons. Anyways, Mag and Linear are adventurers and delve into ancient ruins in search of Cyframes, an ancient and rare technology found in ruins. When Mag and Linear return home from their latest adventure, they are summoned by the Prince of the realm and asked if they know anything about Evolutia, a device originally found by Mag’s father that has been lost to time.
Evolution is a dungeon crawling RPG, focused less on story and more on venturing deep into ancient ruins. The game focuses on a single town which acts as Mag and Linear’s home base. Players can buy items and equipment here, equipping it for later. They can also get mysterious items that they find in ruins appraised for later use. Dungeons are filled with monsters but battles do not happen randomly like in many JRPGs of the time. Instead, if the player comes in contact with a monster walking around in the dungeon, then battle will start. Battles are turn-based and have full 3D animations for attacks and special skills.
Evolution did not gain a strong reception from critics who found it to be derivative, despite the charming kid’s anime vibe. The story never takes itself too seriously and the light-hearted nature was attractive to some at the time. Still, despite the low review scores, Evolution sold quite well, being one of the few options on the Dreamcast at the time. The game was ported to the Neo Geo Pocket Color under the name Evolution: Eternal Dungeons. Evolution would receive a couple more entries in the franchise before going dark in 2002 but more on those another time.
Thank you so much for listening! If you’re listening to this on Tuesday, make sure to check out The Gaming Observer Podcast that I co-host. We talk about current gaming news and our predictions for what’s coming up, as well as some mini reviews on the games we’re playing. If you like this show and enjoy podcasts, go check it out. Just search The Gaming Observer in your favorite podcasting app of choice and check out our episodes, releasing every Tuesday. Don’t forget to check back here tomorrow for another Video Game of the Day!
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