Evenicle

This is a combination post of all the parts of my ancient Evenicle Review

Ok, this is the first part of my words on Evenicle, which will be the last VN I play from April's releases. I am only playing this one because it was specifically requested by several people, and to be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to it. I am not a fan of the Rance series or Alice Soft in general, because their VNs' plots just aren't that interesting, generally. The ratio of goofy to serious is generally too slanted in the goofy direction, so I tend to get bored about halfway through. Not to mention that most of their games' actual plots are so awfully written that they might as well not exist at all.

That said, as a game - so far - Evenicle is actually fairly enjoyable, for what it is. Asta, the protagonist, is - like almost all Alice Soft protagonists - a harem-maker and a sex-fiend, but fortunately, he isn't a Rance-type, which was a relief for me - since I loathe Rance. Story-wise... the setting is interesting and what is going on in general has possibilities, but I hate that they use so much obvious foreshadowing... especially in the naming of certain areas (El Quixote, lol).

I'm at the end of Chapter 3, and one thing I'm finding is that the actual difficulty level of everyday battles is just a bit too uneven. There are way too many points where the difficulty spikes low or high, where it doesn't really make sense for it to do so... and that's just regular fights. Boss fights tend to be anticlimactic, with the exception of one fight at the end of Chapter 2 - so far.

The way you gain skills is a bit irritating as well. It seems like you randomly get skills for the various characters at the end of battles - regardless of levels - and out of chests, of all things. I've never been fond of games that add useless or annoying gimmicks onto what is - in the end - a regular jrpg-style game outside of story segments. However, I more or less expected this kind of thing, because Alice Soft is almost as bad as Idea Factory about the gimmicks issue...

Well, that's it for now, look forward to my final review after I've completed the game.

Yes, I said my next post would be the end of this game, but the game is surprisingly long... especially considering the obscenely high encounter rate on the world map and the fact that if you don't keep your levels up (level 10 at least at the end of chapter 1, 20 at the end of 2, etc) you really are screwed. If nothing else, you won't be able to keep ahead of the regenerative abilities each chapter's main boss (except 1's) seems to possess.

The reason for this? Primarily it is the cost of healing items and the dearth of good healing skills. Lieschu's magic healing skills can only be used once per battle and require a huge BP charge before you can use them, and Cass's healing skill also has relatively high requirements in that area. Healing items actually increase in cost every time you buy them, depending on how many of them you have, which makes flexible use of healing impossible. This pretty much eliminates any strategy other than 'hit as hard and as fast as possible' when fighting bosses.

The upside is that if you do overlevel, it is pretty rare for you to die on the story bosses and getting through normal battles is much easier.

I realize that they were trying to create a balanced system by limiting healing in this way, but in doing so they eliminated most of what makes turn-based rpg battles enjoyable, which is strategizing for survival. Not to mention that since you can't heal yourself along the way, it isn't uncommon to get really low on hp before you even reach a boss, if you aren't careful.

In other words, the substituted tedium for thinking, a common mistake many 'new' jrpgs tend to make...

A few thoughts on the plot, so far. I've reached the sixth chapter (there are a total of seven), and one thing I've noticed is that this story basically follows the 'theory' of jrpg plot development to the letter (well, the cannibalism, rape, and general horrors are a bit beyond the pale of what is normal, lol). Basically, they give you a world that is somehow 'odd' or feels 'wrong' but is nonetheless more or less peaceful... then they give you the seeds of strife.

As a matter of course, I've been able to read this story's future in general almost since the beginning, to a ridiculous extent. This is born of having played every jrpg that came out for the NES, SNES, Playstation, and Playstation 2... (basically, everything from the 'golden age'). This story is ultimately a jrpg story, told using some VN techniques. Of course, the protagonist being a natural philanderer (though not a forceful one) made the VN into a frequently hilarious experience... at the cost of frequently weakening the more serious elements of the story. This is Alice Soft's bad habit coming out to play once again... rather than using comic relief as a tool to occasionally lighten a more serious mood, Alice Soft tends to use it to utterly shatter even the most serious of atmospheres, which is the main reason I've never come out of a game by this company feeling satisfied.

I don't have much hope that this VN will escape the Alice Soft jinx, but I plan to finish it, nonetheless.

Hmm... I pretty much hit what I didn't like about the story and gameplay in the other posts, so I'll try to outline what is likeable about the game as a whole.

1) The game uses a skit system similar to the Tales games, letting you have short silly conversations at certain points on the map.

2) The variety of skills available - once you've filled them out a bit - is actually really good. By the end of the game, I had a way to deal effectively with just about any situation, without brute force tactics... though healing skills were still lacking in general.

3) While HP growth slows after level 50, the growth of other stats - particularly Asta's - actually increases somewhat.

4) There is an overworld map to explore, in traditional jrpg style.

5) Most of the game has you laughing

For those of you looking to play a gameplay-VN who don't really want a terribly deep story, this is actually a good choice... but for those looking for an IMZ-style epic, this isn't a good choice. I'd say the story is actually slightly better than most of Alice Soft's other games, as is the humor.

VN of the Month Announcement

Winner: Chrono Clock