It's good fun.

The Evoland games are not for everybody, but for those who can appreciate what they are, they're quite cute and fun.

Evoland 1 is a very short game with a generic story but an interesting gimmick. It was originally created for Ludum Dare, a 48-hour hackathon, so don't go in expecting a whole lot. It starts off with a simple Game Boy style, boxy green screen and all, and grows through the various RPG eras until it arrives at something like FFVII with the low-poly big-head 3D animation. Along the way there are plenty of references and in-jokes to gaming history and culture.

Evoland 2 expands on the concept with a much more fleshed-out game. It still uses an action-RPG as a framing device, with a similar gimmick of time-travelling through different graphical eras - 8-bit, 16-bit, and 3D and a trip to the green-tinted past. But it has a much more developed story, and it veers away from RPG history to instead roll through tons of different genres. Listing them all here would take a while, but you'll see everything from top-down shooter to beat-em-up to match-3. And the gaming and pop-culture references flow non-stop. Still not a long game by today's standards, but this one will take a while, especially for the achievement-hunters. But it's one of those rare games where getting the achievements just needs some time and persistence, not crazy skill or luck across a dozen playthroughs.

So, if you're of a certain age and grew up alongside the gaming industry like me, you'll find a lot of humor and nostalgia here. If you're looking for something more modern and AAA quality, you might want to pass on by.

Evoland 1: Cute, unique showcase of time travel and different game styles. Easy to learn, easy to initially beat, but a looonngggg grind to finish completely. But at least it's only exploration, FF & Zelda combat, and a card game.

Evoland 2: Feels way too Meta for its own good. After the first 20 references I was getting tired, and they didn't stop. Contrary to 1, this has a new combat style every 10 minutes, and not in a good way:
- Zelda open world combat? Okay sure cool, even the Future is that instead now.
- Turn Based Strategy War Campaign? Actually enjoyable, a good challenge
- Guitar Hero boss fight? No. Especially not 4 more times for one collectible -.-
- Street Fighter boss fight? Would be fine if the controls made sense. Have fun figuring it out because this BOSS is the only time you use it :)
- Double Dragon fight area + repeatable arena? Sure, but NO CONTROL REFERENCE??? If you miss the chat pop-up for learning a combo have fun figuring it out.
Also included:
ice-climbers style platformer + boss
Old school Donkey Kong
Pong/Snake/PacMan + Final Fantasy Timed-TurnBased in ONE DUNGEON
Mega-man Platformers (including instant death spikes/lava!)
Top-down Bullet hell shooters
Most likely 20 more I forgot because they were only used once
And yet another card game!!

Also for the roughly 30-80% progress through the game there are only 2 spots in the whole map to change time so have fun running back and forth trying to figure out not only WHERE to go, but also WHEN out of Past/Present/Future.

I'll be honest and say I followed a 100% Guide the whole way because I knew if I missed anything I would be so annoyed at the amount of time it would have taken to track down again (I was right).
Prime example: if you do everything perfect for an hour ish of the beginning, you can get the BEST WEAPON IN THE GAME. Just like that. Collect 4 slightly-hidden Ore, usually just out of your way, and you go from (metaphor) 2 damage rusty sword to 100 damage Legendary weapon.
(And normal enemies will still take 5 hits later)

In addition, very little hints or info. I got all the way to the final plot bossfight before realizing I still had to "level up" 2/3 of the party because how to do so was only called out by one person I talked to hours and hours ago while trying to figure out how to finish what I was doing at that time.