Evoland evolves to the point of being released on GOG and Steam

The JRPG has gone through a lot of changes in the last thirty or so years, and Evoland chronicles all of them - well, most of them , ignoring the bit when they turned into barely interactive cutscenes featuring screeching, hyperactive eight-year-olds, in favour of Zelda-style adventuring and even Diablo-esque loot absorption. Sure, it's a selective history of 'action/adventure' gaming, but Evoland crams in an impressive number of evolutions nonetheless, taking us from the days of monochrome sprites to more detailed polygon people, in a game that will take a few hours of your time. Initially hammered out in around 30 hours for the Ludum Dare compo , Evoland has since evolved into something bigger, pricier, Steamier and GOGier , if you have the gold to spare.

You can expect to pay around $9/250 gil for the privilege, kupo, though the following trailer should give you some idea what to expect. For those that have played the free original, Shiro Games state that this full release "will enhance and continue the story started in Evoland Classic, taking you further along the history of action adventure gaming, adding collectible items, new monsters and bosses, and more importantly new play styles and full 3D environments". You can spy some of those below.

Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.