Evoland, an indie game developed by Shiro Games, introduces one of the most unique ideas I’ve ever seen. The concept is that of a game that evolves from old school 8-bit to 3-D as you play. This game seems to draw heavy influences from franchises such as Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda, and Secret of Mana. From the trailer, it appears that even the game mechanics are altered with the changing times and graphics. In one style, you fight via the classic Final Fantasy battle screen while in another you’re hacking away at monsters, Link-style. As a huge fan of JRPG’s, particularly those reminiscent of the 16-bit era, a game like this is hugely intriguing.

It’s described as “a story and a game.” From playing the demo, which happens to be the original game the team made for a contest, I can tell a lot of clever thought went into producing the game. It’s like a mini-history lesson for the evolution of RPG’s. It harkens back to the old days where clusters of pixels invited players to tap into their own imaginations (hence, the role-playing aspect) and is promised to include boundless references to its predecessors. Since Steam has greenlit the project, I can assume the quality is expected to be high. I’m very excited to see where this project goes.

Read more at the official website.

Check out the trailer: