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Review by BoredGamer
  Intro
I worked hard and saved up my money. After a bit of working, I made just enough to get two games to go with the PS2 I had reserved. I went down to my local game distributor and decided to reserve two games with my PS2: Summoner and Evergrace. At first, I was quite impressed with Evergrace, thinking it to be a bit better than Summoner. After a while, though, the game seemed to get pretty repetitive and a bit tiring at times.

Darius and Sharline
In Evergrace, you play as two different characters. One is a man named Darius and the other a young woman named Sharline. Both find themselves strangely in another land that only existed in folklore. As they both travel around, they find that they have been strangely called to this land by some entity. They travel around the world looking for a way back to their own. They bump into a few different characters, one of which is an old man named Morpheous who seems to be up to no good.

Action/Adventure Awaits...
The gameplay in the game was decent. You run around in a 3D environment killing enemies with your large array of weapons. I felt the battle system was simplistic, but sufficient. The enemy AI was pretty good, at least. The enemies didn't all out attack you, and they do runs specific patterns. I enjoy a good enemy AI like this one. I'm glad enemies didn't spend too long blocking or repeatedly doing the same thing over and over. I felt the game could've used a little more exploring, though. It's far too linear and only has maybe one side quest. A little freedom could've led to a better adventure sense in the game and probably would've made this a little more fun.

Customizing Equipment
This game revolves around equipment. You get various kinds such as head gear, armor, special accessories, boots, and yes, weapons. Each one has its specific strength and weakness and each one can be modified to become stronger in some areas. I really like having a lot of equipment in this game, especially when considering that what you wear actually stands out! When you put on a helmet, you can instantly recognize it from the others and your character actually wears it in the game. This gives each piece of equipment its own identity, so to speak, and makes it unique from the rest.

Along with wearing different pieces of equipment, you can even modify them slightly. By upgrading them, you can make them stronger. If it's one thing I can appreciate in any RPG, it's upgradable equipment. The only thing you cannot upgrade is special accessories like rings. Each upgrade is indicated by the weapon's palmira level. Most equipment start on palmira level LOW. Some do start on MEDIUM, but very few. You can no longer upgrade when it reaches HIGH. As each one is upgraded, it can gain improved stats and even new spells for you to use.

I also like the ability to be able to change the color of your equipment. If you have a black piece of armor that you want to be blue, you can make that possible. The thing is it can only change to set colors. It would be nice if they can let your mix your own custom colors (a la WWF CAW) and combinations.

Spells
You can get spells in the game like many other RPG's. Each piece of equipment you put on can have a spell linked to it. Let's say you put on boots with the Float spell linked to it. That spell will now appear in your spell list and can be used at any moment in the game as long as you are wearing the boots. I think this spells system is okay, but nothing original. The only thing that bothers me is fishing through my equipment to look for something with a particular spell. This also prompts you to upgrade in case you need to use a particular piece of equipment and wearing it could lead to a severe downgrade of your current stats. You don't get MP in the game. Rather, the spell takes away your equipment's durability points.

Durabilities
One thing I hate about some RPG's is durabilities. The durabilities in this one do not bother me too much because they are fairly lenient. There is not as much pressure to fix because items do not permanently disappear if you break them. They can be repaired no matter the shape. I just don't like how some equipment is really expensive to fix up. The fact that your durability points runs down as you move sort of irritates me as well. Painful durability is something that has turned me off to such games as Nox, Final Fantasy Legend 2, and a few others.

OOO! Pretty!
I feel the graphics in this game are beautiful. They move smoothly and display a gorgeous coloration, bringing life to the environments. The environmental graphics are probably the best part about the graphics. As I've said before, beautiful colors.

Quirky Sounds
The music to this game is quite strange. The soundtrack is okay for the most part, I just felt that some of the music in the game would've been better without vocals. A good example of this was the shop music. The childrens' voices heard in the background of the shop music made me feel like I was watching Barney. The voice acting is a pretty big downer here, as well. I felt a lot of people lacked emotion in their VA abilities here. The sound effects were the only sounds I can fully concur with. They fit well with the game and left a favorable impression.

The Plot...
The story had its ups and downs. At times, it seemed pretty interesting, but at others, it didn't seem like much of anything at all. They really loved to either leave you in the dark or hint towards something bigger that never really got developed. Speaking of developing... I think the characters could've been developed so much better. I didn't get much of a feel for either Darius or Sharline and really didn't seem to care whether they won or lost. I'm only hoping a lot that was left open will be answered in the sequel.

FINAL JUDGMENT
Graphics: Pretty good 9/10
Sounds: Could've used a slight make-over 6/10
Control: Easy enough to work with. Good response and minor complexities. It doesn't take too long to get them all down. 9/10
Plot/Storyline: Had some strong and weak parts 7/10
Gameplay: It's pretty fun. Easy to get burnt out on, though. 7/10
All Together: 7/10

Perks
*Beautiful graphics
*Fun for a little while
*Lenient controls
*Equipment customization

Downers
*Underdeveloped story and characters
*Voice acting null of emotion
*Some of the music is rather quirky
*Too linear

Recommendations
I would definitely recommend renting this before buying it. I spent over $50 on this game and I honestly wish I would've waited until the price came down to around the $30 range.
 
Reviewer's Score: 7 / 10
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Review by CrimsonScythe
  I made a deal with my friend to each buy a game then let each other borrow the other. He got Zone of The Enders and I received this, I think he got the best out of it. It started out a fun and generally enjoyable game. But as time went on I just wanted to get through it for the sake of beating and finally being done with it. This may be one of those love/hate games.

Story: 7/10

Its hard to remember since there wasnt much to begin with. It starts out with our hero (Darius) or heroine (Sharline) getting mysteriously transported to some strange new world. Now they must save this world from some evil that you really dont know about until quite a bit into the game, in the beginning you are searching for a way back to your own world. Its somewhat difficult to grasp the story, since they never go too in depth about it, but as far as I know you must stop the evil scientist Morpheus from doing something sinister, it has something to do with his human experiments. Darius has a crest on his right hand and people fear it as bringing tragedy, this adds a little bit more depth to the story.

You just travel around occasionally meeting a person wholl say some small piece of info. to help you on your way through the area or give a little bit of history about the world. The only time when you actually learn something about the towns, people, and just about anything else is from the loading screens that give you a little piece of info. that is basically useless and gives you mere moments to read all of it, so youll either have to read it fast or hope it comes up again in another load screen. Another thing, they spelled one of the towns wrong in one of the load screens! There is practically no interaction whatsoever in this game. Some characters are just thrown in there for no reason at all.

Gameplay: 8/10

Nothing to great, but it is simple to get the hang of and easy to use. The battles are a bit like Zelda, but not as much to it. Most of the weapons you have consist of two attacks, a horizontal and a vertical slash, whose attack strength rely a lot on how hard you hit the X button. Magic works bit differently and is referred to as Palmira Actions. You do not acquire it, but rather it is gained by upgrading your armor. For palmira actions to work, you have to be wearing the particular piece of armor that has the palmira action. An aspect unique to this game is the dress-up system. Depending on what you wear, your defense and offense will be higher or lower for some parts.

This is a you walk around by yourself through the whole game type of game, there are no allies. The enemies can be easy; die in a few hits with the right weapon and attribute, or frustrating; enemies that can knock you ridiculously far when there just happens to be cliff for you to instantly fall off of and die. The puzzles in the game are repetitive, mostly involving changing your equipment around just to get through to another area. Most gamers will find this tedious and boring. One thing I found a bit strange is that you can to the hidden, extremely tough and frustrating, dungeon right at the start of the game!

Graphics and Sound: 8/10

The graphics are actually not too bad, nothing to rigid or shaky. The backgrounds look nicely done for the most part but at times can seem rather bland. The character designs are ok, theyre much different from one another and seem to be well done. The music is ok but not too memorable, you wont be humming a tune from the game while on a walk or anything. The voices are good, they fit the characters and their appearance very well. But some of the dialogue does not match with that of the text, this happens frequently. Other than that, everythings fine in this area.

Replayability: 6/10

If you want to see the true ending then youll have to go through the game with both characters. But if youre a masochist you might want to torture yourself through another round of play for the hell of it. It seemed fun at first, but eventually you just wanted to beat the game and be done with it.

Evergrace 2 has been announced and is said to be a lot different in terms of gameplay than this one. Though the name has been changed to Forever Kingdom last I heard. I highly suggest you rent it first to see for yourself whether you like it or not.

Overall: 7/10
 
Reviewer's Score: 7 / 10
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Review by Lagunathemoron
  What the Sony Playstation 2 really needed from launch was Role Playing Games (RPG's for short) and the only game which came close was Orphan, an action based RPG. Evergrace is about the second action RPG for the Playstation 2. However, it is not the Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior or Grandia game we have all been hunting for, it is rather Sony's answer for The Legend of Zelda, before Dark Cloud was released though.

The main thing which makes Evergrace look attractive is the box art, it makes the game look brilliant with the ability to explore the vast forests of the world, however the game does not look quite as spectacular once it is inside your console, Not at all. It still looks great though.

The story is interwinding, meaning you control one of two characters, a woman and a man in a quest to find each other and take on an evil force of some sort. Unfortunately, the game's storyline is much more complicated then that. It seems that both characters wake up on a dream world in different locations, and rather then 'I am John from London', it is 'I am Kyastrawedfuwak from the kingdom of Levergusandon', everybody and everything has strange names. The male lead character, Darius (No relation to the Pop stars and Pop Idol UK contestant) wields a sword and has to go through quite a few caves and castles. Darius bumps in to many characters on the way such as the old guard who is paranoid with everybody, he has lost his dog and is frightened of people coming to collect him and suggests you are one of 'them' because you have a scar. Wow... the excitement.

At first glance, it looks like Castlevania with Zelda on the Playstation 2. You go around dungeons and field areas with a weapon, slaughtering the mysterious critics and talking to everybody you see, but there is a lot of puzzles which involve searching, and after just five minutes of looking for a treasure chest, you'll be saying 'I have been here before, I am sure of it!'.

The control of the characters in Evergrace is average. Whilst they are fast and easy to throw items, balancing them on edges is a task to do. Not only that you can only run for a couple of seconds before having to recharge your health, how pointless. The two characters are easier to control once you are used to them, but from the start is confusing using the different buttons and styles of moves.

My favorite part about Evergrace is some of the caves, especially the first one that Darius needs to go through. They are generally linear, yet exploring them is breath taking thanks to the beauty of the patterns on the walls. Not only that, the enemies are challenging to kill at first and always fun to leave the cave and enter again to make them re-appear for another round. It is also a good atmosphere when you go in to the first cave arena...

An important part of Evergrace is shopping. When you go to save your game at a rather large object, you get asked if you would like to shop, if you select 'yes' you get taken to a little store where an old and happy creature will sell you stuff, at ridiculous prices. If you buy something like a sword or armor for Darius, you can equip it on him making him look totally different. You can spend ages making him in to a powerhouse, you might as well when you have no place to go.

Evergrace does look good. Whilst in some places it is mistaken to what Castlevania 64 should have been, it does look pretty good with the patterns on wall and detail on the characters and environments. There is plenty to explore too, Darius starts off at the coast whilst Sharline, the female lead character wakes up in a house with a good looking environment outside. As for the backgrounds, Evergrace looks great, especially at peaks but once again is let down, this time by mist which appears once in a while to spoil your view, oh and some monsters which come from nowhere.

Darius and Sharline look impressive. The developers did a great job making sure they look decent in whichever costume they are in. Not only that, the non playable characters such as the golden bird look brilliant. The animations are also splendid and each hack with a sword is several frames of animation, it may not have as many as Zelda 64, but it has quite a number.

Evergrace goes wrong when it comes down to music though. It is not good to listen to and are only short pieces of music which sounds like they were ripped out of a 1930's country film. Although the voice acting is one of the best I have seen on the Sony Playstation 2, most of the characters have their own personalities which fit in well with their voices, the paranoid old man speaks slowly and rough whilst the golden bird is feminine and sweet. If it wasn't for the voice acting, it would be very hard to tell if the characters are actually being emotional, or sarcastic.

I would recommend Evergrace only if it is cheap. It is a good game, although with such other great games like Grand Theft Auto III, ICO and Virtua Fighter on the shelves, it is not exactly the first choice to pay full price for. Overall, Evergrace is a good action RPG with two storylines, the game will last you about fifteen to twenty or above hours. Good Luck!

Good

- Just what the Playstation needs
- Two quests
- Plenty to see, Plenty to do
- The voice acting is brilliant.

Bad

- Sometimes you will be lost
- Annoying sometimes
- It is a big pain when you die for going in water

Summary:

Graphics - 8/10
Sound - 10/10
Music - 3/10
Story - 7/10
Gameplay - 8/10
Control - 6/10
Challenge - 8/10
Enjoyment - 6/10
Lifespan - 7/10
Overall - 7/10 (deserves 6, but it is quite low for a good game)

Alternatives: Grandia II, Kingdom Hearts, Zelda, Dark Cloud, Final Fantasy XI. Evergrace II, Orphan, Legaia Dual Saga, Final Fantasy X and most probably the best of all, Galleon whenever it is released, that game looks fantastic.
 
Reviewer's Score: 7 / 10
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Review by MiraiCloud
  Gameplay: Now this is cool! You can change your armor, helmet, and shoes to the color you want it to look like, and the style. It depends on you. You also can choose between Darius or Sharlene. Once you get to know Darius, he's pretty cool. There is alot of magic you can choose from, 4 elements: Ice, Fire, Tree, and Lightning. And you can upgrade your stuff to become stronger! It's a whole lot of fun killing enemies with these magics. Your weapon can be Lance, Sword, Fists, Hammer, Axe, ect... The Control is pretty much basic, youll learn everything in a couple minutes. The game can be pretty hard or pretty easy depending on what kind of weapons and armor you wear. : 10
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Story: The story is pretty much alright. It's about a swordfighter named Darius, who holds the crest mark. Couldn't have been better if it was longer, but its pretty awesome. You choose 2 people to become. Sharlene, and Darius. Each have their own story, but alittle connection between them. You must stop the evil Morpheous!But it's not that engrossing, and it gets kinda original when you keep playing it over and over. 7
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Audio/Video: The Music was cool! and The Graphics were pretty much alright. I didn't like it when your lance or sword could go through the wall. Kinda hurted my eyes. But Hey! The graphics doesn't make the game. In the sequel they will be fixing this, so dont worry too much about this. The voice acting was cool. Its better than plain text. 8.5
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Replayability: its hella awesome if you love zelda based fighting games. It gets kinda boring if you keep using the same armor and weapons. Be creative! Each replay use a diffrent type of Armor and Weapon! See how tough you are! (9)
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To Buy or to rent: Depends. I would recommend renting it first to see if you like it, and if you like it, go ahead and buy it. its pretty cheap now. i bought it because i saw the Pre-equal movies, and it was amazing. plus its one of my fav. games right now for ps2. Darius rules!

It's one of those interesting games that you probaly never played before if you havent played Zelda. You have alot of magic with levels on it. Remember, you have to rent this game first to see if you like it. Or else youll regret yourself. I rented it, thought it kicked ass, then bought it. The story is pretty much ok. But don't expect it to be Final Fantasy 7 or Xenogears. Alot of people did not like this game because they expected it to be one of those story games with alot of character games. It is a single player game. You have no allies. But this will change in the Pre-equal
 
Reviewer's Score: 9 / 10
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Review by ZoopSoul
  With many Adventure/RPG titles for the PlayStation 2 that lack of gameplay and fun, I was quite depressed when popping this one into my PlayStation 2. Expecting the worst, I watched the overdone intro, thinking to myself ''Boy, they're certainly trying to be cool''... But, you know something? They weren't trying to be cool. They were trying to use a tacky storyline and mix it in with a lot of hours well spent, and you know, it worked pretty well.
The story goes a little like Summoner's... You play as either Darius, a young man (boy, they use that term a lot in these kinda games) whom is transported to another ''world'' and has a lot of personal issues on his chest, or Sharline, an orphan girl whom is looking to find out where she comes from. Here is the basic plot; Over a hundred years ago, the empire of Rieubane was defeated in war by the continent of Edinbury. The cause of the won war on the part of Edinbury, was a warrior with a Crest imbeded in his body. The Rieubane empire, in a dastardly attack, kidnapped the warrior, and in turn, gave him to Morpheus, the empire's evil magician. Morpheus, suspecting that the power came from the Crest, made home-made Crests, giving them to the Army of Rieubane. In due time, Morpheus, in his quest to discover the true power of the Crest, kept investigating until one day, suddenly, the kingdom of Riubane vanished. Now, 100 years later, the details that survived from the long forgotten kingdom of Rieubane, are now kept in four tribes, held together by a fragile alliance calling itself ''Fontraile.'' While the people of a country named Morea consider the Billiana Tree sacred, the people of the country Solta consider it a threat, and a profane leakage of evil. In another war from beliefs, Solta defeats Morea, with the help of the Four Great Warriors of Solta, makes the Moreans submit to banishing their beliefs, and join the despising of the Billiana Tree.

We've seen this story a million times in different fashions. You take over as either Darius, or Sharline, and start your adventure. You will be treated to some horrible voice acting, which I'm afraid will murder the Final Fantasy series... You'll find the battle system and menus to be a huge plus over Summoner, and I'd even go as far as to say that the battle system is one of the best I've ever played. Not to mention, it takes skill and timing, which I love. As you progress through the game, you will notice that, while the story becomes awfully simple and predictable, you will be slightly addicted to the gameplay, or even really addicted. I actually found myself waking up in the middle of the night, and playing this puppy. It's like an early Genesis game; You don't know why you liked it, but you're glad you did.

One very bad thing, is that you can get stuck at times, meaning you could've passed up a certain item, and it will be too late to go back and get it, and without it, the game cannot progress any further. This is VERY annoying, considering you have to start all over again. I'm not one for using guides or FAQs, even if I do write them, but I suggest getting one before playing this, because without it, you will be heavily frustrated. Another bad thing worth noting is that every area looks the same. Not the same as the other areas, but let's say you're in the castle, and you're lost. You can't say ''Hmm, I'm in the dining room near the Crystal''... More like ''Hmm, I don't know where the hell I'm at, since every room looks the same as the last.'' It's like the developer's bought a ''Create Your Own Adventure Game Kit'' on sale for $4.99 at Wal-Mart and used that as their main tool. Not a very good thing at all.

As you get further into the game with Darius, you will start to really get adapted to him. He kind of reminds me of a tame Bruce from the Evil Dead series; He dunno what the hell is goin' on, but he damn sure doesn't care, either. Groovy. A very unique feature, is the fact that your Armor or Weapons can become damaged, and need repairing. Repairing doesn't cost too much, and for an additional few bucks, you can change the color of your equipment! Awfully neat-o and nifty, if I do say so myself. As for how the game plays, Honestly, I'd say it plays a lot better than the two installments of Zelda on the Nintendo 64. Controls are easy to learn, the gameplay isn't confusing at all, there isn't too many options that will make you lose your mind (hint hint, Summoner, hint hint), and it takes skill to master the concept of it.

When it's all said and done, I really think you will enjoy Evergrace as much as I did. Don't buy it, because it is too short to buy, but rent it once or twice to beat it thoroughly, and you will have a smile on your face.
 
Reviewer's Score: 7 / 10