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While adding an unnecessary story and removing what is essential to Monster Rancher, Tecmo has created a fairly sloppy RPG that doesn't really succeed in any aspect with Evo. Short for Evolution, as in an evolution to the series through the addition of a story and more traditional RPG elements, this latest entry should instead be titled devolution, as with the story comes a step back in nearly every gameplay aspect.
The Monster Rancher series has always been part of a small niche, stripped down to the simplest possible form: monster breeding. Typically, no story was present, and players spent the majority of their time partaking in the very hands-on training of their creatures, both in the arena and out. This training entailed the very detailed maintenance and monitoring of various monsters, with statistics ranging from stats to motivation. Evo bucks this trend by leaving the monster training almost exclusively to hands-off menus, only requiring players to decide who will do the training and what kind of training will be done. As always, the main draw comes from throwing in a DVD or PlayStation 2 game and seeing what crazy creatures will be created. At least that remains.
That being said, the monsters are present almost exclusively for battling. The battles, while not a complete failure, lack the gusto of their predecessors, and with flaccid pacing and weak graphics, you'll become bored rather quickly. You'd think that even though the focus is no longer on training, the battles would at least be decent. Little to no strategy is required, although the introduction of the three-monster fighting system makes things somewhat interesting this time around. Outside of the battles, you'll spend your time traveling with your circus from town to town, going through ugly dungeons with your monsters.
Simply put, the graphics in this game are generally nothing but terrible. The environments are poorly-designed and hinging on PSOne quality, with poor color choices, ugly textures, and jaggies everywhere. Did I mention that this game has a circus theme? Somehow, while trying to make their game more contemporary and accessible through the new RPG elements, Tecmo matched it with the antithesis of hip: the circus. Tecmo, how could you destroy all of the game's appeal through the locale alone?
Now all of this (shoddy graphics, slow gameplay, shallow RPG elements) should add up to a decent price-point, at least in the mind of the logical gamer, right? Well, $39.99 doesn't seem like such a price. Throughout the game, I was consistently reminded of the numerous budget titles I've played over the years, and that's never a good sign. The nice-looking CG of the first five minutes is only a façade.
While the Monster Rancher series has generally always been fun, Tecmo stripped it of all of its potential with Evo, and uninspired RPG with a half-assed monster training component. Really, the circus theme should be the least of your worries; the game is plagued with countless issues from the slow battle system to the awful graphics. Really, a modern RPG should do these things at least partially well, especially for such a steep price. Thank God there's almost no voice acting.
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