4.6 Billion Year Story
January 18, 2017 12:06 PM   Subscribe

Released in 1992 (the same year as the much more complex Sim Life) and published by Enix, Almanic's E.V.O.: Search for Eden is a Super Nintendo game in which players evolve a custom-made organism across vast geologic epochs and numerous phylums by growing new jaws, fins, tails, wings, horns, lungs and assorted other body parts. A cult classic that predates the more widely recognized evolution-em-up Spore by 16 years, E.V.O. is actually the thematic followup to an obscure 1990 PC-98 evolution-themed RPG called 64 Okunen Monogatari: The Shinka Ron (4.6 Billion Year Story: The Theory of Evolution). For almost as many years, 46 Okunen Monogatari has remained an intriguing mystery for Western audiences, but now a full English translation patch has been released.

Both games are fondly remembered for gorgeous music by Dragon Quest composer Koichi Sugiyama. Two songs from the games, "Great Hymn of Nature, Earth" and "Sorrow" were performed by the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra for the second volume of the Orchestral Game Music Concert series, and a Symphonic Synth Suite album was also released in 1992.

46 Okunen Monogatari soundtrack
E.V.O. selected soundtrack (and full)
posted by byanyothername (12 comments total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
E.V.O. is forever embedded in my childhood memories. And that soundtrack is simply dreamy. I've tried playing E.V.O. lately and it was somewhat of a non-starter, but I keep planning on playing through it someday. (Even my rosy memories tell me it was a real grind-fest of an RPG.)

I'd never heard of this game that came before it. Exciting.
posted by naju at 12:53 PM on January 18, 2017


It's also a sweet board game
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 12:58 PM on January 18, 2017


As a college buddy once put it, the key thing to remember about E.V.O. is that you have to bite them a lot.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 1:03 PM on January 18, 2017 [6 favorites]


SimLife fans in the house
posted by bleep at 1:38 PM on January 18, 2017 [5 favorites]


I had a small obsession with E.V.O. as a kid, but even I had to admit that it involved so so so much repetitive grinding. But how else are you going to get that new tail that will FINALLY let you beat the fucking impossible end level bosses?
posted by Panjandrum at 1:40 PM on January 18, 2017 [1 favorite]


I also loved E.V.O. growing up, and yep, agree on the grinding. I think I only ever beat it at all because of one particular exploit for the end bosses. Every time you evolve, anything, it restores you to full health. So even after evolving my creature to whatever I wanted it to be, I'd go save up a big bankroll of evo points, and add/remove an otherwise useless horn during the fight whenever my HP got low.

I seriously can't imagine beating it without that exploit. I should go watch some speedruns to prove myself wrong, I guess.
posted by Fully Completely at 1:57 PM on January 18, 2017 [2 favorites]


Oh! And I'm pretty sure I sent the developers some fan mail, with my 12-year-old-self's suggestions for E.V.O. 2, and got a nice letter in response. That was kind of them.
posted by Fully Completely at 1:59 PM on January 18, 2017 [3 favorites]


I've never played these, but the music is, as to be expected, stunning
posted by JoeXIII007 at 3:49 PM on January 18, 2017


E.V.O. is grindy enough that I think it's okay to cheat and/or use the cheap evolution exploit to get by. It's more fun to tinker with the different evolutions than to chomp-chomp-chomp.

I had NO IDEA you could evolve into a mermaid until I looked into stuff for this post.
posted by byanyothername at 5:16 PM on January 18, 2017 [1 favorite]


This is very high on my list of favourite games from the NES/SNES era. I actually just replayed through it in its entirety a couple of years ago. There definitely was some grinding, but somehow it doesn't bother me as much in old games as it does in new games where I feel like the designers should know better.
posted by 256 at 4:54 AM on January 19, 2017


Hi! I was the romhacker for the predecessor's English translation project, so it was a pleasant surprise to see this when I loaded up Metafilter.

I had also enjoyed E.V.O., having checked it out after feeling let down by Spore. I had issues with the level design and the wonky hit detection, and the fact that it runs out of music in the second chapter. But its unique sense of humor, cool concept, and the fun of customizing your creature made it a lot of fun anyway!

If you liked Search for Eden, I encourage you to check out E.V.O.: The Theory of Evolution, the translation for which is linked in the OP. The world is even weirder and more fleshed out, and the grinding goes a lot faster.
posted by hollowaytape at 2:15 PM on January 19, 2017 [1 favorite]


I was very fond of E.V.O. due to its visual design and the mechanics based on "evolution". Plus, you can evolve into a pterosaur and get abducted by UFOs, so. Regarding the grinding, combat is quick paced enough that it doesn't weigh down the experience. Great post.
posted by ersatz at 6:14 AM on January 20, 2017


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