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| Neon Genesis Evangelion is probably one of the finest anime series
ever to grace the TV screens. It's only fitting enough that game
makers start making games based from a hit TV series, and Evangelion is
no exception. However, like most TV / game tie-ins, they fall short
on their gameplay because they mainly rely on the popularity of the show
to sell their game. It's surprising how Sega could such a horid game,
but then again...this is their first attempt. Sega's relationship
with Gainax resulted in several other Evangelion games on the Sega Saturn,
the best of which is Evangelion 2nd Impression. However, since this
is not 2nd Impression, it feels a bit dated already and the gameplay looks
to be a fore runner of 2nd Impression.
Graphicwise, it's a typical interactive movie. However, when Sega decided to make an interactive movie, I would have thought they would have the decency to provide a better movie compression system rather than CinePak. The movie sequences in this game are rather grainy. However, they do move in a great frame rate (not as well as the TV series) as the biggest movies you'll see here are the opening and ending credits which are around a wide-screen size picure (black bars on the top and bottom of the screen). Putting all FMVs aside, the menu system once again is clear-cut and well organized. The whole menu system has an Evangelion feel to it, which makes you immerse yourself in the world of Evangelion. There are the typical backgrounds that change when your character changes location as well as time. In the sound department, with Sega's connection with Gainax, they were able to get all the sound effects and BGM from the TV series without any remixing done. Well, 'nuff said since the TV series has an adequate sound track which won itself for best musical score at a recent Japanese movie awards. The voices are a different matter. Again, the voices are plagued with a few traces of hisses common to most Saturn games at that time. Sega sound have at least found a way to make the voice sampling a bit better since you're going to listen to these for the whole game. When it comes to gameplay, this game falls way short. Like all interactive movies, there are certain points where the movie stops and you are allowed to make a decision. This may make the game a bit non-linear, however the main points of the game are all the same (only the sub-plot is a bit different from each other). The battle sequence is mainly two FMV screens put together and it's up to your memory and your button twitching action to determine whether you got hit or you dodged an enemy attack (pathetic!) Anyway, Sega may have relied on the Evangelion franchise a little too much when they released this game. It's a good thing, they redeemed themselves when they released Evangelion 2nd Impression which became one of the best selling games on the Sega Saturn as well as one of the best loved. |
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