Evergrace!
It is very much an early PS2 game. The pieces should add up to something I love, but it’s in an awkward space. Midway between King’s Field and Demon’s souls, it is too detailed for the emptiness to feel lonely or iconic and too drab to appear baroque.
Beautiful color palettes paint the landscapes. I particularly love the harmony between the turquoise and amber. However, something about the scale is off. The framing doesn’t look right. There’s a distance between me and the avatar I control.
The combat system is somewhat intriguing, relying on an obtuse set of attributes reminiscent of Vagrant Story. Equipment can contain pieces of Palmira, a crystallized essence from the mystical Billiana trees. Palmira grants magical abilities like super speed, levitation, and fireballs. In practice, this means testing out abilities against enemies to see what hurts them the most. I came to an area where all of my offensive abilities, save one, healed the monsters. I have to admire that level of antagonism. My favorite combat moment was when I came up against a boss whose attacks would slice off big chunks of my health. I tried various weapons to no avail. I finally defeated her by buying a new weapon that had a “guard breaker” attack. Using this attack, I could hit stun the boss and interrupt her attack animation. I will not let a game break me. I will break the game.
Despite its shortcomings, there’s a lot that I like. I enjoy the stilted dialogue and poor voice acting. It just makes things more alien. I love how your equipment changes your appearance. I found a bird’s nest once and was delighted to find that I could wear it as a hat. You can even change the colors of your equipment too. For 2 hours, I’ve seen a good chunk of the game. I think I’ll pick it back up once I’ve dabbled in Fantavision and Ridge Racer V.