Evolution: The World of Sacred Device



Evolution: The World of Sacred Device (known as Shinkisekai Evolution in Japan) is a console role-playing game for the Sega Dreamcast. It was developed by Sting Entertainment and published by Ubisoft in North America and Europe. In Japan it was published by ESP (Entertainment Software Publishers).

Evolution is a Dungeon Crawling game that follows the adventures of Mag Launcher and Linear Cannon. Mag Launcher and his companions use Cyframes (minus a few), technology discovered in ancient ruins. These Cyframes are sought by adventurers who explore caverns to find them.

Combat in Evolution uses Preexisting Encounters and enemies appear only in dungeons. The battle is turn-based, using three characters. One of the major things that makes this games battle style different is the use of Cyframe characters. When using these types of characters they have interchangeable parts for their weapon (which cannot be unequipped) to give them different specials and stats. Not every character can utilize Cyframes and for the ones that don't, they have to level up and learn set skills from their list.

This game had one sequel, Evolution 2: Far Off Promise, and a Nintendo Gamecube remake, Evolution Worlds.

This game contains examples of:

 * All in a Row: Unlike future installments, Mag always heads the line.
 * Arbitrary Gun Power:
 * Action Initiative: Run into an enemy from behind, the music sounds happy and you get free turns to happily punch your enemies. Have an enemy run into YOU from behind, the music gets daunting and you stand still while the enemy beats your head off your shoulders.
 * Arbitrary Headcount Limit: 3 people max on your team, 4 max on enemy teams, however most bosses come with only one enemy: the boss itself.
 * Awesome but Impractical: Two of Pepper's skills, Trigger Happy and Pepper Flash, can easily do 9,999 damage at high levels, but they both cost all of her FP to use, and their power is linked to her remaining FP.
 * Bare Your Midriff: Pepper
 * Bag of Sharing
 * Battle Theme Music
 * Can't Drop the Hero: Mag is the title character, therefore he must always be in the party and controllable, so you cannot get rid of him whatsoever... Not like you would want to.
 * Capital City
 * Character Level
 * Critical Hit: Shown by the enemies having a different hurt animation.
 * Cute Mute: Linear, except at the end, although she still doesn't talk much.
 * Defend Command: On top of reducing damage, it increases the amount of SP restored.
 * Disappeared Dad: Mag's father, Asroc Launcher.
 * Disc One Nuke: Mag's hand parts, which you have at the start. By gaining TP you can learn two really strong attacks pretty early: Dive Punch, which hits every enemy doing lots of damage) and Magna Rave, which hits one enemy but is the strongest attack in the game.
 * An Economy Is You: Where are people supposed to buy food in this town?
 * Endgame Plus: You get one bonus dungeon (which is one of the five you didn't pick during the game), able to freely choose dungeons and the ability to take Linear out of your party.
 * Experience Points
 * Fingerless Gloves: Both Mag and Chain wear these.
 * For Massive Damage: Insecticide spray against insect based enemies.
 * Global Airship: Mag's Sea Otter Seaplane can get him to anywhere.
 * Improbable Weapon User: Linear's Frying Pan of Doom. Even made worse if you unequip Gre or Linear's weapons, making them run up and punch the enemy with their bare hands.
 * Inexplicable Treasure Chests: There's a large number of chests containing healing items, the same artifacts over and over, and an inexplicably large number of Cyframe parts that your friends can easily use.
 * Informed Equipment
 * Lethal Chef: Gre uses food to damage enemies and lower their stats or cause status effects.
 * Level Scaling: This can be the games biggest helping point or massive flaw depending on how you look at it. The bosses scale much faster than the player, and the final boss, Eugene's battle mech, is the biggest threat, the higher level you are the more impossible he is to beat, and he will always be above your level.
 * MacGuffin Girl: Linear.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Pepper. Half ripped jeans, curled blond hair, jacket ripped open showing a black bra, and her theme music which is saxophone music.
 * Another girl in town is implied to be naked. Though no skin is seen every dialogue with her speaks directly about the fact that she's wearing nothing but a leopard print fur coat until her luggage arrives. Makes you wonder why she was only wearing the coat by itself in the first place.
 * Mysterious Waif: Linear. You never get a full explanation as to what exactly happened to her or why she's mute in the game, but she certainly has a lot of mysterious air about her.
 * One Man Party: Mag is easily the strongest character. The other characters levels will appropriate to what level you are, but Mag always seems to have the edge in strength.
 * Only in It For the Money: If you do a mission with just Mag and Linear, your entire win bonus goes straight into your pocket. If Gre is in your party, he'll make you use 30% of your bonus to pay towards your debt (which you should do anyway so you're not losing anything) and after it's paid off, he'll never make you do anything with your money again. Chain, on the other hand, takes 30% of your bonus for herself, and Pepper takes 60%! The worst part, you never get this money back to you, so it's basically losing massive chunks of change for having people in your party! When you net 100,000 in the game (which is sizeable money) and then Pepper takes 60,000, that's a massive loss! The worst part: bonuses are a one time thing, going back and beating the dungeon again means nothing, the money is gone.
 * Overly-Long Fighting Animation: Magna Rave and Sledge Hammer.
 * Point Build System: You can gain TP in the game, which can be used to learn new skills.
 * Punny Name/Theme Naming: Mag Launcher, Linear Cannon, Gre Nade, Chain Gun and Pepper Box. Makes Eugene stand out.
 * Required Party Member: Linear. She cannot be dropped from the party until the final dungeon, when she's forced out. After the final boss, she's no longer required.
 * Run, Don't Walk: Though they had a button to walk, it wasn't needed and doesn't do anything.
 * Save Point
 * Smug Snake: Prince Eugene
 * Thriving Ghost Town: There's only about 10 NPC's and the majority are useless. Except for the shop owner, upgrade shop, missions, and appraisal, everyone else does nothing whatsoever except talk about totally irrelevant things or mention stuff you already know.
 * Too Awesome to Use: Cosmo Fruit.
 * Top Down View
 * Tsundere: Chain. This is even mocked at the beginning of the game when she begins making fun of Mag until Mag embarrasses her with the word cute, at which point she tries to defend herself but just takes off flustered.
 * White Mage: Linear, has tons of magic attacks and only two are attack.
 * Work Off the Debt: Both Mag and Chain were left with a huge debt after their parents disappeared. Chain paid it off by selling her house, while Mag is playing this trope.