Evenicle – Review

Originally released in 2015 and translated into English by MangaGamer in 2018, Evenicle is an RPG developed by the eroge titan AliceSoft. Players can look forward to a delightful romp across the fantasy land of Eve featuring the usual AliceSoft accoutrements: charming characters, strong comedic writing, and a sizeable selection of H scenes including those where consent isn’t a consideration. Is this adventure worth the price of admission and significant time investment though? Let’s dive a little deeper before we decide.

Story & Setting

Evenicle sees players assume the role of Aster, a young man from a backwater island who washes up on the shores of the Kingdom of Eden. Aster had set off swimming from his home on Fresh Fish Island with a mission in mind: to become a knight and marry his two (not-related by blood) sisters. Oh the dreams of youth. Some important lore is introduced in these opening scenes, central to the world of Eve and to Evenicle are the laws of the creator Mother Eve. Two very simple laws, no killing other humans and you may only have sex with one person for the entirety of your life.

These laws are not merely religious conventions, they come with concrete and certain punishment if violated. Those who run afoul of Mother Eve’s laws are cursed to become outlaws; a black ring forms around their finger and they become unable to raise livestock, grow plants, mine ore, or perform any other task with an element of cultivation. They are also shunned by society at large. Considered dangerous regardless of circumstance, they are cast out of cities and doomed to a life of base survival.

So with two sisters to wed, Aster has a problem on his hands. Fortunately, there is an exemption to these laws for knights. Knights serve as protectors of those under Mother Eve’s blessing and are therefore exempt from the whole no killing thing, and as a reward for their efforts they are permitted to have multiple spouses with the exact number of spouses increasing according to their rank. The story of Evenicle chronicles Aster’s journey to become a knight and amass a vast and varied harem. A perfect setup for an eroge really.

Themes & Tone

Aster’s journey of course isn’t quite as straightforward as working his way through the ranks and wifeing up any girl with a main character level portrait. Along the way there are scheming villains, shady organizations, and plenty of mystery surrounding the world itself. On first hearing of Mother Eve’s laws, players will no doubt have questions. There are plenty of test cases one might imagine. What if a person is raped? What about non-vaginal sex? What if your one true pairing is killed by one of the bizarre creatures lining the roads between every city?

Evenicle addresses some of these questions, but of course not all. There are many loopholes in Mother Eve’s laws that are exploited throughout the game for the purposes of humor, titillation, and storytelling. The more odious issues surrounding the laws are also explored, and these elements contrast pretty heavily with Evenicle’s otherwise lighthearted tone. The issue of rape victims becoming outlaws is explored pretty thoroughly and whilst it is interesting it’s also pretty bleak.

Enough gloom though. Evenicle is for the most part an upbeat experience. The world of Eve is vibrant and colorful, populated by weird and wonderful people and creatures. At every opportunity, Evenicle is stuffed with humor, and most of it lands well. As you adventure with your party you will be inundated with little slice-of-life moments that help to expand and explore character relationships and provide some relief from the more serious tone sometimes set by the world and story.

Characters

The characters of Evenicle are its main strength. Aster will meet a broad cast of charming girls (and the occasional man) during his journey and for the most part they are excellent. It’s easy, in eroge, to have characters inhabiting an absurd world be equally absurd or inappropriately plain. Evenicle avoids these pitfalls by giving its characters backgrounds and motivations beyond contrivance, and by having them interact with the world in a natural way. No one here is shocked by the eccentricities of the world they were born into, but they also aren’t reduced to tropes to fit within it.

There are tropes at play here, don’t get me wrong. Evenicle gets away with your usual fare of lucky pervert scenarios, x-dere shenanigans, and contrived romance by playing them alongside unique character writing and humor. A highlight for me, and apparently the rest of Evenicle’s audience according to an official popularity poll, is Kathryn. An introverted inventor, Kathryn is introduced a decent way into the game and her hostility to Aster is played for great comedic effect. As the story develops and Kathryn gets more screen time she is revealed to be a deeply flawed but incredibly endearing character, her banter with Aster and the rest of the cast was the strongest in the game for me by a wide margin.

Where Evenicle’s character writing struggles somewhat is with the villains. Generally speaking, the cast of antagonists is cartoonish. Some here are certainly better explored than others, but for the most part, I’d say the villains’ motivations can best be described as present. If a player encounters a sadistic cannibal with an ideological drive to spread the joys of cannibalism to others and wonders therefore how they got that way, you would ideally spend some time really exploring that. Evenicle doesn’t spend a lot of time with its cast of villains and so they end up feeling much less developed than the main cast. 

Brutality

I don’t want to make it sound as though Evenicle is totally lacking in depth for its villains. Time is set aside for each of them and you do learn a lot about the world and its struggles in this time, but it doesn’t feel like enough when compared to the scale of brutality inflicted by these people. There is a question of how seriously to take Evenicle on account of some fast and harsh tone shifts. One minute you’re fighting monster girls and engaging in harem comedy fuckabouts, the next minute someone is being raped and eaten alive.

Brutality isn’t all that unusual for an AliceSoft release, but it does strike me as unusual in Evenicle specifically. There are serious and disturbing events taking place, and the laws and ideas this world is built on are in many ways monstrous, but I was never sure how much I should be thinking about these issues as part of Evenicle’s narrative. Is this a game about an unjust and brutal world or is it a game about Aster’s happy harem adventures? The answer of course is both, I’m just not sure how well these two ideas gel together.

I think it would be fair to say I’m overthinking it. But I do feel that the way Evenicle presents its world makes it difficult not to overthink it. It’s very in your face with the misery of these brutal situations, but it doesn’t seem to want to linger on or explore it beyond that. To be clear this clash of narrative tones didn’t hamper my enjoyment significantly. In fact, there are moments of impactful drama and melancholy that I really enjoyed. Kathryn’s history in particular was strongly written and the tragedy within it made me care a lot more about her as a character.

Gameplay

So how does Evenicle play? A fair question to ask this deep into the review. Well, it’s a turn-based RPG with a focus on skill setup and combinations as a method for overcoming its more difficult fights. The game takes some steps to diverge from the turn-based formula but nothing exceptional is happening here. The fights that require thoughtful planning and strategy from the player are few and far between, limited almost wholly to story bosses and some optional encounters. Standard encounters never posed any challenge aside from draining my health pool ahead of tougher fights.

Those standard encounters are handled in an interesting way though. There are no random encounters in Evenicle, instead there is an encounter meter in the top left of your screen that ticks up according to the level of enemies in an area vs that of your party. So standard encounters aren’t avoidable, but they are predictable which is a nice compromise I think between random encounters and symbol encounters.

The skill system is the core of Evenicle’s combat and there are definitely some interesting ideas in play. Skills require BP which regenerates at a rate of one per turn for a maximum of six stacks. Skill points aren’t a consumable resource, they serve instead as an equip limit. Skill points can be reassigned anywhere outside of combat allowing you to tailor your skill set to the challenges you’re expecting. The freedom to reassign skills on the fly encourages experimentation and allowed me to discover some fun combos, particularly in the back half of the game.

One fun setup I found was conserving my BP by using a character’s defensive skills to pass turns without dying, then activating another character’s critical prep skill which guarantees every teammate’s next attack will crit, and then unloading my biggest single target damage skills. Unlocking the critical prep skill completely changed my basic approach to fights and that’s the strength of a system like this, there’s always something new or interesting to try even in the game’s final hours.

Tedium

Unfortunately, the fun of the skill system doesn’t get much of a chance to shine. The standard encounters just aren’t challenging enough to require thoughtful skill use. The majority of encounters are better dealt with by normal attacks so you can conserve BP ahead of a tougher battle. This lack of challenge leads to a sense of exhaustion setting in pretty fast. Midway through the game, I was loathing the walk between interesting fights and cutscenes, filled as they were with so many dull fights. By the end of the game, every standard encounter was like a mosquito bite. If the game had gone on any longer I’m not sure I would have made it.

Some relief comes in the lack of required grinding, although your experience could differ greatly depending on your approach and luck. In my playthrough I encountered eight lucky can-cans, Evenicle’s metal slimes essentially, which provided 2-3 level-ups for my party every time I ran into one. That combined with the experience gained through mopping up every side quest ensured I was never behind on levels. Obviously this experience won’t be universal. I couldn’t find any information on the exact rate of lucky can-cans but I suppose it is theoretically possible to never encounter one at all, and if you’re the type of player who likes to focus on the main quest you will definitely have to spend some time grinding ahead of tough fights.

Beyond Combat

Outside of combat there are plenty of bits and bobs to be getting on with. The aforementioned side quests are on offer and the objectives of these range from simple exploration to additional tough fights. Some side quests conclude with additional H scenes, which are a welcome treat for a job well done, some conclude with large XP rewards, and some with equipment ranging from useless to god-tier. Towns are dotted about the map and come equipped with inns, item shops, and level shops. Also on offer in towns are little slice-of-life events featuring Aster and his wives. Despite being little more than a menu screen with some background imagery, towns are enjoyable to stop into and refresh yourself and your party.

There are an assortment of collectibles strewn about the overworld map. The most interesting of these are events marked by a heart that when triggered display a short scene between Aster and one of his wives. These events develop characters and their relationships in light but interesting ways, and they’re worth seeking out and reading through. Also worth hunting for are chests which can contain anything from a small chunk of cash to crucial skills for your party. There are also stat-boosting bugs, fishing spots, and landscapes to collect, but I didn’t find any of these to be all that interesting. The stat boosts are minor, the fishing as far as I could tell was wholly pointless outside of a couple of side quests, and the landscapes only offer short and mostly inconsequential dialogues, and some fixed minor rewards per ten landscapes discovered.

The last thing worth noting outside of combat, though it is tied to it, is the love gauge. The love gauge is tucked away in the bottom right of your screen and it fills up as you finish battles. Once the gauge is filled you can return to your home and choose one of your wives to watch a bonding event for. This is where you’ll find a large chunk of Evenicle’s H scenes, but you will also find some more tame content which is, perhaps counterintuitively, a lot more engaging. The date events and extended comedy skits are wonderful, and I was always excited to teleport back home and watch through one after a series of annoying battles. For me, the love gauge and associated scenes served as a break in some of Evenicle’s more tedious stretches, and I think the game benefits greatly from its implementation.

Visuals & VA

Evenicle is a visual delight. The world and characters are vibrant, colorful, and compelling. Much of the world of Eve could be described as standard medieval fantasy, featuring the standard knights, castles, lords, and ladies. It is infused and decorated though with a lot of unique and quirky elements that set it apart. The world is inhabited by odd creatures and odder people. The kingdom of Humpty, which players will visit about midway into the game, is a good example. The kingdom is defined more by food than nobility or money, and the landscape reflects this with an almost sickly sweet color palette and character designs that jar against those you’ve seen so far. The game tells you that Humpty is different from the kingdoms you’ve visited before, but it doesn’t really need to, you can tell just by looking.

Character design on the whole is a strength for Evenicle. An eroge lives or dies on how attractive and charming its central cast is and Evenicle doesn’t struggle at all in this department. Characters are vibrant, they pop almost immediately and they are each visually distinct enough to be memorable. The characters of Evenicle can’t be boiled down to a series of different haircuts and colors, which is refreshing. Characters are colorful and clean, popping out against the background and commanding a presence on screen. 

Evenicle features a substantial amount of voice work, with a majority of main scenario scenes being fully voiced, though where it is unvoiced feels pretty arbitrary. Bonding events tied to the love gauge are voiced in full, as are all H scenes present in the game. The voice work ranges in quality, there are no bad performances really but some are quite mediocre. One undeniable strength of the voice work is its consistency. Regardless of scene or circumstance care was taken to maintain a sense of character personality. H scenes in particular exceeded my expectations, rather than defaulting to cringeworthy moaning and whining (though that is certainly present) there is a lot of well-scripted and strongly acted dialogue that makes these scenes feel more genuine than I expect in eroge. Characters never disappear into their base archetypes in Evenicle and that I think is largely thanks to the efforts of the voice cast.

Leftovers

Some final points to touch on before we wrap up now. Evenicle’s music has some standouts, but is for the most part forgettable. The OST is bubbly, bright, and well-integrated into the game. A highlight for me was the jungle kingdom of El Quixote’s overworld theme which did a lot to enhance the sense of adventure I felt traveling the area. Much of the OST blends together, but it does in general serve its purpose of maintaining an energetic and light tone. A decent amount of the overworld music is short looping sections of soft strings and winds (look I’m not a music guy but you know what I mean flutes and horns and all that jazz). These loops are fine but they did start to grate on me towards the end of the game, familiarity in this case certainly bred a degree of contempt.

One thing that bothered me throughout Evenicle was the struggles with anatomy in some of the H scenes. This isn’t exactly a new thing for eroge and it’s not a dealbreaker I suppose, but in many of the CGs I couldn’t help but be distracted by the weird and wondrous mistakes on display. This was made worse by the uncensored CGs. Often things were simply not where you might expect to see them on a person, and in many CGs certain objects or appendages appeared to be inserting themselves in special secret holes that I am unaware of, or indeed bending in ways that would cause me great pain. Clipping is an issue I don’t expect to see in 2D CGs to be frank, and in some cases the censored versions may actually be an improvement. Pixelation can hide some of the most egregious errors here.

Anatomy issues aside, I think Evenicle performs pretty well as eroge. The vast majority of your time of course is spent on exploring the world and fighting monsters, but sex is integral to Evenicle’s story in a way that makes the H scenes feel like a natural extension of the story and tone. That said I’m left wondering if the H content may not be substantial enough for some given the length of the game. Evenicle took me around 60 hours to beat, and you could generously say about 2-4% of that is taken up by H scenes. I suppose your mileage may vary, but I’d say the H content is more of a nice bonus than the point of playing itself.

Verdict

I think Evenicle more than justifies the cost of entry, thanks in large part to the charming cast of characters pulling the player through a relatively by-the-books plot in an interesting world. There is definitely a risk that players become bored by the combat loop, particularly towards the end of the game I felt that any challenge had vanished and I was mostly just grinding down walls on the way to the story’s conclusion. It’s a fun time though. It’s hard to have much negative feeling towards a game that is, despite its darker moments, so relentlessly bubbly and earnest.

EVENICLE IS RECOMMENDED

Want to see more Adult Games? How about our review of Dohna Dohna ~ Let’s Do Bad Things Together, another Alicesoft title.