Evolution: The World of Sacred Device is the first Dreamcast RPG to arrive to North America. Brought here by Ubi Soft, Evolution is a simple RPG that is perfect as a first outing for the new system.

The basic premise of Evolution is more of a dungeon crawling adventure than anything else. The hero, Mag Launcher, comes from a long line of adventurers who explores various ruins with his girlfriend, Linear, in order to acquire valuable items to pay off his family debt. Along the way, other colorful characters interact with the duo including the cantankerous Chain Gun and the sophisticated Pepper Box. As you can tell, the names are the most bizarre aspect of the game, lending a light-hearted feel to the adventure. A plot of sorts does develop when the mysterious Eighth Empire steps in to acquire the fabled Evolutia material that only Mag can find. A couple of other nice plot twists add to the game and keep it from becoming too monotonous.

The middle name of this game is color. The graphics are fantastic and really show what the Dreamcast is capable off. All of the characters are composed of smooth polygon textures that move with fluidity. All of the environments are fully rotatable and close-up shots add even more detail, which hints that this game represents the tip of the iceberg in terms of what RPGs will be like in the future. 

The entire game centers around one town that is your base of operations. There you can talk to people, buy items, upgrade weapons, and receive dungeon assignments from the Society. Once you choose a dungeon, Mag and company get on a plane and fly to a location on the one island world map. Dungeons are randomly generated and are based on certain themes such as ice, fire, jungle, and mountain to name a few. 

The music and sound of the game goes from pleasant to pure perfection in some of the dungeons. Battle music is repetitive but not terribly annoying. The enemy animations all have their own sound effects during spells or attacks. Characters do not have voice but do shout out during battle actions. 

Gameplay is very simple RPG fare. Combat takes place entirely in the dungeons through menus. All enemies can be seen onscreen and avoided if desired. One interesting aspect is if your character approaches from behind an enemy, you get first turn at attacking. Unfortunately, if the enemy attacks you from behind then you'll get walloped before any of your characters can respond. Battle commands include attack, defend, magic, item, and special attack. Each character has their own set of special attacks ranging from defensive to offensive spells. Some characters have special weapon based attacks that can be upgraded through buying modifications. After battle not only do you gain experience points but also you get Technique points which can be allocated toward enhancing any class of attacks your characters have.  Another cool part of the battle is the unique turn-based system where the player can see what order his or her characters and the enemy will attack. This way, attacking the correct enemy will prevent a possible attack and give an advantage to your team. If the wrong enemy is attacked at the wrong time, then your party will suffer. 

A major part of Evolution is dungeon exploration. Every new floor of a dungeon is a completely new layout. A map in the corner gets filled in as you explore the floor, fighting the enemies, acquiring treasure, and avoiding nasty traps. Once the stairway to the next level is found, the game allows you a chance to save on a temporary file that automatically resets the game. This is the one annoying aspect of the dungeons. It's pretty tedious to save and reset every floor so the best method is to just go through the dungeon and save at the boss level at a permanent save file. Of course, there's a big risk of dying in a regular battle and wasting hours of gameplay. On the upside, this structure does add challenge and there are plenty of exit warps throughout the dungeon that return your characters to town but allow re-entry one floor before the exit.  Once a dungeon is cleared then it's back to town you go followed by a nice story segment that can involve meeting new characters or traveling to different locations.

Overall, Evolution is a simple game that may disappoint gamers who were expecting Final Fantasy on the Dreamcast. However, I think it's the perfect first RPG for a promising system that will see plenty of epic RPGs in the future. The battle interface is well done and fun. The game is very colorful and light-hearted and, finally, it's an RPG for people who love the bare bones experience. For these fans, this game will not disappoint.