Neon Genesis Evangelion: Second Impression

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: SECOND IMPRESSION

GS-9129
Copyright © 1997 GAINAX/Project EVA · TV Tokyo · NAS
Copyright © 1997 SEGA ENTERPRIESES LTD.
Sega Saturn, 1 Player
¥5,800

— by Charles McCarter

It has been said that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Apparently, no one told the folks at GAINAX that because that's essentially what they did with this second EVANGELION game for the Saturn.
This game is very similar to First Impression. Once again, the player is involved in an "episode" that occurs between two episodes; this time, it occurs after the "Weaving a Story" episode (number 14). And once again, the player controls the fate of young, whiny Ikari Shinji. This time, however, a majority of the plot focuses on new student Yamagishi Mayumi, and Shinji's bumbling attempts to sort out his feelings for her and communicate them. And since he comes from one of the most dysfunctional families of the 21st century, he's not very good at it. And then there are those pesky angels that keep trying to destroy Tokyo-3.
Game play is essentially the same as the first, meaning that there is tons of "interactive" video to watch before you get to do anything. This is not a game that will wear out your control pads. Every few minutes, you have to decide what Shinji will say or do, and if you guess wrong, he gets yelled at, slapped, or worse. If you get it right, among other things, he may actually have a chance with Mayumi.

The animation for this game is again done specifically for the game (although I think I saw some recycled footage of the NERV command center and some exteriors). Animation quality is on par with the television episodes. But the most unusual and unique part of this game is the 3D CG that occurs when the EVAs are being moved out into combat.
The combat system has also been revised. It looks less cheesy than it did in the first game, and it is more of an actual EVA's-eye view of the action. Little circular gauges around the target indicate what weapons are best used when, but the mechanics of activating the weapons is lifted pretty much unchanged from the first game, which means that using the weapons takes some getting used to. Players familiar with the methodology of the weapons from First Impression should have little trouble adapting to second impression. The battle scenes, too, have been improved. There are more moves and more reactions, so the battles don't start to look like stock footage as quickly as they did in the first game.
Yet, for all the bells and whistles they put in, 2nd Impression plays and feels exactly the same as First Impression. The battles seem to be an interruption of the storyline, rather than a part of it. And the interactive video, while nice, is not really what I'm looking for in a game. There really is not a lot of substance to this game, which surprised me because many folks in the American gaming industry had put this into their "top ten" lists. Having played the game, I'm not sure why.
Expect a lot of fidgeting while you play this game, especially if you don't understand a lot of Japanese. If you don't make the correct choices, you may find yourself repeating the same sequences over and over.
The first edition of this game comes with a lot of little extras, including a limited edition trading card of Mayumi and a couple of others. Also, this game comes with a CD single of the original songs used in the game. The songs are not all that great so they're not likely to reappear on any other EVA CD anytime soon.
This game plays too much like the first one to warrant owning both, unless you are a die-hard fan of EVANGELION (and there are a lot of those out there--this game was a big seller in Japan). Sega and GAINAX would have been better served in trying to develop a new type of EVANGELION game (a fighter perhaps) rather than sticking a new story and some updated interfaces onto the same engine and calling it a sequel. Although I don't know that they can really be blamed for putting this out, because the demand for EVA-related merchandise is still very large. As Zaphod Beeblebrox would say, "OK, ten points for effort, but minus several million points for style."

Rating: ** (out of 4)