Evolution: Eternal Dungeons

As typical for roguelikes, the goal in Evolution is to guide an adventuring party through a series of dungeons by advancing through their procedurally generated floors and defeating the boss at the end of each one. The dungeons may be completed in any order, with the exception of the last one, and have an increasing number of floors as the player progresses. For example, if the player enters a certain dungeon first, it will have 9 floors, but if they enter it as the penultimate dungeon, it will have 21 floors, there will be more powerful enemies on floors 10 through 20, and the boss will have higher stats.

Apart from the boss floors, each dungeon floor is populated by roaming enemies, traps, and treasure chests with items inside. Traps all take the form of hidden floor panels which cause one of a variety of effects on the party if stepped on. Some traps have positive effects, such as restoring hit points or weakening the floor's enemies. A skilled player can spot traps by a faint outline on the floor panel or by using a special item which marks the type and location of all a floor's traps.

Evolution is set in a post-apocalyptic future, in the ramshackle Pannam Town in the Northrup Republic. Professional adventurers are valued members of society because they excavate artifacts of pre-apocalyptic civilization, which had much more advanced technology than present-day society. Most valued of these artifacts are Cyframes, which are powerful tools/weapons for individual use. Mag Launcher is the adolescent head of the renowned Launcher family of adventurers, but the clan has fallen on hard times: Mag's father Asroc disappeared while searching for a legendary Cyframe called Evolutia, and left the family deep in debt.

The mansion is occupied only by Mag, the faithful Launcher butler Gre Nade, and Linear Cannon, a mute girl Mag's age who appeared at his doorstep three years before with a letter from Asroc directing Mag to protect her. She joins Mag in his adventures, and the two are inseparable companions and a rumored romantic couple. She tends the Launcher garden with a mysterious power which allows her to revive dead plants.

Evolution: The World of Sacred Device received average reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. Jeff Lundrigan of NextGen said, "A case of style with just enough substance to back it up, Evolution is a charmer despite a few unimpressive edges." In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 32 out of 40 for Sacred Device, and 27 out of 40 for Eternal Dungeons.

The Enforcer of GamePro said of the game, "While ESP/Sting (the developer) has done a nice job on its first Dreamcast RPG, Evolution is really geared toward younger gamers and won't satisfy the hardcore gamer who's used to epic adventures of Final Fantasy VIII proportions. If you're a fan of the genre, you'll want to check it out – if for no other reason than to salivate over the possibilities of what a kick-ass RPG could be like on the Dreamcast."