Game:

EVE: The Lost One (1998)

Duration: 15:29

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Original Air Date: Q3 2008 (Revised Today!!)

EVE the Lost One is the second game in C's Ware's "ADAM & EVE" series of visual adventure games which originated on the PC-98 in 1995, known as "EVE Burst Error". Initially, the game was so well-recieved that its games were recreated and/or ported to different platforms, selling almost 20 million copies in total and leaving a permanent imprint in Japanese visual novel history, though the series has declined ever since the first game (which the Japanese community almost unnanimously decided none of the sequels could live up to). Nevertheless, the first few games are enjoyed greatly within the Japanese gaming community. Only one game was ever released in English: "Adam: The Double Factor" for Windows PCs, which was barely released (due to Himeya Soft's English branch failing to complete the translation and the Japanese branch hapzardly finishing it) in 2001. Imadio has published several EVE and C's Ware titles for home consoles. The titles later incorporated more 18+ content and hentai elements rather than just innuendo, particularly Windows PC titles.

The Eve series differentiates itself from other adventure games due to its "Multi-Site System" which, instead of focusing on a variety of gameplay outcomes and multiple stories within one general adventure, instead focuses on two seperate stories that intertwine at various points followed by a "seemingly" unrelated third scenario that ties everything together, and where you have to play both scenarios to fully comprehend what takes place or even to advance at certain intervals. The two scenarios can be played at your leisure and is an interesting departure from playing one potentially boring story as there are two to choose from. Prior knowledge of EVE Burst Error is highly recommended to enjoy this game as it has many recurring characters and takes place approximately three years after the first game, but features two new main protagonist, further seperating itself from the majority of the series that are spearheaded by Kojiro(h) and Marina.

In this game, the first character you play with is Kyoko Kirino, a young rookie female private inestigator who completed rigourous training and picks up where Kojiro(h) and Marina left off. She's out to stop a radical bombing terrorist prankster who has set bombs throughout the city, with the "World Import Tower" being the biggest target. The second character is a mysterious man who goes by the name "Snake". He is a (slightly remorseful) criminal who is part of the plot behind the bombings. While not entirely sure who he really is or why he must conduct such acts, he is pushed along by a (rather creepy) anonymous entity who converses with him via his voice mails, going by the handle of "ADONIS" (his graphic is that of a cute yet very evil Teddy Bear). Kyoko and Snake confront each other at various points in the game and their at-odds relationship is what ultimately brings them to "The Lost One" near the game's conclusion. Some of the plot within the Sega Saturn game is stated to be inconclusive, which is mostly remedied in the Windows port of EVE:TLO, which has additional story added called "Marina's Guide", which help piece together events as well as conclude the game on a better note.

The graphics are pretty nice for a game of this kind. Using the "Lucid Motion" engine, the game features smooth animations and can quickly and smoothly (almost seamlessly) interject with small FMVs during the gameplay. The cutscenes are quite nice and feature a nice use of colors, though the artwork and illustrations are fairly typical or a little above average, and not quite on par with ELF's works or works of some other prolific artists and game devs (making more illustrious cleaner illustrations with less colors). There isn't much to be said about the gameplay, as it's just about picking choices and travelling from place to place as necessary, without too much deviation in-between. The music isn't particularly high quality, but is effecient enough to set the mood, though some music isn't played at the most appropriate times. One thing to note with this game is that it's four discs. The first three are game discs, but the last is an extra disc with nice extra content such as art/photo galleries, music player, and other stuff, but you can't access it until you complete the game.

This is a video of the game in action showing a little of Kyoko and Snake's scenarios. Enjoy.