A Complete History of Neon Genesis Evangelion Video Games, Pt. 1
Screenshot from Neon Genesis Evangelion: 2nd Impression. Source: YouTube
Hideki Anno and GAINAX’s anime classic Neon Genesis Evangelion is coming to Netflix on June 21st. This is the first time that the series will be legally available in the US since ADV’s Platinum Perfect Collection box set went out of print in 2011, and, given Netflix’s large subscriber base, this move also gives the series a much larger potential audience in many countries outside of Japan than it has ever had. It’s difficult to describe just how huge of an influence Evangelion has been on both science fiction and prestige television without sounding completely hyperbolic (to say nothing of its impact on anime - it changed the way the entire industry functioned in many ways), and with so many people either seeing it for the first time or revisiting it with fresh eyes, the internet is going to be overflowing with Evangelion discourse for months. Granted, there’s already a whole ton of writing and video content about the series already out there, but there’s going to be even more of it and I’m genuinely kind of excited about this.
Like everyone else who’s watched the series, I also have plenty of things to say about it, but since tons of other writers with bigger platforms are likely to have more interesting interpretations of it (plus, as many people will be finding out shortly - there’s not really a whole lot of new stuff to say about Evangelion that other people haven’t said over the last 20 years), I’m not going to really bother talking a whole lot about the series itself at the moment. Evangelion’s production and cultural impact is incredibly well-documented, there’s tons of great essays about the series available everywhere from fansites to JSTOR; new fans of the series already have an abundance of Evangelion resources to get into. I am, however, going to attempt to get a headstart on the impending wave of Evangelion-related content by writing some stuff that’s more in my wheelhouse.
Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be examining all of the Neon Genesis Evangelion-related games as deeply as possible, given that I don’t really know a whole lot of Japanese and none of these games left Japan. There is very little in the way of content about a lot of these on the English internet, though, and I’d like to fix that so other people don’t have to do days of research to figure out what all’s out there.
SHINSEIKI EVANGELION (1996)
aka Neon Genesis Evangelion: 1st Impression
p. Sega, d. Sega CS
Dir. Masahide Kobayashi
Plat. Sega Saturn
Source: Sega Retro
(Note: you can read an updated article about this game from 2023 here)
Colloquially referred to as Neon Genesis Evangelion: 1st Impression, this Sega Saturn exclusive is an FMV-heavy turn-based strategy game taking place immediately after “Asuka Strikes”, the eighth episode of the TV series. At the beginning of the game, Shinji wakes up from a coma after being beaten by an Angel, and immediately has to spar with Asuka in order to get back in the fighting groove. The combat is handled in three phases - during the first phase, a slot machine pops up with both Eva and Angel faces on the reels. The character with the most faces on the slot machine’s payline when it stops gets to attack first during the second phase. Players have a variety of attacks they can use doing this portion, including guns and the Progressive Knife, and also must keep an eye on their Sync Ratio and both the Eva and the Angel’s AT Fields. The Angel also gets to attack the player as well, and both Defend and Counter-Attack options are available depending on the player’s inputs. The third phase of combat is the movement phase. This doesn’t actually give the player any sort of strategic advantage, but instead allows them to increase their Sync Ratio by choosing to step on blue squares instead of red ones. The in-game graphics for this section are very spartan - the Eva units are represented as 2-D sprites on a pseudo-3-D wireframe map during the movement phase, and all of the attack animations are actually FMV, giving the game a sort of PC-FX kind of feel.
Screenshot from Neon Genesis Evangelion: 1st Impression. Source: YouTube
1st Impression only features a handful of battles; the rest of the game consists of FMV sequences, many of which were animated exclusively for the game. These sequences were written by Hiroshi Yamaguchi, who also wrote several pivotal episodes of the TV series including “The Splitting of the Breast” and “Rei III”, as well as the supplementary book 2015: The Final Year of Ryoji Kaji. They were not, however, directed by Hideaki Anno; instead, Ryo Yasamura, whose credits include directing 8 episodes of Disney’s The Adventures of the Gummi Bears and several episodes of Genesis Climber Mospeada and Saber Marionette J (as well as writing parts of Night Shift Nurses under a pen name), handled that. GAINAX had no role in the game’s animation; Tatsunoko Production, co-animators of the TV series, handled all of the game’s animation. The voice talent from the TV series reprised their roles for this video game, though, and an insert song, titled “Kiseki no Senshi Evangelion” or “Miracle Warrior Evangelion” and performed by Chikyu Bouei Band, was even recorded for the game and wound up on a compilation CD of vocal songs from other Saturn-era Sega titles. It feels a little out-of-place, possibly more suited for a generic 70’s mecha anime than the postmodern, David Lynch meets Gerry Anderson apocalyptic dream world of Evangelion, but the game as a whole kinda feels that way at times.
“Kiseki no Senshi Evangelion” by Chikyuu Bouei Band from Neon Genesis Evangelion: 1st Impression
The plot of the game, from what I can understand, anyway, isn’t anything super earth-shattering and mostly revolves around Shinji having to stop an Angel exclusively designed for the game. Players are allowed to make choices during the FMV sequences; these, combined with whether the player wins or loses the sparring match with Asuka at the beginning of the game, determine the player’s path through the game and the ending they receive.
Screenshot from Neon Genesis Evangelion: 1st Impression. Source: YouTube
Sega pumped a lot of money into the production of the original Evangelion TV Series and its sequel movies along with several other companies, like Bandai, TV Tokyo, and Toei, so its not a huge surprise to see that they would publish and develop the first video games based on the franchise as well. The first version of this game would release on March 1st, 1996, roughly three and a half weeks before the TV series ended its first run on TV Tokyo. An expanded release, which, among other things, added a new cover which would officially give the game its 1st Impression subtitle and included some trading cards, would release on Valentine’s Day 1997, both a month and a half before its sequel and a week into a re-airing of the series on TV Tokyo in 4 episode blocks with bonus features as late-night weekend programming . Currently, there is no way of playing the game in any language other than Japanese, but there is a walkthrough on GameFAQs that might help non-Japanese speakers who want to try the game out. There are also several playthroughs of the game on YouTube as well.
Unsurprisingly, the first Evangelion game was a huge deal for Saturn owners and Evangelion fans at the time, so Sega fast-tracked a sequel. The next game would release roughly a year later, and refined the formula of the first game into something even bigger and better.
SHINSEIKI EVANGELION: 2ND IMPRESSION (1997)
aka Neon Genesis Evangelion: 2nd Impression
p. Sega, d. Sega CS-1
Dir. Masahide Kobayashi
Plat. Sega Saturn
Source: Sega Retro
Released on March 7th, 1997, a week before the theatrical release of Death & Rebirth, Neon Genesis Evangelion: 2nd Impression takes place directly after “Weaving a story”, the half-clip show, half-original content fourteenth episode of the TV series and featured new animation sequences once again written by Hiroshi Yamaguchi. Kiyoshi Murayama (best known for his work on Steam Detectives, Compiler, and Sonic Soldier Borgman) took over directorial duties for these Ashi Productions-animated sequences. 2nd Impression plays very similarly to its predecessor, but with some slight changes - the background behind the FMV during the animated sequences is a little less garish (only a little), and the battle system has been greatly simplified, completely removing both the slot machine and movement phases found in the first game. The plot is much higher-stakes than the first game as well. A new student, Mayumi Yamagishi (designed by the late Hiroki Takagi, an animator heavily involved with franchises like Bleach and Patlabor), has transferred into Shinji’s class; players can control Shinji’s interactions with her and other students throughout the game. Mayumi is similar to Shinji in a lot of ways, as they’re both introverted, but she’s got a dark secret - near the end of the game, it is discovered that the core of the game’s exclusive Angel, the “Insubstantial Angel” (designed by Mahiro Maeda, designer several of the TV series’s Angels and, later, concept artist on Mad Max: Fury Road, among many, many other things), is inside of her body. There are multiple routes throughout the story that affect the game’s ending but, no matter what happens, Mayumi leaves Tokyo-3 at the end. Reflecting the part of the series the game is set during, it’s all a little bit heavier than the content in the prior game (not nearly as heavy as the series eventually gets, though), but hey, there’s two image songs this time, one performed by Mayumi and another by Asuka! Both of these songs can also be found on the Sega Saturn History: Vocal Collection CD along with the insert song from 1st Impression.
“Get It On! ~ Doppelganger ni Kuchizuke wo”
Performed by Yuko Miyamura
“Kimi Ga Kimi Ni Umareta Wake”
Performed by Kyoko Hikami
Given that 2nd Impression was a much bigger release with more game-exclusive content than 1st Impression, there’s a bit more information about it on the internet. No English translation exists but, again, there’s a brief walkthrough on GameFAQs that explains the new battle mechanics, as well as plenty of videos on YouTube too. Here’s a full playthrough (in Japanese) by YouTuber Higemaru, whose channel contains tons of high-quality videos of many obscure Japanese games. If you want to play it yourself, it’s a much easier game to find than the first one too. It’s even slightly cheaper than the first one on eBay, although neither of them are expensive games.
Given that, at least in the US, anyway, GAINAX is way more famous for their anime, it’s easy to forget that they were also a prolific video game development studio as well. For the most part, their games stayed in Japan, but their biggest series (the one that kept the company alive during their lean period before Evangelion), Princess Maker, finally started officially making its way over here a few years ago and is mostly available, in English, on Steam. True to their otaku nature, most of GAINAX’s games up to this point were PC games based on their own IP, like Gunbuster and Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, although they dabbled a little bit in console stuff as well (more on this in the next article). Their first Evangelion game developed in-house would eventually make its way to consoles, but it would be released on PC first, just a few months after 2nd Impression, and take a much less experimental route than Sega’s titles.
SHINSEIKI EVANGELION: KOUTETSU NO GIRLFRIEND (1997)
aka Neon Genesis Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel; Neon Genesis Evangelion: Iron Maiden
p. GAINAX, d. GAINAX
Dir. Ritsuro Hashimoto
Plat. PC (Windows 95)
Screenshot from the PlayStation port of Neon Genesis Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel. Source: YouTube
Girlfriend of Steel is a more traditional visual novel-style game than 1st or 2nd Impression; its premise, however, is extremely similar to 2nd Impression’s, and even takes place between between the fifteenth and sixteenth episodes of the TV series, very close to where 2nd Impression falls on the timeline. The game focuses on a new character designed exclusively for the game by original Evangelion character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto - Mana Kirishima, who is voiced by Megumi Hayashibara, pulling double duty in this one by also reprising the role of Rei Ayanami. Like 2nd Impression’s Mayumi, Mana transfers into the same high school class as the Eva pilots and becomes a new love interest for Shinji. She also harbors a dark secret - Mana doesn’t have Angel cores in her body, but she might be a spy? There’s definitely something extremely off about her, but Shinji is still encouraged by Misato and Kaiji to pursue a romantic relationship with Mana while Asuka spends the duration of the game trying to sabotage their happiness. Girlfriend of Steel features tons of original artwork exclusive to the game created by the show’s original artists, is fully voiced by the TV show’s original voice talent, and also contains multiple endings, including one where players get to (very briefly) see Mana nude because of course they do. There are also endings focusing on Asuka, who finally gets to spend some quasi-romantic quality time with Shinji after Mana is brutally blown up via N2 Mine in battle, and Kaji, who gives Shinji some life advice while Mana gets to leave Tokyo-3 alive. Also Shinji brutally friendzones Asuka during a car chase in one of the game’s best animated sequences.
Source: Neon Genesis Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel Image Dump
Sega’s Evangelion games were basically choose-your-own-adventure FMV games with very light RPG-esque battle systems; GAINAX’s first in-house developed Eva title takes this to its logical conclusion by focusing even more on storytelling and completely excising gameplay outside of having players make a couple of choices throughout the game (only one of which, after the game’s climactic battle, decides which ending is shown; others provide alternate lines of dialogue and, in one instance, allows Shinji to kiss Mana during a date) and giving them the occasional option to explore certain environments through menu-based navigation. The game’s 2+ hour runtime gives it more of an epic feel than Sega’s titles, and the aesthetics of the game are incredibly on-point - the art is beautiful, lush, and crisp and the MIDI approximations of the show’s soundtrack are mostly accurate. Whereas Sega’s games felt kind of like bonus omake episodes, Girlfriend of Steel feels like a full-on, long-lost OVA sidestory series despite its incredibly limited animation. Parts of it feel a little strange though, mostly because Mana feels like a typical dating sim character and that sort of archetype feels incredibly out-of-place when transplanted into the Evangelion universe. That being said, in typical Evangelion style, the dating sim tropes are both explored thoroughly and subverted often during the game’s 2-ish hour run-time. Asuka’s instant assessment of Mana’s behavior as being strange is especially amusing and leads to some humorous moments, as well as a dark twist towards the middle of the game.
After its initial PC release roughly around the time of End of Evangelion’s theatrical run, Girlfriend of Steel was ported to several other consoles and computer operating systems. Sega published a Saturn port on March 26th, 1998, marking the third year in a row they released an Evangelion game on that console around that time, and GAINAX self-published ports to Mac OS and the original PlayStation (ported by TamTam) a few months later. A version specially optimized for Windows 98 and ME followed in 2001 and was included in the third part of the Japanese “Second Impact” Box Set along with the final volume of the TV series and the Death and Rebirth and End films. According to Japanese Wikipedia, mobile phone versions were released in 2004, followed by the Cyberfront-published Special Edition for Windows PCs and PS2 in 2006. The 2006 PC release of Girlfriend of Steel featured higher-resolution assets as well as arbitrary display resolution settings and an unlocked framerate (not a huge deal for a game like this, but still nice to have), while the PS2 port included an extra ending in which Mana stays with Shinji and joins NERV. Both versions include new sequences expanding on the game’s backstory, as well as a brief CG intro, and would form the base on which the 2009 PSP port would be built on.
Unlike the previous games we’ve looked at so far, Girlfriend of Steel was also translated into other languages, albeit unofficially. Fans have produced several translation patches for the PC versions, allowing the game to be played in English, Russian, Spanish, and Italian; a Chinese patch also exists for the PSP port. Unfortunately, like many other physical PC games released in the mid-to-late 2000’s, the Special Edition does not work any modern version of Windows without tons of legwork thanks to Microsoft intentionally breaking support with SecuROM and Safedisc DRM. There are plenty of ways around this, of course, but the easiest way to play the game is to track down the original Windows 95 version and its translation patch. The console versions are also inexpensive on the secondary market, with the PS1 version being the least expensive. You could also just watch the longplay video of the English-patched Windows 95 version I recorded especially for this article - it includes all 3 endings in separate videos, so it’s kinda like playing it yourself!
Around the time Girlfriend of Steel was released, Sega would release another Evangelion game for the Saturn, kind of. This last title is less of a game and more of a multimedia encyclopedia of sorts, something that wasn’t super common on consoles circa the 90’s as much as it was on computers, but still happened occasionally (see also - Namco Museum, Lupin the 3rd: Chronicles and The Master File).
NEON GENESIS EVANGELION DIGITAL CARD LIBRARY (1997)
p. Sega, d. Sega
Dir. Ikuo Ishizaka (main program), Masahide Kobayashi (mini-games)
Plat. Sega Saturn
Source: Sega Retro
Digital Card Library is basically a collection of Evangelion-related ephemera and mini-games tied together under the guise of a trading card album. The bulk of the game consists of playing through mini-games based on the show in order to unlock packs of trading cards, which contain clips and images from the show (including every “next episode” preview), pictures of Evangelion merchandise, pages of a 4-koma gag comic exclusive to the game, and more minigames, which range in concept from quizzes about the show’s lore and adaptations of scenes like Asuka’s dive into the volcano in “Magma Diver” and Shinji helping Misato get onto the rogue Jet Alone mech in “A Human Work” (both of which we’ll see adapted again in the 2nd part of this series), to weirder stuff like PenPen Racing and a staring contest with Gendo. A more detailed guide to the minigames can be found at Blue Skies Daily. Digital Card Library is not nearly as interesting as the other three titles we looked at in this article, as it offers little in the way of new content and, like many information-focused discs like this, has been rendered obsolete by the internet, but it’s still worth checking out if you’re a hardcore fan who has to consume everything even tangentially related to the show. The trading card unlock system is incredibly novel, and, back in 1997, it was probably very nice to at least have all the “next episode” previews in one place. Other than that, though, this basically functions as an omake disc companion to the series and has little to offer to fans in 2019 outside of the mini-games, several of which were done better later on in Bandai’s Neon Genesis Evangelion 64. Completionists will be happy to know that, like the other Saturn games covered so far, it’s not super expensive, although it is usually a little pricier than 1st or 2nd Impression.
On the same day Sega released Digital Card Library, Banpresto would release the first part of a Saturn remake of their Super Famicom title 4th Super Robot Wars. This was the first time the series, which mashes up characters from all sorts of popular mecha series like Mobile Suit Gundam, Mazinger Z, and Getter Robo and throws them into a strategy RPG, would appear on the Saturn, and it would bring along with it exclusive characters from Gunbuster, Space Runaway Ideon, Mobile Fighter G Gundam, New Report Gundam Wing, Mazinkaiser, and, of course, Neon Genesis Evangelion.
SUPER ROBOT TAISEN F (1997)
aka Super Robot Wars F
p. Banpresto, d. Winkysoft
dir. Masahiko Sakata
Plat. Sega Saturn
SUPER ROBOT TAISEN F KANKETSUHEN (1998)
aka Super Robot Wars F Final
p. Banpresto, d. Winkysoft
dir. Masahiko Sakata
Plat. Sega Saturn
For the unfamiliar - Super Robot Wars is a long-running Strategy RPG series in which characters from all sorts of different mecha series cross-over and interact. Evangelion had become a major cultural phenomenon in Japan by the time F was in development, so it makes sense that the characters would show up here. Players can take Shinji, Rei, and Asuka, along with their respective EVA Units, into battle and watch as they (and other members of the cast) interact with characters like Mobile Suit Gundam’s Amuro Ray and Aura Battler Dunbine’s Sho Zama. Several of the game’s missions are recreations of episodes of the TV series; eventually, though, the NERV crew is helping the main cast save the world. Like almost every other game in the main Super Robot Wars franchise, neither F nor its second part, F Final, never received official English releases, and no English fan-translations for the games exist either. Both games would later be released on the Playstation, which had already received a port of the original SNES version in 1996, in December 1998 (F) and April 1999 (F Final) and would be rereleased again on the PS3 as PSone Classics in 2011, where they are still available to purchase. They’re also, like most of the other games in this article, very inexpensive on the secondary market.
The earliest Evangelion games functioned as side-stories and extensions to the more fun sections of the series, which makes sense given that they were developed before or during the production of End of Evangelion, a film that would drastically change the tone of the franchise by retooling the ending into something far more disturbing than what was shown in the TV series, albeit truer to GAINAX’s original vision before TV Tokyo stepped in and demanded changes to its content. Post End of Evangelion-adaptations followed the film’s lead by focusing on both action-packed sequences and a more somber tone than the wacky high school hijinx found in the games featured in this article. Next time, we’ll be looking at… actually, we’ll be visiting Shinji and some of his good friends as they play card games and stuff with each other, and it’s going to be a little weird. We’ll be checking out some early post-End of Evangelion stuff too, but mostly just card games. Oh, and there will be fan service!
Part 2 is coming soon, with new original gameplay videos and more! follow me on Twitter for updates as soon as they’re available. You can also leave a tip on Ko-Fi and help fund this website.
The Neon Genesis Evangelion TV Series, along with the DEATH (TRUE)² and End of Evangelion films, will be available June 21st exclusively on Netflix.
