I suspect Evoland 1 will put many people off from the game before ever reaching Evoland 2 which would be a shame because it's a pretty solid game. I would probably recommend just skipping to Evoland 2 as they have nothing to do with each other apart from the graphical/gameplay changing over the course of the game.
As for Evoland 2, the reliance on reference humor wore thin but the game itself is good and surprisingly varied. The keyboard controls and UI are pretty clunky.
Overall I enjoyed Evoland 2 enough to be quite satisfied.