Review: Elona (Eternal League of Nefia)
Gamers, especially GMs, need to decompress, too. Gaming can start feeling like a job, getting into something mindless for 15-20 minutes at a time can really help. While big games like World of Warcraft or Mass Effect are a lot of fun, sometimes we just need to look at something besides words on a screen for a few minutes before getting back to work on the Next Great Game™. I used to play solitaire or play poker online for a few minutes when I felt like this but last year I discovered a free game called Elona. Click on screens for full size.
Overview
Elona is a small computer RPG that’s classed as a “roguelike” or what my friends and I in the 80s used to call a “nethack-clone”. What makes Elona different and much more fun to play are 2 things: a) although very painful, death is NOT final and b) it’s graphical.
Features
Using keyboard commands, this game is pretty easy to play, something you can pick up the basics of in less than an hour but after 6 months of playing myself I still find I’m discovering new tactics and strategies. Elona includes:
- an extensive item list
- frequent and interesting monsters
- original races and classes
- and a comprehensive list of skills and feats
You can:
- own, design and stock houses, shops and museums
- gene engineer your pets together to give a pet new skills (even magic abilities!)
- give sacrifices to the gods to gain unique pets and items.
- go on quests but if you don’t feel like it, there’s absolutely no deterrent from playing in pure sandbox mode, something I’ve done many times.
Problems
Being a privately developed game by someone with a day job (hi, Noa!), Elona does sometimes come out with updates that are a bit bugged. I’ve never found anything game breaking, even in the 1.14 release (1.13 is considered the most stable) but you should be aware that sometimes things break. Also, it was originally developed in Japanese and then translated to English. This has resulted in some odd quirks. These are mostly funny but can be confusing to a new user.
The creator, Noa, does have a day job and other projects so sometimes Elona takes a back-burner position and doesn’t see updates for awhile, the last being 1.14 in August 2008. However, he has said that when his current project is complete he’ll be back to work on this game and expects the next update out by the middle of April. New features may include distinct cursed effects, a jail and several bug fixes.
Some of the themes in Elona such as cannibalism, slavery, sex for hire and the nuking of the capital city Palmia may not be suitable for children so depending on your style of parenting, I encourage you to play first before introducing it to a child.
Where to get Help
A tutorial isn’t within the scope of this review and some of the game isn’t very intuitive. There is the ability to get help within the game with the ? key but those tips are pretty basic so one of the best aids to a new player are the forums and the player-supported wiki. The wiki includes a “tips page” as well as almost encyclopedic knowledge of the game in detail. The forums are supported by a helpful, fairly active if not large, community (including yours truly!) and most information that can’t be found on the wiki can be asked there. Usually answers appear within a day.
Links
The Elona Homepage
The Elona Forums
The Elona Wiki
Credits
My thanks to Maverick, Elvenspirit and Jatopian for help deciding what to put in this review and ideas for writing it. Thanks to Turbn for help getting screen shots!
Thank you for the Review Viria ^.^
You betcha
Is Elona a multiplayer networked game? Or a single player adventure? I noticed the game can be downloaded, but didn’t know if that was the complete game or a client.
Elona is a single-player game with some networked elements. I can be played o a computer with no internet connection and the elements won’t be missed. They include a not-yet-complete chat system and the ability to see other people’s houses. I *think*. Obviously, it doesn’t impact the game much
Well the Chat System works, hit tab and type. it’s possible to upload team’s to the Arena i believe and your own house as well… The latter of which i have no clue how to do. There’s also the Voting which earns you Voter rank that give’s you extra Income and such.
Anyway I’m not sure all these features are available prior to 1.14 (which is still in development) just don’t download further than 1.14 fix 2 (will not say fix 2 just make sure you don’t download fix 3-5 as they have CTD’s and unexplored new content) if you are unfamiliar with the game – anything past that should only really be played as a Tester/Bug Hunter and even if that’s your thing you should be familiar with the game. Frankly both version 1.13 and 1.14 fix2 have bugs but nothing remotely game breaking as far as i know and i have about 200 hours in between the two of them. (an example is in 1.13 sometimes you can find a “bugged” book when an item fails to generate)
Basically the only thing you are missing really are a few social aspects of the game if you are not connected.
And you can copy saves over between versions so don’t worry about that ^.^ just don’t copy backwards to earlier versions as i imagine the game might not like that.
Thank you, Elvenspirit! That’s great information
Two new updates of Elona have been release since this review although they are supposedly unstable although I haven’t see any real bugs
Thanks, shwqa
I linked to the bug section of the forum when I mentioned problems so everyone can easily see what’s up with bugs, etc. 1.13 is the most recent stable version.
There are bugs in the 3 new versions not mentioned – trust me, CTD’s (of which most are fixed in fix5 that i have personally seen but there are CTD’s) a bug with reading books that destroys other items instead of the books durability and a few other thing’s i probably forgot, trust me – I’ve been playing the new versions every day since they came out hunting for thing’s that need fixed. ^.^ there was a goof in the link to 1.14 fix3 and when we got the real link Noa’s put out fix’s each day clearing up more errors and… Well that is why i recommend the regular 1.14 download (or for those hesitant to try the dev version 1.13, but there’s noticeable bits untranslated) for someone new to the game since i consider it stable even given it’s a developmental version.
Props for writing this, Viriatha.
Thank you!
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Great sound advice!Thanks for all the great comments and tips that are giving here.I have bookmarked site so i can visit again