Play This Weird Game: Elona

Hello, Hubpages! Anyone who knows me knows that I like to play a wide variety of games, collect them even. Others might just be privy to that fact that I actively seek out and consume some of the strangest creations the gaming industry has to offer in what little time I have to play them. In that spirit of loving all that is wild and weird, I’m going to try to kick off a new regular segment here.

Today's edition...

Elona

The Roguelike genre has seen a bit of a resurgence as of late, thanks in part to surprise Indie hits like The Binding of Isaac and Dungeons of Dreadmor giving many people their first taste of this type of game.

Named for their progenitor Rogue, the core of most Roguelikes revolves around a randomly generated, dungeon crawling RPG experience. The most infamous aspect however, is that these games tend to mind-bogglingly random and cruel: the deck is heavily stacked against the player more often than not. Death is permanent, your enemies are mighty, and EVERYTHING is out to kill you. That probably doesn’t sound like a good time, and to fair, it might not be for many people.

But the joy to be found in playing a Roguelike is beating the computer at its own unfair game. Learning when to fight, when to run, and how to make the most of every resource at your disposal is vital to your success. When your every decision either reaps great reward or catastrophic failure, you learn quickly. The randomized nature ensures that unpredictable things are always happening- and when combined with the deeply-customizable character creation, it ensures everyone has unique stories of their adventures to share.

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Elona is such a game, geared to be more newbie-friendly but with the strange levels cranked up to 11. It takes the base game of a Roguelike, lets you roam free in the vein of western RPGs, and seasons it with that distinct Japanese weirdness. The end result is that the permanent death is gone but static towns and an overworld are added alongside the random dungeons, creating a more palatable experience.

This mishmash of a formula fundamentally alters the way things play out- allowing for a much more diverse, open-ended game. In addition to the familiar dungeon-diving, you can complete quests for villagers, live as a farmer or rancher or trader, delight audiences as a genius performer, or fight to be champion of local arenas. To name just few a possibilities.

Dead Fish: The ideal birthday present for your child.

I dare not ask what this fountain is filled with.

What’s really interesting though is that the addition of NPCs to interact with allows you to play in whole new ways, both good and bad. One (much less honorable) way to thrive in the land of North Tyris is to be a completely immoral sociopath. Slavery, theft, gambling, tax evasion, prostitution, murder, and even nuclear arms all exist in some form within the game. It's not impossible to, say, summon a horde of monsters to devour an orphan, if you think such a thing would further your goals. Of course, crime doesn't pay. There is a karma system in place, and town guards can and WILL hunt you down with extreme prejudice if you're just a bit too nasty for their tastes. As an amusing side note, being a well-mannered productive member of society gives you a tax break. (If only that carried over into the real world.)

"Someone fetch Lassie!"

Whatever path you choose, you can expect some distinct craziness worth sharing. My own introduction to Elona is as follows:

Slimy the snail was cast unprepared into this unforgiving new world following a shipwreck, but apparently revived by two random passers-by. Starving and barely able to move, they found some food for him. Only after biting into it did he realize he was eating the rotting corpse of a hobo. The revelation drove poor Slimy mad. One he finally calmed down, I commanded him to flee the cannibals with all the haste a snail could muster. As he escaped, he was additionally assaulted by bears and giant enemy crabs. Bandits robbed him at knifepoint and took all of his food.

At last, the snail slithered into town whereupon he located his long lost pet- a small cat. It quickly began to follow him everywhere. Slimy spotted a fruit tree and hurled himself against it until cherries fell down. They weren’t much, but it was sustenance. I quickly found that people were calling Slimy by his alias (for all great adventurers must have one) “Gay Nation.” Gay nation was a thief, so naturally I decided to get down to some thieving. At my behest, Slimy picked a bakery clean despite having the dexterity expected of a snail. Full of bread and feeling bold, my snail-thief ripped the very window off of a wall- nobody even gave him a second glance.

Strolling his way over to a graveyard with loyal cat in tow, Slimy bumped into a rather mysterious and rude fellow who refused to even talk to him. Snail racist! Naturally, I elected to rob him blind. Slimy noted that he had an awesome-looking weapon <The Sword that Ends All>, and so attempted to pluck it straight from his hands. It didn’t work. The enraged man took a swipe at Slimy, but missed, and the snail landed a blow on him in retaliation- doing almost no damage. Checking my items, I realized at last that my sword was, in fact, made of meat. Slimy’s pet cat lunged, and was cut down in a single blow! The man turned his sights on Slimy, and suddenly the words “LET’S RAGNAROK!” appeared in the text box onscreen. The entire town burst into flames, and dozens of multicolored vicious dragons spawned from nowhere. Poor Slimy “Gay Nation” the Snail Thief was burnt to ashes before he knew what hit him. I sat speechless in front of my computer for a good few minutes before picking up my jaw.

In the following hours, I started a new character and gave “birth” to an alien chestburster, had my home occupied my a gang of thugs who were subsequently killed by a hired mercenary, struck down my enemies with a pair of panties, rode a grizzly bear into battle, built a snowman, burned down a town, came into ownership of a museum, got married to the aforementioned mercenary, and watched a little girl cut through hordes of monsters with nothing but a magical axe and a grin on her face. And this time I avoided the hobo flesh.

This kid is going to need YEARS of therapy...

Elona isn't much to look at: it's graphics are obviously about function, not form. A simple glance is all that a player needs to determine if a kamikaze samurai is headed their way. Spells and special effects are simple animations of only a few frames that won't distract you from the gameplay.

Sound design is actually fairly nice, though you're likely to hear a few particular tracks much more often than others, and they can start to grate on the ears after several hours. What IS there is fairly upbeat and catchy most of the time. The sound effects do their job, and are nothing to write home about.

Semi-regular radioactive storms can mutate your character if you don't seek shelter.

Despite being a freeform game, Elona DOES have a central story. "Noa", Elona's Japanese author, has laid the foundation for an interesting fantasy world. The continent on which you find yourself is rife with conflict, with factions bickering over territory in a dying world subject to the devastation of radioactive Ether Storms. Unfortunately, the translation is full of little imperfections and outright omissions here and there, so that doesn't always shine through. An enormous amount of backstory exists that doesn't even get a passing mention in-game. While it would have been nice to see detailed world-building come into play, it all ultimately takes a backseat to the gameplay anyway.

We're going to need a bigger boat.

One last detail: you will die. A lot. Best of all, Elona transmits important news concerning your adventures. If you die, are granted a wish from a wishing well, or find an impressive artifact, everyone playing will share in your joy (or shame). There's even a chat client included with the game if you want to try to make conversation with anyone crazy enough to play this very weird game.