After 17 years, a somewhat intricate pre-alpha phase, a bloated Kickstarter campaign, and one unsubstantiated sequel, the rightful successor to the iconic 2007 release Elona is finally available to the public. The roguelike sandbox RPG Elin debuted on Steam in early access last year, and it has been well-received by both Japanese and English-speaking gamers, amassing over 4,700 ratings with 94% positive feedback at the time of this writing.
Elin, similarly to its fellow roguelike RPG Caves of Qud, which also officially launched last year after a 17-year wait, is certainly one of those games that intertwine various genres and experiences, making it hard to summarize neatly. It is vibrantly queer, as dense as a neutron star, and almost competitively Japanese.
The summary on Steam states: “A sandbox, open-world RPG based on roguelike mechanics.” While that conveys much of the essence, the following detail may also be informative: “Live your life, endure, craft, construct and manage bases and cities, indulge in housing, fishing, thievery, music, farming, livestock rearing, childbirth, establishing shops, tourism, and much more.”
Disregarding the obvious fact that I do not know if childbirth is something you actively experience, we can reasonably classify this as a tile-based life simulator filled with countless procedural and handcrafted features across various lifestyles—from adventuring to farming to shop management to dubious construction. Told you it wouldn’t be brief. Or perhaps it’s an apparently limitless creative playground within a captivating but absurd fantasy setting brought to life with charming pixel art, boasting a Dwarf Fortress-level capability to generate hilarious contemporary situations. Naturally, this leads to prime Steam review browsing.
“Ten minutes in, I accidentally consumed the body of my kitten and now have -5 karma,” writes haybug.
“They had to tone down breastfeeding because eventually the strategy became to initiate a war quest, milk the boss mid-fight, and feed it to your pets for an insane boost in levels and stats,” reports Minkyew. I looked this up, of course, and it’s not entirely untrue. “The level used to determine effects during breastfeeding has been changed from (50 + training skill) to (20 + training skill),” a previous patch clarifies. Naturally. Move on.
“If you enjoy Stardew Valley but have a low self-esteem, then this is worth a try,” summarizes Coley D.
“Here’s a breakdown of all the mechanisms I fully grasp,” quips TrustworthySpy, followed by a conspicuous silence.
Elin technically launched in alpha at the end of 2023 after a Kickstarter initiative that generated over $400,000 (based on recent Yen to USD conversions). A bit confusingly, that Kickstarter referred to Elin as a prequel, while its Steam page labels it a “successor” and “sequel.” It is, as far as I understand, technically a prequel— a pre-squel, if you will.
The game’s Steam page lists a November 1, 2024 release date, marking when it officially launched, in contrast to what the 30-plus patches prior to its February 1, 2024 alpha release might indicate. Since that last developer update, according to the game’s Steam data feed and SteamDB statistics, nothing of significant value has been altered, with no major posts or updates following November 1.
Nonetheless, that’s only within the main game. In the November post, Lafrontier mentioned, “we anticipate continuously updating and polishing the game as we progress toward its full release,” with updates initially being rolled out to the “Nightly” beta version before appearing in the main game “as they are prepared.” Sure enough, Nightly has received so many updates that there’s a complete changelog archive compiling them, including that major nerf. Elin is notably expected to exit early access in “approximately one year, two years at most.”
One hurdle that made Elin’s journey to launch relatively bumpier was the unveiling of Elona 2, a self-described “pixel art x isekai x adventure RPG” from creator Hong Kong Kunpan Culture Entertainment, which Noa claims had no rights or authorization to use the Elona IP. In August, as Automaton reported, Noa stated Elona 2 is unrelated to Elona and that he turned down a request from Kunpan to use the name. “I’m an independent developer and lack the power to contest this,” Noa remarked. Here’s not to be confused with Elona Mobile, a legitimate mobile adaptation developed independently with Noa’s consent.