Elona

The purpose of video games is to let you escape the general lack of unicorns that characterizes the real world, as well as to provide you with a chance to be someone else. It’s easy to relax and stop thinking about your problems with a match-three game, but to truly forget how to cope with reality, role-playing games are usually the way to go.

Elona is a roguelike role-playing game designed to be as immersive as possible, with enough options and customizable elements to make everyone feel welcome. On the other hand, humor is an important factor as well, so you probably shouldn’t expect too much mature content. Death is everywhere, though, thanks to the wide variety of monsters that roam the land. Just like in every other roguelike out there, your goal is to survive and hoard loot.

To begin with, you must create a character, and the array of options put at your disposal is staggering. Besides the long list of races you can choose from, including Fairy, Dwarf and Lich, the number of available classes is overwhelming as well. Whether you want to be a thief, a wizard or a pianist, the choice is yours to make, although you have to live with it. Obviously, each class and race has certain bonuses and disadvantages, and it’s a blast to see them in action.

Gameplay-wise, you are pretty much free to go anywhere you want from the first few seconds, but it is recommended that you take it slow and don’t venture too far into the wilderness. You can find and equip items, read books to improve your skills, banter with villagers, or even craft items with the stuff you find during your journey. You can get sick, take on quests and get furniture for your home.

In fact, you can get lost in the game for days and never run out of things to do, which is exactly what people expect from the genre. Obviously, you need to live with the retro graphics style and the top-down perspective, but it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. In fact, the game world looks pretty detailed and worthy of exploration, even if everything is made out of low-resolution tiles.

Elona is the kind of game that’s different every time you play it, thanks to the huge number of options you have at your disposal. The entire thing is coated in a thick layer of humor, so frustration shouldn’t enter the picture too often.