Elona (video game)

Elona is an roguelike game developed by Japanese developer Noa, and first published in 2007. The title 'Elona' is short for "Eternal League of Nefia".[1] Noa began developing Elona in 2006, and based it on roguelikes such as Ancient Domains of Mystery (ADOM) and Angband.[2] Noa also had two other role-playing games in development, Shade and Etherwind.[3][4] A reviewer at Insert Credit commented that Elona is "very well-made" and compared its character development system to that of ADOM.[5]

Elona
Developer(s)Noa
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
ReleaseAugust 31, 2007
Genre(s)Roguelike
Mode(s)Single-player

The game is set in a fantasy world called Irva, where the player can create a character by choosing one each from a selection of eleven races and ten classes to battle monsters, practice magic, perform music, or take on various other roles. It is possible to change a value in the configuration and play as special "debug" races, such as a god.

Elona is programmed in the Hot Soup Processor (HSP) procedural language.[6] Noa promoted the game with an Adobe Flash shooter game, Elona Shooter, released in October 2009 on Kongregate.[1][7]

There are many fan-made versions of Elona available, which continued support for the game after Noa ceased official development,[8] such as Elonaplus (stylized as Elona+) by Ano Inu[9] and Omake_Overhaul_modify.[10]

A mobile version of the game with optimised graphics was released on April 20, 2021.[11] This version drew criticism from fans of the original game due to the exclusion or modification of Elonaplus content.

Gameplay

Elona features a roguelike open-world environment, instead of revolving around a main dungeon and quest, the game resolves around completing randomly-generated quests and pilfering dungeons for higher-level rewards.[12]

The game begins with the players' character surviving a disaster at sea in the north of Irva's northwestern continent, Tyris.[13][14] North Tyris contains many towns and dungeons, with randomly generated elements, that the player can explore as they deal with or avoid creatures, townsfolk, other adventurers, and the corrupting effects of a seasonal phenomenon called Etherwind. The player can take quests and make their character believe in one of several gods to enhance their skills and earn various bonuses.[14]

Character creation

The playable races in Elona are the Yerles, Eulderna, Fairy, Dwarf, Juere, Elea, Snail, Lich, Goblin, Golem, and Mutant.

Online content

Elona allows players to create custom maps and content and upload them to the server. These maps can be accessed via randomly spawning moongates in town. Caution should be taken when entering moon gates, there may be no way back except via dying, and many moongates contain a wide variety of bizarre ways to kill the player, ranging from cats that kill in a single hit to kamikaze monsters that set off a massive chain reaction explosion when killed.

With the online setting chosen, players can also see other player's death messages (but not encounter them in-game) and the manner in which they die, such as starving to death in a dungeon or being killed by a rock thrown by an old man.

References
  1. Noa. "Elona: Eternal League of Nefia – Official Site". Archived from the original on May 31, 2010. Retrieved May 30, 2010.
  2. Noa (August 12, 2009). Elona (Windows) (1.16 reloaded fix 2 ed.). Level/area: English readme file (readme_ENG.txt in game's top folder).
  3. Noa. "Shade" (in Japanese). Retrieved February 22, 2010. Shade ver0.25; 558 KB; shade.zip; 2000/3/27
  4. Noa. "Etherwind" (in Japanese). Retrieved February 22, 2010.
  5. Zepy (August 2, 2007). "News: Elona". Insert Credit. Archived from the original on October 14, 2009. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
  6. Noa (October 31, 2009). "掲示板のFAQ、日本語化、質問など" [Bulletin board's FAQ, Japanese conversion, questions, etc.]. Elona forum. Archived from the original on July 24, 2011. Retrieved May 9, 2010. Elona is made in HSP. (ElonaはHSPで作られています。)
  7. Noa (October 27, 2009). "Play Elona Shooter". Kongregate. Archived from the original on May 31, 2010. Retrieved May 30, 2010. Title screen: Elona is a freeware Roguelike RPG I created. Visit my WEB to download it now!
  8. "Ylvania - Elona/Elin Official - Elona". ylvania.org (in Japanese). Retrieved 2017-05-10.
  9. "ElonaPlus Wiki*". wikiwiki.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2017-05-10.
  10. "Omake overhaul modify*". jugem.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  11. Narita, Seiji (2021-07-13). "Roguelike Elona Mobile is now available. How does it differ from the original?". AUTOMATON WEST. Retrieved 2022-03-23.
  12. "Elona (Video Game)". TV Tropes. Retrieved 2021-03-31.
  13. Noa. "Elona Wiki" North Tyris Elona Plus.png [Screenshot] (in Japanese). Retrieved February 22, 2010. (The picture is a map that shows Tyris in the northwest region of Irva.)
  14. Noa (August 12, 2009). Elona (Windows) (1.16 reloaded fix 2 ed.). Level/area: Introductory sequence, North Tyris overworld, "Norne's Travel Guide" pop-ups, and in-game help ('?' key during play).
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