Elona (RPG/Roguelike)

(I've posted about this game on the old forum years ago. Posting it now with the hope to get the interest of newer folks - and oldies too, since Elona has undergone many improvements since then. If enough of us play it, maybe we can host a forum-game about it like before, too! ^_^)



Elona is an open-ended RPG where just about everything is possible but always optional, including even the main storyline. I've been playing it for many years and absolutely love it! Here are just a few of the many things you can do:



Screenshots
From a few minutes of my Elona+ gameplay just before making this post.







Downloads:
Elona 1.16 final (official version, development ended in 2011)
Elona+ 1.17 (a popular fan-developed variant with bugfixes, new quests/enemies/items/towns etc. I've been playing this since last year.)

Oh man, SiamJai, you like Elona too?!

It's been over a year since it dropped from my regular playlist (too many games, not enough time), but I check on things every now and then. Elona's definitely the craziest roguelike I've ever played - I was very sad when Noa stopped development, so it's great to see the fans picking it up.

*promptly downloads Elona+*

Wow - you're awesome, Charity!

What type of character do you play the most? And what do you usually do ingame? I started with an Elean wizard and keep playing that ever since. But in the beginning it was hard to get by with magic alone, so I trained a bit of melee on the side and earned money by prostitution performing at parties.

If you have any crazy stories that happened with you ingame, I'd love to hear that too.


(Edit: btw, if you see something stupid happening with a certain "Godly Hero Merle" on elochat, that's me goofing up. What's your character's name?)

What's the appeal here? I'm totally missing it. I tried it out and it's overly complex. I don't have a number pad which makes the controls awkward to say the least. Worst of all it's using a DnD framework which I've always felt made for lousy video gaming. It looks like I'm in for a lot of trial and error just learning how to play while struggling not to starve and die. Is it really worth it?

I haven't played Elona but, if it's an introduction to roguelikes you need, ToME might be a safer bet. It's a bit simplistic for a roguelike fan but it's very user-friendly, comparitively speaking.

I don't have a number pad which makes the controls awkward to say the least.

The controls have numpad-independent versions too, which is what I'm using since I don't have a dedicated numpad on this laptop either. I use arrows for movement, "l" to target and spacebar for actions. The rest of the functions are not bound to the numpad, though I agree that it would be a lot to learn at once. Fortunately only a handful are used frequently at the beginning, and the list of all keys is just a "?" typing away. There is also a graphical keyboard layout that might help.

Worst of all it's using a DnD framework which I've always felt made for lousy video gaming. It looks like I'm in for a lot of trial and error just learning how to play while struggling not to starve and die. Is it really worth it?

These are pretty much the staple features of roguelikes, so if this stuff is not your cup of tea, chances are that no games in the genre will appeal to you.

Personally, I find total freedom and unguided gameplay experience quite a refreshing change. Finding out neat tricks to overcome the crazy, unexpected challenges is a reward in itself. For example, when a pet passes over a well while following you,
Or, when you or your pet drink from a fountain, it might trigger To me, getting stuff like this is akin to discovering a random secret in KU.

A couple tips for warding off hunger:

But this is just a few of the million things to figure out and do. There is a handy beginner's guide at the official forum, and another one at the Elona wiki. Hopefully enough to get you off on a smoother start - relatively speaking.

I didn't realize DnD and Rogue-likes went hand in had. I though that was more a pitfall of "western" RPGs. Anyway, I tried Elona a bit more and my pet suddenly died in a well. So, I had to quit playing because it was too tragic. We'd just been reunited apparently. I'll have to take a look at this beginner's guide.

I'm properly addicted to Elona now. So, how would this forum game work?

Awesome!!! So, what kind of character did you end up playing as?

About the forumgame: last time we challenged each other to find or do certain stuff in-game, post a pic of it in the forum, and the first one to do so would be the next challenger. Think stuff like 'find at least 9 spiders on one screen', which then would be matched by something like this:

Another thing we could do is give vague concepts, e.g. 'seafood', 'heaven and hell', 'solitude', 'don't hurt me' etc. Players then would post their interpretation of the concept (as screenshots). Winner could be decided either by the challenger or by vote.

Couple ideas for starters... what do you think? If you have other ideas, feel free to share too.

Awesome!!! So, what kind of character did you end up playing as?

After a misfire as a Juere War Mage, I restarted as a Juere Warrior, Xut The Stillness and his companion Nasrana the young lady.
I have to stay away from the wiki. I go to find out what a stat means and end up reading major spoilers.
I haven't touched Elona+, but it doesn't sound like there's much benefit until I complete the standard game anyway.

For the forum game, it sounds like fun, especially the theme interpretation type. Another idea is to post a picture, and the person who writes the best caption wins.

Geez the art style looks really neat for this, it's very familiar (having a similar feel to RPGMaker stuff) but unique and in it's own style and I'm digging it

Any recommendation on whether or not to start with the official version or the plus version? I'm going with trying plus for now.

Also I should note that your link to the plus version is broken, if I found the correct thing (and I'm not sure why I wouldn't have) it seems to be on 1.17 now as well, pretty good progress for being 1.14 a month ago (I'll assume that each .1 they add is a more-or-less "full" update and not just small bug fixes since those usually seem to be more along the lines of 0.0.1).

Geez the art style looks really neat for this, it's very familiar (having a similar feel to RPGMaker stuff) but unique and in it's own style and I'm digging it

Any recommendation on whether or not to start with the official version or the plus version? I'm going with trying plus for now.

Also I should note that your link to the plus version is broken, if I found the correct thing (and I'm not sure why I wouldn't have) it seems to be on 1.17 now as well, pretty good progress for being 1.14 a month ago (I'll assume that each .1 they add is a more-or-less "full" update and not just small bug fixes since those usually seem to be more along the lines of 0.0.1).

Yeah, 1.17 has been out for a few days now, I should update that. Thanks for the heads-up! (And yep, each version has major changes; this one, for example, added a "hard mode" option and a way to prevent food rot. More than a dozen new creatures, some new items, abilities and pet evolution paths have been added since 1.14.

I'd actually recommend playing E+ right from the start. Although you can't access the high-level southern continent until the main quest is completed, there are some immediate benefits to E+. Some examples: a much more refined control over pets (behavior, appearance, learning, stats); the ability to repair acid-damaged items, create bottles of water (more useful than it sounds), prevent food from rotting, and an overall more usable casting system. OTOH, trading and performing have been nerfed, and leveling living weapons is still being redefined (this is not an issue in the beginning though). One thing to keep in mind is that going backward is not really an option, i.e. an E+ world won't transfer well back to vanilla, but it works the other way around. So, caveats either way.

After a misfire as a Juere War Mage, I restarted as a Juere Warrior, Xut The Stillness and his companion Nasrana the young lady.

Nice, that looks like a balanced setup for a smooth(er) ride. :-)

Parts of the wiki are meant for beginners, while other parts are written with experienced gamers in mind - the trouble is, the boundary between these parts is not always clear, as you have noticed. 
About the forumgame: I started writing up a post for it a while ago, but I'm in the middle of moving house/getting a new job, so this wouldn't be the best time for me to start a game topic. That shouldn't prevent anyone else from starting one though.