Posted on: April 18, 2024

Games: 0 Reviews: 52

Worst UI ever

I tried to like it, I really did, but the interface is unusable! Somehow it is worse my previous worst UI winners, Gold Box and Shining Force and those games are ancient! Even using a controller it was bad. In the end it wasn't the difficulty that turned me away, (think wizardry except you can't rest or save in dungeon), it was accidentally not saving after redoing my party because the save screen is in an extremely arbitrary place and does not give a confirmation message when you actually do it. Every single menu and option is like this - arbitrary and painful. You can identify items from the menu in dungeon. Outside of dungeon, you MUST go to the tavern to do this or pay the shop. You cannot check character status from every town building, only some. When you hand over items from one character to another, you do it one at a time even for a stack of 9. Some menus have more than one page that you have to hit Y to see. It doesn't say anywhere on any menu if it has more than one page, so you have to just try on every menu. As mentioned above, saving is only possible from a single location, the world location selector. This is also the only place you can change a number of options outside of the main menu. The game is extremely loud on anything higher than volume 2 (volume 1 is mute). I could go on, and on, and on but you get the point. I actually really enjoy how unfair the difficulty is, but between the interface and the level of save scumming needed (it's not just rolling your character initially, level ups seem to have a very high chance of being completely useless, only giving you 1hp or decrementing multiple stats, not simply trying to fit you to your class's curve like wizardry) it just feels like the game is there to waste your time. A shame, really.

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Posted on: July 21, 2020

austing

Verified owner

Games: 177 Reviews: 9

So ancient, it's falling apart

I generally like dungeon crawlers. I've had fun with some of the Shin Megami Tensei games, Etrian Odyssey, The Dark Spire (which itself is pretty dang old-school). Dungeon crawlers simply ARE an "older" genre. They're a holdover from an earlier age of video games. So, to an extent, I expected Elminage to be like those other games. A little crusty, a little old-fashioned. I was not expecting it to be quite this bad though. The mechanics are dated. The gameplay is dated. The UI is almost unusable and constantly wastes your time with stupid annoyances like having to equip basic (free) gear to your created characters. Battling is an absolute chore, and that's pretty much all you do in these sort of games... you explore the dungeon and fight stuff. The graphics honestly aren't bad: I kind of like them. The enemies are a mixed bag, but I sort of dig the aesthetic. But man, the game is just such a chore. It's not a chore in a way I find charming like the early Etrian Odyssey games or The Dark Spire. It's just a chore. There are quite a few class options in the game, which is cool, but the amount of luck involved in picking the class you want is frustrating. If you want to make something like a Lord, then oh boy, you better be ready to reroll your stats about a million billion gajillion times because... because why? Why are we doing this? Why do classes have minimum stat requirements like this? I'm sure this game has an audience but I'm definitely not it and got help the poor souls who are. They have walked in the valley of the shadow of death and they fear no terrible UI.

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Posted on: February 2, 2024

Nervensaegen

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 102

The 80s are back

Darcin's review says it: "All the nopes." Except, he compares it to the "90's era", which is giving this game too much credit. The nineties had M&M 3-5 in 1991, with gameplay features far outpacing this game. Ultima Underworld was 1992. Wizardry 7 was 1992 as well, and plays better. This, instead, feels like Wizardry 6 in all the wrong ways. It feels like somebody put a glossy layer of paint over an 1988 Skoda Favorit. Even if it looks shiny and new, it stills handles like an old rust bucket. None of the charm and depth in storytelling of old titles is there, but they still copied all the shortcomings to a fault. Every corridor in game is the same. Gameplay is monotonous, enemies are exclusively random encounters you don't see coming. Even in a 1991 RPG like M&M 3, at least you had a sprite showing your opponent in the corridor before you get close. Dungeons had some basic decorations, even if they weren't pretty. Easy transfer of items. Automatic gold pooling. Heck, it may not have been perfect, but at least they didn't call their spells "Misama", "Dioseed" and "Balados", with no explanation, what each of them does. Common sense in game design and basic features to make your experience more enjoyable. Elimage Gothic has none of it. Practically every single quality-of-life feature developed since 1990 you can possibly think of has been stripped away. Even though I loved late 80s and early 90s RPGs with all their flaws; was and still am a big sucker for the games, the storytelling, the vibe. That doesn't mean I want to go back to having only 1 wall texture per dungeon. tl;dr It feels like an empty husk with little soul, that copied "all the nopes" of late 80s RPGs, and not one of the big yays. It is thus impossible to recommend this, even if you are desperate for a new dungeon crawler.

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Posted on: October 8, 2024

Vambran

Verified owner

Games: 707 Reviews: 3

Hard

Extreme Learning Curve To Start.

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Posted on: January 19, 2025

LazyDunmer

Verified owner

Games: 878 Reviews: 5

Old Fashioned Dungeon Romp

This game plays like the old school games such as eye Of The Beholder or Wizardy series. It's done well where the primary emphasis is on having fun. There are the traditional classes along with some interesting newer ones such as Samurai, Ninja & Valkyrie. There are traditional races as well as novel ones such as Fairies, Beastmen, Lizardmen & Hotlets (whatever they are). Game could use some improvements it's not very intuitive and the manual doesn't help, so there is a learning curve with regards to how the works. Having a tooltip or something similar would help. It doesn't detract from the gameplay however and once you get used to it you won't even consider this anymore.

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