Elrentaros Wanderings Of Hakama it’s an interesting one dungeon crawler in style Light Novel based on the characters’ bonds. The title was initially released in Japan, and came to the rest of the world on Nintendo Switch And PC August 16th. Elrentaros proposes a story “isekai“, a genre that typically features a protagonist transported to another world.
The Players’ Journey alternates between the real world and the fantasy village of Elrentarosthese two dimensions are interconnected and maintain the same characters, albeit with different roles: Hikari, the village cleric, for example, in the real world plays the role of class representative.
The adventure begins
The protagonist begins the story by waking up in a tent on the edge of Elrentaros. Without memories reaches the village where some inhabitants recognize him as traveler. After talking to them he discovers that Romero, a trader and explorer, could shed light on his situation. Unfortunately Romero has not yet returned from the dungeon near the village, becoming a source of anxiety and worry for the inhabitants, the protagonist, eager to understand his situation, decides to enter the dungeon to save Romero. The dungeon is the key mechanic of Elrentaros Wanderings, and each journey within it allows the player to grow by obtaining new equipment, skills and resources.
Character Growth It is not defined by a level achieved through experience, but by a average between the Weapon Level and of the equipped armor. all the equipment found in the dungeon is of different quality, and features passive and active, random abilities that can be activated by spending gold in the appropriate menu, thus ensuring a high rate of repeatability in the game loop.
Dungeons, however, are not simple experiences: each of them is made up of more floors controlled by a guardian (boss). The failure of an exploration involves the loss of all the loot, furthermore, the dungeon levels propose challenges to the player aimed at obtaining gifts to give to the villagers, useful for strengthening the bond between the characters and unlocking special rewardssuch as narrative cutscenes and powerful abilities, like spells.
Simple is better
The game system Elrentaros Wanderings is designed to be easy and accessible. In combat There are no special key combinations, but skills tied to a single triggerlimited by some charging times. This also includes using dodge and healing abilities.
Triggers are fully customizable via the equipment menu and include four slots for item enablements, such as healing, magic bows, offensive and support spells. In addition to the four slots mentioned above, there is an additional space dedicated to active ability of the equipped weapon. The latter is unique to higher rarity weapons, and once unlocked provides great advantages such as wide area attacks and devastating single-target hits.
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The game, however, is not just about exploring the dungeon, and includes interaction with a great cast of characterseach of which features unique elements and sides to discover. After a successful dungeon incursion, that is, by completing all the secondary challenges, it is possible to obtain mission objects to deliver to the characters to increase their affinity level and continue the narration of the story of Elrentaros Wanderings.
The level of affinity also allows access to special light novel-style scenes, where players can obtain information on the game world and delve deeper into the stories of their favorite characters. Increasing the affinity level by offering gifts to characters also grants unique equippable bonuses related to their personality and expertise, for example Miyabi the daughter of the two generic merchants of the village provides additional protection against traps and status ailments caused by the monsters of the dungeon, while Citta, the young elf, makes the skills related to magic bows more effective.
A quiet village
Elrentaros Wanderings tried on Nintendo Switch it turns out stable and fluidThe well-crafted setting manages to transport players into a village stylized with bright toneswhile the soundtrack guarantees moments of relaxation outside the dungeon and energetic tones inside it, enhancing the overall impact of the title.
The scenes they are presented as in a light novel, full of dialogues but without animation different from the static background of the environment in which they are placed, sometimes resulting stressful due to the amount of information provided to the reader.
The game systemalthough simple, is very limited by the recharge times of the abilities, negatively impacting the fluidity of the action side of the title. This forces players to opt for armor categories focused on reducing recovery times, often common and lacking unique abilities like those found on high-grade equipment.
Overall Elrentaros Wanderings offers aexcellent narrative experience accompanied by a good soundtrackwhich however is limited by the lack of animated scenes other than the initial one in the menu. The main mechanics focused on dungeon exploration It may be repetitive and frustrating after a few hours of gameplay, due to the choice to initially hide the secondary objectives from the player, as well as a non-procedural map but with a fixed morphology designed to reproduce the same experience on multiple repetitions in order to complete all the secondary objectives to continue the narrative of the characters. The equipment another important element is variegated and interesting, allowing the player to creatively approach the proposed challenges, however, the repetitive nature of the title does not allow to maintain a fixed set for more than two dungeon incursions, subsequently forcing the player to perform periodic checks of his inventory.
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