From time to time, a game that you did not know absolutely nothing and that it impacts you in a way that you did not expect; The total prior ignorance helps to accentuate the surprise, of course, but from time to time, I insist, it is the game itself that puts on your part to create a genuine interest, an independent fascination of surprise. About An Elf is one of those games.
About An ELF tells the story of Dam, the self-proclaimed princess of the elves, and the adventure of it to establish eternal elphotopia. Developed by mermingoute interactive (a study that I do not know anything and that it is very difficult to know anything: by its website I know it is in Austin, Texas, and its Twitter, with 16 followers and zero followed, I have not been able to take a lot more), About An Elf is described as _ «A Point-and-click-Ish, RPG-ISH, Visual-Novel-Ish Game About Friendship, And Cats, and… Gummy Bears and Other Silly Things» _; It is, indeed, a pastiche of concepts taken from different genres, from visual novels, by the main importance of the text, to the Japanese RP Games of the 90, by wiños and allusions, passing through the lighter graphic venture, which They depend less on the convoluted puzzle and more to explore the scenarios in search of interactive elements with their eyes.
It will not be remembered for its mechanical complexity or the depth of its systems, but About An Elf has a very different ace under the sleeve: combining a tremendously unusual aesthetic and a comfortably rigid structure, the game is an authentic burner of unbalanced conversations and situations written absurd, and described, with the agility and rise of the Shitpost sharper; The way in which embraces the most total nonsense is, sometimes, literally incredible. About An Elf tells the story of Dam through his own narration he does from her from her adventures of her to the supposed best friend of her given her, to which she is over the rest, she mangroves and deceives pleasure and without Too much success; In the journey of it by the domains of the king of the terrors, Dam knows Roland, a cat of standard size (gigantic next to Dam, which is tiny) with which she beings to train him and turn it into a hero. Soon the monstrousities come with which Dam and Roland must face, dolls with ridiculous costumes to which challenges using the magiballs, a kind of elementary marbles on which the combat system depends on: at the beginning of each confrontation, a vision is presented ( some birds perched on an electric cable; a gas stove; a lighthouse…), and to beat you have to choose the correct Magiball; For example, if in the vision a beach appears, you have to choose the water margin.
It is a ridiculously flat system and although it earn a bit of complexity as you never want to go beyond being a joke, a mockery to the elementary systems of the JRPG of those that are often cropped; They are barely a small stumbling so that moving itself is as simple as pressing over and over again, and at the same time they work perfectly as creators of a hypnotic, repetitive but not machacon rhythm, from which the game is mocked as well as and as it He wins, putting Roland by means, for example, or abruptly ending the clashes for the most pilgrim and surrealist reasons. If About An Elf’s technical invoice was not to be solid, it would almost like an exercise of automatic writing or a bad joke that only laughs at you, that you are playing. As eccentric as they are, the images that Create About An Elf have a much more meticulous and aware job than the average meme: the design of the characters, the dungeons or even the visions that precede each combat is fascinating; Even the music, which mixes Dembow with the type of compositions and instruments of a soundtrack of JRPG, seems aware of its role within this great infinite joke.
The big surprise of About An Elf is in the competition with which he uses his languages (the video game, but also, and above all, the English language in which he is written; it is muy well written, with fast and crazy phrases full of inventions and word games, double senses that not only generate humorous situations but suggest and reinforce tensions and meanings much darkening and fucked than Dam and his colorful way of seeing life can give a priori to form An experience that does not give more turns than the necessary, which in two or three afternoons gives you everything that has to offer and leaves like wine. He goes and see how he laughs as he moves away. You do not know what you laugh at; You do not know if he laughs because yes or if he laughs at you, by panoli, but the work is already done and there you are, thinking about the elphotopy, asking what is that and where a game is so unique and extravagant, and maybe Why there is no more like him, or who know how to channel the same chaotic and funny energy that just dropped you on, like lightning.
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