Elderand is a dark and brooding Metroidvania game that harkens back to the classic Castlevania games. You’ll battle a variety of enemies, from demons to bosses, while fending off the evil that has taken over the land. Elderand‘s story takes place in a mythical world where evil has been forged by a tyrant named Sserthris.
Despite a few issues, Elderand is an entertaining game for the fan of the genre. The pixel art is beautiful, the world is well-designed and populated, and it makes you feel like you’re in a perilous place.
Cthulhu Mythos Lovers are Going to Love This
Elderand has a story that draws on the Cthulhu mythos. Inspired by Castlevania, the game combines the Metroidvania genre with Lovecraftian themes to create an interesting and challenging experience that is sure to please players who like their action rooted in darkness.
The game is set in a ruined land where dark forces have taken over, and the player takes on the role of a nameless hunter who’s washed up on a deserted island. Here, the world reveals its evil presence to the protagonist, who must take out Sserthris, an evil ruler who controls a mysterious realm of madness and cosmic horror.
Be Ready for Unlimited Gore
Elderand‘s environment has an enticing air of doom and ruin, heightened by its bright and rich visuals, strikingly portraying its grimy vistas, biomes, and monsters. The gruesome repercussions of combat, in particular, are a thrill to witness, with heads hacked off and bodies rolling away with the flick of your sword.
Traversal is also fairly solid, with numerous paths leading to secrets and wealth. It also has a few nice elements, such as the opportunity to sacrifice health at ritual locations in exchange for trinkets that can help you explore the environment more easily.
Gameplay Is Not Revolutionary, But Promising Enough
The game’s mechanics are built around a set of familiar core key attributes such as vitality, strength, wisdom, and dexterity that allow players to increase their damage from melee weapons, ranged attacks, magic spells, and health. This is a common Metroidvania-style stat system, but Elderand‘s version takes a different approach by offering great flexibility.
The combat in Elderand is a very skill-based affair that requires careful timing and positioning to take down your enemies. The fights can be tough at first, but it’s easy to learn the standard move sets and master your own style of combat.
As you level up, you can allocate points to one of the four categories and improve your weapon damage, critical strike chance, mana, and health points. This gives you a lot of freedom to tailor your weapon arsenal for any given situation and helps create a more fluid, less linear play experience than you would find in many other metroidvania games.
As you explore the world, you’ll pick up weapons and other items to boost your attack, mana, magic, and your health or stamina. A variety of armor can also be crafted to provide additional benefits or reduce the effects of certain status ailments, making Elderand a rather versatile game.
Elderand is now available for PCs on Steam and for Nintendo Switch on Nintendo Store. It is also expected to be released for PlayStation and Xbox consoles in the future.
