• Price: $39.99 USD (digital, currently on sale for $31.99 until August 23rd); $49.99 (physical)
• Developer: HAKAMA
• Publisher: Red Art Games
• Release Date: August 16, 2024

A review code was kindly provided by Red Art Games on behalf of HAKAMA. We thank them for allowing us to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

Known as Rear Sekai in Japan, Elrentaros Wanderings is an action RPG developed and produced by Yoshifumi Hashimoto, known for his work on games in the Harvest Moon and Rune Factory series. As a long time fan of both series, I was excited to try something new.

You can play as a male or female character; you are new to Elrentaros and stay in a tent outside of town. For some reason many of the residents are incredibly suspicious of you. But you’re meant to “forge deep connections with the people of Elrentaros” as time goes by.

They’ve been having trouble with monsters, and one character asks for your help in removing the threat. The game has 3 difficulty levels, which you can change whenever you’d like. There are 2 types of dungeons: Lost Dungeons, which have existed since ancient times, and Arc Dungeons, which have appeared more recently.

Arc Dungeons’ entrances are difficult to find, and you’ll need to increase your friendship levels with the townspeople to locate them and advance the story. You start with one dungeon already unlocked, and by completing “Assist Requests” for each dungeon you’ll slowly strengthen your relationships with everyone.

Starting out, it’s important to note that you don’t level up in the traditional sense; instead, you increase your “Build Level,” which corresponds with the level of your equipment. I don’t mind grinding at all, but it was kind of refreshing to not have to do so for a change.

Each dungeon has a recommended Build Level, although at certain points I was about 10 levels under their suggestion and still did just fine. I wouldn’t say that the action combat was overly challenging on Normal mode, but some of the Assist Requests can be a little tricky.

There are 5 main dungeons that allow you to challenge them at different Build Levels, so there are several different “versions” of each dungeon with their own unique Assist Requests (x5). Regardless of which Build Level you choose, there are 10 Stages – or screens – in each Build Level version of a dungeon. Monsters appear in several “rounds,” and mob you when you step onto certain areas in a stage.

Some minor enemies even summon additional monsters, and continue to do so until they’re defeated. If you don’t defeat them quickly, the crowd might reduce your HP to zero. Defeat the minor enemies and make it to the end of 10 stages to reach the boss fight.

I think they could have included more variety in the minor enemies, as there were many reskins. (Granted, the reskins had slight variations in their abilities, i.e. different elemental attacks.) But I absolutely adored the boss designs. They summon minor enemies every so often, and you have to take care of the more troublesome monsters while also whittling down the boss’ HP.

Thankfully, you get at least one revival per dungeon run, which you might need at first. Memorize enemies’ attack patterns and avoid environmental hazards such as spikes and flames to reduce your chances of defeat. Unfortunately, if you use up all of your revival opportunities, you leave the dungeon with nothing, wasting your efforts for that run.

It’s important to get the best equipment possible to increase your odds of success. You can buy some in town, but I wouldn’t recommend it because their offerings aren’t as good as the equipment you can obtain in dungeons.

Monsters occasionally drop weapons and armor, and there are treasure chests here and there. Each dungeon includes several EX stages, which contain multiple treasure chests and some elusive monsters who drop better gear. Equipment is classified into different rarity levels, and there are 4 types of weapons to choose from.

You don’t learn any permanent abilities; your build is based on the way you upgrade your equipment. Weapons and armor each come with a certain number of Awakening (upgrade/ability) slots, as well as a selection of potential Special Attacks and passive abilities.

You get to choose (and pay for) any combination of abilities that can fit in the Awakening upgrade slots. I don’t think you can change abilities after you’ve filled the slots. It’s kind of disappointing that we can’t merge weapons or something to transfer abilities between pieces of equipment. The quality of your abilities depends on luck with drops, and the equipment system felt a little basic.

Besides the standard equipment, you can also acquire magic items by increasing your friendship levels with the townspeople. There are 4 slots to equip potions and magic items on your character; I really like that the potions were reusable – you just have to wait until the cooldown period is over to use potions and magic again.

The final slot goes to your “Alliance Buff,” or abilities gained by befriending people. Similar to other games, you make friends by giving people gifts. You have to plant crops using seeds found on the outskirts of town, and then wait for them to grow. Once you harvest the crops, you earn “Melcoins,” which can be used to give someone a gift. (Melcoins can also be earned by completing missions in dungeons.)

I was excited to see farming was a part of the game, but quickly realized that it’s really not a huge component. 😢 You plant seeds, but you don’t even have to water them. There isn’t much involved with the farming system; they didn’t add different kinds of crops or anything. This isn’t a game you play for the farming elements.

The story, social elements, and localization were what really let me down, though. They obviously tried to develop a story, but I didn’t think it was very successful. The game description talks about discovering the secrets behind your character traveling between 2 worlds, but we barely get to see the other world.

Elrentaros is located in the world with the fantasy setting, but I don’t think they developed that world as much as they could have, either. The town itself is very “bare bones”; its residents stand in one place at all times, not moving around at all. Some character events occur inside of their homes, but they only show the same background image for everyone’s house. We don’t get to see any individuality in that regard.

I felt that it was hard to connect with any of the townspeople because all of the interactions felt very “surface level.” Your character is a high schooler in the more realistic world, but you can still choose one of ten “Partner” characters to date and marry in Elrentaros. 🤔

I didn’t think the relationships were very romantic at all, or that we get to know the Partners very well. I chose Shuu as my partner, and the proposal scene was very lackluster to me – almost robotic. There isn’t even a wedding scene; all you get is one last Alliance Buff for proposing.

My failure to connect with the world of Elrentaros wasn’t helped by the awkward localization; I understood the basic premise of the story, but think I was missing some nuance that wasn’t translated well into English. Some dialogue sounded okay, but there was still a decent amount that didn’t sound natural to me. (And multiple characters used male pronouns to refer to my female character.)

That’s not to say that Elrentaros Wanderings doesn’t have any redeeming qualities. For one thing, I loved the character portraits, boss designs, and the dungeon environments. It was nice to have Japanese voice acting, and the soundtrack is pretty fantastic, featuring the work of Motoi Sakuraba! 🤩

While the world-building felt weak, I think the battle system is the strongest – and most prominent – part of the game. I liked customizing my equipment and choosing to (almost exclusively) use my favorite weapon type. I didn’t mind replaying dungeons to complete quests I failed the first time around because the dungeons are a reasonable length – and also pleasant to look at.

I’d estimate that the game takes about 40 hours or so to complete, so the play time is relatively long, but they also respect your time. Additionally, there is a New Game+ option, which allows you to carry over your money, seeds, Melcoins, equipment, and clear history. This isn’t perfect, but I did at least find the combat elements enjoyable.

7/10