Elin

About Elin

Elin is a single player and multiplayer open world role playing game with fantasy and mystery themes. It was developed by Lafrontier and was released on November 1, 2024. It received overwhelmingly positive reviews from players.

Successor to the roguelike RPG "Elona". Adventure, survival, crafting, home-building, myths passed down, and stories of humans and Elea spun. What scars will you leave on the land of Ylva?

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Reviews

95%Audience ScoreBased on 3,960 reviews

gameplay92 positive mentions

grinding311 negative mentions

Immense freedom allowing players to do almost anything they want, including building towns, farming, dungeon crawling, crafting, raising companions, and more.
Extremely deep and complex sandbox gameplay, with a vast number of skills, stats, races, classes, talents, and mechanics encouraging player experimentation and emergent stories.
Frequent and passionate developer support with almost daily updates and an active modding community enhancing gameplay and QoL.
Addictive progression system with skills and stats increasing through use and creative approaches to character building.
Unique, bizarre, and humorous elements adding charm and personality to the game world and player experience.
Enormous amount of content and replay value, capable of absorbing hundreds to thousands of hours of playtime.
Engaging base building and settlement management combined with RPG mechanics, economy, and survival elements.
Strong community support including helpful Discord, wiki, and guides beneficial for new players.
The soundtrack and pixel art style add to the immersive and quirky atmosphere of the game.

Steep learning curve and minimal in-game explanations requiring players to rely heavily on external guides, wikis, and community help.
Initial gameplay can feel confusing, grind-heavy, and slow with some tedious systems like crafting, cooking, or tax payment.
Certain game systems such as combat can be unbalanced or frustrating with RNG elements causing sudden difficulty spikes.
UI and controls can be clunky, text and UI elements often small or dated, impacting usability, particularly for new players.
Some game content and features feel unfinished or incomplete due to early access status, including story progression, NPC AI, and crafting depth.
The game includes highly questionable and uncomfortable content related to child characters and sexual themes, which has caused strong controversy and backlash.
Certain gameplay mechanics like the tax system are intrusive and can detract from enjoyment, requiring constant attention and travel.
Randomness and grinding can overshadow reward and progress, making long-term investment feel tedious at times.

gameplay
504 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
18% positive mentions, 78% neutral mentions, 4% negative mentions
Elin offers a highly complex and deep gameplay experience blending roguelike dungeon crawling with crafting, base building, farming, and town management mechanics. While its steep learning curve, obscure systems, and minimal in-game explanations can be intimidating, patient players are rewarded with extensive freedom, emergent gameplay, and addictive long-term progression. Despite some rough edges typical of early access, its unique blend of mechanics and constant updates make it a rich and engaging sandbox RPG for those willing to invest the time.
- “An incredibly deep RPG with crafting, base building, farming, and a ton of other mechanics.”
- “It's super fun, has tons of unique mechanics, beautiful art, a huge world that constantly loads new instances in areas, difficult mobs/bosses, and great quality of life and building with its base management.”
- “Elin has a very solid core gameplay loop of dungeon crawling, quest chasing, base building, and progression that already holds tens to hundreds of hours of fun per character depending on how dedicated you are.”
- “With that mentioned, we get into the mechanics and... my god... is this game complex, basically you start with nothing except a handful of recipes, a bland piece of land that you get tricked into owning, a very short tutorial that teaches you almost nothing and then you get a slap on the back and off you go.”
- “So many core mechanics hit an abrupt wall and are completely abandoned as you progress.”
- “This is another problem with the game; everything in it is very obscure and unintuitive—buttons, controls, mechanics—everything is strange, without a clear pattern, without using common game mechanics, without explanations, without even a short text in the menu giving some tips.”
story
410 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
9% positive mentions, 88% neutral mentions, 3% negative mentions
The game's story is currently minimal and unfinished, serving more as a basic framework with a few key NPC-driven quests amidst an open-ended sandbox experience. Players often find the main narrative linear, sparse, and somewhat unengaging, with much of the enjoyment stemming from emergent, player-driven stories through quests, base building, and exploration. While the story and quests offer some charm and unique scenarios, many reviewers emphasize that the title shines more as a sandbox RPG with deep mechanics rather than a rich, traditional storyline.
- “The story even so early in development is also really good and the music hits different so when it comes all together in the story moments it just makes you feel.”
- “Related to the lore while doing the main quest, the characters you're introduced to aren't exactly cutting edge in terms of originality, but their intriguing backstories and role in the story makes them surprisingly engaging.”
- “The story so far at least is excellent, with a good mix of intrigue, unique characters, and just barely enough explained to get you theorizing without spelling out what will happen next.”
- “The story is bare-bones and unfinished, and mostly involves key NPCs talking at or around you about their own problems while your silent protagonist just kind of does what they tell you.”
- “The main story & quest components are about as barebones as it gets; admittedly almost nonexistent beyond the first few sections currently in the game.”
- “[b]TLDR:[/b] 'sandbox' game that needs you to do main story quests to progress, the tutorial & story are forced and unskippable, base building is also mandatory, boring and shallow.”
grinding
313 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
0% positive mentions, 1% neutral mentions, 99% negative mentions
The game is highly grind-focused, featuring extensive repetitive tasks across farming, crafting, base building, and dungeon crawling that can feel tedious and slow, especially in early and late stages. While some players find the diverse mechanics engaging and rewarding over long hours, others criticize the steep progression walls, RNG dependency, and micromanagement demands that may dampen the experience for those less tolerant of heavy grinding. Overall, it's best suited for players who enjoy deep, complex, and highly grindy RPGs with freedom to pursue various activities but may feel overwhelming or monotonous to others.
- “The survival elements aren't tedious either.”
- “There is a lot to do and a loooot of grinding, this is a slow burn game where progression is slow even when efficiently farming for certain stuff so I usually just enjoy the music and visuals.”
- “Take Stardew Valley, delete any meaningful dialogue, make base building an absolutely withering experience, and then start no-life grinding to repeat the same shoddily procedural-generated content.”
- “On top of that, training costs become far too steep as they continuously increase while your stat gains stay flat, turning basic progression into a tedious wall.”
music
192 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20% positive mentions, 70% neutral mentions, 10% negative mentions
The game's music is widely praised for its charming, cozy, and nostalgic JRPG-inspired soundtrack that enhances immersion and atmosphere. However, players note that in-game music can become repetitive, and poor music performances often provoke hostile NPC reactions, adding a quirky, challenging element to the musician role. Overall, the music contributes significantly to the game's unique charm, despite some repetitiveness and risks associated with performing.
- “The gameplay offers a high level of freedom and immersion, and the soundtrack is fantastic.”
- “The music is great and there are apparently hundreds of different songs that you can even find as collectibles and use in your base as background music or in a jukebox.”
- “The story even so early in development is also really good and the music hits different so when it comes all together in the story moments it just makes you feel.”
- “The music is an ear sore at least for me.”
- “Game seems absolutely massive in both its world, skills, furniture etc. it's honestly very fun, but the parts that bother me are the ultra repetitive music (I rarely ever turn off in-game music, but this is maddening) and the layer of generic anime/weeb content they put into this.”
- “What made me refund the game were lack of cosmetic details, poor animations, clunky UI, the music not being great and the controls requiring you to go an extra step to learn them on top of being clunky.”
graphics
151 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25% positive mentions, 72% neutral mentions, 3% negative mentions
The game features charming, anime-inspired pixel art with isometric 2D graphics that evoke nostalgia for classic JRPGs and indie titles like Stardew Valley and Rimworld. While some find the visuals dated or simplistic, many praise the improved graphics over its predecessor, describing them as beautiful, cozy, and fitting the game's deep, complex gameplay and atmosphere. The graphics may not appeal to everyone, but the extensive mod support and unique art style greatly enhance the immersive and creative sandbox experience.
- “Graphically, the game is isometric top-down with beautifully drawn pixel art.”
- “The graphics and tilesets are also among the prettiest for a game in the genre which houses many expected complex subsystems and status effects, this makes for one of the most compelling dungeon crawling/procedural based roguelike games out there.”
- “The isometric graphics are a welcome improvement, and the gathering, building, and crafting systems are well-designed and deep without being cumbersome.”
- “Everything is barebones and it feels like a downgrade from its predecessor, slow updates and barely significant. The only upside compared to Elona is the graphics, if you can call that an upgrade for a game that exists in 2026. Can't recommend this especially not to casual players; they will be highly disappointed. This game is niche and full of weird stuff that often makes you question the developer's mental state.”
- “Insane schizo mishmash of overcomplicated and diluted systems, balance is non-existent, enemies and dungeons are uninteresting, complete with the worst graphical style the early 2000s had to offer.”
- “I don't mind 2D, but the graphics of the portraits just give me the ick.”
humor
101 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
The game's humor is a quirky blend of zany Japanese-style comedy, absurd randomness, and dark, sometimes crude elements that create frequent laugh-out-loud moments and unpredictable scenarios. While some find the humor delightfully chaotic and nostalgic, others note it can feel forced, cringy, or off-putting due to edgy and bizarre content. Overall, the humor greatly enhances the game's charm and sandbox freedom, appealing especially to fans of weird, anime-influenced, and internet-culture-infused comedy.
- “Elin/Elona is not a game that is easily described as many of its absurdities are sure to leave you laughing.”
- “The world feels alive, unpredictable, and often hilariously cruel.”
- “It's as much of a deep dungeon delving RPG experience as you want it to be, it's cute and cuddly, it's dark and depraved, it's wacky and hilarious, your only obligation in the game is to make money and play in the sandbox to your heart's content without restriction.”
optimization
21 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
14% positive mentions, 67% neutral mentions, 19% negative mentions
The game offers a highly immersive and unconventional RPG experience where poor musical performances can lead to severe in-game consequences like being attacked or killed, reflecting a unique gameplay mechanic. However, optimization issues with visuals and UI are noted, with players hoping for improvements to enhance performance and clarity. Overall, despite some rough edges, the game’s complex systems and freedom of choice show great promise once better optimized.
- “This game feels like an uncut gem as of right now - with some time and optimization of the UI and so on, along with a bit more direction, this game could be very engaging.”
- “Money is just hard enough to earn and the tax bills for your land are just frequent enough to make me always check in on the local quest board when I'm in a town to see what I can do easily like kill requests or music performances (tip for music, practice on your own to avoid being stoned to death, or do what I did and get strong enough to just dodge or fully mitigate all damage from thrown rocks. I even got a free tomato thrown at me once that was delicious).”
- “If you perform around people they will give you tips if they enjoyed your performance.”
- “Hope dev can improve visual performance; most of the NPCs look completely different from their portraits, and when they move they are just moving PNGs.”
- “If your character has low music skill, you'll just straight up be murdered for your outright garbage performances.”
- “Money is just hard enough to earn and tax bills for your land are frequent enough to make me always check the local quest board when in town to find easy tasks like kill requests or music performances. Tip: practice on your own to avoid being stoned to death, or get strong enough to dodge or mitigate damage from thrown rocks.”
replayability
17 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29% positive mentions, 53% neutral mentions, 18% negative mentions
The game offers extensive replayability driven by diverse paths, deep character freedom, and a wide variety of builds and playstyles, including RPG and roguelike elements. Its rich content, crafting, land-building systems, and modding support provide virtually limitless playtime and evolving gameplay experiences. While the slow leveling pace may pose a challenge for some, the overall depth and community potential ensure long-lasting engagement.
- “Replay possibilities are endless here; nothing is the same when you choose a different path.”
- “Absolutely a delight to play with an absurd amount of character freedom and replayability.”
- “Even more so with the addition of the crafting and land building system, giving it tons of replayability.”
- “This reduces the replayability as getting on your feet with a new character is quite a bit of work which many will find apprehensive.”
- “Adding that everything has levels and leveling up is pretty slow, it is impossible to judge the replayability before much more playing.”
- “If you love deep, replayable, ever-evolving games — buy elin.”
emotional
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
The game offers a wide emotional range, from wholesome and cozy experiences like farming and building a peaceful ranch to humorous and touching quests that can evoke laughter and surprise. Its playful, sometimes bizarre content combined with an engaging community and heartwarming music creates a uniquely charming and emotionally varied atmosphere.
- “You don’t have to engage in slavery, prostitution, drug trade, cannibalism, etc. If you just want to be a wholesome turnip farmer with a cozy ranch full of chickens, ducks, cows, sheep, and goats, go for it.”
- “It's silly, engaging, and constantly surprises me with some new thing, mechanic, or suddenly touching writing.”
- “The music during these times is particularly heartwarming.”
character development
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25% positive mentions, 37% neutral mentions, 38% negative mentions
Character development in this game is praised for its depth and variety, offering players extensive progression opportunities reminiscent of roguelikes and RPGs, with personal growth remaining a central focus. The system combines skill-based advancement and crafting mechanics, appealing to fans of colony sims and deep character-building experiences. Overall, it provides a rich and engaging journey from humble beginnings to powerful progression.
- “Deep character development and endless dungeon crawling make for a fantastic adventure in a world where you can do just about anything.”
- “It truly feels like it has endless possibilities of character development and progress.”
- “To me, as someone who's bounced off of Dwarf Fortress and similar games numerous times, it feels like a game for people that are interested in that sort of experience, but not actually engaged by it. While there are definitely rich colony-sim elements to explore, personal character development is still front and centre.”
- “Similarly, in terms of character development, Elin resembles Kenshi; you start off as a nobody, and everything can kill you.”
- “I love the character development with the Fallout style of 'get better at whatever you do/use' and a crafting system almost as deep as Dwarf Fortress.”
atmosphere
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
57% positive mentions, 43% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its cozy, nostalgic, and soulful vibe, enhanced by charming aesthetics, engaging music, and detailed world-building. Players appreciate the relaxing yet immersive ambiance that encourages exploration and imagination, making it a standout feature that adds depth and enjoyment to the experience.
- “The game oozes atmosphere: from UI to mapping to music choice, no recent game has given me this much soul with its presentation and attention to detail.”
- “One other moment you're just sitting back, enjoying the music, appreciating the vista of the place you're in and how peaceful and atmospheric a place feels with every NPC doing their thing.”
- “Coupled with the aesthetics and atmosphere, this is a perfect game that allows your imagination to truly run wild.”
stability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions
The game's stability is questionable, as it feels perpetually unfinished and buggy despite years of updates. While regular content additions keep it engaging, players may encounter frequent issues, especially in less stable versions.
- “First, the game is one of those that seems to be permanently in a state of perpetual early access and is still quite buggy despite being around for years.”
monetization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
0% positive mentions, 50% neutral mentions, 50% negative mentions
Users feel that many games have shifted toward quick cash grabs, making them cautious and reliant on demos before purchase. However, this particular game is appreciated for avoiding microtransactions, offering a more genuine MMO-like experience without aggressive monetization.

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Elin
$19.99
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Play Times

67h Median play time

144h Average play time

20-139h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 42 analyzed playthroughs

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Frequently Asked Questions

Elin is a open world role playing game with fantasy and mystery themes. Common tags for Elin include indie, traditional roguelike, exploration, pixel graphics, early access and others.

Elin is available on PC and Windows.

On average players spend around 144 hours playing Elin.

Elin was released on November 1, 2024.

Elin was developed by Lafrontier.

Elin has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from players. Most players liked Elin for its gameplay but disliked it for its grinding.

Elin is a single player game with multiplayer support.

Similar games include Wayward, The Doors of Trithius, Caves of Qud, Project: Gorgon, The Matchless Kungfu and others.

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About Elin

Games Like Elin

Wayward

The Doors of Trithius

Caves of Qud

Project: Gorgon

The Matchless Kungfu

Devil Spire Falls

Amazing Cultivation Simulator

Kynseed

Dinkum

Staxel

Reviews

gameplay

story

grinding

music

graphics

humor

optimization

replayability

emotional

character development

atmosphere

stability

monetization

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Elin

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