Real life sucks. Sure, it has beautiful Hallmark moments sprinkled throughout the rollercoaster of crap that you've been forced to ride, but for every fantastic moment there is always those dreadful ones. Long, tedious days in the office. Horrendous fights with family and relationship shattering events between friends and partners. Let's not forget money issues, car problems, debt, and the fun pile of dung life flings at you when least expected. No matter how great your life is compared to others, we're all in need of an escape. Some choose less favorable options while most of the people reading this article decide to shelf their problems by living another life. Every game provides this escape to some extent. Simulation RPGs take this concept and run with it by providing the player a completely alternate life. The marketplace for this genre is cluttered, but titles like Harvest Moon, Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing and Second Life set the precedence for how to pull it off well. World Neverland: Elnea Kingdom for the Nintendo Switch is the latest installment in this genre, and Althi, Inc is not here to take a slice of the Simulation RPG cake. It wants the whole freaking baking industry. The major question is, will we turn to this title verses the other powerhouses whenever we get a sweet tooth? Well folks, it's my humble duty to answer that question for you.

History and Stats

Elnea Kingdom is the latest installment of the long-running World Neverland series that debuted way back in 1997. This title is the first of the series to leave Japan, but that's not the only unique aspect of the Switch's version. Elnea Kingdom was first released in English on iOS and Android 2 years ago, with a bucketful of achievements to write home about. On this platform the game is an online, free-to-play experience and generated a staggering 1.12 million downloads world-wide, while maintaining over a 4.4 rating on both mobile platforms. Althi, Inc could have easily taken the lazy route and ported the game over as is, slap a price tag on it and maintain the micro-transaction system we've all come to know and tolerate. Instead they did something that I haven't seen done before, to my knowledge. They gave this version a price tag of 29 (USD/EUR)/45(AUD), but revamped it into being a completely offline experience and took away all forms of micro-transactions. Yes, you don't need glasses. You are reading this sentence correctly. You as the gamer were given the choice to enjoy the same game in two different styles. You can play it for free in an online environment with the option of paying for various items in-game, or you can buy the entire game out right with the ability to obtain any item you need by completing quests, loot drops in dungeons, and other various ways. I don't want to ramble on about this topic, so I will leave it at this. *starts an awkward slow clap that turns into a full-out applause* Thank you Althi, Inc. I love this idea and I truly feel like you stumbled onto a gold mine that I hope other free to play titles decide to utilize. All of this won't matter if the game is a broken disaster not worth spending money on, so let's dive deeper to figure out what Elnea Kingdom has to offer.

Gameplay

When choosing a new simulation RPG to escape into, having the sense of freedom to do whatever the heck you want is key. I'm forced to partake in structured, ritualistic tasks in my normal life that I would rather not do, so having a game where I can decide what path to take in life adds to the immersion. World Neverland is the prime example of what I'm talking about. You start as a traveler, trying your hand at life in the Elnea Kingdom. From the moment you start your journey, the entire map is open for exploration. You can roam and screw any hand-fed missions like I did at first, but I strongly suggest following the quest line up until the end of the tutorial missions, since there is a lot of depth to the game that you will have a tough time stumbling onto without a little guidance. If you take my advice, five to ten hours of gameplay will consist of sampling everything the Kingdom has to offer, allowing you to get a feel for what you're allowed to do and what path you would like your character to go down. The major activities that will take up most of your time consist of farming, gathering, fishing, building relations, and exploration. From there, you're able to choose a job to invest into. These jobs span from your average farmer or miner to knights and their version of a priest. Picking the job that best suits your play style is important, since each job title provide unique loot and unlock other aspects of the game that are otherwise impossible without that title. For example, being a farmer allows you to take care of the Rudders(cattle), making cheese, and helping with the kingdom's harvest. I like this element of gameplay because it gives you the sense that what you choose to do with your time in this experience was your choice and not forced upon you through quest lines and story arcs.

I won't go into the details of every aspect of the game, since you have a life, or multiple lives to live. Every job and activity have its own style of gameplay that adds variety, helping to prevent the game from getting stale. To briefly name a few, fishing has a mini-game that involves mashing a button while preventing the meter from hitting the end of the arch, gathering has a chance of spawning enemies to fight, and exploration has a flushed-out battle system which I will explain in a bit. The biggest gripe I have with these various tasks is they all rely on a random number generator that can be bi-polar and unforgiving. One of the first quests took me over 15 minutes trying to find a single herb, but later when I went back to gathering, I found ten herbs back to back. I'm all for a good rng system, but it's frustrating when I'm spamming one area for items to the point where I lose my patience.

The battle mechanics in Elnea kingdom are nothing to write home about, but I wasn't expecting the depth it provides for the genre of gaming it's under. When exploring a dungeon, you simply press a, and your party moves in a linear fashion through the area. Your character can be accompanied by two other citizens by running into them once you arrive or inviting friends to join you. There are three different events that can be triggered during your exploration, causing your party to stop and deal with it; Battles, traps and treasure. The battles can be auto-completed, which is what I used for most of the easy encounters, but you have the option of choosing your attacks in a turn-based style system for only your character. Each character gets five attacks a turn, the last attack always being the strongest. When choosing your character's attacks, you have a choice between low, medium and high-powered attacks, a magic attack, guard, and a special that is unlocked after taking and dealing a select amount of damage. Along with your stats, your prowess in battle is determined by the weapon you have equipped, and your job title. Different enemies are weak against certain weapons, adding a layer of strategy to the combat. I haven't had any issues with the difficulty scale yet, but I've only been completing areas that are around my character's current level.

The fast travel in Elnea Kingdom was one of the first eye popping mechanics this game has to offer. Instead of your typical choose location, transition screen, then you've arrived, the game shows your character move in real-time throughout the kingdom until you reach your destination. This system does get redundant over time and I feel like having the option to allow normal fast travel would be nice, but with the layer of immersion it adds, I can't complain too loudly.

Immersion

As you can see thus far, Elnea Kingdom provides an expansive experience that can provide hours of enjoyment. With any simulation RPG, game play doesn't mean anything if the atmosphere the experience creates isn't enticing enough to keep you immersed. Some of the major mechanics Elnea Kingdom offers to increase the level of immersion are the same reasons why it almost fell short in this category. The fast travel experience is huge since it gives you the feeling of truly traveling throughout the kingdom to reach each destination. Another huge bonus is the ability to stop traveling to interact with a friend you see along the way, or if traveling past an area jogs your memory, reminding you of another thing that takes precedence over your current mission. Sadly, your character doesn't always travel the way he should, causing you to find yourself running into a wall or running back and forth on the same path in an infinite loop until you hit cancel. Every time this occurred, I remembered I was reviewing this game and lost the aura of relaxation the experience provoked. It did generate multiple episodes of intense laughter at how lost and confused my poor guy appeared, but I doubt that's the feeling the developers were going for.

Elnea Kingdom was originally designed to be a free-to-play title for Android and ios, offering an online experience where you can interact with other players. I haven't gotten the chance to compare the two games, so I'm not sure if the issues I experienced with the NPCs are unique to the Switch version. With this being an offline experience, the only interaction you have with other citizens of Elnea Kingdom are the NPCs. This is also a huge portion of the game, since you make friends for various reasons and you need to find a wife/husband to have children, allowing you to continue your linage. Interactions with the NPCs are not terrible, but left something to be desired, and a good portion of it is down right comical. To progress your relationship with any person, you basically continue to bug them, discussing the same topics with each interaction from a very limited pool of conversation starters. So far in my play time the conversations I've had were identical with every person.

The only things that alter the context of each conversation is the job title they have, the time of year or if an event is taking place that day, and the relationship status you have with that individual. Every time you ask them the same question, which seemed required to progress your relationship, it's the same response. It wouldn't have been so bad if the conversations themselves were engaging, but sadly it was very dry and way too corny when pursuing a romantic partner. The other issue I had with NPC interaction that broke the immersion for me was when a large group of your friends, and strangers, all decided to bombard you at once with requests, random tidbits of information, or just asking you to buy stuff from them. Your friends have no boundaries during these moments either, rushing into your house one by one to bug you while you're trying to cook dinner and enjoy a peaceful night alone. With some bug fixes and adjustments to these features I've listed, I would have been lost in the experience.

The game does redeem itself with an immersion mechanic that I'm in love with. Your character ages and dies. Once that happens, you can continue playing as your offspring, piggy backing off the choices and successes of their parents. I haven't gotten anywhere close to living a full life with my first character, so I'm not sure exactly how it works. The fact that this is there is a game changer. Majority of the titles in this genre don't have a true ending, but once you get to a certain status and complete the major quests the game provides, there isn't much of a reason to continue playing. Having the ability to play as your children is a fantastic way to remove that obstacle. Of course, the game needs to be enjoyable enough to play up to that point.

Graphics and Soundtrack

I don't have much to discuss for the graphics and soundtrack, because there wasn't much that stood out, but in this case that's a good thing. Elnea Kingdom is a beautiful game for what it was trying to achieve, but the art style didn't stand out and there were never points where I had to stop and admire what I was looking at. I don't think it was bad by any means, and all the subtle details and simple design helped add to the immersion without drawing too much attention to itself. The only animation that was unfortunate at first was the glidey movement of your character. After a while It wasn't a distraction, so I can't bash on it the way I wanted to at first. The soundtrack falls into the same category. Each area seemed to have a different track associated with it, and I don't recall ever hearing the same score to the point where I grew bored with it. It has a relaxing vibe throughout the soundtrack, providing an extra layer of immersion. Throughout my experience with this game, I was relaxed and in a state of zen. Both the graphics and soundtrack helped get me to that point. Nothing special, but it did its job well.

Is this worth the price tag, and should you buy it?

If you decide to follow my reviews, you will learn that I'm a strong believer in a simple philosophy; Every dollar you spend on a game should equal an hour of gameplay. I can't remember where I picked that up, but it altered my entire viewpoint of how games should be reviewed. If you end up putting in more hours than the dollar amount you spent, then the game was well worth it, and in my book, was an experience you enjoyed. This way of thinking is how I will base a large portion of my overall score, along with your typical breakdown. When it comes to Elnea Kingdom, I played right around the 30 hours of gameplay I was aiming for. I might have been over or under a couple hours, but my mind is made up and my scoring hand is ready. I can say with confidence that this game will easily provide you 30 hours of enjoyable gameplay, and many more after that if you're into this genre. If you have been flirting with the idea of trying a simulation RPG, World Neverland: Elnea Kingdom for the Nintendo Switch would be the perfect title to get your feet wet. I'm already looking forward to playing this game more. There are many flaws, causing it to get a lower score, but I was surprised just as much as I was disappointed. It was a pleasure providing this review to you guys and I hope this helps you determine how to spend your time and hard-earned money. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some Rudders to milk!