Elrentaros Wanderings

If you've ever found yourself enjoying the combat in a game like Rune Factory more than any other gameplay element, Elrentaros Wanderings might just be the game for you.

Elrentaros Wanderings, also known as Rear Sekai in Japan, borrows many elements from the Rune Factory series. The game excels in its combat mechanics, but the aspects that people most wanted to see - the farming and the social aspects - were left with a sour taste of incompleteness. Despite that, the game has a lot of charm and redeeming qualities that RPG fans can appreciate.

We didn't hate Elrentaros Wanderings' grindy dungeon-crawling gameplay. There are things to like, even if those moments are interspersed with long stretches of boring, repetitive enemy-bashing. There are hints of the trademark Rune Factory charm here and there, and the art is genuinely lovely, but this sparse action RPG feels like a new skin stretched far too thinly over the skeleton of a much better game.

There’s a lot to love about the idea of visiting another world, one where magic is real and there are monsters to fight and dipping your toes into a game by Hakama Inc. can often feel just like that. Known majorly for the Rune Factory series, this time the team brings something a little different in the form of Elrentaros Wanderings, a dungeon crawler set in the fantasy land of Melvania.

Welcome to Elrentaros, a hinterland town far from the Melvanian capital. Visiting on a journey, you mingle with the colorful locals and embark on a quest to find ways to help them. But your adventure takes a sudden turn when a strange light surrounds you and you wake in a different realm. Could this be the real universe? Unravel the secret of the two worlds! Switch version reviewed. Review copy provided by company for testing purposes.