Elderand Review: Darkness Gets An Uninvited Guest

Developed by Brazilian indie studio Sinergia Games and published by Graffiti Games, Elderand is an action-adventure title that places you in the role of a nameless mercenary tasked with traveling to a remote island to defeat the evil that has taken hold there. Exposition is occasionally provided in the form of documents strewn about which detail various NPC experiences along with physically meeting the occasional NPC who will supply additional motivations by way of goods or services. Unfortunately, I must admit that the existing narrative of the game lost me almost immediately and never quite picked back up. However, exploring the sprawling moody world and witnessing various scenes of the cult in action gave me more than enough motivation to press on with the adventure.

A One-Merc Killing Machine

Combat in Elderand takes a simple array of actions and makes them a joy to engage by way of using smooth controls to trigger them. There’s a basic attack where you swing your currently equipped weapon, your weapon’s sub-function, which can range from a parry to a guard, to an aggressive evasion action, and lastly, a forward and back dash. As bosses are defeated, or certain items are discovered, these moves may be expanded or improved upon to provide more versatility with world exploration – my favorite of which being a grappling hook that can be attached to pre-determined objects to allow for either a swing action or an upward launch.

There are even equippable sub-weapons, similar to the likes found in Castlevania games, which can be used to supplement your tactics through things ranging from an upward arcing axe throw or a ground singeing firebomb. These sub-weapons are of limited capacity and need to be either found in breakable objects or purchased to replenish them.

Kitting yourself out for combat offers many viable options should you choose to delve into them. Level-ups provide skill points that you can apply to one of four areas – HP, melee/stamina, sub-weapon/bow/whip damage/crit%, and magic damage/mana points.  So, depending on what sorts of weapons you’ll prefer to use, you may find yourself torn on how to divvy those out. Fortunately, you can equip two different loadouts, which are swappable at the press of a button, so you can sort of build a layout appropriate for the situation and swap as needed. Factors such as blacksmith upgrade costs, stat gains, and additional perks such as armor that provides collision damage to enemies on impact or weapons with traits or button-input special attacks will further lend themselves to crafting some rather fun character builds.

Not Too Evil to Be Flexed On

My perspective on the game’s challenge may be a bit on the wonky side. Initially, I was uncertain of how to spec my character, so rather than evenly balance my stats like a sane person would, I instead opted not to spend any points whatsoever. By the time I reached the point where I could reset my character’s stats, I was somewhat committed to the cause and simply continued to move forward without spending points. This meant that I was utterly dependent on equipment for my damage output. There is a wandering merchant in the game world that sells items and equipment, but, more often than not, I was comfortable making due with gear found in treasure chests or via quest rewards. I do wish that I was able to upgrade equipment more frequently, but far too often, I found myself in situations where I’d be lacking that one key resource item to upgrade the gear at the blacksmith.

With that said, three key elements in the game gave me great joy to utilize during my playthrough of the game – Poison damage, spark mines, and the spectacular Ripper Ring accessory. Poison damage would come pack and parcel with some of the found gear, and it pretty much does what you’d expect, allowing me to inflict chip damage on foes while I performed my stick-and-move tactics. Spark mines came via an accessory, and this allowed me to fire projectiles of any kind, and they would leave floating mines in the wake of their trajectory, which would explode upon contact.

And lastly, there’s the Ripper Ring – an item that would allow me to leave behind a temporarily multi-hit sawblade whenever I used the evasive backstep maneuver. Combined, I would leap into an enemy, take a few slashes with my poison weapon of choice, backstep to leave a sawblade, then a few more times in my position to spam additional blades, and finally switch loadouts to fire arrows or magic blasts leaving mines for when the enemy would inevitably rush or fly towards me. A few tweaks were needed here and there depending on the foe and how powerful other gear was, but this tactic supported for a massive quantity of the game’s foes – including the boss fights – and I enjoyed every minute of utilizing it.

With all of that said, I think that it is safe to say that I would have likely had an even easier time of it had I been spending my skill points but, going at it the way that I did, the game was absolutely challenging but manageable. Using health potions still came through in a clutch, so just because death will always be at your door doesn’t mean that you have to be so willing to allow him passage. In fact, I recommend that most people that pick this game up attempt a similar min-stat play experience.

Cutting to the Chase

Ultimately, I came away from Elderand feeling mostly satisfied. It didn’t produce anything particularly unique or exceptional, but I’m not exactly sure that it was ever attempting to do that. What it did provide was an enjoyable adventure combined with impressive art and a splendid music score – seriously, I want the OST to this game and snappy controls with which to while away the hours of an evening or three exploring these lands beyond. I may not have been particularly invested in the printed goal of the quest. Still, I certainly enjoyed my time expanding the map, grapple swinging, and trouncing any would-be adversaries that stood in my way of reaching said printed goal. But, in an industry riddled with a plethora of similar experiences ranging from middling to exemplary, a game that manages to simply be solid, fun, and respectful of my time is certainly enough for me.

Final Verdict: 3.5/5

Available on:  Steam (Reviewed via Steam Deck), Switch; Publisher: Graffiti Games; Developer: Sinergia Games, Mantra; Released: February 16, 2023; ESRB: M – Mature; MSRP: $19.99 (Digital) 

Full disclosure: The publisher provided a review code.