Nintendo Switch – World Neverland Elnea Kingdom #129

Where do I begin?

WorldNeverland ElneaKingdom – Nintendo Switch – Released: 3/15/18 – $29.99

Short Review (Review copy provided by Althi)

World Neverland has a ton of things to do with a pretty big world. But it is held back by many things and ends up being repetitive over an enjoyable experience. You are a new traveler to the kingdom with the tutorial goal of becoming a citizen. Living out your life in this kingdom for the rest of the game. Much like Animal Crossing there is a ton of stuff you could do or do anything you want. You can become a farmer, knight, scholar, priest or become king after a long process. This sounds interesting on paper but there is a catch… everything seems to have little to no impact on the world around you. For a game that claims to be a Fantasy World simulator, I wish there was real impact if I decided I wasn’t going to harvest this year as a farmer. Going from a free-to-play mobile title to a Switch release is a bit upsetting since there is DLC on the eShop as well. I sadly have to give this game a 2 out of 10. The amount of things to do in the world is great but when nothing you do plays any part of it. The game becomes sad if you choose to continue playing.

Wish the icon had the title bigger because there are words under the title:

Story

The game involves you the player coming to this new kingdom and becoming a citizen. It is citizen simulator much like Animal Crossing but about a kingdom. Nothing is really going on which is a shame because the game offers a lot of content.

Gameplay

When you first arrive to Elnea you will need to do tutorial things that will inform you on everything you can do. The tutorial is mandatory to earn enough money to be able to become a citizen which you must pay to get. Once you become a citizen, depending on the class you decide you will earn money by doing different tasks.

 

This could be a farmer who supplies the kingdom of food, knight who will fight in dungeons to defend against monsters, Mountain Corps who will mine ores, Scholar who will explore ruins for herbs, create medicine, and collect artifacts, and lastly the Priest who teach children and lead events. King on the other hand doesn’t do much, I wasn’t able to get to King but according to the wikipedia page they only need to pick honey and flowers from the green house. The process to become King is better explained in my personal experience.

 

Other than doing those jobs on repeat. You can get married, have children, and transfer to one of them to continue your generation. Nothing impacts each other so if I decide not to farm nothing happens in the world. I wish there was some sort of impact but nothing comes out from doing anything. There is also a fast travel but it is just a running animation instead of just teleporting me to a new location. This means if I need to get to another part of the city. I need to walk through each section and wait for my character to get there. It isn’t like Skyrim or Fallout, it would be like your character ran in a straight line to that location. That is all there really is to do so even though there is a lot it is a lot of the same stuff all the time.

Personal Experience

When I hit 10 hours into the game, I was grateful to put it down because even though there is a ton to do in the game. Nothing serves any real purpose, the goal is to become King if you wanted to but the process involves a lot of work. I looked around the wikipedia page to gather more details on the process of becoming King. It involves marrying into the royal family. This part isn’t that hard but you can’t become king. You would have to have children with the crowned prince or princess. This process doesn’t happen fast and since you have to marry into the royal family that too may take even longer. Depending on your children and the royal family’s children. 

Final Thoughts

I wanted to like this game since it is the only one like it on the Switch. I know the series has a long running history in Japan. I want to know if the game is poorly designed due to it becoming Free-to-play or if the series was always average. This game may have taken a real nose dive for the series. Considering this is the first game in the series to get localized. I doubt many people will buy it and they won’t bring another game to the states. I have to give this game a 2 out of 10, it is a sad end for a game that has some great potential. There is also no reason for this game to have DLC in the eShop that does things like makes fast travel even faster. 

My Gameplay Footage:

Trailer:

End Credits

I went into this game looking forward to it since I thought it would be an interesting game due to it being a Kingdom Simulator. I wonder how well it sold since if it wasn’t a free to play game it may have been better. The game has 5 other games in the series on the playstation to PSP. It is a shame to see a game that does well in Japan take its first leap into the states and end up like this. If the other games are more story involved or focused on the world aspect, I can see it being a great little game. I can’t believe there is DLC for the game and it hasn’t been out, all the DLC is around $10 as well. Either way I hope you enjoyed the review and let me know what you think, see you guys in the next review!

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