I originally picked up this game due to a Black Souls mod I saw, since I'm a fan of Black Souls, and jumped right into the world of Elin. I made a Moonkin(Succubus) Pianist and met the two starting NPCs. One of them ended up being my future husband, Ashland. Who I f$#cked so had I accidentally killed them (whoops ><), only for me to then die to a random boar three days later. Got resurrected and like any sane Moonkin, I gatekeep, gaslight, and girl boss the local adventurers and monsters to kill the icky boar for me. Nine hundred days were spent on my first character, and I ended up having a legion(more like a harem)of dragons while simping for my Fox Mommy, who is also my wife? ASMR Goddess Horome. Needless to say, this game's peak, and now it's time for the real review.
The Good and the Bad
I will admit this game isn't for everyone, as it is similar to my experience with Path Finder Wraith of the Righteous and Dragon's Dogma One. I placed Elin in the "Open Wikipedia Games" category, where numerous things are going on in the background via skills, etc, for example, I wasn't even aware I didn't have the cooking skill unlocked, so I wasn't getting exp for cooking all this time :/.
You might feel overwhelmed at first, as this game has a deep learning curve, but I got a lot of satisfaction from overcoming it. I'm almost 450 hours in across two different characters, and I feel like it has a lot of things I'm still not doing right or optimizing properly, but I'm still finding success, so you don't need to worry about having to follow a "meta" if that's not your thing.
My main gripes about this game are how difficult it feels(or, in my case, bad) to start a new character, as this game currently doesn't have a new game plus mode, so you need to start from scratch and remake your entire base and re-level skills, which takes a lot of work. A second thing would be to give players a way to bypass the base building. This sounds like a strange request, but 80% of my time playing this game has been me living like a neet at home, crafting, planting, eating, etc.
I've only really engaged in the main story(outside of meeting Loytel), the world(unless it had materials I needed), or the Void when I've had most of my stats 90 to 100+. I have no issue with this personally, but I feel like a lot of people might be more willing to engage with the game if they didn't have to cut trees and pull weeds, etc.
Overall, I think Elin is a great game and is truly a unique experience I don't really think I can find anywhere else. 9/10 from me. I also recommend joining the Discord and asking questions if you ever feel lost(as from what I've gathered, places like Reddit have misinformation or aren't up to date).
