مێلیسا سارنۆڤسکی نووسەری یاریکردنە لە کۆمپانیای DualShockers کە لە ساڵی ٢٠٢٢ەوە بە شێوەیەکی پیشەیی یارییەکان دەگرێتەوە، پسپۆڕە لە لیست و پێداچوونەوە و تایبەتمەندییەکان، لەگەڵ ئەزموونی زیاتر لە نووسینی ڕێنماییەکان بۆ Hardcore Gamer.
If you're looking for an eerie game that leaves you constantly confused about whether you should feel unsettled or cozy, then Welcome to Elderfield is for you. It's set in a world where the mythos of Lovecraft's writings are real, and you happen to be a Dreamer, which is established in the opening section of the game. In case you aren't familiar with this part of Lovecraftian lore, a Dreamer is somebody with the ability to travel to the Dreamlands, an alternate dimension, while sleeping. Cthulu is famously a Dreamer, one that's trapped in the underwater nightmare city of R'lyeh as he sleeps.
Instead of being thrown into a main plot at the start, you experience day-to-day life as a resident of Elderfield. This includes doing tasks for other residents who have their own strangeness that's addressed like it's completely normal, if it's addressed at all, and working on farming and ranching. As you complete more tasks and days pass by, the town grows increasingly weird.
For both horror and cozy games, the atmosphere has to do a lot of heavy lifting. Welcome to Elderfield uses the atmosphere so well that I was left wondering how to describe the feeling it leaves. Cute and comforting shouldn't blend with unsettling, but they do in this case. It's bizarre in the best way.
Cute and comforting shouldn't blend with unsettling, but they do in this case.
The art style chosen for the game is perfect for adding to the feeling that you're seeing a mythos come to life. It reminds me of the style used for picture books of darker fairytales, as in the actual Grimm versions that get translated with art added to them, mixed with Junji Ito's style. I don't know if it's because I have a book of twisted fairytales that includes art that's similar to that of Welcome to Elderfield, but it gives the game an overall storybook quality that's so fitting for a Lovecraftian piece that's also cute in its own way.
For the sound design, I like that the music and sound effects aren't overpowering. They add to the world without distracting from it, and I almost forget that I have sound on with how seamlessly it fits in the atmosphere. Lofi music tends to be hit or miss for me, but I enjoy the darker style of it that's used in Welcome to Elderfield. I just would've liked for the master volume to not start at 100, but that's basically the default for every game, and it always ends up being too loud for me.
I really liked this part of interacting with the world. You watch the news each day and there's always some new occurrence from overnight that should be concerning, but the entirety of the town is concerning as a baseline state, and that's normal to everybody there. When you talk to the townsfolk of Welcome to Elderfield, some of them love the features of the town that make it abnormal. This is the normal that they're used to, so there's no reason for them to feel like anything is amiss.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.dualshockers.com/welcome-to-elderfield-review/
