WorldNeverland (sometimes abbreviated as Worneva) is a Japanese series of Life Simulation Game titles, developed by Althi, that originated on the PC, and later saw several installments on the PlayStation Portable. The latest installment, and only one to be released in English so far, is a mobile game that later received a port to the Nintendo Switch in 2018. This game's full title is WorldNeverland: Daily Life in the Elnea Kingdom.
In the world of WorldNeverland, humans age three times as fast as they do in our world, so a 6-year-old in their world is comparable to an 18-year-old in ours. Otherwise, life is much like it is in our world: People have jobs, they have fun, they fall in love and get married, and they eventually die.
When players begin the game, they take on the role of a traveler who has recently stopped in the kingdom on their travels. Their initial goal is to become a citizen of the kingdom. However, the game is very open and freeform, allowing players to pursue a number of goals. They can take on jobs such as farmer and priest, form friendships with NPCs (and eventually get married and start a family), grow crops and flowers, go fishing, explore dungeons and fight monsters, do quests, attend a variety of events and festivals, and even influence the growth of the kingdom. Notably, the game has a large gameworld with a huge number of NPCs, all of whom have their own lives and personalities. In fact, the "kingdom simulation" aspect of the franchise is a (legally) patented aspect of the series!
To put it in a X Meets Y way, it's like Rune Factory meets The Sims.
Note: Since only one game in the franchise has come out in English, this list will primarily be about the tropes in Daily Life in Elnea Kingdom.
- All Genes Are Codominant: Children can take after any combination of traits from their parents, so things like having a dark-skinned blonde are pretty common.
- All There in the Manual: There's a TON of lore behind the gameworld that you'll only learn if you read all the books in the library, such as the history behind the various holidays in the game and the various regions of the world Wiala talks about when she discusses her cuisine. Part of this is due to the lack of export of other games in the series.
- And Your Reward Is Parenthood: Once you get married, you can have up to six children with your spouse, if your house is big enough. You can influence the personalities of your children, take them on playdates, and help them with special quests. And having children is important, as you'll need to pass down to one of your children to keep playing, since your character will eventually grow old and die!
- Artificial Atmospheric Actions: NPCs will chat with each other and develop their own relationships.
- Artistic License – Biology: In Real Life, any man over the age of puberty can father children (though there's a higher risk of birth defects for older men). In this game, however, "Elderly" men cannot father children even if their spouse is young. Presumably, this is to prevent Game-Favored Gender issues. Later patches allow a small chance for elderly people to have children naturally - but this applies to both genders, again probably to prevent Game-Favored Gender issues.
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp":
- All of the crops you can grow resemble normal crops, but have unusual names. As just a small sampling, you can grow: Peppi (peppers), cucur (eggplant), pyrus (lemons), pomalo (tomato)...
- Fish are the same way. The standard fish you most often catch are Entz (angelfish), Veras (rays), and River Gazo (river crabs).
- You can also do this yourself! If you catch certain rare fish, you have the option to name them yourself.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Some of the NPC families that appear when you first start the world break the "rules" about Elderly characters having children. Players can only have one child past the age of Elderly, and only if they have no other children. Sometimes, however, you'll see Elderly couples with more than one child who, due to their age, would logically have to have been born after their parents were Elderly.
- December–December Romance: Nothing forces you to get married, so you can get married late in life if you wish. NPCs do this much more rarely—most of them will get married by the age of 13 (or 36 in "normal" years), but it's possible for two Elderly NPCs to pair up if you accept two near-elderly travelers into the kingdom and they pair up.
- Downloadable Content: There are several DLC packs available with various different items. Most of them are purely cosmetic things—new clothing, hairstyles, and furniture. However, you can also purchase equipment that greatly increases your movement speed, as well as two special dungeons.
- Foreign Queasine: Wiala loves cooking new dishes from around the world, and several sidequests have you bring her ingredients so she can try new foreign recipes. Occasionally after trying some, she will sheepishly remark that it's definitely not to her tastes.
- Game Over: If you're a traveler and you stay in the kingdom for a year without obtaining citizenship, or if your player character dies, your game will end. However, the world generated in the game persists, so you can create a new traveler and keep playing in the same world—and, if the previous player character died, you can even befriend and possibly marry their children!
- Gameplay Automation: Exploring dungeons can be completely automated if you like. However, depending on the dungeon, the traps might make mincemeat of you if you don't take control long enough to use a trap shield.
- The Good King / The High Queen: The crown of Elnea is passed down to the eldest child regardless of gender, so the kingdom has both kind kings and kind queens alike.
- In-Game Novel: The library contains several lengthy tomes (each about 15-20 pages long) that explain the lore of the world, from their creation myth to the geography of the world to several aspects of the kingdom.
- Intergenerational Friendship: It's possible for adult characters to befriend children, and vice versa. However, an adult and a child can't max out their friendship, as the adult will say that the two will "play together more when you grow up." There's special dialogue if a child grows up and then becomes Best Friends with an adult acknowledging this.
- Legacy Character: The Mountain Corps work like this. Each of the six Corps families is descended from one of the original six founders, and the head of the family is tasked with carrying on the legacy of their particular ancestor. It's also why members of the Corps are not allowed to intermarry—to avoid complicating the lineage.
- May–December Romance: You can marry someone much older or younger than you if you like. Wife Husbandry (or Husband Husbandry) is even an option.
- New Skill as Reward: You can sometimes find new weapon skills in treasure chests in dungeons. In addition, certain quests of Wiala's will teach you new cooking recipes.
- Passing the Torch: This is a crucial gameplay mechanic, as your character will eventually get old and die! You will have to choose one of your children to inherit after you, which is part New Game Plus and partially changing which part of the game you play.
- Planimal: The Ihms, the Series Mascot of the game, turn to trees when they die, which sprout fruit which grow into more Ihms.
- Pregnant Badass: Pregnant women can tear through dungeons as well as anyone else. They can even participate in the White Night combat tournament—and potentially win it—all while pregnant. However, they can't do certain things (like dungeons) on the actual day they're due to give birth.
- Procedural Generation: A variant. When you first begin the game, you are placed into one of eight "initial states," which are built-in sets of NPCs in certain roles. Everything beyond that initial setup, however, is procedural.
- Precocious Crush: Can be implied with some dialogue between kids and adults.
- Relationship Values: You can befriend a huge number of your fellow NPCs.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: The royal family actually keeps a greenhouse of rare plants and tends to the Elnea kingdom's sacred honeybees, as well as all the meetings they oversee and the officiating they do. Plus, the Princes and Princesses Consort can take up jobs besides being royalty if they like.
- RPG Elements: Each character has stats for HP, Strength, Defense, and Speed, and the dungeon exploration takes the form of a series of turn-based battles. Some jobs, such as Knights, are entirely combat based, though all jobs need to explore dungeons periodically to gather items.
- Series Mascot: The Ihms, vaguely rabbit-like blob creatures who roam the kingdom and who appear frequently as a motif on the food and clothing in the game.
- Sliding Scale of Gender Inequality: Near Perfect Equality. In addition to the statistical equality between male and female characters, hereditary titles (such as those of the Royal Family and the Mountain Corps) pass to oldest child regardless of gender. Plus, whenever a couple gets married, they can choose which family name to take. (Unless one member of the couple has a hereditary title, in which case their last name takes priority.)
- Supreme Chef: Wiala, the owner of the tavern, is an excellent cook who will teach you new recipes so you can become one yourself.
- Tastes Like Friendship: Played with. You can give people food to increase your friendship with them, but only after you've already reached the "Friends" level of friendship.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: You can use an anti-love potion to break up happy NPC couples. You can break up with your own partner. You can stalk a pregnant woman the day she's due to have a baby and crash her child's birth. Or stalk somebody on their deathbed and watch them die. Though the game doesn't really acknowledge either.. You can even overcharge travelers for crappy souvenirs!
- Video Game Caring Potential: On the other hand:
- You can grant citizenship to any traveler you want.
- You can decorate the houses of your friends and plant flowers all over the kingdom.
- You can go around giving hugs to babies. They'll remember you when they get older and become your friends.
- What's Up, King Dude?: The king/queen wander the gameworld freely, and you're free to befriend them like any other NPC. If you get close to them, they even have special dialogue for some events. For example, if you take them out to lunch on a holiday, they'll remark that they rarely get time to relax on busy festivals because they're too busy running the kingdom.
- Wife Husbandry: It's possible for the player to do this if they befriend a child NPC and then date them when they come of age.
- Wonder Child: If you marry late in life or marry someone much older than you, who is past childbearing age, you can use a rare item called the Birth Egg to have a single, miraculous child.
- World of Technicolor Hair: Bright blue and green hair are common hair colors among the populace, and can be genetically passed down from parents to children. Many other hair colors are possible via hair dye, but blue and green are the naturally occurring ones.
