About An Elf

Created by Meringue Interactive -a group that, according to the credits, consists of two people- and released on the Switch in 2022, About An Elf is the story of the magical Elf Princess Dam as she goes on adventures with her talking cat Roland as they battle monsters and try to bring about the Elftopia.

...At least, that's what Dam says she's doing. The "reality" of the story is that Dam, like most elves, is a small, destitute creature living in a world filled with humans. Dam likes to tell stories of very questionable veracity to her sort-of-friend Dido, who views Dam as a delusional moron but still seems willing to listen to Dam.

The game as a pseudo-battle system; Dam often gets into fights with monsters. The viewer is shown a "vision" - several seconds of what is most likely stock footage - that represents an enemy's elemental weakness. You then have to select which of Dam's "Magi-Balls" - which look like cat's-eye marbles - to use against the monster. You start off with Water, Fire, and Lightning, and later add Light and Space. Picking the right option kills the monster and advances the plot; picking the wrong one causes Dam to lose a gummi bear and will require you to try again. This also represents a big part of the game's interactivity, as dialogue choices are infrequent.

...I would probably be remiss to not discuss the game's art style. Everything is either a real object that was photographed, or was rendered to look like it was. Animation is generally minimal. For example, one recurring animation of Dido hitting Dam with a lollipop has only two frames for Dido.

The game describes itself during a fourth-wall-breaking segment towards the end as a postmoderist work meant to question the idea of video games by minimizing interactivity, but the result is probably best described as a visual novel. And that part may have been meant as a joke.

So, uh... This game is real, right? It's not some weird hallucination or half-remembered dream I confused for reality? Please tell me somebody else played it.

Currently playing this game and I *adore* it. Really diggin' the "knick-knack shelf decoration of your weird aunt" aesthetic, and the game is less of an adventure, and more of a joke directed to the player so far. I should start a page for it.

Please make a page so I can actually make heads or tails with what I'm looking at (Watching Game Grumps play it).