Neftelia is a 2009 RPG Maker exploration game about collecting 14 animations in a surreal and slightly unsettling world. I'd normally avoid such obvious statements like that but considering the obscure nature of Neftelia and its creator, it'd help to know what exactly this game is first and foremost. While this may sound similiar in structure and tone to other famous surreal-exploration RPG Maker game Yume Nikki, it's not really inspired by or derivative of Yume Nikki at all. It's more Yume Nikki-adjacent than anything else.
The main draw of exploration games like these are the environments and the tone, which is where Neftelia falters. The majority of environments aren't visually interesting, and the world is very small, meaning you'll be seeing the same boring places repeated ad nauseam. The tone is also underdeveloped, being only mildly unsettling or mildly interesting, without going strong enough on either extreme to be continually engaging. Compound this with the cryptic nature of the game and Neftelia very quickly becomes a slog to play through. The 14 animations are the saving grace here. They're very short, about 15 seconds max, but they're visually interesting enough that I wanted to see what the next one held, even if my enjoyment was hampered somewhat by the tedious nature of the experience.
Neftelia may seem interesting with its mysterious origins and somewhat unsettling tone, but there's nothing to really bite into here. The only feeling I had after finishing it was just mild dissatisfaction and boredom, and I can't really say I'd recommend it to anybody.
The main draw of exploration games like these are the environments and the tone, which is where Neftelia falters. The majority of environments aren't visually interesting, and the world is very small, meaning you'll be seeing the same boring places repeated ad nauseam. The tone is also underdeveloped, being only mildly unsettling or mildly interesting, without going strong enough on either extreme to be continually engaging. Compound this with the cryptic nature of the game and Neftelia very quickly becomes a slog to play through. The 14 animations are the saving grace here. They're very short, about 15 seconds max, but they're visually interesting enough that I wanted to see what the next one held, even if my enjoyment was hampered somewhat by the tedious nature of the experience.
Neftelia may seem interesting with its mysterious origins and somewhat unsettling tone, but there's nothing to really bite into here. The only feeling I had after finishing it was just mild dissatisfaction and boredom, and I can't really say I'd recommend it to anybody.