Good day!
Yes it's a good day to play a horror game, since it's some time since I played one. This time the game will be Elys, made by Ryoku in 2017, I already knew this italian developer (author also of other games like Tales of Angelica, The Fate of Alexis, and Estern Browncloster that sadly were never translated into english) since I played Deep Darkness, his first game made in 2015 that has many similitudes with Elys, but this one shows a lot of improvements over the "prototype".
I can start telling you that this game isn't very long, taking up to two hours (but you can also finish it in less time, anyway it's normal for a horror game), and has four slightly different endings.

The protagonist is a blue haired pale girl, Elys, and... wait a moment! Elys... Alis... Alice? Oh yes, that's not a coincidence, the game is inspired by Alice in Wonderland, and that's a good thing since at first this game looked like a thousand similar ones, like The Witch's House I reviewed recently: a lonely girl looking for an escape route from a haunted house (wow, really original!).


Oh no please, I am ok with severed heads, blood and everything... but not spiders!

Wait, did I say "The Witch's House"? Oh well, this game is structured similarly, with puzzles, minigames and typical adventure tasks that require collecting items and use them in the right places. But there's also a "Mad Hatter Mode" (See? I told you this was inspired by Alice in Wonderland! The Cheshire Cat is included too, of course!) that is an interesting feature in theory but a bit clunky practically, still not too bad. Then there are traps and minigames that at first may sometimes be frustrating, but when you know what to do it's totally another matter.

Being a horror game expect blood and violence, and jumpscares, of course! All is well done, including the many gruesome death scenes (don't worry, all these are just on "pixelated level" so no great details!) that sometimes take quite a bit (F12 is your friend if you want to skip to the menu, of course).

Visually the game is really peculiar, with many surreal place alternated to traditional maps, the resorces and Rtps were clearly modifies through the use of some graphic filters, and even if I admit that it's a style (Picturesque is the word I'd use) you may like it or not, it surely stands out. Music and sound effects are very good too, I'm not familiar with them but they contribute to a creepy and dark atmosphere. So cool visuals and nice music, both are excellent aspects of this game in my opinion, really.


Let's play some cards! Hey that's Aces full!

Final Verdict
Elys is a good game to play, I had fun with it, just a couple of things were abit "off": first I was not very fond of some frustrating parts that will surely make some players ragequit (let's just say that some hints might have been more informative!), and the story! Yes, unfortunately the lack of originality (and not just about the plot, I mean also the endings are very classics, and I expected more particular twists) is the biggest problem of this game, clearly not a huge problem since you can still have a lot of fun with it! These are few little flaws, since the puzzles and tasks are well designed and, except for a couple of exceptions, pretty good. A classic horror game, well crafted and with little flaws!