When comparing Elona+ vs Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, the Slant community recommends Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup for most people. In the question“What are the best open-source games?” Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is ranked 9th while Elona+ is ranked 73rd. The most important reason people chose Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is:
There are a few different classes available at character creation, each one has it's own abilities that are different from the others. Creating one is quite simple, which makes for a fast way to get into the game and start playing.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Active community
Even though the original developer of the game finished Elona, the community came and made an expansion called Elona+ which is updated regularly to this day (adding a new story, items, NPCs). In Elona you can only go around North Tyris, in Elona+ you can go to South Tyris and Lost Irva after finishing the Act 1.
Pro Easy to get in
Of course, to be at the top a visit or two to a wiki might help. But to start to play and have fun? Aside the starting tutorial, you don't need anything more. This is a far cry away from other roguelikes which try to be as much as in deep, but end up being too complex.
Pro Graphically pleasant
The zelda-like (or RPGMaker-like) graphic might not be everyone's cup of tea, but is pleasant to look at, and makes everything very clear and intuitive.
Pro Surprising amout of content
Number of skills. Number of unique abilities gained at certain skill levels. Number of spells. Number of random quests. Number of weapons. Number of combinations of everything with any material. Pets. Everything is up to 11th in this game.
Pro Lots of customization options
Do you want to become a snail pianist? There are a lot of customization options like races, jobs, and clothing.
Pro The game can be modified
You can replace or add some files to make your own NPCs change their appearance and add some new features to the game.
Pro Marry anyone
You want to marry a girl? How about a god? A dog? If you find that boring, how about a Tentacle monster that can destroy worlds? in Elona+ you can marry any of them.
Pro Simple character creation with different classes
There are a few different classes available at character creation, each one has it's own abilities that are different from the others. Creating one is quite simple, which makes for a fast way to get into the game and start playing.
Pro Gold Standard for roguelikes
The controls and replayability have been refined over the years. Whether the player chooses to play with Tiles (graphics) or console (ASCII) the game works well even when choosing online or offline play. Either way there is just enough interface to play the game.
Cons
Con Eventually all your PCs will look almost the same
Since there isn't a siginificative penalty about a wizard who is even a farmer, who is even a fencer, who is even a bodybuilder, eventually all your PCs will end up being some "jack of all trades", with the only limit to them being imposed by the player himself and a bit by the initial race chosen. This makes it a bit repetitive over more playthroughs.
Con Some NPCs have untranslated dialogues
The developer is Japanese, so is the game. All the important dialogues are translated, while the others are not.
Con Have to fiddle with controls
Being that the game uses an emulated keyboard on screen it works best on tablet, though is not really the preferred method (but is the only one) since it takes up screen space.