Lelie Navigation!

A classic RPG experience with some lovely sprite art, Lelie Navigation! is a niche game to be sure, but one that will no doubt be a hit with JRPG fans. As basic as it is charming, this is a game that won’t break new ground with its concept, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t be enough to satisfy those players looking for a short RPG experience.

Despite its apparent simplicity, there’s a lot of backstory to unpack with Lelie Navigation, starting with its somewhat lewd origins. This version of the game, however, is completely clean, as long as you play the game the way the localizers intended.

Finders Keepers

In this game, players will take on the role of Lelie: a girl with a strange power that lets her find anything a person might need. This ability, known as “Dousing,” can sometimes lead Lelie into trouble, as it happens at the beginning of Lelie Navigation.

At its core, this is a very straightforward classic RPG. As you explore new towns and help people with their problems, you’ll discover bits and pieces of Lelie’s story, and also you’ll unlock new companions to take along in your journeys.

Lelie Navigation feels like a mix between Rune Factory and Final Fantasy. First off, the mechanics of helping random villagers with their problems sounds like it comes straight out of a life simulation game, but the combat gameplay is an obvious homage to Final Fantasy’s turn-based battle system.

Fans of the JRPG sub-genre will no doubt recognize a lot of the story beats presented in this game. It seems like Lelie Navigation revels in its inspirations, even if that means that it rarely does anything truly original on its own.

Explore and Adapt

Exploration and socialization play huge parts in the overall gameplay of Lelie Navigation. The overall tone of the game feels more like a parody than a downright epic RPG adventure, and that’s perfectly fine for a game like this.

Though it never takes itself too seriously, that doesn’t mean that the story in this game is offensively lackluster. On the contrary: if you enjoy some of the more relaxed anime genres, like slice of life dramas and the like, there’s a lot to enjoy in Lelie’s mischievous adventures.

Of course, we have to talk about the elephant in the room, and that’s the questionable content that’s available in the original version of the game.

As a doujin RPG, there were some lewd scenes that made their way into the original Japanese release of Lelie Navigation. However, when localizing the game for western audiences, the developers felt the need to take away all of the naughty scenes, leaving only some coarse language behind.

This leaves us with a game that feels more like a cutesy adventure, and that might be just the kind of affair that some gamers might enjoy. Rumors of a patch that restores the censored content exist, though we’re not sure if the game would benefit from such content.

Pros

• Adorable art style
• Fun story and characters

Cons

• Outdated sprite art
• Simplistic gameplay
• Translation could use some work