Indie 'sequel' isn't a sequel at all, says solo dev behind the original cult JRPG: It's using the name without permission, but they "have no strength to fight" it

Two characters talk on a bridge at night in pixel JRPG Elin — (Image credit: Lafrontier)

A cult classic roguelike JRPG called Elona is getting a 'sequel,' and that's certainly news to the solo developer behind the original.

Originally launched in 2007, Elona is a free sandbox JRPG with roguelike elements that people still play today, gathering online to chat about strategies and the like. While its creator, Noa, is working on an open-world prequel called Elin that's coming to Steam thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign, a full-fat sequel is not in the works.

As Automaton reports, another publisher, called Hong Kong Kunpan Culture Entertainment, has announced it's making a mobile game called 'Elona 2~Pixel Art x Isekai x Adventure RPG,' which has apparently been advertised as a sequel to the beloved sandbox JRPG and is now open to pre-register for on app stores.

In response, Noa tweets that the mobile game is not a proper sequel to Elona and that they even declined a request to use the game's title. “I’m an independent developer and have no strength to fight this,” they add.

So what's the deal? Following Noa's tweet, the developer behind the mobile game has clarified that Elona 2 is actually the follow-up to Elona Mobile, which was made by another developer called Digital Dog, who allegedly had permission to make that mobile game. It's Digital Dog that Kunpan says it got a 'legitimate' license from.

Automaton says the confusion likely wasn't helped by a now-deleted Japanese press release that billed the mobile game as the “latest successor to Elona” and said it was set in the world of Ylva, just like the original that Noa put together. Regardless of whether it was intentional or a mistake, though, fans slapping community notes on Elona 2 when it appears on Twitter to let fans know what it's actually a sequel to.