NEStalgia was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game for Microsoft Windows created by American indie developer Silk Games.^[1][2][3] NEStalgia was launched on February 23, 2011,^[3][4] then released for Steam on April 15, 2014.^[5][6] The core gameplay follows the classic Japanese role-playing game format (particularly Dragon Quest)^[1] with turn-based battles, random encounters, and explorable towns and dungeons.

There are eight character classes in total. The focus of NEStalgia is a cooperative party system in which players join up to battle monsters and complete quests together.^[2][3][7][8]

In addition to the classic elements, the game has world chat, a guild system, Player versus player combat, rare items and gear to find, a quest log, and a player auction house for item trading.^[9][10][11]

The game was designed by Ben Mallahan, who has been creating online games using the BYOND game creation system since 2001.^[12][13] NEStalgia was in development for two years, which included an 11-month public beta period. The game was launched on February 23, 2011.^[4]

Since release, NEStalgia has undergone many changes. Notable changes include improved framerate, graphical and interface upgrades, and a "companion" system that allows solo players to recruit and fight alongside most monsters in the game.^[14][15] Although NEStalgia was developed and powered using BYOND, it became downloadable as a standalone game in June 2012.^[16]

NEStalgia was submitted to Steam Greenlight in August 2012.^[16][17] It was Greenlit on August 28, 2013, then launched on Steam on April 15, 2014.^[6][18]

The last update for the MMO was in September 2016.^[19] All official game servers have been offline since October 2018.^[20] The official forum has been offline since December 2019.^[21]