GAME REVIEW: ESOTERIC EBB 👥 Developer: Raw Fury 🎮 Play Time: 27.5h 🎖 Achievements: 51% (so far) ⚔️ Genre: Adventure, Indie, RPG 🖊 Rating: 10/10 Esoteric Ebb is truly one of the best games I've played this year, and even though I've rolled credits on it once, I can hardly stop playing it! The creator of the game, Christoffer Bodegård, made this game with the intention of presenting the player with as much freedom as the medium can offer, creating a virtual Dungeons and Dragons-like experience within the world of the Esoteric Coast. Bodegård has openly stated that Disco Elysium was one of his inspirations for this game and you can really tell - not just that it's in the same genre of CRPG, but that your inner monologue fights with itself over the direction it wants you to go in, controlled by dice rolls. I think, compared to Disco Elysium, the writing isn't as good. I think that's fair since this game is mainly the brainchild of Bodegård, while Disco Elysium had a larger team of writers. However, I think the world Bodegård created - the Esoteric Coast - is incredible! Dungeons and Dragons, generally, is a lot less dystopian than what Disco Elysium was portraying with Revachol, so Esoteric Ebb goes for a more Discworld-like fantasy which I really loved. He avoided making any obvious allegories within the lore to our own history, so it really feels developed and lived in as a world. I also really enjoyed the freedom in this game! The way you interact with the world really depends on your Chimes, or abilities (i.e. Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma), so having a high stat will result in making a key inference in a conversation or inner monologue, or noticing something in the environment around you that you otherwise wouldn't. I think in Disco, there were a few skills that seemed like they were necessary to play the game well. In Esoteric Ebb, since there are only six Chimes, it really gives each one the space to shine in their own right, so they're all really useful at high levels! I especially noticed this since I had quite low Strength in my first playthrough as an Azgal Cleric-Druid, but high Strength in my current second playthrough as a Nationalist Barbarian. This alone gives the game so much more replayability, but these choices you make with ability scores also affects what conversations you have and what you interact with. It really changes the entire way you play the game! Character-wise, I really love the different personalities in this game, especially Snell (would die for that man). Each character I found really interesting to talk to, and I never felt like there were filler conversations at any point, so on that front I think the writing was pretty solid. Another aspect of the game I really loved is the spellcasting! Ragn, the main character, starts the game as an Arcane Cleric, meaning that he specialises in spell magic. That means you get to collect spell scrolls as you explore the city, and every single spell and cantrip is useful in some way. There are many encounters and fights you can get into where your options become quite expansive just based on the spells you have or who is currently in your party. Bodegård also clearly tried to give the player as much political freedom as possible - one of your first encounters after waking up in the game is mediating between the Azgalist dwarves, a stand-in for socialism, and a Freestrider orc, a stand-in for capitalism. Later down the line, you also learn about the Nationalists, who are human-centric and somewhat fascist. To Bodegård's credit, he tries to approach each ideology with as much nuance as possible, although it's pretty clear Bodegård is a social democrat. When I was playing as an Azgalist, I was given a choice between incrementalism and violent revolution, and it was clear which way Bodegård was leaning based on how these tenets of Azgalism were portrayed in their respective characters. Regardless, I think he does a pretty good job with giving the player this freedom as well! There's probably a lot more I can say about this game but this review has become quite rambling, so I'll end it with this. I really, really loved this game - even with my high expectations, it surpassed them even more. It's rare for me to continue a game after I've rolled credits on it, but I've found even more joy trying a completely different character! Just goes to show how successful their attempt at giving the player as much freedom as possible was. So I highly recommend everyone check this out! If Disco Elysium is a little intimidating (with its 1 million word count), I think this is a good introduction to the Narrative CRPG sub-genre. Go play it! #Game #GameReview #EsotericEbb #RawFury #CRPG #RPG #IndieGame