Esoteric Ebb Review: A Deep Dive into Labyrinthine RPG Adventure

Esoteric Ebb is a new CRPG from developer Christoffer Bodegård and publisher Raw Fury. Drawing direct inspiration from the deep narrative and worldbuilding that RPGs are well-known for, Esoteric Ebb tells the story of a unique cleric on a quirky quest.

A Journey Through a Labyrinthine Town

Esoteric Ebb tells the story of a young cleric sent to Norvik to investigate the explosion of a tea shop. It’s up to the player to explore the streets, interrogate the townsfolk and look for whatever clues they can find. Despite this goal, the player is actually free to do things as they please, ignoring what’s supposed to be the main role to look for other quests.

Walking around town and the catacombs beneath it, the player has the chance to interact with many individuals and objects. It’s possible to get items and learn more about the world and even simple conversations are a source of experience in the RPG, as a big part of it is text-based.

There are many NPCs to get to know and the city itself has a lot to offer, especially as the narrative is quite compelling. These interactions will consume time, making the story progress forward. Specific actions have consequences, events may disappear, and the best play is to weigh the possibilities with proper planning.

At first, getting to see everything and explore each nook can be overwhelming. There are many options, and it’s hard to grasp what could amount to the “best scenario” in the first run. Norvik’s areas on both the surface and the underground are labyrinthine, filled with turns that will demand effort to understand. It’s confusing and time-consuming with limited vision and maps as guides.

As there are many quests and things to take on, it can get pretty overwhelming to keep track of everything. The game does offer a questing menu, but instead of a clear list of everything the player has to do, it’s instead stylized into a tree-like structure and has a different focus: each completed node gives the player new passive skill options called feats, which impact the interaction options.

A Curious Cleric and His Crazy Interactions

When it comes to the way to handle things, players have six attributes to keep in mind, each of which is tied to different actions and ways to understand the world. Strength is often used for brute force solutions, while Intelligence helps players understand complicated situations and come up with plans. Wisdom brings empathy with others, while Charisma helps manipulate them in social interactions.

One of Esoteric Ebb’s curious traits is that each of these attributes are also manifested in the gameplay as voices in the player’s head. They have different opinions and help inform the player’s decisions throughout the experience to the point that they’re actually the more frequent characters to talk, acting like opinionated narrators that have different things to say depending on the player’s alignment with that aptitude.

At the beginning of the story, it’s possible to choose how to distribute points and which attributes to treat as personal strengths. These choices affect dice rolls, giving players more chances of having a good outcome from specific actions. Previous actions and conditions like “being tired” may also impact how likely it is to do things well.

The protagonist, Ragn, is a rich character with a detailed backstory. Even though the player has a lot of control over his actions, there are clear aspects to his past and the uniqueness of his personality, which is often surprising (not to say crazy) and inquisitive. Especially when some interactions are activated, there are many fascinating facts to learn about this besides the richly detailed world.

In a sense, it’s interesting how battles feel very integrated in the same system of interactions instead of breaking from it. When finding an enemy, it all starts with rolling dice for initiative, and the one with the best value starts combat. However, choices are generally situational rather than just “Attack” or “Use a specific magic”.

Maybe a character will falter when looking at a frightening enemy, or players will have to negotiate out of a messy encounter. The variations and options give depth to how the game represents the values of a tabletop RPG, giving the player choices to get a grasp of their surroundings, and using other possibilities well.

Magic Systems that Change the World

Another aspect to keep in mind is the many magic options. As the player explores, it’s possible to find many spell scrolls that may let them cure wounds, cause damage to others, protect themselves from harm, talk to animals and do many other tasks.

There are many NPCs to get to know and the city itself has a lot to offer, especially as the narrative is quite compelling.

Before using them, players have to find a shrine and prepare spells that will be available to cast. The number of simultaneous options varies according to the Intelligence attribute, but players also have to take the levels into consideration. Each spell is associated with a specific level, which has a certain number of usage slots. That means that the player can opt to use Cure Wounds many times or instead spend one of those to speak with animals, for instance.

There are also Cantrips, which are specific spells that can be used liberally during exploration. It’s possible to receive blessings from elementals with Druidcraft . As a result, magic truly changes the world around the player and the gameplay becomes richer when more options are obtained.

Closing Comments:

Esoteric Ebb is a fantastic RPG with a gripping narrative and plenty of options to explore. There’s so much to do and so many threads to explore that it can be a little overwhelming at first, especially with the lack of a simpler list of potential tasks or other guidance. For those that insist on it, what you get is a full-course meal into a mesmerizing fantasy world.