If there is one game that I have been extremely excited to play, it is Emberville. Many of us have been waiting for it for a long time, and our hype only grew after the voice cast reveal. But besides the stacked lineup of voice actors, there’s just something alluring about Emberville, from its gorgeous art style to its cozy mechanics and its intricate progression systems. After experiencing a few of those features, I realized Emberville has everything it needs to become an all-in-one RPG that will attract gamers of all types.
Your Time at Vitromotus
I had the chance to play a very early portion of Emberville, which, despite its short length, was more than enough to hook me on most of its concepts, its world, and a couple of characters.
This build dropped me into what seems to be the tutorial area, where your character, for reasons I won’t spoil yet, is trapped in a prison world called Vitromotus. What was once a creepy magical prison has since become a full-blown magical dungeon.
After creating my gorgeous pixel art characters and breaking all nearby 16-bit crates, I stepped outside of the dilapidated building I spawned in and a mysterious figure handed me my butt. Cue a little déjà vu. So, take two, and I do the same again, but this time, there’s no enemy to stop me, which means I’m free to explore.
Right off the bat, one thing I loved about Emberville is how it seems to lean toward the more “explore in your own way” path, giving the whole adventure a real sense of discovery. You don’t have a map, at least not yet. There’s only a journal mentioning your next objective, and it’s up to you to figure out how to get there. At this stage, all I had to do was discover what this place was and find a way out, so I was largely left to follow my instincts and see where the adventure took me.
And so, with a rusty pair of knuckles, some torn pants, and a cool hat, I set off on my journey. You know a game is brimming with potential when one hour is enough to reel you in, and for me, the loot was the first hook. I wasn’t expecting so many items with different rarities, effects, and bonuses tailored to specific builds, from light armor for nimbler characters to heavy sets for the tank enjoyers.
When I had some good armor and weapons, I started using them against some enemies, which, despite their cute pixel art look, aren’t friendly at all, but more on that later. Here is where progression started to kick in, and I loved how it embodies one of my favorite systems, which is basically “use-it-to-level-it-up.” The more you use a weapon or armor, the more you’ll level up that skill and unlock masteries.
For instance, I went with knuckles throughout most of the demo as I was aiming for a DEX build, and quickly discovered that leveling my knuckles mastery unlocked combos. There’s even a magic system tied to staves, with some skills restoring Kymia (the game’s magical resource), and so on. You even have a class system; I was only able to unlock one class, but it looks pretty extensive.
Now, back to combat: it is extremely challenging. Whenever I see a game with pixel art, my mind immediately enters a “cozy state” of sorts, which, in Emberville‘s case, is a weird state to have, especially when exploring.
At first, I was facing some cannon-fodder foes, so to speak. A few spider-like creatures that really didn’t damage me much. Eventually, I reached a room full of hooded figures, and I got my butt handed to me at least six times—and honestly? I loved it. Here is where Emberville showed me that its combat isn’t just about mashing buttons mindlessly. You actually have to adapt to some foes, and maybe some weapons or builds aren’t that great for the spell-slinging enemy types. Frankly, I’m extremely excited to see how far it goes. If the first boss fight is an early indication of the combat system, we’re in for a punishing, yet enjoyable time.
Besides all of the above, I was also able to do some resource-gathering, of which there’s a lot. There are so many nodes of materials, which I imagine will be used in the city-restoration part. Yet, for this build, I was only able to cook a few basic meals to heal my characters.And so, after meeting my demise at the hands of those aforementioned hooded figures and getting sweaty palms while facing the first boss, I finally found my way out of the prison. And with that, my adventure came to an end—for now, anyway.
Onward to Emberville
I’ve previewed lots games, so I’m used to the length of a demo, but Emberville had me so hooked with the early look at its systems that I really wanted to keep going, to the point that I tried the demo another time to see if there was a way to play more, but nothing happened. So, all I can do now is wait for the early access release.
Still, Cygnus Cross did a marvelous job of giving just a quick taste of some of the game’s upcoming systems, which work surprisingly well when combined together. As someone who loves to see the RPG genre expand in as many ways as possible, I believe Emberville could be a title that caters to many players. If this early taste is anything to go by, its cohesive systems, gorgeous world, and engaging sense of adventure could make it very difficult to put down.
