Esoteric Ebb

While not quite as complex as Disco Elysium, this is a very fun take on that type of game. Great story, presentation, fun characters, and just flat out a good time. While I understand the limitations of a small studio having a game like this completely voice acted, I think it would be a dramatically better experience with good voiceovers. That's literally the only complaint I have, and ultimately it's a tiny ding in a very high end experience. If you enjoyed Disco Elysium, you really shouldn't give a pass on this gem.

endings can suck my ♥♥♥♥. All that was for 4 lines of text and "The red cleric"? ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hell. That literally ruins everything good about the game

was honestly pretty boring.

I can’t recommend Esoteric Ebb. It was hyped up as as “Disco-like,” but it’s ultimately a derivative of Disco Elysium, with a little Pillars of Eternity sprinkled in. I understand that it scratches the “I miss Disco” itch, but it falls immensely short of what Disco achieved. I couldn’t find an interesting spin on Disco’s formula. It plays almost identically and often feels even more constrained, since the regular D&D stats are much less interesting than Disco’s attributes and internal voices. Even the UI and inventory system feel like a carbon copy, which is especially awkward in a traditional medieval RPG built around D&D mechanics and looting. The writing also frequently felt corny and overly steeped in a kind of ironic “Reddit millennial” humor. It regularly breaks the fourth wall and inserts modern terms like “LARPers,” then uses glossary entries to sarcastically translate them into the game world. “Sex,” for example, gets a glossary entry explaining that it means “dwarven six”, a joke that apparently never gets old. The politics could have been interesting, but they felt too ham-fisted to work as an honest exploration of how political ideas might have evolved in a magical world. The plot intrigued me enough to keep playing, but ultimately went nowhere, and I never felt that my actions had meaningful consequences. I can see why people who desperately want another Disco Elysium might enjoy it, but for me it copied far too much while capturing very little of what made Disco special.

Lots of reading. Cool game, not as deep as Disco Elysium, but easier to digest.

Ultimately not for me. The beginning of the game was quite a slog and I found it very derivative of Disco Elysium. The story started to pick up midway through which is the highlight of the game. I don't have much love for the artstyle nor the soundtrack. The inclusion of a bunch of mechanics from D&D 5e did very little for me and I found them to be in the way more often than not. It was a bit buggy and even clearly unfinished in some sequences. I was relieved when the game ended. it's not a terrible game per se but I expected more from the reviews etc.

어쩌면 그는 친구가 될 수도 있다. 친구. 우정은 살아가는 데 꼭 필요한 것은 아니다. 아름다움도 그렇다. 사랑도 그렇다. 그런 것들이 네가 이 세상에서 살아남는 데 도움을 주는 것은 아니다. 하지만 오히려 그런 것들이 있기에, 살아남는 것에 가치가 생긴다. 다음 모험이 끝났을 때는, 가슴속의 텅 빈 구멍이 전처럼 크게 벌어지지 않고 탑의 사무실이나 엄마의 아파트에 있는 네 방을 채우는 적막도, 예전처럼 그토록 갑작스럽고 다급하게 너를 집어삼키지는 않을 것이다. 이 대사를 보고 무언가 느낀게 있다면 당신은 우정, 아름다움, 사랑 같은 필수적이지 않은 것들에 에소테릭한 가치를 알게되는 즉, 게임을 플레이 할 이유를 찾게 된겁니다.

I dislike this game. It makes no logical sense. For example: I lost 4 HP just for asking questions early on. Apparently self doubts cause actual physical damage and potentital death... if that were true I would be dead several hundred times over IRL. Then a little later I shook some sand out of my ears and got 4 HP back! WHAT?! How does that work?! Make it make sense! This is not D&D, this is someones twisted version of it - House Ruled to the point that it only vaguely resembles D&D! Then we should consider the character gen used for this game. I managed 10 strength, 6 Dexterity, 10 Constitution, 16 Intelligence, 14 Wisdom and 10 Charisma. Those are really bad stats. Its point buy and you start with 6 in each stat, +2 to one stat and +1 to another from background. or +3 to one stat. The stats have been changed so that they manage everything and there are no skills. Just proficiencies with stats. Your spell casting is based on intelligence and wisdom, hence my build mentioned above. You are a Cleric in name only, in actual fact you are more like a mix of cleric and wizard, since you have a spellbook and limited access to spells known.... You have to find scrolls to add more spells to your spellbook, like a wizard... Like I said, this is not D&D...