Esoteric Ebb Review
I wouldn’t blame anyone who thought that Esoteric Ebb was just a shallow attempt to capitalize on the popularity of Disco Elysium, especially since it follows the blueprint as closely as it does. You play as an amnesiac detective trying to solve a mystery steeped in political discourse conflicted by the many voices in your head with the help of a sidekick, as you’re constantly challenged by dice checks.
Miraculously, Esoteric Ebb feels extremely distinct from Disco as it opts for a much more accessible outing featuring a much lighter tone that’s constantly infused with wit and humour while offering the experience of playing a D&D tabletop campaign complete with plenty of dungeon crawling. Every event that transpired felt like there was devious DM pulling at the strings like a puppeteer behind the curtains. Nothing felt predetermined and with a different build, a different dice roll or a different dialogue choice, it was easy to see how different the outcome would’ve been.
Esoteric Ebb is extremely dense, which forces a slow start, exploring can be a little clunky, pacing can be inconsistent at times, and there is zero voice acting, which would've elevated the experience greatly. However, player autonomy, emergent gameplay and the captivating whodunnit narrative greatly overshadowed these shortcomings, as Esoteric Ebb is an excellent CRPG mystery dripping in Dungeons and Dragons fantasy.
ESOTERIC EBB REVIEW (DISCO, BUT DRAGONS)
Esoteric Ebb is an isometric CRPG that draws heavily from Disco Elysium, but even heavier influence of the table top RPG (TTRPG). Deep within the heart of Norvik, a fantastical Dungeons & Dragons inspired city filled with goblins, orcs, dwarves, devils, witches, sphinxes, elves, humans and everything else, a tea shop has exploded.
The initial conclusion is that it happened due to a supposed faulty fireplace, but as the cleric, one of most forgotten classes in fantasy, you’re sent in to investigate foul play because something doesn’t add up, especially with the first ever election of the realm just mere days away. The only issue is that you’ve woken up in a morgue alongside other bodies and no recollection of anything prior to your awakening.
After you acquiesce the thousands of apples that are rotting in this dank basement, you pocket a few for good measure before discovering that a zombie is also occupying these same quarters. After clumsily abolishing the undead corpse, you head upstairs to find the mortician and immediately notice the lighter side of Esoteric Ebb begin to reveal itself with a mortician sign that also used to say dentist, but has since been crossed out.
After a brief conversation with the mortician, you’re now free to explore the realm at your leisure by following what intrigues you. Due to the excellent world design, which is metroidvania inspired, and how interesting everything is, exploring the world in this manner will always lead you to something of interest. Esoteric Ebb aims to be a satirical view of the current world, but through a dungeons and dragons lens.
After inquiring with many of the town folk, you eventually meet your friendly goblin sidekick, Snell. In most cases, Snell is the voice of reasoning when you are about to do something you probably shouldn’t, but he is also a great bouncing board for conversation, and can offer quest direction should you need the help. As the two of you follow leads, knock on doors and pillage the dungeons below the city, it becomes apparent that many people, for different reasons unknown, don’t want you to solve the mystery of the tea shop.
The real joy from Esoteric Ebb comes from the unexpected. Never knowing what type of interaction is around each corner, what a line of a dialogue will lead to or how a situation plays out is anyones guess and this keeps you on the edge of your seat. Exploring the world in such a manner will lead you to find plenty of unique items, spells and cantrips that will greatly alter the course of your adventure.
A perfect example came while exploring a dungeon as I stumbled upon a sewer camp, with evidence of city supplies being siphoned off. Unfortunately for us, it turned out to be a colossal crocodile who returned at an inconvenient time for the cleric and wanted blood. Since the dice checks were too high, I decided to select the more passive open and not fight back. The colossal croc and his predator instincts desired the thrill of the hunt and since we decided to not engage in combat, he got bored and decided we would be better off as friends. Had my strength stat been higher, I probably would’ve decided to fight back since the dice checks might not have seemed so daunting and this is just one of the hundreds of interactions where nothing is predetermined.
REMOVING THE BARRIERS
The true strength of Esoteric Ebb is its accessibility. To begin with, every time you return to the game and hover over the continue button, you are given a contextual recap, which is a great way to remind you what you need to be doing and keep focused as you will eventually have a lot on your mind.
Furthermore, the world is beyond rich in lore, which increases the immersion and authenticity of the universe, but can become overwhelming at times. To counter this, Esoteric Ebb features a glossary button. Often times, during dialogue, a word will appear highlighted and you can choose to interact with it with one of the six different parts of your psyche. This will be give you a deeper explanation of the word, but it will also be added to your glossary, which you can check in the menu at anytime.
In addition, the art of Esoteric Ebb is overflowing with detail and when your job as the cleric is to interact with everyone and everything in it, it can be easy to miss a lot of the little things that you can engage with, especially when you need to be at the right position to do so. On the Steam Deck or controller, you can pull down on the left trigger at any point in time to have the items that are currently on the screen highlighted to show you which things and people can be engaged with. It also knows not to spoil anything such as monsters blending into the surroundings, traps that can be stepped on in the dungeon or secrets that you can discover.
Finally, the most accessible thing that Esoteric Ebb does is juxtapose the heavy themes like politics, genocide and corruption with plenty of light hearted and witty writing. As the saying goes, a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, which is true here because you are able to digest the material much easier and easily see the problems that lie embedded within these themes that we constantly struggle with in the real world.
ESOTERIC EBB CRITICISMS
The universe of Esoteric Ebb is grand and dense, which is exactly what you want from a CRPG inspired by a table top campaign, but before the momentum can really get going, there is a lot of lore, people and places that you need to familiarize yourself with. As a result of the density, the first few hours are a little sluggish
Esoteric Ebb will continue to struggle with pacing issues as sometimes the key to progressing is only waiting until a certain time of day. Even if you know the right area you’re supposed to be and what you’re looking for, you will need to kill time. This is great for realism and immersion since it makes the world feel more authentic, however, it’s very bad for pacing.
The art in Esoteric Ebb is gorgeous and this carries over to the map, which is rendered in black and white. Unfortunately the map doesn’t tell you where you are on it, and due to it’s monotone design, it can be a little tricky to reconcile where you are at times. Remaining on a navigational tangent, it’s worth noting that there’s a fair amount of invisible geometry in the world that can make exploring slightly clunky at times.
The writing is obviously one of the strengths of Esoteric Ebb, but there is zero voice acting, which isn’t necessary, but when we have very recently seen the power of how good voice acting can elevate a great game to even greater heights as was done on Disco Elysium: The Final Cut, it’s hard not to think how much more well rounded the experience could have been.
ESOTERIC EBB FINAL THOUGHTS AND SCORE
Disco wasn’t the first to embrace an amnesiac detective mechanic as I'm reminded of Christopher Nolan’s breakout classic from 2000, Memento. It’s a timeless premise works as well as it does because your experience is parallel to the protagonist creating the ultimate immersion.
Labeling yourself as a disco-like is a bold move and following the blueprint this closely is even bolder as this will surely draw comparisons of your game to what many consider to be one of the greatest CRPG’s of all time. Luckily, Esoteric Ebb can withstand the scrutiny and pressure of the comparison because it’s not a carbon copy and there is a clear line of distinction between the two experiences. It might be a little inconsistent and clunky at times, but with a high level of autonomy, witty writing and satirical tone that balances the heavy themes within, Esoteric Ebb is a dungeon worth plundering.
