Ember - a party-based RTwP RPG inspired by Ultima VII and Baldur's Gate

[LESS T_T]

https://505games.com/games/ember/




https://af.gog.com/game/ember?as=1649904300

Spoiler

Ember is an open-world, story-driven RPG developed by N-Fusion Interactive.

A passion project 10 years in the making, Ember is a homage to classic role-playing games, like Baldur’s Gate and Ultima.

About Ember

“Back in the earliest days, there was no sun and the world was dark. The heavens opened up and stars fell like beacons into the pitch black world, and they were known as “Embers”. Powerful and wise druids of a primordial race, “the Lightbringers," roamed the land searching for this luminous matter. They performed a ritual of awakening to call the “Embers” out of their deep sleep. Suddenly the world became bright, and the veil of darkness was lifted. The Embers were the embodiment of magical flame, light, and life, but as word spread about the sheer power of the Embers, they came to be hunted and captured…and so the War for Ember began…”

Gameplay overview

A passion project 10 years in the making, Ember is a homage to classic role-playing games (RPG). Enter the world of Ember as a resurrected “Lightbringer” summoned to protect the dying Embers as the world is on the brink of collapse. Beginning in the Deep Barrows, traverse vast environments divided between above ground and underground realms – ranging from lush forests to dry deserts and dark abysses – to reach the City of Light. See how the story unfolds through encounters with strangers by making pivotal decisions about your own destiny.


Key features

• Classic-style RPG with 30+ hours of epic adventure
  
• Epic storytelling filled with fascinating characters, lore, adventure, and humor
  
• Over 70 quests with diverse gameplay enabling players to choose their path
  
• Engaging party-based real-time combat system with tactical pause
  
• Over 65 combat skills for the player to use in customized battle party strategy
  
• Encounter hundreds of NPCs with their own tales to tell
  
• In-depth crafting system, from baking bread to forging magic weapons
  
• A seamless world with over 20 handcrafted environments and dark dungeons that are fully interactive and feature movable objects, weather changes and day / night cycles
  
• Adventure with different companions with their own backstory quests

From a 2015 interview (when this was announced as a tablet RPG): http://www.148apps.com/news/a-look-at-n-fusions-upcoming-title-ember/

The top inspiration is a very old and classic PC game that we hold near and dear to us - Ultima VII: The Black Gate. Ultima VII came out in 1992 and was built to run on computers with less RAM and processing power than most of today's modern kitchen appliances! Despite that, the game is regarded as one of the finest RPGs with its deep story, interesting characters, and fully functional world. In fact, this interactivity pertains to one of Ember's main pillars: to maintain a fully-simulated RPG world with day and night cycles, lively NPCs with daily schedules, and tons of responsive objects that would behave as a player would expect of them. We figured if this level of interaction could be achieved on a computer with 4 MB of RAM, then we should be able to do it on a tablet!

Another big inspiration was the Baldur's Gate series of games, as its combat system is a major influence for Ember's "pause and play" style. We also fell in love with the rich interaction with NPCs in the series, as it allowed the player to truly role play to their heart's desire.

Well, I guess we'll see how it turned out soon. Coming September 7th: http://store.steampowered.com/app/339580/

At least it's good to know that there is a developer other than Larian trying to achieve this kind of world simulation.

 

[Excidium II]

That came out of nowhere.

 

[Bester]

From the trailer, I gather it's got generic music and generic writing. Everything else probably generic too.

 

[Drowed]

Yeah, it screams generic, something about it reminds me of that Something-of-Amalur:Something game. And that "20 seamless environments" is just a buzzword for 20 big maps, I guess. Having 20 maps in your game isn't something to brag about.

But, well, at the same time, it doesn't look bad. Launch in 4 days, so we will know something soon.

 

[LESS T_T]

N-Fusion Interactive

Ah, right. They developed Deus Ex: The Fall.

Gameplay from last year also looks generic:

 

[vmar]

Yea everything about this looks like the most generic unimaginative fantasy possible. Took them 10 years for this?

 

[ArchAngel]

It is hard to say more from that trailer, it only has snippets of gameplay. But I am curious about this game at least.

The game's recommended specs is a 6-7 years old computer, I guess graphics are also like that. UI is very tablet like, I guess they decided to try their luck on PC.

 

[Neanderthal]

Looks alright, least they're trying, though I wonder whether they're gonna get sued by Runic Games for using same kinda McGuffin wi same name as in Torchlight 1&2.

 

[ArchAngel]

If the combat has some tactics in it, and story is OK and characters you meet are interesting I can live with older 3d graphics and bad UI.

 

[HoboForEternity]

>used to be a tablet game

Yeaaaaah will take it with a grain

 

[pippin]

Looks alright imo. A bit too banal maybe, but it's isometric at least.

Looks alright, least they're trying, though I wonder whether they're gonna get sued by Runic Games for using same kinda McGuffin wi same name as in Torchlight 1&2.

Even the voice actress seems to be the same one they used for Torchlight 1...

 

[Infinitron]

Apparently the price will be $10: http://www.505games.com/ember-calls-upon-lightbringers-september-7th

 

[Grunker]

Yeeeeeeeah this doesn't look very promising does it

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

Why do they keep associating RTwP with 'classic'... it's crap, not classic.

Still, I will probably try it out, just for the Ultima/BG vibe.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Looks like a 2017 Summer Sale purchase.

 

[daveyd]

Generic as it looks I'd still be interested if not for shitty RTwP combat. Only thing that's good for is auto-resolving trash encounters, but a better solution to that is no fucking trash encounters.

 

[cruelio]

IF ITS 2016+ AND YOUR VIDEO GAME TRAILER FEATURES CHARACTERS FIGHTING AGAINST GIANT RATS THEN NO FUCKING BUYS

 

[daveyd]

IF ITS 2016+ AND YOUR VIDEO GAME TRAILER FEATURES CHARACTERS FIGHTING AGAINST GIANT RATS THEN NO FUCKING BUYS

I think Matt Barton would beg to differ.

 

[Sacred82]

will take a closer look (not at launch obviously)

 

[Volourn]

"Why do they keep associating RTwP with 'classic'... it's crap, not classic.

Still, I will probably try it out, just for the Ultima/BG vibe."

Calls RTWP crap... then says he'll try it out for the BG vibe which is the mother of RTWP vibe considering that's the game that made it famous.

LMAO



That said, in alls eriousness, this game certainly looks generic. It can be good. Meh.

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

Was interested. Then I saw the trailer (generic). Then I saw somebody mentionning Deus Ex: The Fall (worst game ever). Then I saw the gameplay with rats and picking up bear pelts. Fuck that.

 

[Metro]

You had me until RTwP.

 

[vmar]

Personally I'm just sick of that colorful happy cheery fantasy art style that too many games use these days. Looks too much like WoW or fucking Kingdoms of Amalur.

 

[pippin]

Personally I'm just sick of that colorful happy cheery fantasy art style that too many games use these days. Looks too much like WoW or fucking Kingdoms of Amalur.

I'd say it's a good thing. We actually need a bit of that instead of the usual grimdork game of thrones wannabe crap.

 

[Black]

Generic generic generic generic

It says right there that they were inspired by Baldur's Gate.