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

[Florian Gheorghe]

It's a good addition for mobile gaming!

 

[WhiteGuts]

For mobile gaming maybe, a waste of time anywhere else.

 

[Darkzone]

Missed that one, but by the looks of it it was not that much worth of attention. Tag: Generic.
Also i had the feeling that every map of the game is overloaded with unnecessary visual things, because i had the same headache watching this video, like in a baroque castle.

 

[Drowed]

So, tried it for a bit, and...

Yeah. It's as generic as it seems. Bullet points:

• Interface and gameplay fully and completely made to work on a tablet. This means that there is no bar with hotkeys for your multiple items/skills - you have only 3 quickslots for items, and nothing more. From what I saw, the only way to activate your skills is by clicking on the icons in the top bar. And it seems that you can only have 3 skills at the same time, too. Oh, and as people have already said, you can't hold the mouse to walk, you have to continually click everywhere.
• The world has a vaguely interesting story, but the quests seem to be completely generic and shallow. "Yo, save my daughter from evil monsters! Oh, she has a ember with her, who would guess that? You can have it"! Or the crazy guy who murdered his friend, and you can simply go in a fetch quest and in the end say, "you're evil imma kill ya" or "u crazy, man, I guess you've learned your lesson somehow". Or some rich guy who thinks that you're his servant, then you search for a book for him because he is bored. Yep. It's like that.
  
• Combat really feels like an MMORPG. I don't know how to explain the exact reason, but if you play it, the feeling is instantaneous.
• It seems that you aren't able to control your allies directly? I tried to do it, but couldn't. They automatically follow you at a specific distance and attack enemies - you can control when they will use their skills, but as far as I saw, you cannot control their position, which seems absurd to me.
  
• The dialogues are "adequate" so far. Nothing terribly badly written, but remembering what I said about the quests above, you can deduce the rest.
  
• You can distribute points in 4 attributes when you gain a level. That is essentially the same level of customization of the character that we had in Diablo 2... That is, if you remove the fact that there are no classes, remove the choice of skills (which now are depend on the items that you use, and you can only have 3 at any time).
• On the positive side, the crafting looks cool, maybe? I haven't seen much yet, but there appear to be several options. Perhaps it's the deepest system of the entire game.

So far, not really impressed. It isn't terrible, and I will try to play a bit more, but... I honestly don't think it will hold my attention for more than 2 or 3 hours, with some effort. We'll see.

 

[V_K]

you cannot control their position, which seems absurd to me.

You can, it's just super clunky: you need to click and hold on a follower, then draw a line to where you want them to move.

 

[Heretic]

A good review here:
https://techraptor.net/content/ember-review-dying-spark

There are about fifty or so sidequests, and most of them could be identified as fetch quests.
The main questlines are often devoid of meaningful choice and consequence.
Outside of a few side-quests, Ember doesn’t even have the illusion of choice presented to it.

One of the biggest problems was the fixed-camera; forcing the players to constantly click on the edge of their screen to keep moving.

All special abilities, however, are tied to your equipment- from healing to fireballs, power attacks, and area-of-effect attacks- all of your skills are based on the weapon and armor you wear.
You are not guaranteed a specific ability unless you spend a fortune on a corresponding rune found only in the hands of a few merchants. Outside of that, even crafting weapons and armor yields random results, and some abilities will always be more powerful or useful than others throughout the game.

 

[Drowed]

Well, finnaly uninstalled it.

Essentially, the game is just bland as hell. And that's sad because it amazes me that a group that is competent enough to create a game that works well (I haven't found any bugs or slowdowns), is visually interesting, and has an acceptable backstory can be as dull. (Ignoring here all the problems with the tablet interface.) It's annoying to see the wasted potential that the existence of this game is. The most shocking thing is that most of the quests are so incredibly and frighteningly generic that any minimal effort could've made them to be two or three times better. For years I didn't see a case so blatant of a "classic epic hero" treated like a doormat / errand boy.

 

[newtmonkey]

I've been playing this recently, and it's pretty decent as a very easy, light RPG. At this point I am just under 10 hours in.

General exploration feels most like Ultima VII, with lots of stuff to find in the wilderness including abandoned huts and campsites that often provide you with optional quests. The inventory system is clearly influenced by Ultima VII, though it does let you you filter your backpack by item type.

The writing is alright, mostly serious with some jokes here and there. Basically, you are some kind of Ultima-esque Avatar demigod guy, and there's an opposite, evil version of you that you need to stop. I don't find it very interesting, but it's better than "I want to be a hero!" I guess.

It's a tablet-PC port, but plays mostly like any other mouse-centric RPG (i.e. Ultima VII), with you pointing and clicking to do pretty much everything, outside of some abilities requiring you to click and drag (you also need to click and drag to move companions around in combat). It feels pretty much like a PC game 99% of the time.

I think the worst thing about this is how easy it is. You can sleep to restore HP/SP to max at pretty much any time outside of combat, so if you want to get any challenge out of this whatsoever, you need to set your own limits on when you can rest. Personally, I don't mind an easy RPG every now and then, if it offers some decent exploration.

 

[newtmonkey]

I completed this just now, and it was an alright little RPG. Exploration remained the best aspect of this one, and there ended up being a lot of optional side quests and stuff to find all over the outdoors maps. Combat was nothing special; typical MMO DPS stuff, though at least on "normal" I didn't have to chug potions during battle. There were some harder bosses toward the end (including a couple with annoying attacks that caused instant death), but nothing crazy. The last boss was surprisingly easy.

I didn't think the story and world were very interesting, but the writing was okay. It's a pretty generic fantasy world, but there were some cool little twists here and there; I liked how the elves are all suffering from a disfiguring disease, and so they all wear spooky masks.

I did mostly everything I could find, but didn't explore all of the outdoors maps completely. Overall, I enjoyed the 18 hours it took to complete the game, and would recommend as a breezy diversion between more complicated games.

 

[Andhaira]

Anyone else? This any good?

Is there a turnbased option r is it RTwP? How many classes to choose from? And what is a magic system like?

 

[Contagium]

Anyone else? This any good?

Is there a turnbased option r is it RTwP? How many classes to choose from? And what is a magic system like?

No turn based option.

Early exploration in the game is really good and you have to be careful where you wander. Some interesting encounters here and there and decent side quests. But the later in the game it gets the more generic and tiresome it feels. I will say , I got it for like $2.49 USD on sale and that much was worth it. If you go in not expecting a lot, you should be ok

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Anyone else? This any good?

Is there a turnbased option r is it RTwP? How many classes to choose from? And what is a magic system like?

It is not good. Its a mobile game where items dictate what skills tour character has. I bought it at a steep discount a few years ago due to positive reviews, and found it a waste of time. Quests were OK i guess. Same goes for exploration, but the actual RPG mechanics are barely there. I played it for some time hoping it would improve, but that time never came. Don't bother.

 

[Skdursh]

When it comes to practically all modern games my recommendation is to always pirate it first and if you actually like it, then don't be a piece of shit, pay for it. I see nothing wrong with try-before-you-buy.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Completed it 2 days ago. A nice casual RPG that does not overstay it's welcome too much (could have been a 15 hours, not 18,5 hours game) and can be played between more serious games as a way to change flavor.

It has some good ideas (extensive crafting system), some bad ideas (skills connected to equipment; it can be altered via runes but makes every character feel the same), mildly interesting plot and charming visuals. At the same time the UI suffers a lot from being creared for the touchscreens.

Combat is mostly just a way to suck your resources but there are several more challenging encounters (for example the end of the optional magic blade quest and the final combat) which require some planning, tactics, picking the right skills. Apart from that its quite a relaxing experience, not too demanding on the brain.

Probably not worth the full price, buy it on deep sale only if you are able to appreciate Ember for what it is.

 

[Aarwolf]

Probably not worth the full price, buy it on deep sale only if you are able to appreciate Ember for what it is.

You can buy it for 0,40€ on Kinguin now. I did it and I hope it would be ok, but I don't know if I start it soon - too much backlog.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Probably not worth the full price, buy it on deep sale only if you are able to appreciate Ember for what it is.

You can buy it for 0,40€ on Kinguin now. I did it and I hope it would be ok, but I don't know if I start it soon - too much backlog.

0,40€ seems like a very decent price for this game!