Ember the Werefox

[quote]A review copy was provided by the developer.[/quote] [quote]Follow my Curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41363546-Fruit-N-Doggie-Reviews/]Fruit N Doggie Reviews,[/url] so you can be updated whenever I post a new review.[/quote] [h1]Overall Rating - High Quality ★★★★☆[/h1] [h1]First Impressions[/h1] There was one aspect when looking at Ember the Werefox (EW) that made me hesitant about the game, and it wasn't that the protagonist might be a furry. Going for a werefox was an interesting choice, but the matter I liked less was how young the heroine was, since she's just a little kid. Why is the person fending off creepy, alien-like globs of darkness only ten years old? Either way, I do find it funny watching the transformed protagonist shoving handfuls of cockroaches into her mouth. I won't be doing the same until the new world order takes over. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] A misleading feature about the game as described is that crafting is a much smaller component than I'd expected. All you can do with it is break up a few components and build fires, torches, and a bed. It's not this large, elaborate system of makeshift tools or equipment I had anticipated. During the day, you'll want to scavenge for a diverse set of food, as distinct moves are unlocked only if you have enough food to pay for them. You can't activate a charged attack and light your fire if you don't find at least one bug. The best effects will be out of reach without moonfruit. In the evening, it's useful to destroy the stationary red towers, as they constantly produce enemies, and doing so spawns a hope seed, needed to fill those blank spaces around the map. Killing gold enemies earns you a moonfruit. This game has potential, but there's definitely some tweaks I'd make. After completing the tutorial, I would establish a medium-sized campfire at the player's base each day. Building another one closer to the boss or other key areas is still helpful, but gamers won't have to fiddle with a necessity and squander so much time with busy work. For the first chapter, I would keep the limit on only being able to equip one of the unlocked abilities from completing unique tasks. However, from there on, I'd increase the limit by one per chapter, so it maintains reasonable difficulty, yet makes earning them more meaningful. Otherwise, when you can only ever have one equipped, many will never have any purpose. Because of what you unlock in the end game, I could see tweaking this in the Epilogue. [h1]Controls[/h1] EW seemingly didn't always register when I charged my power attack, but it did so more often than not. Otherwise though, I had no problems with the game misinterpreting my inputs while I used my controller. [h1]Story[/h1] Keeping in mind the likely audience for EW, and its difficulty, I think the protagonist is on the young side. I'd imagine the story with the possible lessons presented would likely be a bit advanced for someone that age to get much out of this experience. Instead of having a child play the main lead, simply advancing her to the late teens would place her closer to the likely audience who'd play a roguelike, without losing its effectiveness. Teenagers are still rife for dealing with anxiety and fear about various matters, and just makes more sense in my perspective. [h1]Visuals[/h1] For whatever reason, I couldn't take screenshots of this game. Otherwise, I could show how more often than not, peoples' faces are kind of ugly looking. The art style doesn't work great with all the close-up shots there are. When it comes to the environment, what's shown looks considerably better, although it can be unclear what any insect or flower is meant to be specifically. Another problem that other players might share is that the darkness makes it hard to distinguish between the background, enemies, and physical objects that are in the way. Your projectiles being orange isn't the best contrast against red ones either. [h1]Sound Design[/h1] Unexpectedly, there's voice acting in this release, but not in a way you'd expect. All of the spoken dialogue is some form of gibberish, which I suppose is one way to avoid being accused of finding bad voice actors. It's kind of hard to tell when you don't know what they're saying. I'll admit that from the options, I really like the idea of “musical flourishes.” Honestly though, aside from certain events, such as entering a boss fight, I didn't notice the music very much. [h1]Pros[/h1] 🌟 The day/night cycle made for a good way of balancing this roguelike. Waiting a few days before having to be ready for the boss, and making incremental permanent progress was executed well. 🌟 Although I had my preferences, no one resource or skill progression makes ignoring all the others worthwhile. You'll want to have a little bit of all. 🌟 The noon chime is such a nice addition. [h1]Cons[/h1] ❌ The third boss takes way too long to fight because the window to hurt it is twenty times smaller than all the time it takes waiting for it to move rocks. Yes, literally. It's not hard, it just takes forever. ❌ You waste so much effort merely getting essentials for your camp every day. The last chapter was the worst offender, because you need to use those same resources on building ally structures. [h1]Tips[/h1] 🔍 In order to build the ally structures in time, focus on only one per run. Getting an extra day might let you do more than that, since you need about half a day to acquire the star flowers and rubies. 🔍 Even if it requires a wasted day or run, unlocking the different outfits is worthwhile, as you might find a useful ability. Personally, I thought Fruitseeker was the best. 🔍 Unlock and focus on the projectiles ASAP. Launching fireballs as charged shots is much more effective than being a melee fighter. [h1]Final Thoughts[/h1] Admittedly, I experienced quite a lot of frustration playing EW, especially when I got soft-locked during what should have been my triumphant moment of beating the game. However, I indicated the issue to the developers, and it seems to have been fixed, so after making another attempt, everything went smoothly. A smaller frustration all throughout the game was the need for rounding up rocks and sticks just to survive each night, because it takes so long to gather large rocks and break them into usable pieces. It's also not a lot of fun if the only branches you find seem to be scattered all over the place. Either way, learning how the mechanics work and what matters most is a crucial aspect to advancing. Earlier bosses and nights were so tough, I didn't see how I was meant to survive later battles, but it made more sense in time. If you push through the hardest parts, it feels rewarding to surge in strength, so I'd recommend EW. [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]Follow our curator page: [b]IndieGems[/b] if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.[/url][/quote] [table] [tr] [th]PC Specs[/th] [th]Performance[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Ryzen 2700 RTX 2070 16GB RAM ADATA SSD 1920x1080 [/td] [td]The game ran without incident on default settings. 💖 - EW is healthy. [/td] [/tr] [/table]

[h1]FoxMania: The Quest To Review All Fox Games On Steam![/h1] [i]Conditions for inclusion: [list] [*] -The player character must be consistently a fox; the fox must not be merely a skin or a character option [*] -Must have 100% working Steam achievements [*] -Must not be a visual novel [/list][/i] [b]Game #40: Ember the Werefox[/b] Ember is a young girl, about 12 if I had to guess, who has already experienced some heavy trauma and regrets in her life. She goes to sleep at night and dreams about a magical forest where her trauma and regrets turn into demons and attack her, and she turns into a powerful werefox to defend herself. She meets a series of imaginary friends who help teach her psychological coping mechanisms, making her strong enough to overcome the things that are bothering her. The dream forest has a day/night cycle. During the day, you are given about two minutes to explore the randomized forest, building fires and collecting werefox food that you’ll eat later to activate perks and upgrades. At night, the forest turns into a survival arena as swarms of shadow monsters attack you. The game encourages you to stay in range of the campfires you’ve built, or you start taking “dread damage” and losing max HP. Monsters drop EXP which can be used on a permanent skill tree after waking up from the dream, then you can go back into the dream just a little stronger than before. [b]Things I liked:[/b] [list] [*] -I liked the sense of discovery, and the way the logbook was presented. The game encourages experimentation, like using items on other items to see what happens. When you discover a new type of enemy, some item interaction, or witness some phenomenon, Ember will scribble it down in her journal after waking up, and the whole journal was just adorable. [*] -I liked all the special challenges required for the outfits, encouraging you to try certain playstyles or focus on certain objectives each dream. [*] -Obsessive foraging/hoarding mechanics are always fun! Also, I liked how certain types of fox foods correspond to specific powers. For instance, want to upgrade your howl? Better pick more mushrooms! [*] -I enjoyed a lot of the thematic and symbolic elements. Like when you wake up and hug your fox plushie in your bedroom, it converts all the nightmare EXP into usable “courage” points you can spend on the permanent skill tree. That’s just… aww. [*] -Without spoiling anything, I really liked how the game rewards you for eventually venturing away from the campfires into the darkness to face your fears. [/list] [b]The one major thing I didn’t like:[/b] The game uses its several upgrade systems to mask its severe lack of gameplay balance and nuance. Wandering the forest on a tight time limit makes foraging about random luck of the draw. You can only blindly explore and hope you find what you need. The only real skill is in remembering your highest priorities (like collecting materials to build a fire) and not letting yourself get distracted. Similarly, I didn’t enjoy any of the werefox gameplay. Combat is mushy and unsatisfying. There’s no nuance to it; you just spam attacks and dodge, and there are only about six enemy types. You never really get “better” at the combat; you just upgrade the werefox until you start winning. Bosses were the worst! Most of them force you to attack multiple targets in order to expose their weak point for only a split second. The bosses freeze the in-game timer, so you’ll be spending most of your overall time stuck in boss fights. The fights took forever, I always dreaded them, and they never got any more fun to play. They take SO much patience. I eventually upgraded the werefox until they didn’t last so long, but I can’t say I ever got “better” at fighting them. (And heaven help you if you didn’t remember to put a fire source next to the boss, or you’ll be spending half the time running across the map back to the closest fire to recharge willpower. Again, the biggest actual skill in this game is keeping your priorities straight.) This game presents the illusion of gameplay, when there is basically no skill involved in anything you’re doing, and your actions don't have a lot of direct effect on your fate. I might go so far as to say that the game progression felt more like a Cookie Clicker-type game than a rougelite. [b]Other minor nitpicks:[/b] [list] [*] -I did not like the game’s art style, particularly the way that the human characters were drawn. It felt unsettling, somehow. But art is highly subjective and I won’t take off any points for it. [*] -I really don’t like how fast the day passes! It feels like you only get 2 minutes or less to explore the forest, and half the time you’re so focused on building something specific, like a campfire or a tower, that you can’t properly forage for werefox food. I get that the game is trying to create a sense of tension and doesn’t let you explore the whole forest on a single day, but it made the game feel too rushed to me. I never felt like I could settle down and drink in the experience. I personally would have preferred if the forest were twice as big, but you got twice as much time to explore it. [*] -The story is based on Ember re-living some traumatic moments in her life and reframing them in a way that is more psychologically healthy. Some made sense, like the demonstration of grounding techniques to counteract panic. But I’m not entirely sure all the messages made sense to me, and I can’t tell whether they went under or over my head. Like in the memory where her bullies throw her into a trash can, she rewrites the memory so that she wanted to get thrown in the trash can all along? I don’t really get the message. [*] -During the final level and endless mode, I started collecting so much werefox food that the powerup screen actually got overwhelming and super cumbersome with all the available options, and soon I wasn’t looking forward to that, either. [*] -As of this writing, there’s a big bug with endless mode that pretty much assures your game will crash sometime after day 10. I expect it to get patched, though. [/list] Despite my complaints, I can’t bring myself to hate this game! After all, there’s nothing objectively wrong about a railroaded experience, especially if the game is trying to tell a story about it, and I guess it’s fitting for a story about slowly gathering enough courage to defeat your own nightmares. It was cute, it was rewarding. There were enough heartwarming moments for me to look back fondly upon the time I spent… I’m just not sure it’s enough to outweigh the exhausting hours I spent button mashing and spamming fireballs against the infernal bosses. 4 / 10. I’d give this game a neutral vote if I could, but I'll round it up to positive. [i](I very reasonably got 100% achievements in about 12 hours.)[/i]

Great roguelite with some pretty engaging mechanics, skill-tree, graphics, and music. WORKS ON STEAMDECK! If I recall correctly, playthroughs were something like 7-10hrs per run for me. I played on each difficulty settings and enjoyed both quite a bit. The price is excellent for the gameplay time and depth you can customize your char skills. There's a lot of directions you can go with builds, and I'll probably play through this several more times to chase some different skill tree sets I didn't try. I was part of the beta test group for this game so I did get this for free. While I wasn't sure what to expect going into it, it was a complete blast to play and I highly recommend it.

《Ember the Werefox》是一款轻度 Roguelite 动作游戏。游戏的画风偏童话，角色也很是可爱，虽然采用了像素风美术画面，但各处细节还是相当扎实，整体看着就是一款较为不错的小体量作品。 游戏的玩法分为白天阶段和夜晚阶段。白天探索森林、采集资源、布置营地，为夜晚做准备；入夜后主角会变成狼人形态，在黑暗中抵御源源不断的敌人，守住营地直到天亮。经过数个昼夜循环后，会迎来阶段性的Boss战，战斗失败流程就会重置，角色可以通过梦境与“现实空间”获得长期成长，让下一次尝试更轻松。 游戏在昼夜分离的节奏上把握得很是不错，白天采集什么资源、解锁哪种能力，都会直接影响夜晚的生存方式。夜晚的战斗偏流畅爽快，近战与远程都有可发挥的空间，通过各种能力的组合来构筑自己的打法，整个过程并不复杂。 整体而言，《Ember the Werefox》并不是那种有着各种爽感和很多游戏内容的游戏，但它的游戏体验和节奏还是相当不错的，游戏把肉鸽的循环成长和营地经营融合得相当融洽，不过游戏没有中文，英文不好的小伙伴玩起来还是颇有挑战性的。 [quote]欢迎关注我们的鉴赏家:[url= https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35402982/]走心评测[/url] ←遵从内心，写出真实感受 欢迎加入我们Steam组:[url= https://steamcommunity.com/groups/ZXPC]走心评测[/url]←点击加入，一起探索游戏的乐趣 喜欢这篇评论，也麻烦点个赞，让更多人能够看到！[/quote]

While Ember the Werefox may look cute and whimsical at first glance, don’t be fooled... beneath its childlike charm lies a surprisingly dark and engaging story. Push past the lighthearted opening and you’ll find a roguelike adventure that’s as addictive as it is atmospheric. I highly recommend it if you enjoy roguelike progression mixed with light base-building and resource management. Core Gameplay Loop: Each run begins with a day–night cycle. During the day, you explore, gather resources, and upgrade your camp. When night falls, Ember transforms into her powerful werefox form, defending her camp against waves of enemies until dawn. After several days, you face a climactic boss battle under an eternal night. Survive, and the story advances. Fall, and you awaken back in your bedroom to start over. Why It Works So Well as a Roguelike: Resource Gathering & Crafting: Tons of materials to collect and craft, letting you tailor each run to your playstyle. Dream-State Upgrades: Improve your werefox form between runs, unlocking new abilities that reset on death but deepen progression. Permanent Progression: Level up the “real world” Ember in her bedroom to make future runs smoother and more rewarding. Combat Variety: Tight, fluid combat across melee and ranged builds, with upgrades like spread shots, AOE bursts, and more to experiment with. Overall, Ember the Werefox strikes a great balance between cozy and chaotic. Its art style draws you in, the gameplay loop keeps you hooked, and the sense of progression makes each run feel meaningful. I’m genuinely having a great time with it and can’t wait to see what future updates bring.

If you love cozy crafters and intense roguelike games i highly recommend trying this adorable little game!! <3

Really fun game. Also has a fox main character.

It is very fun and a lot of things to do; Very good graphics and lightweight survival is a good idea

ランごとに自動生成された森の中で、 昼と夜のふたつの異なったゲームモードを繰り返しながら、数サイクル後に待ち受ける各ステージのボスを倒すのが目的のストーリー感強めのローグライトアクションゲームです。 やや小規模な印象も受けましたが(全4ステージ+クリア後にエンドレスモード解禁)、物足りなさは感じませんでしたのでお薦めします。 個人的に気に入ったのが以下の三点です。 ・「夜にそなえてクラフトと採集を行う昼フェイズ」と 「時間いっぱいまで戦闘し続ける夜フェイズ」の両方にレベルアップ(特別な能力を三択で獲得)があるので、 夜間はもとより戦闘のない昼が単調ではなくなるのが良いです。 ・「とてもつらい出来事に対して勇気をもって向き合う」というキャラクターのストーリーと 「ボスを倒すためには暗闇によるダメージを覚悟して光源から踏み出さなくてはならない」というプレイヤーのゲーム体験が強くリンクしていて強烈に印象に残りました。 ・派手さは控え目ですが、ピクセルアートがとても丁寧に作られています。 夢の中へのベースキャンプとなる主人公の子供部屋をはじめとして 極めつけはカットシーンでの背景美術や二頭身キャラの細かな演技でしょうか。 表情豊かなバストアップのグラフィックも加わって、物語や主人公の魅力を強く感じられました。 クラシックな絵柄もこの物語にマッチしていていいと思います。 総じて、プレイ中定期的に何か楽しいことが起こる/起こせるゲーム設計や 存在感はあるけどゲームの邪魔にならない規模感で並走してくれる物語や登場人物など 細かなところまで手を抜かず高いレベルでまとまった誠実なゲームという印象です。 まずストーリーやキャラクター、アートスタイルから入るタイプで ランに失敗しながらコツコツ強くしていくローグライクも好き、という方に特におすすめです。 明るさ設定を強めにして難易度を「カジュアル」にすればエンディングまで到達できるはずです。 思いつく注意点としては以下三点です。 ・虫(芋虫など)や魚を素手で捕まえる作業がゲーム内でほぼ必須なので それらが苦手な方は避けたほうがいいかもしれません。 ・純粋なヴァンパイアサバイバー系やツインスティックシューター系のような エクストリームな体験や高コスパ的なものはそこまで期待できないと思います。 ・後半のステージは1プレイにかなり時間を使うので(30分以上) まとまった時間をとりづらい方には厳しめかなと思います。 以上になります。お読みいただきありがとうございました。