[h1] <-- Review writen for [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35180752/] 3 Point Play [/url] --> [/h1]
When it comes to reviewing a game like this, well, let's say it's necessary to play a lot. This game, after all, is based upon his replayability; you might see this on the Store Page: do a run, which usually takes anything between 30 minutes and 1 full hour and absorb your enemies' skills to use them yourself. After you kill the final boss for the run you were doing, there will be a fight between all of your characters which participated in said run, and the most OP one will survive, for this matter, it's usually the one you gave the most, or best abilities to use the one that will stand this test and get to move forward.
The idea is pretty neat. Reminds me a bit of when I was a kid and me and my sister would play one of our favorite games, which was Black and White 2, a game in which you basically were a god, and for that matter, you had sort of a pet; before either of us knew the concept of grinding, we'd play with our god's pets, trying to teach them skills that would prove useful amidst our respective playthroughs. So, since I always liked the good side more, I'd teach mine how to cast little clouds which would rain down upon my crops and/or would put down fires that might arise in my town, and my sister, in the other hand, which favored the evil side more, would teach her pet how to launch fireballs. So, one day she was spamming fireballs in front of her pet, in order to teach it how to do them as well, and one of those fireballs flew too far, it actually flew so far, that by coincidence, it happened to fly just in front of the enemy NPC's pet, which in that exact moment, learned how to do the fireball skill, and procedeed to raid her village casting fireballs everywhere. This is pretty much the same deal; you try to achieve the best results, but end up feeding your enemy without actually noticing, or so at least that was it for my first run, in which the pyromancer I treasured the most, as my main DPS source, one-shoted the rest of my party just after killing the boss.
I have to say that this is a pretty refreshing idea, which looks amazing on paper. But however, Emberlight, as much as it has a vision, has a fair share of flaws and lack of quality of life features that could easily be the stick in your wheel as you try to have fun. Remember, this is all about replayability (and now I feel it's the proper time to mention that besides the fact that I have one hour game time, I played like 5 runs, in offline mode since I've been without net for 3 days or so) and so, you must give players not only a really nice objective like this self-superation into over-powered bosses for the next run or so. I can see some players not picking this game up because of some things like it's presentation, which is serviceable, but not really good looking. Also, there are not many plot deviced to speak of. There's some lore here and there, and while these are interesting bits, I would have liked some random encounters featuring some sort of story-based texts, maybe some dialogue choices. I'm also not so sure about the big distance there is between your party and the enemies, I don't know, I just don't like it. Animations somehow seem to be out of sync, as magic-casters will wave their staves around, and archers will pull on their strings, but both of their missiles take some extra time after the animation to actually leave the character. I also had many situations in which I ended up buffing or healing enemies, as both buffs and heals can target and will affect enemies, and this can be really annoying. First run I, for instance, casted a Haste effect on the final boss, and then had to do a 10 minute fight in order to actually kill it, because it kept dodging my attacks and taking extra turns; I also had issues when using Ember Maidens, as these are mostly all about the heal and support skills, and not knowing who's targeted in the exact moment that you cast something, can be disastrous.
There also should be a proper tutorial. This is an indie game, and this is pretty much an original idea. There SHOULD be a dedicated tutorial, and no, I'm not talking about the text walls you have on the top-right corner of the screen, but actually about a proper, hand-holding walkthrough tutorial that easies you into the main mechanics of the game. It's great taking some time to discover something by yourself, but since this is a game that greatly encourages replayability, there should be a solid foundation, the skill floor if you wanna call it like that, that will allow us to build upon it. I didn't even know, for example, there was actually a basic attack button, in my first run, that is.
All in all, I have to consider this game as a gem in the rough. The ideas are there, the concepts are there, the mechanics are there, but as I mentioned before, it still has a long way to go, and requires a lot of polishing. In it's current state, I'm not sure if I can actually recommend it, unless you're a hardcore dungeon-crawler, roguelite fan; but I'll go with the "thumbs up" review in the hopes that it will continue to improve, and will reach its true potential someday.
