Esoteric Ebb Review

There are a lot of games that are heavily inspired by more popular ones. That’s practically the foundation of the indie scene, at least when it comes to developers who can’t or won’t reinvent the wheel. Sometimes those borrowed ideas turn into something great, like Helldivers 2 or South of the Circle. More often, they land somewhere in the middle, like Arena Breakout: Infinite or Broken Arrow. Occasionally they’re just bad, like Broken Roads or Empire of Sin.

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What’s exceedingly rare is for a game that copies large swathes of another title’s mechanics to be genuinely amazing. Esoteric Ebb may be little more than Disco Elysium with a fantasy skin. What’s surprising is not the resemblance — it’s how well it works. Esoteric Ebb is one of the best CRPGs ever made.

Comparisons between Esoteric Ebb and Disco Elysium aren’t just inevitable. They’re actively encouraged by the developer, who is clearly self-aware about what they’ve made. In both titles, you play as a washed up quasi-detective given one final chance by the powers that be to stop being a complete screw-up. Both begin with you investigating a seemingly mundane case that spirals into something far more political and conspiratorial. In Esoteric Ebb, that means figuring out why a tea shop exploded —  which quickly snowballs into something much more important.Your partner this time is a snarky goblin rather than a painfully competent human, but the familiar chorus of voices in your head remains. They constantly critique, mock and second-guess every decision you make. 

If Esoteric Ebb wasn’t so expertly crafted, its constant nods to Disco Elysium would be insufferable. Thankfully, it earns the comparisons. At times the two games feel almost identical. Much of your time is spent wandering gorgeous environments chasing dead-end leads. Conversations with NPCs — none of whom feel like filler — drive the narrative, while confrontations rarely turn into traditional combat. Most encounters instead play out through skill checks based on dice rolls, your stats, and whatever odd assortment of items you’ve equipped.

You can cast spells, ranging from destructive fireballs to charms that make people like you more. But like in Disco Elysium, success often comes down to luck as much as planning. The mechanical systems matter, but they’re rarely the main attraction. Instead, the star of Esoteric Ebb’s show is its writing. It has the same self-aware tone as any good CRPG, but is less relentlessly bleak and more introspective than most. The game loves knocking on the fourth wall, without ever breaking it, especially when it comes to your helmet-wearing protagonist making spectacularly bad decisions.

But the humour isn’t the whole story. Beneath the jokes are genuinely thoughtful moments. Through dialogue you gradually uncover the messy, miserable lives of the people inhabiting the game’s world. And more often than not, you’re given the chance to make things slightly better for them. Most of this happens through quests, which in lesser games might feel like busywork. Here they feel meaningful because the game’s writing is just that good. 

Almost every line in the game is sharp, thoughtful, or genuinely funny. Just as importantly, Esoteric Ebb avoids the trap of being miserable purely for the sake of it. That helps it partially escape Disco Elysium’s shadow, even if the bulk of the title’s mechanics and story elements often feel like something that was previously perfected by ZA/UM. 

That’s not to say that Esoteric Ebb avoids big philosophical ideas. It simply approaches them without constantly making you feel awful about the world. Unless, of course, you actively try to be an absolute doomer. Unlike a lot of other titles, Esoteric Ebb is a proper roleplaying game. The way most encounters unfold depends entirely on how you approach them. You can rush through the main investigation in a matter of hours while treating NPCs like pawns, or spend an in-game week poking into every corner of its map. The latter is strongly encouraged if you want the best endings, but ultimately, the choice is up to you. 

And, thankfully, you won’t have to contend with any technical problems while you decide how to play. Esoteric Ebb is polished to an impressive degree. Its environments are gorgeous, its soundtrack is excellent, and bugs are almost non-existent. From a technical perspective, the title is better than a lot of titles from larger studios. 

The game does have a couple of issues, but they’re nitpicks at their absolute worst. The world, for as well-designed as it is, can occasionally feel too large. If you play across multiple sessions, you’ll sometimes have to backtrack simply so your character can sleep. That mechanic fits the tone of the game’s story, and intentionally slows its pace down. But, gameplay-wise, it’s mildly irritating.

The lack of voice acting in the title is also noticeable. There are effectively novels’ worth of dialogue scattered throughout, and reading all of it takes time. One can hardly fault a small studio for not hiring an army of voice actors, though, especially given how much attention was given to the writing itself. And neither it, nor the aforementioned map size, change what’s important. Esoteric Ebb is absolutely worth playing because it’s one of the best CRPGs on the market. 

If you’re not a fan of the genre, or text-heavy titles, it probably won’t convince you to start loving them. But anyone who already enjoys the likes of Disco Elysium or Citizen Sleeper will find something special here. Esoteric Ebb doesn’t do much to distinguish itself from the (arguably) best entry in the genre. But it matches that game’s quality far more closely than anyone would’ve expected.  

When people say imitation is the finest form of flattery, they usually mean it sarcastically. In this specific case, though, Disco Elysium’s creators should feel honoured. Few games borrow so heavily and still manage to feel this good.