Esoteric Ebb

Right, let's get the obvious statements out of the way first. The majority of you who have played this game or are interested in playing it know it’s one of very few titles attempting to succeed one of the best role-playing games of all time, Disco Elysium. There are plenty of indie games that’ve influenced other indies. Such as Hollow Knight influencing Nine Sols. Return of the Obra Dinn influencing Chants of Sennaar and The Rootrees Are Dead, the list goes on. Catch is that those games have influenced maybe more than five to ten plus games each whereas we’re still within the early stages of Disco Elysium successors. Personally, I believe it’s because Disco Elysium is a difficult game to follow-up. A massive success story that came out of nowhere and blew up. Its creator Robert Kurvitz tested what video games could be. Instead of making a traditional video game RPG where players run around, build their characters, fight enemies, and pursue a list of objectives he instead made his game text focused. Choosing to prioritize writing rather than the expected tropes of the genre. Disco Elysium could’ve been a full visual novel, but it didn’t. It still managed to be a compelling RPG thanks to thoughtful player choice and involvement in the big world Kurvitz and his coworkers made. A world full of depth, history, and ideologies.

Another feat Disco Elysium managed to achieve was how much research it put into its politics. I am not saying video games weren’t political up to that point. Persona 5, Metal Gear Solid, FF7, BioShock, and Deus Ex. Some of these are twenty year old games, but they didn’t prioritize their politics in the same way Disco Elysium did. So much of that game’s world is built upon history and choices made from the people of the past. Of those trying to establish their own ideas, or try to preserve what came before. You know the writers truly care for their work when they credit Karl Marx and Fredderich Engel during their game of the year speeches. All while blending the politics into an emotional and human narrative about self acceptance. Of regret, identity, and the push for trying to make yourself a better person in a ripped up world. Disco Elysium is a modern day masterpiece for all these reasons. It’s a game I regularly think of when it comes to talking about RPGs, and it ranks high on a lot of friends’ favorite of all time lists. Disco Elysium is great. The creator and his friends also got fired unjustly, had their project stolen, and are being forced to watch its corpse being paraded around by the company they formerly worked for. Sorta why discussion of Disco Elysium successors is a big topic. ZA/UM, who aren’t exactly a studio as the name suggests, attempted to create a successor without Kurvitz’s brilliant mind. 

With the main advertisement line being, “From the creators of Disco Elysium,” which is a big fat lie and you know it if your brain cells still work. That game was Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, and it’s one of the more controversial games of 2026. The story is kinda sad to be honest. On one hand the people who did actually work on the game (the developers) probably did care about the game they were working on. Struggling to deal with sh*tty corporate mandates and now without the direction of Kurvitz. Zero Parades has reviewed well despite everything, but at the same time you can’t ignore the fact that they unjustly fired the people responsible for Disco Elysium. Every piece of backlash, boycotting, and pirating Zero Parades is one hundred percent justified. There goes the successor to Disco Elysium, which brings us to other games. Rue Valley tried and failed, Hopetown is still in the works, and then you got the third option. The most recent successor and the one that manages to stand on both feet while screaming, “Hip hip hooray.” A game that not only understands what made Disco Elysium good, but forms an identity of its own and is sure to attract its own audience who aren’t just avid fans of Disco Elysium. I mean the game’s in the title of the review, so I expect you readers to be pretty smart by now. Esoteric Ebb.

A game that asks, “What if Disco Elysium took place in Dungeons and Dragons?” Similar to our alcoholic forefather, this game was created by brilliant mind Christoffer Bodegard and his small selection of friends. They wanted to lean more on the writing side of RPGs rather than what we have come to traditionally accept. Where it differs is that Esoteric Ebb really wanted to recapture the feeling of playing Dungeons and Dragons. The crazy creative ideas that can pop up during a regular session. Baldur’s Gate 3 took the world by storm three years previously by translating the famous tabletop RPG to a virtual interactive world wonderfully, so Esoteric Ebb had a lot to live up to. Not just one but two genre defining RPGs for a lot of people. I remember seeing posts of Esoteric Ebb when it was in early development. I thought it was impressive and kept an eye on it since then. Most people were excited for Ebb because of its influence. I was into it because it’s fantasy, and I’m a simple minded sucker for fantasy. A good friend gifted me the game a couple weeks ago and I finally sat down to play. Having spent the last four days glued to a screen I can confirm that Esoteric Ebb is as good as they say. Even going so far as to say that in some way it might be a better video game than Disco Elysium. That is surely a sentence that’ll get me hanged somewhere. Let’s talk about Esoteric Ebb and why it deserves your attention.

Story

Several years have passed since the Coast War. A plethora of battles that took millions of lives & reduced dominant species into racial minorities. Mankind for example once dominated the world, but then their population was cut down by almost ninety percent. Goblins and elves are also to be added to the list. Wizards led the ruling government at the time, but were overthrown. Ending the Coast War and finally establishing peace for the remaining townships. During this time of peace they were able to rebuild, repopulate, and reform society. Races who once discriminated against each other live as neighbors. Schools regularly teach about the Coast War so the mistakes that led to it aren’t repeated. The need for heroes and questing is disappearing, but what happens now? A new form of government is needed, otherwise there’s no laws or punishment for crimes. Rather than fight over land or race the people are now bickering over what political party is best. You got the Azgalians who want to fight for equality between the high class & poor. The Freestriders who want to create a thriving economy even if it means trampling the poor. Then the Nationalists who are conservatives. Despite the peace tension is high.

How does this relate to you though? You are a cleric sent to Norvik to investigate a devastating crime that had just occurred. A tea shop had mysteriously blown up in the middle night and just about everyone could see and hear it. No one was caught in the explosion, but the shop was shut tight in fear that some form of upsetting evidence lied within. A scene that could create another uproar within an uproar, so a cleric was sent. A man with arcane talents who could quickly solve what had occurred and report. However, the investigation doesn’t go as expected as the chosen cleric, Ragn, falls into the city river. Body weakened after what had attacked him and drowned to his death. Ragn awakens to find himself resurrected in the city’s morgue. Ragn’s body was found and quickly taken to a mortician. He has no idea what happened for him to fall into the river and still lacks the info needed to solve the ongoing case. The cleric is then directed to a goblin queen who assigns him one of her servants to help. Now working alongside the loyal rogue Snell, our little Cleric must explore the town and uncover the info needed to solve this mystery. Not fully knowing how deep this rabbit hole goes or should I say.... Wait no that’s a story spoiler.

Damn.

Gameplay

I stated that Esoteric Ebb is one of few games attempting to succeed Disco Elysium. It is a game where every action is decided through dialogue rather than evenly split between discussions and combat. You start off with little information on what you need to do. While there is a chart that shows what quests/tasks you need to finish they don’t tell you how to exactly finish them. There is no map marker telling you where to go, so all you can really do is bumble around. It’s similar to Disco Elysium where the central mystery isn’t straightforward and connects to other problems. You have to talk to locals and nearby neighbors if you want to understand what to do. Get direction & then work from there, but sometimes you don’t have to always do that. Heck, you do not always get the choice on whether you do or not, because much like any RPG these locals will ask you to do them a favor before they give you what you need. This then leads to more quests with more vague descriptions on what to do. Esoteric Ebb much like Disco Elysium trusts their players in figuring out problems. Working towards a solution of some form and honestly this is why both of these games feel smart to play. Despite the simplistic gameplay there’s a mystery to be unfolding. You really feel like a detective, or in this case an investigator.

Do remember that this is an RPG, and some actions aren’t just clicking dialogue boxes. At times you gotta pay attention to what you say, because it might initiate scenes or arguments you do not want to deal with. Potentially start problems with factions or characters you need help from. You may even have to pass skill checks, and this is where stats and gear become important. Back in Disco Elysium your actions were determined through dice rolls. Each dice roll is aligned to one of your numerous stats like Physical Instrument, Inland Empire, Authority, Electrochemistry, etc. Whereas that game had zany stats all of whom talk to the protagonist this game has the simple stats of Dungeons and Dragons. Strength, constitution, dexterity, intelligence, and more. Each of the stats have their own personalities, beliefs, and ways of handling issues. For example, the big boisterous Strength will suggest handling problems with brute force. Charisma suggests using the power of words, and Intelligence will tell you to analyze problems before taking action. It is much of what to expect from a Disco Elysium successor. You roll a dice or two dices depending on the dice roll, and if you land above a certain threshold you pass the check. If not you fail and sometimes failing leads to your character taking damage. You only level up six times during one playthrough and each time you get one singular stat point. So choosing your starting stats are a bit important. You can equip gear to increase specific stats, but you gotta be on the look for it. As a good chunk of gear has to be earned.

You can heal outside of dialogue using consumables, and there’s one consumable that allows you to reattempt failed stat checks, those being  Shards of Jor. However, if the player falls below zero health points you then roll some dice to see whether you live. Every dice roll above ten marks a green dot. Anything below marks a red, and if three green dots are filled you get to live. If three red dots are filled you get a game over. Forcing you to redo progress you didn’t save or redo the stat check you are stuck on. The world is yours to explore and unravel. Walk the city streets, help the local factions, get to know the populace, and unearth the dangers down below. Go on grand little adventures that only you and your pals crazy enough to follow you will remember. Similar to Disco Elysium this is a difficult game to talk about without spoiling the story. I am attempting to do so because Esoteric Ebb is still a pretty recent release and the purpose of this review is to convince people who haven’t played it to do so. Hopefully they do, and I pray you can properly guide Ragn towards the answers he seeks. Time is of the essence my holy compadre.

Thoughts

Much criticism towards Esoteric Ebb can be directed towards its similarities to Disco Elysium. I try not to compare games too much, because it’s unfair and at times the liking of one game will lead to bias towards the other. Hence why I stopped comparing metroidvanias Hollow Knight or every soulslike to Bloodborne, but it’s difficult ignoring them for Esoteric Ebb. Yet, I stated near the intro that in some aspects Esoteric Ebb is a better video game than Disco Elysium. It’s mainly due to how Esoteric Ebb simplifies aspects people found confusing or too much. The big one to me at least is how Ebb handles stats. Disco Elysium had a total of twenty four different stats. The stats were divided into four categories and when starting a playthrough you dump points into the four categories. Every time you level up you get a handful of points to spend on the stats within these categories, and the max for each stat depends on how much you poured into categories. For example, if you dumped four points into the category Savoir Faire is in then you can only level up that stat up to eight. 24 stats with their own ideas and personalities is impressive, but leads to a problem for some players. Some stats might not get enough lines of dialogue, there’s too many voices going off, or trying to handle each of them can feel a bit overwhelming. Especially when some might not be sure what each stat does or how much it contributes.

In this game you got the basic Dungeon and Dragons stats. The scope and range is smaller, but in doing so I think these stats stand out more. Strengthists believe in superiority of man and one’s ability to express their own strength, but they’re also extremely toxic and sexist towards women. Charisma motivates you to talk your way out of problems, but sometimes suggests saying stuff for the sake of personal gain rather than it being the right thing to do. Wisdom wants Ragn to thoughtfully look at problems, but they’re gentle and always cautious of when the issues at hand fire back onto thee. At least this is how I interpret the stats. Choosing what stats to invest in from the start felt more meaningful, because you only ever level up six times throughout the journey. Disco Elysium gives you tons of level up points every time you achieve one hundred experience points., and Esoteric Ebb gives you one. In fact, the requirement for leveling up increases as you go further, so you gotta put thought into what you invest that singular point into. Still, it might not be enough as depending on your investment you might two to get a speech check bonus. 

Leading to a problem that can be connected back to Disco Elysium. In that game you had a ton of clothing, and gear could be swapped out to increase stats without leveling. Turning any difficult stat check into an easier one. It made a game that was surprisingly immersive & believable feel very video gamey during those specific moments. Esoteric Ebb isn’t immersive and less so when it too does it, but at least it kinda makes sense here. Seeing how this is a Dungeons and Dragons setting where equipment has magical properties. Some relics even give you bonuses like having an advantage when talking to bureaucrats. Another thing Esoteric Ebb changed were thoughts. Disco Elysium let’s embrace ideologies and concepts depending on how much you have indulged in them. This included advanced race theory, feminism, homosexuality, believing you’re a star, keeping your sh*t together, or a pedophi- I mean a fascist because this is a political RPG. These thoughts were really cool as they let the player further roleplay as the character they want to be, but accepting these thoughts also came with downsides. Some stats would increase and others instead decreased. For the decreases to go away you embrace the thought long enough, and for some players it might discourage them from accepting multiple thoughts. Esoteric Ebb takes a vastly different approach when it comes to thoughts, or in this case by taking root.

After finishing specific quests you are offered different beliefs. How to view the problem you’d handled, and each belief contains a different bonus. Such as regenerating health each hour, not being able to roll a critical failure, regaining health depending on the gender of character you had talked to, etc. Not only do you get players to question their ideologies, but also consider which of these bonuses are worth getting. To make risky rolls much easier, but it also brings the issue that thoughts are now more mechanical. You do it cuz you get XYZ, and sometimes the bonus with the best benefit aligns with an idea you don’t believe. Oh yeah, I like how the game handles the dice rolls. Disco Elysium shows a number percentage on how much you’ll succeed. This game shows the exact number you need to roll and the challenge of making that roll. Much like all I’ve been saying up till this point it feels more encouraging. What I’ll say though is that both games handle the concept of failure pretty well. There’s few games where failure isn’t a punishment. At times Esoteric Ebb does punish you, and we’ll get to this later. You can mess up rolls and still be able to get through the story. Some failures even lead to better outcomes at times.

The world feels more compact to explore than Disco Elysium and it’s a pretty diverse world. Full of colorful characters, sights, and designs I really like. Esoteric Ebb has appealing art direction with stylized visuals that feel ripped from a comic book. A style I really like, because it gives the game a unique identity. You’re gonna encounter goblins, tieflings, elves, hags, talking gators, and much more but every character is visually distinct. Very beautiful ladies as far as the eye can see, but I’m getting ahead of myself. What surprised me was the dungeon beneath the township. One big massive maze you gotta navigate to uncover the secret of the teashop. Full of traps and fights you gotta get around, and this is one of my few criticisms with Esoteric Ebb. What I love about text based games like this is being able to deduce problems or talk your way around them. There are times when asking questions or analyzing makes a dice roll check much easier versus doing it right from the get go. Traps in the dungeon require that and the payoff for doing so is thrilling. To survive a life threatening situation. Some of the fights are the same too and I like the idea that you gotta come up with ideas on how to push through. I was talking to a friend recently and they said they’re not vibrating with Baldur’s Gate 3, because the combat doesn’t capture the feeling of fighting in D&D well. Dungeons is imagination driven, so fights can be worked out. You could cleverly describe how you solve a fight, and you’d be rewarded. Whereas in Baldur’s Gate 3 the fights were fights. Everyone takes turns until a chosen side dies. 

This game while having a confined list of stuff you can do captures the sense of imagination a lot better. By having crazy stuff you can pull off if you think correctly and make a good dice roll. It is fun getting through a tricky sequence cuz you made the right choices. However, a good chunk of these fights require you to win. If not you can’t progress and get a game over. Fights near the start of the game let you talk your way around problems, because the people you dealt with were diplomatic. Then you just slash through beast after beast with no alternative ways around aside, “You gotta win this or you’re about to get a whole new hole in your body” It feels restrictive in a couple ways. I’m not doing a great job describing it, so what I’ll say is you really have to play it yourself to understand what I’m saying. Other than that I’d say Esoteric Ebb is a well designed game that’s fun to play, explore the crevices of, and again feels like a much better video game than Disco Elysium. Am I arguing that I like this more than Disco Elysium? No, in some ways I still adore Disco Elysium more but I still appreciate how astounding Esoteric Ebb is. 

Bringing me onto the reason most people will play Esoteric Ebb and that is the writing. Earlier I said Disco Elysium was not just a well written game full of in universe history, politics, and the history of its politics but also a very human story about identity. Esoteric Ebb, despite being set in a fantasy setting, leans heavily towards its politics. There are a lot more political topics than I was expecting! There’s discussions of democracy, conservatism, facism, capitalism, poverty, how the past shapes racism and stereotypes, theocracy, centrism, and the list goes on. Esoteric Ebb is not afraid to use its fantasy world to explore political themes, and honesty…. I give the game a big thumbs up for doing so. Esoteric Ebb is not as personal as Disco Elysium, but it manages to say something. With one of the key themes being the passage of time & how the world changes. The people arguing over what political party is the past. What will shape the future well and not repeat the same mistakes from. The change in laws, economy, and viewing of others. Some are hopeful of the future, and others are afraid. Some would rather remain in the past or be secluded from the rest of the world. Smaller percentages of people would even do terrible things to make sure the status quo is preserved. Without revealing massive story spoilers you can align yourself with a political group, but the plot ends with you submitting your voting card. You don’t see who wins, because who wins doesn't matter. Times are changing, and you learn to accept it. You keep living despite the complexities of life, and I think that’s nice.

The overall writing strikes a nice balance between comedy and serious tones. People forget that Disco Elysium was not just smartly written, but also pretty f*cking funny at times. Esoteric Ebb is the same and I would say the comedy enlightened me more than Disco Elysium. Partially due to how this is a fantasy world full of crazy characters, so the writers are allowed to do weirder gags with weirder characters and concepts. With some moments leading me to say, “Why the hell would you do that!?” Again, the cast of characters are likable and I like Ragn as a protagonist. The way I roleplayed as Ragn he’s a confident cleric trying to do the best for others. Despite the fact that he as a person isn’t very significant. He’s not the same type of loser Harry was, but he’s pathetic in an adorable way. One of the conversations you can have is where you live, and you can either admit you live with your mother or lie saying you live somewhere epic. One of many side quests is securing a date, and there’s a lot of stellar gals in this game so have fun with that! My only complaint is that some dialogue can feel lengthy for the sake of being lengthy. I closely remember talking to a politics addicted halfling, and one of several discussions we had centered on women’s suffrage and fascism surprisingly. This went on for fifteen minutes, but maybe it’s because I was playing for two hours straight. Never play past bedtime folks.

Esoteric Ebb is an achievement. Not only have Christopher and his pals proven how to follow up on Disco Elysium and carve your own identity, but they’ve also proved how you can translate the fundamentals of Dungeons and Dragons into a video game. It might not have the massive impact that Baldur’s Gate did, but it certainly please some people more like it did with my friends. The game has tons of roleplaying opportunities, puts fun twists on past ideas, and might honestly be a bit easier to recommend than Disco Elysium. It’s currently one of my top five games of 2026, but we’ll see how things pan out as I check out more indies from this year. In the end I give Esoteric Ebb a 10/10 for being incredible.

10/10, Incredible