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Tuesday, June 20, 2023 3:45:23 AM

Ember Knights Review (Xorik)

Strangely, this roguelite seemed to fit with me. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth had interesting interactions with passive picked up in a run, but the damage thresholds against endgame bosses was straight up not fun for me. Enter the Gungeon had too much bullet hell with little else going for it in terms of unlocking items for better chances of winning a run. Wizard of Legend was a cool concept with the wide variety of spells and satisfying spell combos but felt a little too slow for me. Hades was really solid with art, visual effects, and gameplay (which Ember Knights seems to take after very much), but for me, Hades had too much content locked behind completing multiple runs on higher difficulty which discouraged me from experiencing the full potential of each weapon with the gods' powers combined.
Ember Knights pretty much hit all of these points being fast-paced enough, having enough variety of weapons, skills, or relics that influence your combat style each run, and several items and features being accessible after just a few runs. The feeling of the possible synergies experienced in different runs feels like achieving a dream build in The Binding of Isaac where the stuff you get all works together, except you experience these synergies much more frequently. The runs are a fair amount of time with successful runs being 30-35 minutes without the final world/boss which has yet to be included (you are actually encouraged to do each world under a time limit). As of end of Early Access, victory can be achieved very early in this game (I won a run before I had access to the shopkeeper prior to starting a run). For a roguelite, it has a much higher rate of successful runs compared to several others I've played. This can be a major downside for those who are into masocore or difficult games where it takes multiple failures or defeats and many hours before achieving something. And with the way items and features are unlocked, it does not take long before you acquire all there is available in the game. It may leave you wondering if it was worth the $20, even with the difficulty adjuster. These can be major deciding factors for those interested in this game but don't want it to be too easy.
Overall, this game is good for dropping in by yourself or with others to simply have fun with synergies available in the game.