Cozy games like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley have enjoyed meteoric rises to success, well-earned success. Adorable pixel art, planting crops, and farming animals have become core tenants of the cozy game genre. But what if amidst the homesteading and decorating combat was introduced? Emberville, touted as a charming combination of Diablo and Stardew Valley, seeks to give gamers the answer in October. I was lucky enough to get a chance to preview the prologue a few weeks early and let’s just say, I see the vision.
Welcome to the Vitromotus
Emberville is the debut game from independent studio Cygnus Cross. If the prologue is any indication, and I believe it is, the debut from this studio is going to come out swinging. The game starts with your adorable pixel character….yes there is a character creation element….in a small room. You don’t know who or where you are as well as why you’re where you are. The view is top-down, not unlike Diablo, and similarly as you venture out of the starting room, the map reveals halls and rooms just waiting for you to explore. I quickly discovered most furniture was destroyable and destroying certain pieces meant gaining inventory items along the way.
As you explore, you begin to learn the world of the Vitromotus. Players find out later that by escaping it that you were inside what appears to be a giant crystal whose insides are essentially a magical prison. Upon leaving the first maze of rooms, you run into a cloaked figure that instantly kills you. But don’t worry, as you reanimate and can continue on your quest. Adorable enemies await and as you battle your way across the map, little tool tips pop up giving you hints about how to survive the world around you. By this point players will have started amassing wood, coal, and other items such as new weapons and armor. I, in true fashion, picked up everything my inventory could carry.
Yet More Questions Without Answers
Eventually the cloaked enemy returns, but this time you best them and they drop an item called a “humming sphere”, more to come on what that means. A labyrinthian maze of halls await filled with enemies and spike traps before you meet Adeos. Adeos is a forgetful but friendly old man that happily answers many of your questions. This includes where you are and the slightly hopeless sentiment that you may be stuck there forever. You also discover the identity of the robbed figure and their origin as an acolyte. You also learn you must speak with the humming sphere, known as the Mind’s Journal. This magical journal is the archives of Deuseos, presumably the robbed figure you cut down. It tells you where you are and that because of the presence of something called “kymia” death is not permanent here. In fact, those here cannot die, even if that is what they desire. The Mind’s Journal introduces specific class options to play and you continue, still looking for a way out.
Corridors of enemies await, including more robbed acolytes who seem to like you just as little as the first. Eventually you find an ominous key whose name contains the word “spider” whose unlocked door introduces you to your first boss fight. A large purple spider with a large skull protruding from its back comes crawling from its cave. While the main target is the Spider Matriarch, eggs continually hatch and small spiders enter the fray as well. Defeating the Spider Matriarch yields some fun items before more halls and angry robbed enemies await. Finally, players enter what looks like a set of derelict rooms where several boos tell you more about the effects of kymia. As mentioned before, death is not permanent here with exceptions such as a missing vital organ. A cautionary line warns that a body that cannot instantly be reanimated must be carefully preserved because death is still only temporary. This insinuates a body left to rot and later reunited with a vital missing organ will reanimate but the body’s rot will remain….a troubling thought. More troubling is the woman in the center of set of room behind the bars of a cage.
She is Tinetia, the Bone Lady you’ve heard about previously. She’s a seemingly friendly cartographer in a bit of a sticky situation. It’s her lucky day as you stumble across her. Tinetia tells you she’s on her way to Emberville, a place beyond the walls of the Vitromotus. She brings a portal to life and the pair of you step outside the massive crystal known as the Vitromotus and into the outside world. Tinetia urges you into the cover of a building whose halls are worth exploring. Items await as does a hint to where the missing folk of Emberville may be. Before leaving Tinetia, she gives you a map and you get to briefly explore the empty streets and broken buildings of Emberville. Chatting with Gumu, a self-proclaimed renowned trader, provides slightly more context before the prologue ends.
A Summary of Systems and Fundamentals
The prologue was incredible and I instantly wanted more. I have so many questions about the world of Emberville and my part to play in it. The lore is deep and the characters I met either in-person or through beautifully narrated letters are intriguing and quite personable. I’m looking forward to meeting more characters for many reasons. One is for the story. The other is for the amazing voice cast that provided their talents. Emberville has an awesome mix of well-known actors as well as those who are foraying into voice acting for their first time. Every single actor helps bring the intriguing world of the game to life.
The battling felt fun and reminded me of dungeon crawling in the 1986 title “The Legend of Zelda”. I struggled a bit with understanding how to use a bow, but personally I much prefer a sword. And don’t worry if you start off with a weapon you aren’t fond of. Even in the prologue, I’d come across quite a few different weapon types as well as armor upgrades. My personal favorite find was a floppy witch hat that quickly became my entire personality. Exploration is your friend as chests are throughout the halls of the Vitromotus.
Crafting in the prologue comes in the form of cooking meat and mushrooms. Cooking these items enhance them in that their uncooked forms renew health, but not nearly as much as after you cook them. While I didn’t get to experience building or restoring buildings and spaces, I collected plenty of items that hint at doing so in the future. Watching the trailer shows farming, crafting, and building aplenty. Of course, this is alongside delving into dungeons and plenty of battling.
The controls felt really good and I had very little issue playing on controller on PC. In this early preview, some things were only accessible through mouse and keyboard. Being told this in advance prepared me for those moments of which there weren’t too many. But do not be concerned, fellow controller players! This will be fixed for release. The UI, in general, is very user friendly and not overly complicated nor were the upgrade, abilities, or class systems introduced in the prologue.
I’d like to thank Alex at Evolve PR and Cygnus Cross for this opportunity to review the prologue. Emberville is setting itself up to be my fall cozy game this year. If a game including dungeon crawling and progression systems alongside the cozy farming life call to you, Emberville is not to be missed. Stunning pixel art, a compelling story, and a world full of enemies to slay and characters to meet await. Dive in and find out what happened to Emberville. And during that adventure, you may just find yourself along the way.
Emberville is releasing October 27th on Steam.
