Emberlight is a classic roguelike/dungeon-crawler with a twist

Will you lose yourself to corruption?

Emberlight – out today on Steam, from Quarter Onion Games – is unflinchingly nostalgic. With its muddy brown hues and its isometric viewpoint, in many ways it harks back to a lost era of PC gaming. And among a sea of rogue-lites and procedurally generated something-or-others, Emberlight is sure of what it is: a true dungeon-crawler, where every death is permanent, but every run is different.

This world is one in which the gods have given you both a great gift and a great curse. As you slay your enemies, you’ll be able to absorb the very traits that make them so fearsome. You can grow quicker, stronger, more resilient – but it comes at a cost.

Absorbing your fallen enemies’ traits will make your passage toward the endgame easier. But as you fight using these unstable ember powers, they will begin to corrupt you. As the quest progresses and you slowly lose yourself to evil, these very traits will metamorphose into a physical representation of themselves – and that physical being becomes your end-game boss. In Emberlight, you can only win by literally fighting the worst version of yourself.

It’s a smart twist, which adds a tangible sense of risk-and-reward to proceedings. Knowing that death is permanent, you’ll be keen to buff your character to the fullest extent possible. But every skill development in the present will make your task harder further down the line. Emberlight becomes a fine balancing act, with you constantly forced to play on a knife-edge, taking things both battle-by-battle while simultaneously planning for what might lie beyond.

The mix of nostalgic dungeon-crawling with smart indie game creativity gives Emberlight a real personality. “When we started designing Emberlight, we wanted something that pulled from both the nostalgia of games we loved in our past as well as some of the styles of games we’ve greatly enjoyed in the present,” explains creative director William Phelps. “We were huge fans of the Final Fantasy series, particular Final Fantasy X, while also having a blast playing games like Binding of Isaac, Darkest Dungeon, and Slay the Spire.  We saw a path where we could combine our nostalgia with the more modern roguelike elements in exciting and fun new ways.”

Emberlight is available today via Steam.