Emberville Impressions – Many Pixelbilities

Emberville was not at all what I anticipated. Before starting this preview, I was waiting to get immersed in a Stardew Valley-like game with some action mechanics. Emberville, however, is an action RPG as much as it is a farming, crafting, and gathering experience. Developed by Cygnus Cross, a studio co-founded by developer and content creator Cohh Carnage, Emberville fuses a variety of genres into a pixel art world.

In Emberville, you start your adventure in the Vitromotus, an underground prison and dungeon where death is no longer an option. Your first task will be to escape this magical dungeon and reach Emberville. However, this won’t be your last time in the Vitromotus, since a big part of the world and narrative will be linked to it, even after you escape. One of the first trailers for the game highlighted the voice cast, and for good reason. Emberville counts on performances from the best in the voice acting business, such as Amelia Tyler, Doug Cockle, Ben Starr, and more. Some of these talents were already present in the preview, helping greatly with the immersion of the game’s story.

Since the preview was just about an hour and a half long, the majority of the time is spent on the Vitromotus, with a small tease of the outside world of Emberville at the end. In the dungeon, I was able to try the game’s exploration, combat, and progression. One of the most impressive aspects of these elements was the multifaceted progression. Who doesn’t like leveling up? Well, there is much to progress in Emberville, from your class to your armor and equipment. These levels and progressions are accompanied by abilities and unlocks that greatly expand the gameplay possibilities.

The combat in Emberville takes inspiration from isometric perspective action games such as Hades and Diablo. Every weapon, like the sword, bow, knuckles, etc., have their own attacks and combos. A sword is deadly in close encounters; a bow gives you ranged attacks, while a magic staff can give you a balance of both with ranged spells and close attacks with the staff itself. All weapons have their own progression, letting you unlock Masteries, which are new combos that are added to that weapon’s arsenal of movements.

In addition to weapon progression, each piece of armor belongs to a category, such as light and heavy. There is also your character level, which gives you Stat Points every time you level up. With these Stat Points, you can upgrade attributes that will further enhance your combat, stamina, magic capabilities, and more.

As if all these progressions weren’t enough already, there are also combat classes to unlock and progress as well. These classes bring additional skills and perks that add even more possibilities to each individual playstyle. The Wanderer class, for example, focuses on survival and mobility, giving you abilities that will help you move faster or a big punch that can help you get out of tight situations. These classes can be unlocked by completing quests and exploration.

Speaking of exploration, it was definitely one of the highlights of the preview. Exploring the Vitromotus felt engaging and, most importantly, worth the time. Even though the building aspect wasn’t available in the preview, I could still gather the materials and craft food. While it was just a taste of the crafting system, the food available to cook added benefits that are worth the exploration and crafting time. You will be able to learn new recipes in good RPG fashion, thanks to NPCs, books, quests, and leveling up the crafting mastery. Accompanied by an amazing soundtrack, exploration in Emberville aims to be a very immersive experience.

As a fan of action games like Hades and of building pixel games, Emberville scratches the itch for many of the games in these genres. While I was worried that handling those multiple genres at the same time could bring some issues, the Cygnus Cross team seems to have no problem at all bringing them together to create a fun and engaging mix. From this preview, my interest in the game only became bigger, leaving me with a sense of yearning to explore more of the world Emberville has to offer.

Walter played an early access preview of Emberville on PC with a provided review code.