»Esoteric Ebb« (EE) is a game about being guided through a personal and quirky DND campaign, through the gameplay style of »Disco Elysium« (DE). This means that the gameplay is you walking around some isometric setting, while all the gameplay happens in a big text-column with an internal dialogue (monologue?) of your different personality aspects chiming in, or rather attempting to steer your conscience to their own waters. However, the game is significantly different from »Disco Elysium«, mostly reminiscent in its gameplay loop and initial story beats. And I mean this in the best way, because I never finished »Disco Elysium«, I simply found it too oppressive, and after taking a break from it I never got a desire to continue. In contrast, where »Disco Elysium« is about figuring out who you are and how you fit into the world, »Esoteric Ebb« is about figuring out what the world is by exploration, dungeoneering, and obnoxiously asking everyone you meet »what are you voting in the election?« In my opinion, EE is Scandinavian whimsy while DE is Slavic self-loathing. I know what I prefer. Alright, just needed to get that out of my system, because so much of the discussion online seems to be about whether EE is a worthy successor of DE - something I think is a completely misaligned question to even discuss. It is it's own thing, and you will enjoy it more for just seeing it for what it is. Go finish up your 7th playthrough of DE, if that is the only game worth playing. And if you have a second monitor, maybe you can re-watch some old seasons of »The Office« at the same time.

So the game. Not that other game, but the game. It takes place in the fictional city of »Tolstad«, one that has been through many historical eras and been occupied by different races and peoples. The newest one is the Humans, the protagonist's ancestors, who have exterminated the Troll and Goblin populations to ensure their own survival in the city. The game plays a bit around the subject, the main point being how DND's alignments (e.g. evil, good, chaotic) look like when taken to their logical conclusion. For example, the man who committed genocide is Lawful Good, just because he believed it to be the correct choice for himself and his people. However, the game itself is pretty lighthearted in tone. After all, it is supposed to be a fun adventure of exploration. The focus is more on »where are we going to end up« rather than »what has happened in the past«. It is ultimately hopeful, and what I really adore is that what you end up voting in the election is actually not that important. You do not even get to see the results of it. What matters is how you interact and speak with the community and NPC's. The democratic process is much more important than whatever you personally believe will save the city. I do not think the game intended to do so, but I was reminded a bit about Friedrich Schiller's »Letters Upon the Aesthetic Education of Man« (if you are ever interested in getting a physical copy, I can greatly recommend taking a look at the independent, British publisher »Old Sovereign Publishing« (TODO: Make a fieldnote on the website about them!)). You cannot just impose some new system upon a populace, but the system must arise from some dynamic and living process.a

Gameplay-wise, the game is basically just a visual novel where you roll dies in dialogue to succeed or fail. For stats you got:

The dialogues between them is pretty fun, especially because they are all played to such a stereotype. Seeing DEX always coming with a comment about pickpocketing or CHA cringing because you picked the objectively bad dialogue choice was annoying at first, but you grow to love it. Same with the other ones. Of course there are misses and not-that-interesting dialogues, but there is plenty to make up for it. One of my favorite design decisions was the inclusion of real world languages. You are exploring a dungeon and come across ancient, indecipherable text from a people long gone - but it is just Spanish. It is a fun way to break the fourth wall, especially when I saw that the Dwarves basically just speak Danish. The game has no voice acting at all, something I really like. It is extremely annoying to be reading the dialogue in a game like this, and having to wait for the voice actor to finish up. I know great voice acting elevates, but I prefer to just read.

In conclusion, this is a very fun, enjoyable, and entertaining game. You are not going to get Disco Elysium 2 with its introspection, but you are going on one hell of a fun DND campaign.

Gallery (very slight spoilers)