After a long, early-access development period, Ember Knights launched into the gaming scene. Intriguingly enough, the developers opted to make Ember Knights rogue-like despite the over-saturation of the genre seen in recent years. Expecting people to invest their time and money in a game that retreads into previously explored territory can become an enormous ask since the genre already features masterpieces like Hades. While Ember Knights does not boast the ludicrous number of events to experience that Hades does, it provides gameplay better than games like it, alongside fantastic graphics and multiplayer gameplay.
Rogue-likes typically opt for fast-paced gameplay, but Ember Knights increases the ferocity and pace. Rooms typically drown with foes that can quickly overwhelm if one fails to control the situation, and everything happens surprisingly quick. These intense encounters keep combat fresh and exciting over several gameplay sessions, as one needs to act fast and hone their reflexes to survive most encounters.
Enemy encounters also revolve around rewarding the player for masterful gameplay. During a run, one will encounter skills with cooldowns, but they only recharge when the player strikes enough enemies. Additionally, skills and certain weapons feature charge attacks that produce helpful effects when held long enough. These two elements make combat satisfying as the player gets rewarded for skillful gameplay instead of skill-oriented gameplay.
One can also utilize a dodge roll that provides an edge against the unrelenting swarm of foes due to how it interacts with the level design. Not only does this dodge roll allow one to escape via rolling through attacks, but it also lets them leap over gaps in the terrain. These mechanics give the player control over the flow of combat as they can use the environment to gain the respite needed to assess the situation.
Ember Knights also features several weapons with unique twists to combat. The vastly different fighting styles encourage experimentation and build upon the fast-paced, aggressive gameplay by providing unique offensive options like charged attacks, high damage yields and ranged attacks. The slow rate of unlocking these weapons also encourages these mechanics by giving the player the time to appreciate every tool of destruction.
The gameplay elements become further accentuated with the addition of multiplayer, albeit at the cost of difficulty balancing. The gameplay does not change much between single-player and multiplayer, which causes the difficulty to shift drastically since solo runs deal with an overwhelming number of foes from room to room in the late game and multiplayer runs deal with effortlessly dispatched opposition in early game locales. However, this minor detail does not detract from the overall enjoyment that either a group of friends or a solo player would receive from this game!
Unfortunately, the unlockable upgrades feel disappointingly railroaded. Obtaining more ember—a resource used to receive new abilities—throughout a playthrough only lets the player unlock new weapons in a set order, and abilities/stat increases can only be received when the player obtains enough prior upgrades. The game administers some leniency with the option to swap abilities with other abilities, but it leaves one wishing for more freedom to develop up their character as they desire.
The minor disappointment felt from the streamlined unlockables thankfully becomes assuaged due to Ember Knight’s impressive graphical fidelity. The game runs at a surprisingly smooth framerate, especially considering the number of enemies and projectiles on screen at any given moment, and the rich quality of the graphics causes the game to feel like the pixel art equivalent of modern games with high graphical fidelity like Final Fantasy XVI.
All in all, I give Ember Knights a 9/10, and highly recommend it!
