Esoteric Ebb Review

Esoteric Ebb is a 2026 single-player CRPG game, developed by Christoffer Bodegård and released by Raw Fury.

In Esoteric Ebb, we play The Cleric, an expert in esoteric events and a governmental agent of chaos. We are taken on a wild adventure as we investigate the explosion of a tea shop in the heart of the city, just days before the first-ever election. We need all our wits with us, while juggling different factions, exploring the streets and tunnels of a fantasy metropolis, debating devils, zombies, and all kinds of fantastical creatures, all the while delving into a mystery that should probably remain unsolved.

Esoteric Ebb is heavily inspired by the creative freedom of tabletop adventures. During our adventures, the path we take is decided by the roll of a dice, and to make things more interesting, our stats (Wisdom, Intelligence, Dexterity, and so on) chime in at every moment with helpful insights or some unhelpful but funny commentary.

Esoteric Ebb is an isometric tabletop role-playing game-inspired RPG, set in a bizarre post- Arcanepunk fantasy setting. While it features a political conspiracy, it also has a lot of laugh-out-loud moments, not unlike what you can find in the Discworld books by Sir Terry Pratchett and Orconomics: A Satirical Quest by J. Zachary Pike, and probably other humorous fantasy books, but those were what came to mind immediately for me.

Gameplay-wise, Esoteric Ebb is mostly point and click, but you can also use WASD on the keyboard for movement. The game is heavily dialogue-based, with an enormous amount of choices. We have the classic D&D ability stats – Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Each of them starts at a certain level, depending on what we’ve chosen during character creation. As we level up, so do our abilities. Since they take an active part in the story by talking a lot, each of them has its own personality, which changes while levelling up. Following their suggestions and advice can lead us from being a true hero to an amusingly unhinged agent of chaos. The Ability Stats will not respect you or wait for a lull in the conversation; on the contrary, expect them to interrupt important conversations and contradict each other.

The game is dialogue- heavy, with violence considered the very last resort. When the need arises, a roll of the dice will decide if you should win or lose. As this is a fantasy setting, of course, there is a magic system, with spells we prepare in advance at shrines. The spells are mostly used to gather more and more information and secrets from the tunnels below the city or the minds of our enemies.

Of course, we also have a lot more quests than the big mystery. It is an RPG after all. Each quest shapes our Cleric’s playstyle and, in the end, influences the ending.

I admit that the look of Esoteric Ebb was one of the first things that drew me to the game. I like colorful things that do not take themselves seriously while still tackling serious themes. Esoteric Ebb is great like that. I can’t say precisely why, but it also reminded me a lot of another game I really liked back in 2023 – Universe for Sale. Maybe it’s the hand-drawn visuals, the soundtrack, or the story’s overall absurdist tone.

Esoteric Ebb has a Steam achievement and Trading cards. It has the basic audio and video settings and an automatic and a manual saving system.

Esoteric Ebb quickly became a favorite game. Its sharp wit, outlandish characters, and endless Cleric choices are magnetic. Early on, I knew it stood out—what’s not to love about a game where fleeing from a goblin queen is on the table, even if I fail spectacularly?