Ember Knights | Switch Review

It seems as if I’m the biggest roguelike/roguelite fan on our team. I absolutely love the grind of this genre. The satisfying feeling of overcoming overwhelming odds by simply putting in some time works for me in ways that often frustrate my co-hosts. I haven’t been able to satisfying that itch in quite a while. It’s been a good amount of time since games like Rogue Legacy 2, Undermine, Moonlighter, and Children of Morta graced my screen. I had begun to think that I’d not find another entry in the genre before the craze died out. Thankfully, Doom Turtle released their latest title, Ember Knights out of Early Access, and it officially has its hooks in me. I know a game is good when I can’t stop thinking about playing it, and that’s exactly what’s happening here. In fact, I need to hurry up and finish this review so I can get back to it.

Do You Like Hades?

One of my partners, Zack, reviewed the popular game Hades back in October of 2020. I felt vindicated in finally finding a game in the genre that he liked. So why am I bringing up that game? Because it has equal similarities and differences to Ember Knights that are worth noting. The first thing I’ll say is that, unlike Hades, Ember Knights doesn’t have much in terms of story. It’s a pretty cookie cutter plot where you and your fellow knights must stop an evil sorcerer named Praxis from corrupting the world with his evil plan. There’s very little in terms of dialogue, so talking to characters won’t do much to push the story. That’s perfectly fine for me, because I’m here for one thing: the gameplay.

The parallels to Supergiant Games’ title in terms of mechanics are quite evident, but it also peppers in novel ideas that very much make it unique. The gameplay consists of working your way through five different “worlds”, each with randomly-generated dungeon rooms, enemies, items, and even secrets. Your goal is simply to destroy every enemy in the room before moving on to the next. You’ll eventually face off against a mini-boss and then an end boss for each world. Pretty standard stuff for the genre, especially when it comes to upgrading your skills, abilities, and weapons. In true roguelike fashion, you battle your way through rooms until you are inevitably defeated. How far you make it determines how many embers (the leveling currency in this game) you’ll receive. Spending those embers is the key to making your next run easier until you are strong enough to take out the final boss.

The similarities to Hades align in a couple of ways. First off, you’ll only have one weapon available to you at the start. As you acquire more embers, more pedestals will unlock more weapons, and you can choose whichever one you prefer. My favorite was a ranged bow, and I used it throughout most of the game. At the end of certain rooms, there will be a symbol on each of two doors indicating what kind of reward is available to you in that room. This gives the player plenty of choice outside of the skill tree that are exclusive to that particular run.

But What Makes It Unique?

As mentioned above, this isn’t a game you’ll come to for the story. It’s paper thin and barely worth mentioning. The reason to play this game is the diversity of gameplay between each run. The more you play, the more skills and relics you have available via random drops. Skills are special abilities, and you can only equip two at one time. They each have their own separate cool down which are replenished not by time, but by a number of regular attack hits. This is so much more exciting than simply waiting for a timer to expire. It gives me a reason to keep attacking with my regular weapon. There’s always something to be doing, and I’m never stuck wandering around waiting on cooldowns.

Secondly, Ember Knights offers a positive in terms of timing. Every weapon and skill has with it the ability to hold down its respective button to charge said attack. If released within a perfectly-timed window, damage is boosted. Depending on the skill, you might even get some other kind of bonus like poison or fire damage. The true fun comes with building your character on each run. Depending on what drops, you may end up working towards a tank-like character or one focused on burning your enemies. My personal favorite centered around the latter. One of my best runs in the entire game gave me the ability to set enemies on fire with regular attacks. I had added relics that provided additional fire damage, making me an instrument of destruction.

One of the more unique elements of the game revolves around the skill tree. Upgrades are grouped together in threes, and you’re only able to equip one from each group per run. For instance, one group of upgrades have to do with enemy damage. One upgrade allows you to do more damage to regular enemies, while another grants bonus damage to mini-bosses and bosses. And that’s only one example. This gives the player some limitations and also freedom to play each run to their particular liking. It’s a very welcome approach to the formula that I found very rewarding.

Ember Knights Final Verdict

Ember Knights might be the most addicting game I’ve played this year. Doom Turtle has nearly perfected the satisfying upgrade path I love so much in roguelikes. My only complaints outside of the lack of story has to do with pacing. Towards the beginning of the game, the progression moves at an incredible clip. I feel like I’m blazing through the game. Once you reach the fourth world, however, the game starts to feel like a bit more of a grind. Each run felt more and more like I was playing out of upgrade necessity instead of actually trying to progress. Thankfully, the game is so much fun to play, I didn’t mind so much. With that said, the randomly-generated dungeons started to feel a bit repetitive after a while.

This feels like the hidden gem of the year for me. It’s not perfect, but it’s damn close in my book. There are plenty more surprises along the way to make your upgrades expand in ways I never saw coming. Plus, you have a ton of end-game content to make this title more than worth its price tag. If you’re a fan of the genre, this is the easiest recommend I’ve made in a while.

To hear me talk more about Ember Knights, be sure to listen to the August 2nd episode of The Gaming Outsider Podcast around the 47:24 time stamp.

This review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy of Ember Knights provided by Sandbox Strategies for coverage purposes. It is also available on PC via Steam.