Mothergamer Plays Ereban: Shadow Legacy

 Note: I received the game for free for my honest review. Thank you to Baby Robot Games for the Playstation 5 game key!

Ereban Shadow Legacy starts off with a very interesting premise. We are introduced to Ayana who is an Ereban; a race of people who have the ability to use shadows as a tool and can literally wrap themselves in the shadows. You learn very quickly that Ayana may be the last of her kind and she's trying to figure out what happened to her people. This gives an introduction to the tutorial to figure out how Ayana moves and how the stealth aspect of the game works. Ayana shows up to a facility called Helios which is very much giving evil mega corporation vibes, but not just a corporation, it's a corporation that relies very heavily on technology and their supreme leader known as the Nascent who has put her personality and mind into a giant AI super computer. Yes, it's very creepy. Ayana has to do a series of trials to test if she has what it takes to be a Helios agent. There's a bit of a learning curve with how Ayana moves through the shadows, but once I got used to it, it was fun having her be able to jump across walls via the shadows and sneak past enemies. The tutorial also shows how light can neutralize Ayana's shadow powers and ways to think strategically to avoid that happening. 

We meet Ayana. 

I liked Ayana a lot. She's quite witty and her sarcasm delivered in a sassy flat Daria kind of tone had me chuckling a few times. Ayana starts to realize that Helios is not what they appear to be and some of the things they claim are for the greater good are blatant lies. This causes friction and the Nascent tries to have Ayana captured, but Ayana escapes with the help of a rebel group known as The Forgotten Suns who are actively fighting Helios. 

This is where the story really dives in with Ayana working with the rebel group to find out the truth about Helios, the Nascent, and what happened to the other Ereban. The world that Ayana explores isn't exactly linear, but there are very specific paths you have to take and the game does give hints here and there about where to go. This is very much Ayana needs to use stealth via her shadow powers to avoid getting caught by Helios robots and taking them out quickly and quietly. Ayana can't do combat which could be very frustrating in some situations. She must use stealth and do shadow takedowns in order to get by. If she's caught, she has to run quickly or it's game over and you have to start from the last checkpoint.

Ayana explores some temple ruins. 

Ayana does get various tools and gadgets that help her such as a sonar pulse that reveals where enemies are and land mines for stunning them. She can also upgrade her shadow powers in a skill tree and gain abilities like blinding enemies with her shadows or making herself harder to detect. You have to plan and think about which ones you want to use in the moment because they do have a cool down timer so this made me take my time often instead of rushing in. At certain locations there is a crafting bench so Ayana can restock on gadgets and tools as long as she has the materials for them. Some would drop off enemies and others could be found in treasure chests and around the area Ayana was exploring. 

Getting ready to make some things. 

I did like exploring and while the stealth aspect was interesting, I did find myself frustrated by not being able to at least defend myself and the only thing I could do was run away. I understand what they were trying to do here with the main focus being on stealth and taking out enemies quietly, but sometimes it felt a little imbalanced and in one area that was rather challenging for me, I had to retry from the checkpoint quite a few times. The art design is interesting and I really loved the look of Ayana especially when she merges with the shadows. Her eyes glowing and the electric blue of her hair stands out beautifully in contrast against the shadows. 

I do wish there was a bit more explanation with the lore of Ereban. You get the gist of some of the world building through notes you find scattered throughout the game, but in some spots it left me with more questions than answers so this causes some of the story to feel a little flat and some characters that Ayana meets don't feel as fully realized as they could have been. The game itself is only five hours long so it feels like perhaps it should have been a little longer in order to go more in depth with the world building.

I did like the game and I enjoyed seeing Ayana's story unfold as she tried to come to terms with her ideas of the world and how it really is. There is also some great exposition about her ethics and morals as she fits all the pieces together about what happened to her people and how some of the people working for Helios don't necessarily know the whole truth either. Ereban has four different endings; light, hope, darkness, and darkness-blood and the game leaves it entirely up to you which one you choose. Naturally, each ending has consequences some good, some bad, and some in a morally grey area. For me, I went with the hope ending because it made the most sense in my opinion for what Ayana would choose. While there are some things I feel could have been better in terms of the gameplay and some of the world building lore, Ereban Shadow Legacy isn't a bad game and if they made a sequel to it, I would be happy to play it. 

Hiding in the shadows. 

*Ereban: Shadow Legacy is available on these platforms: Playstation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Steam 

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