It's been a long time since we've seen such a creative and reactive fantasy world that invites players to experiment. In the CRPG Esoteric Ebb, developed by Christoffer Bodegård and published by Raw Fury, players make bizarre decisions, roll dice frequently, and converse with their attributes.
Esoteric Ebb is an isometric CRPG with Disco Elysium vibes, although it also has Planescape and Discworld influences. Set in a strange post-Arcanepunk fantasy world teeming with mythical creatures, it showcases D&D influences while maintaining its own unique charm and, above all, humour. The protagonist is a cleric and one of the city of Norvik's many ordinary workers. Players must unravel the mystery surrounding the explosion of a tea shop. In doing so, they must battle the voices in their heads, explore the city - which is on the verge of its first political election - and attempt to become a hero or the biggest nightmare or anything in between.
Esoteric Ebb © Christoffer Bodegård & Raw Fury
The game features a reactive, multifaceted, text- and dialogue-heavy story written entirely in English. Exploration is at the heart of the game, which features dice-based challenges (D20) instead of classic combat and no map markers. Players complete quests involving varying degrees of risk in Norvik's streets, towers and dark tunnels. The game's visuals are minimalist yet effective. By doing so, players can contribute to the city's salvation or downfall. As with classic tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs), dice rolling plays a significant role.
Attributes such as strength, dexterity and charisma influence decisions and lead to branching, humorous or dark paths, like inner voices. For instance, Strength prefers to solve problems with brute force, Intelligence is a know-it-all and Charisma focuses on social interaction. With the help of the dice, players can wrestle with dwarves, steal everything they can get their hands on, or avoid making complete fools of themselves - or not. A failed roll rarely means 'game over', but often opens up new and bizarre storylines, making the game even more interesting. Then there are the various political factions, each pursuing their own agenda. These range from nationalists to dwarven social democrats. The upcoming election also introduces a degree of time constraints.
Dialogue and 'battles' are based on skill checks, spells, and companion actions. Decisions have a strong and lasting effect on the progression of the story, even the smallest ones. Experimentation is encouraged throughout, so players can try out different approaches. The cleric's power contributes to this with unique narrative choices, such as mind control or talking to the dead. Magic can be used to unlock alternative solutions in conversations, uncover secrets in the environment or increase the chances of success in rare text-based battles. Incidentally, it is not possible to play as other classes. Everything is held together by the quest tree, which acts as a quest log, skill tree and mind map all in one. Each quest branch can alter the Cleric's playstyle with game-changing feats.
"You wake up in a morgue with half the river in your boots, surrounded by ten thousand rotting apples, several corpses, and one zombie. Out of your depth and with no official backup, you delve into your beloved city to investigate the impossible mystery no one wants you to solve. Juggle factions and play them against each other. Explore the streets and tunnels of a fantasy metropolis. Debate devils, drunk sphinxes, and all manner of fantastical fools in a world where mythological creatures sell newspapers at corner shops and ideologies overtake the ramblings of dead gods."
Esoteric Ebb was developed by Christoffer Bodegård. While studying Game Writing at the University of Skövde in Sweden (2015–2018), he began teaching himself programming and graphic design, partly because he had learned that 'game writers' have a difficult time landing jobs. His primary motivation was an interest in interactive stories. His bachelor's and master's theses dealt with agency and UI design in CRPGs, attempting to answer the question, "How to write good choices?" After graduating, he and some friends founded a small development team at Science Park Skövde (a local incubator programme), where they experimented with various game ideas. Although these projects were unsuccessful, he gained valuable experience and went on to work as a freelance writer and developer. During this time, he started working on his own project in his spare time in 2018: EBBRPG, which was originally conceived as a 'spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment. The game gradually became his main occupation, partly because his contract work dried up.
"I technically never chose to go full-time on Ebb. I actively looked for other jobs until mid-2023, simply because I did not see a production like this going anywhere. Solo developer, refusing any help. Massive scale CRPG. Half a million words of dialogs. It sounds delusional. But at the start of 2022, I managed to clear the biggest hurdle: I found an art style. Then I nailed a story I really, really believed in. After that, every time I showed the game to someone, the response was increasingly positive," explains Bodegård.
At the end of 2022, he returned to the Sweden Game Arena community by entering the incubator programme once again. This provided the motivation he needed to continue working on the project professionally. In 2023, he presented Ebb to various publishers, but with no real breakthrough. In early 2024, a successful demo and an article about it in PC Gamer generated significant interest. Within a month, he received five offers from publishers. He chose Raw Fury as his partner. Since then, he has collaborated with over a dozen artists and others, and he views Esoteric Ebb as the beginning of a career in interactive writing featuring interesting political themes and meaningful characters.
The publisher is Raw Fury, a boutique indie publisher founded in Sweden in 2015 by Jonas Antonsson, Gordon Van Dyke, and David Martinez. Its best-known games include Kingdom Two Crowns, Per Aspera, Star Trucker, Cassette Beasts, Dome Keeper, Star Renegades, Blue Prince, and Routine.
Esoteric Ebb was released for PC on 3 March 2026 and costs €24.99.
If the large amount of text doesn't put you off, Esoteric Ebb is an excellent CRPG full of profound, branching and humorous dialogue and decisions in a wildly creative arcanepunk world.
