Esoteric Ebb is basically what happens if a chaotic tabletop RPG and a Disco-style CRPG had a weird, magical baby. It’s isometric, dialogue-heavy, and set in this super strange post-Arcanepunk fantasy world. You play as “The Cleric” — which sounds holy and important — but you’re really just a government goon who deals with bizarre supernatural messes. The game is packed with deep, branching dialogue and an insane amount of choices, so you’re constantly shaping how things go. You can literally build the world’s worst cleric. Like, completely unhinged if you want. Everything runs on TTRPG-style dice rolls, so every risky move feels like you’re sitting at a real table praying for that natural 20. Your stats even talk back to you, arguing in your head and interrupting conversations. It’s chaotic in the best way. Half the time you’re not even sure if you’re solving the case or making it worse. The story kicks off five days before the city’s first-ever election — and then a tea shop explodes. Instead of giving you backup, they just throw you at the problem. You wake up in a morgue, soaked, surrounded by rotting apples, dead bodies, and a zombie. Totally normal start. From there, you dive into the city of Norvik, juggling factions, digging through tunnels, and arguing with devils, drunk sphinxes, and other absolute weirdos. This world is wild — mythological creatures run shops, and political ideologies matter more than dead gods. You may also be interested link the game Fall of an Empire
Choices really matter here, and they will come back to mess with you. You can shift alliances, explore dangerous dungeons, take on small side jobs or massive city-changing quests. You might become the city’s hero… or accidentally speed up its downfall… or somehow fail upward into power. And yeah, you’ve gotta trust the dice. You roll for everything — fighting, stealing, not embarrassing yourself in public. But just like in real tabletop games, failing can sometimes be way more entertaining than winning. The coolest part? Your abilities literally argue in your head. Each stat has its own opinion and loves chiming in at the worst times. No matter what you choose, you’ll complete quests in ridiculous, unexpected ways.
You’ve also got reality-bending magic. You can mess with minds, uncover secrets, talk to the living and the dead, and basically twist conversations in ways no normal character could. Combat is turn-based and mostly a last resort, but when things get serious, the dice decide who walks away. On top of that, there’s this “Questing Tree” system that mixes your quest log, skill tree, and brain map into one. The choices you make literally grow into new abilities and change how your Cleric plays. It’s chaotic, political, magical, and kind of unhinged — and honestly, that’s what makes it so good.
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