Ebon Light -- No Spoiler Review
Ebon Light
System: PC
Price: Free
Voice Acting: None
ESRB Rating: Not Rated, Reviewer Recommends T (13+)
Overall Rating: Stole 5/10 ♥s
Pre-Game Perception: MC is hunted and carries some sort of poison, I think? Sounds like it’s going to be an action/thriller with romance elements, and I’m worried the romance isn’t going to feel natural.
Morning-After Reflection: A frustrating story that languishes about, set on a path that feels the player holds no influence over except preventing death. I left it unfinished, so take this review how you will.
Story: “Torn from her home, an unfortunate soul finds herself caught in an old and buried secret. The virulent elves who claim the poison within her have imprisoned her on their stormy island, some eager to see what will become of her, others eager to keep their secrets safe.
As she is hunted, she finds allies, perhaps lovers, many enemies. Her whole life she had spent hidden from the dangers of the world, and now, unfurled before her, a harbinger of something terrible, she must survive Gha'alia.”
Interest Rating: 4/10. I could have gone my entire life without reading this title, because I’d looked at it a few times, but the story didn’t pull me in. It wasn’t uninteresting, but not interesting enough for me to want to dive into it. The LIs all look like corpses. I don’t even...
MC: The coolest thing about Ebon Light is the MC - which probably should have been a warning sign, since when I love the way the MC is designed right off the bat, I tend to not appreciate the rest of the game. Not that I don’t end up loving MCs later on, but so far customizable MCs have been the bane to my desire to finish a game. I’m not sure what correlation that holds yet, but I’m sure there’s something to it. Perhaps it’s that I end up expecting more from a story or MC when I have a hand in designing them. Or perhaps it’s completely unrelated and it’s just the strongest part of the game, and I happen to like it. Let’s start by saying that the MC has a full sized sprite that appears on the screen. She’s also in every CG I came across, but that wasn’t many before I quit.
The MC for Ebon Light comes with a first and last name that is changeable. Since there is no voice acting, there’s no detriment to changing the name, so go with whatever you please here. That’s not the only thing that is customizable with Ebon Light, and I found, to my surprise, that I really enjoy being able to pick hair and eye color. Like really like it. For no known reason. I just like it. Perhaps I feel closer to the character that way, despite that I never make it resemble me in any fashion. There are not a lot of choices, but a decent enough amount that I felt this feature was super cool. Not only can you change the name, the eye color, the hair color, the hair style, and the skin tone, but there are three options for personality that you get to choose from. These increase your stats (more on that in mechanics later) and give you access to choice options reflecting one of the three personalities.
Okay, that’s cool. I get to make the MC completely mine. Though the options were few, they included enough of a range that I didn’t feel I was just deciding which way I wanted my MC’s hair parted. There are also melanin-rich skin tones, though no real inclusionary hair-styles if you decide to make a person of color. Anyways, this all was super cool to me. But that’s about all I really liked about the MC. Once I was in the game I was frustrated that it seemed my personality choices made little difference to the story. Yes, choices influenced stats that purportedly mattered, but I rarely saw these make a difference as the character seems to have a default personality that kiiiiiinda fits with any of the three choices you’re given. Now, I didn’t complete a route (though I did get into one), and I didn’t replay with different personalities, so I can’t say for certain that it didn’t matter, but making different choices with the MC I built didn’t seem to make any significant change in story or personality.
Likability Rating: Ryo. Neat to make the MC completely mine, but how much did it really matter in the end if I wanted her cunning or charming? I’m not sure it did at all.
Plot: Here’s my biggest problem with Ebon Light. The story. If that’s all you need to know before moving on, go for it, because I have a feeling I’m going to get a little rant-y here. MC is a poor girl living in a poor town on a poor island. Life is hard in that she scavenges all day just to survive to the following day in order to repeat her efforts all over again. The town never grows, and besides defensively being in a good location, the land doesn’t do well to promote anything that could bring life to the hard existence they’ve carved out. One day, MC talks to a pirate sailor that visits their town often, and gets a bag of “spice” from him. This starts her journey into all the drama that will eventually take place. A journey that is all pre-determined, except for “weighty” choices that lead to instant death or continue on the path laid out for you.
I initially thought this was going to be heavily influenced by me - the player - based on the character I created; but I soon found that no matter what choice I made, the route continued on in exactly the manner it had to in order to keep the story going. I get that games have to follow a path, but being heavy into TTRPGs (Table Top Role-Playing Games) I also know there are ways to progress the story while taking player choices into account, and that’s with the random-ass things that a player can come up with, not options given like a VN does. So, here we have a case of a story that was written, and every choice appears to be offered with no actual impact on the main story. Okay, not every choice, but the vast majority of them. After recently playing a few games with heavily-branching storylines where every choice matters, coming to this just annoyed me to the point I quit, because what was the point in playing if it’s all already been decided?
Yeah, I know I’ve played VNs that were practically kinetic novels and loved the story. And I know I’ve played other games with superficial choices, and still thought they were fine. And I can’t exactly articulate what it was about Ebon Light that drove me to being this frustrated when I haven’t been with similar things I’ve faced in the past, but I was frustrated. I’m also a big supporter of “do things that make you happy”, and “don’t do things that don’t make you happy”. So, if someone were to come to me with this problem, I’d tell them to consider taking a break, since they don’t appear to be enjoying what they’re doing, and a hobby is supposed to be fun, not draining.
Replayability Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ Is it fair for me to rate this when I didn’t even play a different route? No. But I’m doing it anyways because I see no point in replaying the same story with only a different body next to me. Most of the choices I made seemed to make no lasting impact, and some even created awkward transitions to show I didn’t pick the “right” answer.
Love Interests: How do you feel about pasty white, murder machines? Okay, that’s not fair; no one in this line up proves to be a murder machine, but we are told that the elves are all a murderous bunch. We just don’t get to see it. Anyways, these elves are all bone-white, alabaster, or porcelain colored. A beauty standard in their culture is to be as white as white can be, and these boys are the whitest kids boys you know. They’re not actually kids, they are certainly much much older than MC. The common route is sort of long, which means I didn’t actually get onto more than one LI route. Though I feel like I have them all pinned down pretty well. So I think I can manage this section well enough.
This unlikely band of heroes(?) comes together to keep the MC safe during her tumultuous time on the island of the elves. They stick around for most of the common route, and most of the LI routes, as they’re important to the story. Just whatever boy you pick becomes more important. And that’s what you do, you literally just pick one once the common route is done. So you can be mean and ignore them the entire common route, then come around and say, “Naw, I changed my mind, it’s your turn to romance.” There are no Romance Bad Ends according to the dev, but there are ends that can kill you, so you can be whoever you want to be and your beau won’t leave you. There also isn’t a route order that’s recommended, however, the dev suggests that Duliae be saved for last because his route has the most information in it (that can be counted as spoilers, but they’re just really reveals). Since I didn’t even finish one, I’m going to introduce the dudes in the order you’re introduced to them in the game. This will leave Duliae for last, naturally.
Laceaga is more than just a love interest, he’s one of the reasons you’re in this mess in the first place-- though it isn’t exactly explained how that happens. I guess it doesn’t matter, because it happened and it just happens to be the reason for everything else happening. Laceaga meets you on your little island that Edric is situated on. Edric is where you’re from. Laceaga is all Mr. Grumps and mercenary for hire, and I guess the typical elf in this world - or so we’re told. He’s scarred and gruff, and literally kidnaps you to take you on this trip across the sea (which you’ve never crossed) where you might be executed at any moment for just existing. Quite exciting. Or eventually tiring because this tune gets old fast. 1/10 - would not date my kidnapper, but will date a man that could (and just might) kidnap me.
Next up is Vadeyn, who is not like other elves™. His cousin, who happens to be second in command on the ship, is super hot, and I’d totally date her. Yes, her. Vadeyn is nice too. Maybe too nice. From the moment he meets you, he shows concern over your wellbeing, though it seems to be because you’re being manhandled by Laceaga and not because you were kidnapped. He and Laceaga have some background and I’m willing to bet they were lovers before Vadeyn told Laceaga that he would do anything for love, but he won’t do that. Whatever that is. Anyways, Vadeyn is cool, I guess. He’s nice and I guess that’s welcomed in this place where MC gets to be some sort of hated/feared object that gets passed around in a way that is not as fun as it sounds. 4/10 - Good boys usually don’t do it for me, so Vadeyn shows no promise.
Haron appears out of nowhere. Seriously. I mentioned that whole thing about being into RPGs, right? Haron is the classic rogue character. He’s charming. He’s sneaky. He’s intelligent and flippant with every big issue that comes his way. He talks for others and does it in a condescending way that betrays his intellect and confidence. “Oh boorish brother, you should be more gentle when dealing with a beautiful woman.” - Haron, probably. I do like his snide smirk when he thinks he’s being oh-so clever. And he seems to be the most attractive to me, probably because he’s good at putting on a face to be the perfect(ly naughty) gentleman. 6/10 - I’d do him, but date him? Naw, I know how these fellas go. All the sweet words in the world won’t convince me it’s not an act.
Your romance with Ernol will be as confusing as this elf seems to be ALL THE TIME. I’m not sure he ever has his own thoughts on any matter, he’s very good at just doing what he’s told and not asking questions. He’s also very good at not finishing sentences, not expressing his thoughts unless it’s confusion, and (pretending to) be annoyed at being put out whenever someone asks him a favor he’s secretly willing to complete 10x over. He just can’t let you know that, even though you know and that’s why you ask him to do it. Everyone knows. It isn’t a secret, Ernol. You’re bad at this. I thought his flustered responses were cute every time I chose to be nice to him, and the MC seems to think that teasing him is being mean to him, which is fitting because she seems to enjoy being mean to him. But this kuudere is too enigmatic for me, because there is no clue as to what he’s thinking or feeling, and thus I’m not sure he ever was interested, or wasn’t interested; he could go either way. 4/10 - If I didn’t force the relationship, I’m not sure one would have ever blossomed, because even literally making it happen, it still felt absent. I like my kuudere more intelligent and easier to read. A lack of information doesn’t make them mysterious, it makes them boring.
Lastly, we have Duliae, the blond and haughty Onyx Chancellor. Yes, blond. Oh! I just realized that I didn’t express that EVERY other elf is dark-haired, because everyone is, so it just slipped my mind. Duliae is blond, probably because he dyes it, but I’m not entirely sure. He’s also colorful compared to the black that every other elf wears. And he’s really the reason you met Laceaga in the first place. He sets everything into motion, and he takes responsibility for MC, almost like one would a pet or possession. “Oh dear, she made a mess on the carpet? Don’t worry, I can write you a check for that.” - Duliae, probably. It’s clear to me that Duliae thinks he owns MC, and intends to use her for his own gains - and surprisingly enough he doesn’t deny it, even mentions it once or twice before everything is forgotten and brushed aside for the new drama that’s introduced. This time with more drama! 5/10 - I like an intelligent man, so I could see myself shacking up with this… diplomat? Though, I assume his intentions are purely based in power, so I’m not likely to get any D from this E… lf. Elf.
Boy Crazy Rating: 50%. No one is interesting enough to keep me in the game. Sorry, boys, you’re just not fit to fit into my husbando harem. Grow up a little more and we’ll see where you are when you’ve got a few centuries under your belt. I mean… I’ll probably be dead by then, but you can try anyways.
Romance: It isn’t much of a surprise to me that the romance is rather low for what I played of Ebon Light. The page even says that it has “romance subplots” so it isn’t the focus of the game, but included in the story. Some of the characters express a fondness for the MC more than others, and I suppose you could call that romance, but it isn’t like romance-romance. Out of all the characters, I’m pretty sure Haron is the only one that shows any sort of affection, and that may all be a ploy rather than genuine interest. Since I didn’t even finish a route, the little romance that I saw on the route was very subdued and subtle. It was sharing a moment with contact that didn’t seem to make either character uncomfortable, and though sweet, one scene of romance isn’t enough to convince me that this game cares at all about the ways of the heart.
Heart Palpitation Rating: F. I felt so little that I’m sure my heart is made of stone. Even when I was throwing the MC at the bachelors, I’d barely get a smile in return. More often than not they’d ask if MC was feeling alright. Does thy heart not moveth as mine?
Spice: I wish I could say that all the elves were sexy and seductive due to the power and violence that they harbor, but that wasn’t the case in Ebon Light. They’re all rather cold in personality, and that might just be how elves are, but it left much spice to be desired. I doubt this game is going to get anything more than a possible kiss scene, if even that. It really isn’t the focus of Ebon Light to put mature romance front and center, but instead uncover the dark fantasy mystery that it boasts.
Cold Shower Rating: Fail. Apparently it is chilly in Gha'alia even in the summer months. You’re going to need a warm shower to keep that numbness from your heart from spreading. Do they even have showers? I’ve never even seen a bathroom.
Angst: For everything lacking in Ebon Light, the angst is not one of them. Perhaps it all was replaced with angst so there was simply no more room for other things. I mean, MC gets abducted at the beginning of the game, so that sets a very low bar in things getting “better”, and it always gets worse before it gets better. In Ebon Light’s case, I’m not sure it ever gets better, it just gets worse. And worse. And worse some more. Not only do you start off pretty deep in the pits of despair, but then there are constant threats of death, several choices that could easily lead to death, and all your LIs are broody-ass mother f*ckers. I guess since the elves are all violent, vicious, and lacking in loyalty besides to… well, they seem to be loyal to something, but it’s never stated what. It’s not kin, they make sure to let you know family will murder each other. It’s not to klansmen, they also let you know that they don’t trust each other and everyone might murder you, or them. And it certainly doesn’t seem to be power or position, because they semi-follow those orders. Anyways, since this seems to be their normal way of things, your LIs are wary about everyone and everything, and promise you that you are never safe, even when you think you are. It is an angst-ridden game, and that’s fine, but eventually the angst becomes too much and you start to desensitize to it. Then it’s just drama and you’re like, “Okay, been there, done that, what’s next?” Or at least I am.
Drama Llama Rating: 8/10. There is no rest for you when you’re traveling with the drama llama. Constant angst lies in wait for you to let your guard down while you traverse the land of drama and despair.
Voice Acting: None. And that’s fine by me. I think voice acting might have made the whole thing more irritating, honestly.
Expression Rating: N/A No voice gets no rating.
Art: Ebon Light has a very cool design that I didn’t expect from the game. I had seen some teeny-tiny headshots of some of the love interests, and I wasn’t really impressed with what looked like a charcoal sketch. I don’t really dig the pale, skeletal look, and honestly thought it was something related to vampires, which I’m not a huge fan of. I dunno, the whole blood-sucking thing being romantic or hot doesn’t do it for me. Anyways, I started playing Ebon Light and got a good look at the cover photo, which was more the style I like. I was surprised at the detail in each sprite, and how crisp and clean they looked despite having an oil painting quality to them. It’s almost like every picture was done with many small brush strokes to give depth and definition to the art. And I dig it. I like it a lot.
Each sprite has a few poses and facial expressions. MC gets to play dress-up, and that’s neat as well. I liked the ability to customize the MC both at the start of the game, and then with what to wear later on. There really isn’t a sprite that I dislike, even if some are not to my taste in attractiveness, they’re still very nice sprites. On top of that, the sprites blink, which is a feature I always enjoy. And portions of the game’s background move, like falling rain, or the ocean waves in one scene. It’s really cool to see movement in a place that is often left very static.
Still Picture Rating: ★★★★☆ Many movement. Such unique. Very layers.
CGs: And that’s where the praise ends. I really love the sprites, and the backgrounds are pretty good too (most of the time), but the CGs I saw did not give me the same impression of awesomeness. They were smudgy and lacked detail, imo. It kind of looked like they painted over what they drew, but without precision so that some parts were bulkier than they had anticipated. I was just surprised that the sprites felt like they had more care put into them. Perhaps the CGs got better as the game went on, but I wasn’t impressed with what I was shown.
Look at this Photograph Rating: 38%. I was not a fan of the messy, inconsistent quality of the CGs. There were also very few, and yes, it’s a free game so I shouldn’t expect many, but the pricing is factored in in another section of this review, not here.
UI/Mechanics: Ebon Light is more advanced than the typical VN that I play, and that’s cool with me. The usual choice-based system to advance the story is present, but choices also adjust your stats, and there are a lot of stats. So, let’s start at the start; I mentioned that you can choose a personality type back when I was talking about the MC. There are three choices, Charm, Cunning, and Tenacity. A short explanation lets you know what each of them represent, and that stat will be raised slightly when you start the game. This is cool because there will be choices that are locked or unlocked based on your stats. Or at least that is what I’m led to believe. I did find some of those choices, but with how far I got into the game, they either didn’t matter at all, or I was picking the wrong choices to get to ones that could possibly be locked or unlocked. I recall three, two at the very beginning of the game, and one a good ways in right before the common route split into LI routes. The icon never showed up otherwise, nor were any choices greyed out either. So… ???? Not sure where I went wrong, or if it matters at all.
The way you decide to proceed with decisions will raise and lower stats based on what sort of decisions you make. If you choose to be distrustful, you’ll lower your doubt/faith stat, which will change both with the graph filling in the box, and also the name depending on what side you’re standing on. Such as doubt if you’re doubtful, and faith if you’re trusting. Okay, cool, you’ve got these stats that you don’t technically have to build up because you do it naturally with your decisions, and that makes a more rounded character instead of just being charming or just being driven. There supposedly is a stat checkpoint right before the LI route split, but I don’t know how high the checkpoint is because I passed it just fine. Granted, I had some decent stats, and there are no numbers so I couldn’t even tell you what decent means besides “bar is more full than less full”.
That’s really it for the more advanced part. Not hard, right? Oh yeah, there’s also madness, but that literally never came into effect while I was playing, or at least not in any meaningful or noticeable way. I probably could have gone crazy as f*ck and made the game that much more interesting. It would have helped with all the odd conversations and dialogue that made no sense to me, the player, because I was never given context or information based on what I was standing around and taking part in. Other than that, there are a lot of choices (that I think don’t matter at all) and the story gets bogged down in some regards when it’s just going to make you talk to everyone anyways, so what’s the point in making me pick them one by one? No one acknowledges the order I picked, and I have to pick all of them, so just f*cking write it in and quit pretending like it matters what I choose.
The UI is a little complicated as well. The title screen is easy. The save screen is cool. You get 50 save slots, and not only does it tell you what chapter/part of the story you’re in (something that doesn’t ever flash across the screen so I don’t know what the point of it labeling it is), but if you point at it with your mouse, you get a preview screen of what the last screen was in that save, and even the text that accompanies it. That was the cool part. Best save I’ve seen in a while. When inside the game I guess you’re meant to click around and explore, because there is a menu to click through with your mouse, but you have to know where to click to find it. I just hit escape any time I wanted to save or look at the compendium, because that’s what I found worked before I found the clicky-menu inside the game.
Oh boy, the compendium… It is both neat and cumbersome. When you get a new codex (it will tell you with a banner in game), you can go to the compendium and read the new entry. The entries are fairly long and full of information, or later they’re written in letter/journal format to (perhaps) add some flavor to the game. The information is largely (read: completely) pointless and unnecessary, though neat to see world building. At the top left is the name you’ve used for the MC, and if you click this you can see your stats and such relating to the MC. This actually took me around five hours before I found it even though I knew there were stats. I just didn’t know where. Okay, maybe it was three… Three makes me sound smarter.
MC’s character page has the option to change clothing, and also lists her inventory. I mean, that’s cool, except neither of these seem to ever come into play either. Yeah, I collected a bunch of stuff, but nothing was ever used or referred to. Yeah, I had other outfits, but besides the short scene where I bought the clothes and had the LI who accompanied me say something about it, no one mentioned it again. Not when I changed. Not anything. I was just… collecting clothes, I guess? I also had money that never came into play. So… there’s that. It all seemed largely useless and unneeded to even be included because the game didn’t care. And if the game doesn’t care, why should I?
What’s this button do? Rating: C-. Many neat inclusions that ultimately turned out to be pointless and made me feel like nothing I did mattered at all. Lack of a tutorial made most of it a guessing game, and not everyone is good at guessing. It’s me. I’m everyone.
Errors: Ebon Light is an OELVN (Original English Language Visual Novel). This means there is no translation needed for the script for us Westerners that haven’t yet learned a new language to play more otoge better ourselves. I’m working on it, okay?! Due to Ebon Light being an OELVN, I tend to judge the errors a bit harsher because it literally is less work to make it marketable to us. Less cooks in the kitchen. Less hands in the pot. Ebon Light comes with its share of spelling and grammar errors. Mainly seen with a word missing here or there. They are few, but not really far between. I’ve certainly seen worse, but I’ve also seen better. It’s not bad, so it’ll still get a pass from me.
My biggest complaint comes from something that isn’t an actual error. The way the story is written excludes us from making informed decisions based on keeping information from us while forcing us to make a choice. The first time I ran into this I was mildly annoyed because I would have made a different choice if I understood the situation, but I was literally not given enough information to judge the correct course of action for the situation. It’s okay, I can just make a different choice. Well, I did, but I encountered it again. And again. The way some things are worded might portray a completely different thought and imply a different sequence of events than what takes place after, or even before, and I had to guess what the f*ck I was supposed to be responding to. Uh… there were some squiggles and someone moved and then I’m being accused of purposefully… what? Harming someone? Doing something wrong; I got that much. But what did I do that I have to answer if it was on purpose? Did I actually do it on purpose? Is it what I intended to do and they just didn’t describe any of it? I don’t know! :grumble grumble: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Keeping information from your audience doesn’t make a mystery better, it makes it more annoying because there’s literally no way to figure out the mystery. Adding insult to injury by making that super secret bit of information determine if you live or die for a choice is just asinine. Not the game I want to play.
Here there be Bugs Rating: Pass. The house is sturdy, but do you actually want to live there? I mean… it’s okay. If this is your dream home then by all means, move in. Just know that you get the creepy crawlies that come with it.
Background Music: The BGM for Ebon Light is kinda killer. I enjoyed it more than the game itself. Haha! But really, I’m not joking. I enjoyed the music more than the game. I wouldn’t buy the soundtrack or anything, as it is a lot of mood music that I don’t see myself listening to outside of very specific settings. But it is pretty great at setting the mood for the game. Since it’s all dark and constantly terror-filled with impending death and doom, the music gives that sense with rumbling drums and slow crescendos at just the right tense moments. I liked the music. Too bad it doesn’t have a rating.
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