Shining bright in the dark
Developed by Baby Robot Games, over the course of 5 years, comes Ereban: Shadow Legacy. Leading up to its release, the only news I had even heard about it was that the title was once originally going to be available day one on Xbox Game Pass. However, after losing their publishing deal, Ereban has only seen release on Steam with an Xbox version still planned. That said, while it has a few design blemishes that I feel hold it back, the overall adventure is certainly one worth taking.
You play as Ayana, the last known Ereban. You come to understand her standing in the world, as well as what an Ereban is, as she is scheduled for a test of sorts by Helios, a corporation that has seemingly solved the energy crisis and has become a savior to mankind. However, once the test is complete, she is targeted due to her shadow powers, a native trait of the Ereban, a power that makes them a threat. As she escapes the clutches of Helios, she will find allies in the Forgotten Suns, a rebel group marked as terrorists by Helios.
Ayana can become one with the shadows around her, moving and sinking into them to pass through grates or fences, but is prevented from such acts the moment there is light. It's a design structure that is played to near perfection across the roughly 6-8 hour journey. And given there are multiple endings, conveniently accessible through a chapter select, you can easily get around 10-12 hours or so here, depending on if you are intent on finding every collectible or tech card.
While the narrative built around Helios can be a tad too predictable at times, given it’s yet another massive company with a positive image keeping vast secrets behind the backs of its population. The story presented does get very good, but only in the game's back half, when certain secrets come to light, so to speak. I will say that the last two hours were extremely interesting, especially due to a few reveals that are well-handled. It's here that Ayana begins to understand what happened to her people and how Helios is directly involved. It doesn't tap into the most original ideas, but the voice acting, writing, and direction of these moments really succeed in ways I wasn't expecting from this team’s first game.
Speaking about the voice acting, I found that not only do the voices really work for the dialogue, but characters often said things I personally was thinking, especially Ayana. As she is questioning her place here, as well as what is going on, her writing works to not only build her up as a fully-rounded character, but she acts and reacts to situations in a very believable way. This resulted in me actually caring about her journey. While it may be a budget limitation, the fact that every character wears a mask to avoid facial animations felt a tad disappointing, but nothing I would consider bad in any way.
Helios relies on the use of robots and basic human workers as their central workforce, so these work as your antagonists. There isn’t really a big bad apart from Helios themselves, at least when it comes to any sort of climatic showdown. This is a stealth game, so there are no bosses or any form of combat unless you count one ability that has you escape a fatal grab. That said, Helios can either be avoided or killed, with their human workforce being tied to a morality system that can dictate your ending should you get a bit too bloodthirsty. I was given the option for each ending and I ended up killing three humans through the entire game, but opted to dismantle every single robot I found. As there are only three or four variants to the robots, the only real variety here is those that walk around and those that snipe you from great distances. Sure, there are those that cloak, but they are more or less the same as any other robot.
As the game is stealth-focused, your greatest strength lies in using the shadows to move around. You can pop up behind your foe to take them out, but getting caught is almost an instant game over as they will grab and kill you in one single animation. While you can run away, your speed isn’t as fast as I’d like, and they often shine a light on you and thus prevent you from using your shadow powers to escape. I do wish there were additional elements presented to help in your escape.
Your stealth powers to dive into the shadows is similar to Splatoon where you can dive into the ink and then move around. Here, it is exactly that. You can use any shadow to your advantage in moving around as well as traversing environments. There are some tell-tale signs of areas you can go that are scratched in purple, but using the shadows of moving on objects and the shadows produced by fan blades, can result in some very cool ways to get around. Locations are usually restrictive in preventing you from breaking the game, such as walls having light ridges that halt your advance. You also have a stamina bar that is straight out of Breath of the Wild that dictates how much further you can push your stealth powers.
As you determine to kill or simply stealth around, your actions against the human workers will also affect your upgrade path as you focus on stealth or murder. You’ll earn key abilities at certain points in the story, but some of the gadgets you’ll use rely on your exploration of the environment. These gadgets are tied to tech cards that are fairly well hidden. While you can replay chapters to find them, your story choices will be locked, meaning you cannot change the outcome of major events.
Gadgets range from distraction tools to using mines, to casting out a decoy to keep the enemy’s focus away from you. While none of these tools are combat-focused, you can stun enemies to then move around to their backside and kill them. Again, unless you are really exploring, you’ll likely find only a small handful, let alone enough materials to upgrade them, such as boosting your scanning probe to find collectibles, which is one upgrade I recommend doing as early as possible. This particular upgrade becomes essential, given there is no overworld map of any kind.
If I had to really complain about anything Ereban: Shadow Legacy does, it is that some parts of moving around in the shadows, especially on objects, can feel a bit weird to pull off. One such example is a series of hanging crates. Since you have stamina, you really have to haul ass sometimes, and since moving your shadow body around doesn’t always feel good, I felt I had to take things a bit slower than I wanted and swing the camera around to fine-tune my movements. It can sometimes not feel amazing. Combine that with a few bad camera moments when you wall jump, and these are areas that the team needs to address should they attempt a sequel.
Visually, I have no real major complaints here. I think the balance between dark and light helps the game’s systems as each object, building, and structure needed to be built around the shadow moving/leaping mechanic. For the most part, it succeeds there. I think there are some stronger areas than others when it comes to how those powers are used, but the world, characters, and design of those areas, and the game in general, is very impressive for not just a small team, but that this is their debut game. There are a few cutscenes that have some strong direction, so kudos to their cutscene director for nailing the assignment.
Ereban: Shadow Legacy certainly shines, pun intended, as its shadow mechanic is fairly well used in a game that satisfies on several levels. The story starts off in a place where you’re not quite sure where it’s going to go, but once it gets there, it’s vastly interesting with the acting chops and writing to pull it off. It may have a slightly dated look to it, but honestly, the cel-shaded appeal of what it does, and the strong character designs really result in a fairly good-looking game. Ereban: Shadow Legacy is a solid adventure that allows every tool at its disposal to be used well and by a team that is clearly passionate about what they do. It doesn’t always land, but I still found it engaging, enjoyable, and very entertaining.
Developer - Baby Robot Games.
Publisher - Baby Robot Games.
Released - April 10th, 2024.
Available On - Steam. (Xbox coming soon)
Rated - (NA) - Cannot Find ESRB data.
Platform Reviewed - Steam / Steam Deck (Unverified as of this review)
Review Access - Review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.