Into the Emberlands is a cute and cozy exploration game with a rogue-lite twist.
Into the Emberlands was developed by Tiny Roar and published by Daedalic Entertainment, the game will have players taking on the role of the Light Bearer, making it the player’s job to explore, expand, and collect resources while saving cute characters called The Lost Ones in a mysterious miasma that threatens the player’s home world.
Starting off Into the Emberlands, the player is shown a cutscene that introduces the world of Emberland and its new Light Bearer. After a mysterious and menacing miasma turns this beautiful world upside down, the player’s adventure begins.
The first thing the player learns to do in the game is how to move around by using the mouse to select the tile of choice. The character will proceed to move in that direction, the player will be prompted to move towards the first NPC known as the Keeper for the next phase in their training.
The keeper goes on to thank the player for “volunteering” to be the Light Bearer and goes on to explain how the character must help rebuild the village while also saving residents of the village, known now only as the lost ones, who are located in spots all over the dark and gloomy miasma. However, the player’s first objective is to go pick up their new ember lantern which is the main tool for getting around and saving the knacks.
The lantern is an ancient relic of the world of Into the Emberlands which holds the miasma at bay by using embers, although this concept of a dark miasma isn’t a new one seen in such games as Labyrinth of Zangetsu it is an interesting take on the use of a miasma.
This mechanic is quite unique as the player only has so many embers to work with in the beginning; the way this works is with every step the player takes into the miasma, the more the embers are used to keep the player safe. However, make sure not to run out of embers as in a good rogue-lite fashion, the player will join the ranks of the lost ones and lose their progression in gaming by having to start over from scratch.
Once the player has picked up the lantern, the player’s starting amount will be about 30 embers, which in the beginning is enough to do what must be done in the first stage, however, should the player get dangerously close to running out of embers there are forges in which the player may trade for extra embers, although this is convenient there are other ways to get embers without using coins or returning to base.
However, that is not the limit, as the amount the player can hold is able to increase with every upgrade to the lantern which happens by finding the upgrades in the dark mist. However, with every step a player takes into the dark environment losing embers will cause issues for the player.
Because making it back to the village before the last ember is used up or even before half is gone depending on the player’s plan of action, making it back will replenish the lantern to full, so the player may continue the quest of saving and rebuilding the village.
While this mechanic is cool and practical, it does get a bit repetitive depending on whether or not the player is able to gain more capacity in the lantern, meaning further exploration becomes a necessity. However, it is a lot of back and forth between the village and the miasma for materials and to complete the missions provided by the buildings and characters within the game itself.
As you progress in Into the Emberlands, NPC’s and buildings will produce quests that will require a certain amount of things such as trading wood, stones, and or completing other quests around the map which in turn will allow the player to upgrade the village facilities while also expanding the borders of the village, making more space for new NPC’s and buildings with different uses.
As the player expands the village and obtains new NPCs, new buildings will also be made available for use featuring their own unique uses such as being given items that help with collecting resources and clearing paths through stones and trees.
These resources as mentioned before, are used to not only complete random quests but also used to get buildings to the next stage of upgrades. However, getting to the next stage of the game requires the massive candle located in the middle of the village to be upgraded, using a mix of materials and completing quests located on the player’s to-do list.
Once all the quests in the to-do list are completed and the candle is upgraded, the village will expand its borders, giving rise to new buildings and different environments for the knacks along with a few extra bits that can be used to buy scrap metal and other useful items. On the topic of buying much-needed materials not located in the miasma, gaining currency in Into the Emberlands is pretty easy.
By completing certain quests given to the player by the adorable NPCs and surrounding buildings, the player will be given small amounts of currency so as not to be able to speed through certain upgrades, making the player complete as many quests as possible before moving on to the next level.
Overall, gameplay is very easy to master as the whole game revolves around point and click, locating the lost, trading with strange beings, and upgrading the town. Other than that, there’s not much of a learning curve to adapt to as Into the Emberlands is a pretty simple game in general and mostly just relies on the player’s creativity and planning regarding resource management.
When it comes to the story and graphics of the game, both are absolutely cute and adorable with the environments and scenery all playing into each other, both the mysteriousness of the miasma and the characters, which really make Into the Emberlands worth playing. Although most of the game is mostly a glorified fetch quest, the game is fun to explore while discovering the secret of the miasma and saving the knacks
Although the game is fun and simply easy to grasp, there is a slight hitch that kind of brings a slight hint of nostalgia. When it comes to Into the Emberlands’ loading time, (moving from one level to another level). Into the Emberlands’ loading time has a bit of a freak-out moment where it loads slightly longer than most games should, making the game feel a bit like it’s being played on a PlayStation 2 where the player waits for the game to load.
While this isn’t a major glitch, as of writing, there have been no updates to Into the Emberlands so far to fix this, which doesn’t pose an issue but it is an interesting thing to leave as is.
In the end, Into the Emberlands is fun and beautifully built from the environments to the storyline, the game plays out mostly like a huge fetch quest. Into the Emberlands’ main focus of building upgrades and villager saving is what makes Into the Emberlands interesting, especially when it comes to heading into Miasma to find lost knacks or just simply to collect resources, if you enjoy this game maybe give other games by Tiny Roar, try having a look at Bomb Bots Arena
