Embervale

FYI: This is NOT a single player game. You cannot make much progress or get great gear unless you participate in adventures during live streams or hosting your own adventures during your live stream. A lot of people complaining about the game having premium currency and stamina system don't realise that this game is F2P and meant to be paired with an live stream and many viewers participating in Adventures to make this worth playing. You can watch ads and earn the premium currency every day (amounts vary) and collect enough to buy the optional skins and monthly account boosts that provide increased inventory limits, reduced Adventure cool downs and more.. It's still very rough around the edges, documentation for the game is slowly being completed thanks to a few members of the Discord community and there's really not a whole lot to do. And there's still a lot more they will and need to add like Clans/Guilds and other ways to play the game outside of being forced to do Adventures with loads of people. It's designed as a social game to play with your Twitch community and have something to do between taking breaks from your other games or played alongside PokemonCommunityGame. I wish I could give this a neutral recommendation because while the premise is interesting, it's still very early in development and missing features, requires a lot of balancing, adventures need tweaking, and so much more. I played for about a month and a half and did enjoy my time but there's a fair bit of toxicity, gatekeeping and negativity towards newer or lower leveled players with no real in-game way to get around it. I think the game will be a lot more interesting and better overall of Adventures were completely overhauled to adjust their balance on the number of players who enter the Adventure and now have some preset scaling that ends up excluding everyone level 75 or under almost immediately after it begins.

GER version (see English version below): Embervale ist ein kostenloses, von DnD inspiriertes Abenteuer-Spiel mit Twitch-Integration, das seit September 2024 im Early Access läuft. Als Twitch-Host kannst du bis zu 50 Charaktere in deine Gruppe einladen und gemeinsam mit der Community Bosskämpfe und zufällige Ereignisse erleben, die vom Zufall gesteuert werden. Das Spiel ist noch in der Beta-Phase, mit etwas Grind und gelegentlichen Bugs, aber die Entwickler sind leidenschaftlich dabei und reagieren schnell auf Feedback. Das Inventar ist anfangs sehr begrenzt, was Crafting und Loot-Management etwas herausfordernd macht. Wer das Spiel unterstützt – etwa über Patreon oder Ingame-Käufe – bekommt QoL-Vorteile wie mehr Inventarplatz, was das Vorankommen erleichtert. Auch Free-to-Play-Spieler profitieren von täglichen Belohnungen im offiziellen Discord. Zudem kann man durch das tägliche Ansehen von Werbung (auch stumm im Hintergrund) die Premium-Währung Arcanite farmen und so günstige Bundles kaufen, die etwa den Inventarplatz erweitern. Wenn du Lust auf ein einzigartiges, gemeinschaftsorientiertes RPG mit viel Entwicklungspotenzial hast, lohnt sich ein Blick auf Embervale! Und wer kreativ ist, kann sogar eigene Abenteuer erstellen und den Entwicklern zur Prüfung schicken – viele Community-Abenteuer wurden bereits ins Spiel integriert (meist mit kleinen Anpassungen fürs Balancing). Und wer jetzt sagt, das ist ein Game, das dir das Geld aus der Tasche ziehen will: Nein, ist es nicht. Man kann es ab einem gewissen Punkt und mittels der Werbung, die man eh nicht schaut, komplett free-to-play spielen. Die Premiumfunktionen und Währung sind eher für Leute gedacht, die die beiden jungen Entwickler unterstützen und das Game sowie die Server am Laufen halten wollen. Diese Kosten nämlich auch Geld. Hinter dem Projekt stecken zwei echte Menschen, die unter anderem davon leben. Embervale ist ein Indie-Spiel im Early Access. Wer hier AAA-Qualität erwartet, verhält sich unfair. Man muss grind mögen, man muss dnd und live interaktion mögen, manchmal muss man auch bisschen pause machen - ich spiel gerade selbst nicht mehr sooo aktiv. aber deswegen ist es nicht gleich ein schlechtes Game für mich. Ein Evergreen eher. English version: Embervale is a free-to-play, DnD-inspired adventure game with Twitch integration, available in early access since September 2024. As a Twitch host, you can invite up to 50 characters to your party, engaging in community-driven boss fights and random events controlled by RNG. The game is still in beta, with some grind and bugs, but the devs are passionate and respond quickly to feedback. Inventory space is limited early on, which can make crafting and loot management a bit challenging. Supporters via Patreon or in-game purchases get QoL perks like expanded inventory, easing progression. Daily rewards on the official Discord benefit free-to-play players as well. You can also farm Arcanites (the premium currency) by watching ads daily (even in a muted tab) and after a few days of grinding these ads, purchase recently added lower-tier bundles that increase inventory size and more. If you enjoy unique, community-focused RPGs with room for growth, Embervale is worth a try! If you are creative, you can even create your own adventures and submit them to the devs for review — many community-created adventures have already been added (usually with slight balancing tweaks). And for anyone who thinks this game is just trying to take your money: it’s not. You can play fully free-to-play past a certain point by using the ads you wouldn’t watch anyway. The premium features and currency are more for players who want to support the two young developers and help keep the game and servers running. These things cost real money. Two real people live off this project. Embervale is an indie game in early access. Expecting AAA quality here is unfair.

[B]Pro's[/B] * I enjoy the general aesthetics the game is using, the animations are basic but serve there purpose * When your on an adventure it feels like a D&D game with the streamer being the DM (More on this later) * It Can be a good time filler if your a streamer and have a reasonably sized community (though they added and adventure finder so if you don't have many viewers you may still get some more dropping in the adventure) * the arena is a novel idea * if you love the grind, this games for you! * can earn premium currency completing offers (website version only) * has some non-streamer required content (bounties/dungeons/arena/expeditions) * has an adventure finder! * even people just starting are useful at the start of adventures! [B]Con's[/B] * The grind is real, bounties have limited energy per day and depending on the bounty in question can leave you waiting for over 5 min to watch an auto battle that may last a quarter. of the time you waited for it to start. * The resource gathering and crafting I found to be quite a chore and is not usable in adventures (even at a diminished capacity say only 10-25% as effective as it was in dungeons) * Playing in the free tier sometimes feels like your getting a sub par experience, however there is a Patreon you can subscribe too that gives you more perks (Worth pointing out the gap between the lowest paid and f2p has closed up some since the public website/extension beta release came out) Though i get that the game needs to make money id like to see a one time supporter pack, like a mini VIP package * The enemies (at least npc's) sometime look out of place and It feels odd that player characters move but the NPC don't * Every channel has a sometimes wildly different way of handling adventures so it can be hit or miss with what your adventure experience will be. the adventure could be awesome or sometime as i have found there are some that dictate how the adventure choices will be and will end it if they don't get there way, give loot chest preferential treatment to viewers who sub/ donate or even kick because they don't like a class. worth noting again THIS ISN'T THE EXPERIENCE WITH ALL STREAMERS ADVENTURES! but maybe watch how they run one first or ask for there rules! * The arena could use some spicing up it gets old fast * The adventure situations become repetitive after a while the devs do plan some updates and im curious where the game will go from here because i see the potential and ill check in from time to time and update as needed, but I cant wholeheartedly recommend it as is [B]Old review here:[/B] Bit too grindy for my tastes unless you use gems (which you can get some for free watching ads). also a lot of the streamers who used to stream the game have stopped. [strike] I've also noticed my achievements are not unlocking properly [/strike] (played before the steam launched) being honest there is potential here but as it stands I don't enjoy it as it is, ill check in from time to time Update: my achievements have started unlocking when not playing slowly, I felt it important to update the review to keep it correct and factual :)