Ereban: Shadow Legacy Review — At Home In The shadows

Ereban: Shadow Legacy follows the story of Ayana, the seemingly last of the Ereban, and her fight against an impressive super corporation that seeks to steal her freedom. It’s a story of lost secrets and corporate greed, and you rebel against the system quite literally from the shadows, striking at those who cowardly hide in the light.

As a writer, one of the things that stood out to me the most in Ereban: Shadow Legacy was the dialogue and characters. Many of these characters feature iconic voices, and while I definitely recognized them, I’m too bad with names to tell you exactly who was playing who. However, I’m sure players will be able to identify the huge range of voice talent present in the game themselves.

It didn’t take long for me to adore Ereban’s characters, with a couple of standouts being Ayana and Mira, the protagonists and arguably one of the most important characters, respectively. Ayana especially stands out for how she is written and is a fun protagonist to follow throughout, and getting to know her quickly became my main investment in continuing the game.

I’ve often talked about what better writers than me have described as the “Joss Whedonification” of media. If you’ve seen a Marvel movie lately, you know what this is. It’s the tired trend of making every character decidedly quirky and cool, constantly throwing quips and quote-unquote awesome one-liners out despite the stakes of the story.

Ereban: Shadow Legacy is full of quirky writing, but it does it correctly. It knows when to shut off the comedy when the tension is high and shows an admirable amount of restraint with its humor in general. You’re not going to be hearing a quirky joke every third line of dialogue, and serious moments aren’t going to be undercut by a quip. Even when Ayana does quip or joke, the humor in the situation comes from her genuinely being socially awkward, with the punchline being her cringing in response to her own words or awkwardly shutting down.

The way the dialogue is written is also just mwah. I kiss it. Serious moments hang with an air of tension and are written with beautiful metaphors and similes that paint great verbal pictures of what’s being transcribed to the player. I admit to a little bit of bias here because my own writing is very simile-heavy. Still, in my opinion, the game uses its dramatic comparisons well and isn’t heavy-handed or pretentious with its prose at all.

If you were to ask me, I’d say that Ereban: Shadow Legacy wears its apparent inspirations proudly on its sleeve. The level and character design have a very grounded sort of sci-fi vibe to them, where everything looks futuristic yet functional and blends well with areas that, in contrast, feel ancient and larger than life. This, paired with the game’s color yet saturated color palette, reminds me a lot of Titanfall or Borderlands; Ereban: Shadow Legacy looks familiar and yet feels utterly original at the same time. It’s a game that looks a little nostalgic and has an overall vibe that just resonates very well with me.

This isn’t the only place where you feel inspiration from the classics. I’m not a big stealth gamer, with a few franchise exceptions, but Ereban: Shadow Legacy seems to have learned the right lessons from titans in the genre. An emphasis on fast and fluid movement through stealth levels and a lot of airborne takedowns reminds me quite a bit of the classic Assassin’s Creed games. You have to keep a low profile in Ereban: Shadow Legacy, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to force you to crawl through the mud for an hour, either.

That being said, I sometimes feel that the detection radius on enemies is a little bit crazy. I’ve had moments where enemies have slightly detected me (not alerted, but with the infamous ! symbol appearing over their heads) as soon as I enter a segment of the level. I’ve also been detected for accidentally stepping half an inch out of cover, with nearly my whole body blocked by what I’m hiding behind, nearly instantly sending me back to the last checkpoint.

That being said, I sometimes feel that the detection radius on enemies is a little bit crazy. I’ve had moments where enemies have slightly detected me (not alerted, but with the infamous ! symbol appearing over their heads) as soon as I enter a segment of the level. I’ve also been detected for accidentally stepping half an inch out of cover, with nearly my whole body blocked by what I’m hiding behind, nearly instantly sending me back to the last checkpoint.

The use of shadows as a means to traverse levels leads to some incredibly immersive set builds. Because you can shoot up or along any wall in the shade, the game can create levels of ancient, broken, ruined, or imposing industrial facilities that don’t look like they were designed for a player to platform around them. These levels can be so immersive, in fact, that at times, I sort of lost myself trying to figure out where to go next when the path was right in front of me.

These levels are listed as “chapters” and aren’t imposingly long, each one running about 20 to 30 minutes if you don’t get lost like I did. However, they feature plenty of hidden secrets as well as multiple avenues of competition, making them not too linear and inviting you to replay them to improve your score.

Ereban: Shadow Legacy runs incredibly well, and I didn’t experience any notable bugs or crashes during my playthrough, except for one. In the third chapter, you have an NPC standing atop a shaded tower that you’re naturally supposed to climb with your shadow powers. However, doing so launched me into the air and got me clipped into a table. This wouldn’t be a big deal if I could just slide back into the shade. However, the table happened to be in the single source of light in that entire area, forcing me to reload my save.

Try Hard Guides was provided with a PC review copy of this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles in the Game Reviews section of our website! Ereban: Shadow Legacy is available on Steam and Xbox.