Lost Ember
Developer: Mooneye Studios
Publisher: Mooneye Studios
Release Date: 22 November 2019
Genre: Exploration/Adventure
Platform: PC, PS4, Xbox, Nintendo Switch
RRP: $42.95 AUS
Explore the remains of a fallen world from fascinating perspectives! Slip into the role of different animals to uncover the fate of an ancient world.
A breathtakingly beautiful world holds the secrets of its past for you and your companion to uncover in this 5-hour journey.
Experience the contrasting stories of the fall of mankind and the lush life in a world reclaimed by nature with a wolf as your main character and a determined companion at your side.
Explore the land, sea, and air, as you possess any creature you come across to experience life from a whole new perspective. Fly through gargantuan canyon valleys as a parrot! Tumble through the grass as a wombat! Swim through shimmering lakes as a fish! Your journey will take you from densely wooded jungles, to lush rainforest canopies, to barren desert plains and archaic temples.
Ultimately, you’ll discover a tale of loyalty, despair, and betrayal, as echoes of the lost Yanrana culture come to life in a lush wilderness devoid of man.
Honestly, sometimes I just want to be a wolf and run.
This game is about two lost souls: a silent lone wolf who can possess other animals and a talkative being of red light. Both trying to figure out what has drawn them to each other, and despite their shared amnesia, attempting to unlock the secrets of the past to find the way into the future. They must work together to make their way to the City of Light.
I played this game on the Switch and it lent very well to a console controller. I enjoyed running around as a wolf or soaring through the air as a bird, and I found it incredibly relaxing as well as a bit challenging sometimes to figure out the next part of the story or the puzzle. Mostly the aim was to run towards the light source, which was the relaxing part, but occasionally there was a puzzle involved in determining the correct animal to possess and then using their unique ability to travel to the next section.
The voice acting continues to astound me – the being of red light produces the background to the plot and is voiced emotively by an actor with a very precise British accent, to the point where it seems so specific that I was kind of thrown off a bit. The wolf is silent, but you can still feel the emotions coming from the character, especially as the secrets of the past are unlocked. The soundtrack that accompanies the game is gorgeous, one of those calming, relaxing soundtracks that perfectly sets the mood, almost like a film score. I really loved it.
The graphics are a little bit stylistic – the wolf’s legs, for example, seem really skinny – but it’s easy to figure out which animal is being represented. The human characters from the flashbacks don’t have faces, but they have other defining characteristics that make it easy to identify characters. The big selling point for this game, I think, is the breathaking settings as you run past it. It’s so gorgeous and I love just running through it and admiring it. It varies from a high snowy mountain peak, a lush, dense jungle, an arid, open desert. The story takes place after some kind of apocalypse and there are loads of old architectural ruins around which add to the variety and interest.
As far as I’m aware, you don’t even need to unlock all the memories to finish this game. You can also turn the ‘commentary’ off, though it does make the game a fair bit more challenging if you have no idea what you’re doing – maybe save that for the second run. That little red being of light is your own personal guide through the game. The quick time events are not hard at all – I say this as someone who still needs to check which button is which before I respond. It’s not a difficult game, it’s very relaxing. The biggest challenge is sometimes finding out where you’re supposed to go next. I once lost my little guide and spent over an hour trying to figure out where I was supposed to go before I finally discovered some moles to possess and dug my way free.
Overall I just loved Lost Ember as it had everything I loved in a game, and due to the collectable items you can discover along the way, I believe it has a decent replay ability.
All video games are purchased by myself or gifted from a friend.
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About Nemo
A lover of kittens and all things sparkly, Nemo has a degree in English Literature and specialises in reviewing contemporary, paranormal, mystery/thriller, historical, sci-fi and fantasy Young Adult fiction. She is especially drawn to novels about princesses, strong female friendships, magical powers, and assassins.
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