EMBERDEEP

Emberdeep is a turn-based role-playing game. The player takes the role of a child who falls beneath Mount Aldercap into the home of the emberkin, a community of small exiled fire-spirits whose Forge is failing. A hearth-keeper hands over her last ember, and the player must carry it down to the Deep Forge, where the way home will briefly open. The descent passes through five regions: the Cinderfall, the Hollows, the Gloamway, the flooded Sump and the Deep Forge, each with dynamic lighting, optional detours and two shops along the way.

Battles use a turn-based structure with the options FIGHT, ACT, ITEM and MERCY, and during enemy turns the player dodges bullet patterns while controlling a small red ember. Acting kindly towards a spirit visibly thins its attacks, and a WARMTH gauge fills as the player behaves kindly and dodges without being hit. This gauge can be spent to KINDLE, which makes sparing easier, including against bosses. The game features nine spirit types, a mini-boss, two multi-phase bosses whose fights vary depending on route, and a hidden superboss with its own mechanics, located behind a door tied to the rain. Every enemy can be resolved without killing it.

There are three endings, which account for the player’s choices such as which spirits were spared, which cold hearths were rekindled and which keepsakes were carried to the fire. A New Game Plus mode alters how the deep responds to a returning player, and a bestiary called The Deep Remembers records every spirit met, spared or left cold. The game includes an original chiptune soundtrack with a jukebox, dialogue portraits, an Assist Mode, a Reduce Motion option and adjustable text speed.