D&D-skewering, Disco Elysium-inspired RPG Esoteric Ebb had me trying my best to be a cleric while my Intelligence stat kept telling me to become a wizard-king

Waking up in a morgue in the updated demo for Disco Elysium-like RPG Esoteric Ebb, the first thing I did was check out the other body lying in there with me. It’s hard to tell what’s a brand new interaction compared to my run through Esoteric Ebb’s original demo versus pre-existing stuff uncovered by a fresh character build⁠—I went all in on Intelligence and Wisdom this time.

While I couldn’t determine a cause of death, I did discover that this guy didn’t have insurance: He was marked as a viable candidate for some good old fashioned D&D-style resurrection magic, but nobody had done the deed.

“He clearly did not have an RF. A Revive Fund,” my Intelligence chimed in, calling to mind the interior adventuring party/Greek chorus of Disco Elysium’s personified skills. “Nor did he have family members with enough ready cash. Or maybe he was just an unlikable fellow. Who knows?”

My altruistic Wisdom suggested I revive this man with a valuable third-level spell slot, which the more pragmatic Intelligence immediately shot down. How will I get anything done if I try saving every lost life I come across? More ominously, what if they don’t want to come back? Either way, it’s a moot point for the demo. I’d have to pack on way more levels than this preview had room for and find a scroll of Revivify out in the world to boot.

But the interaction is illustrative of everything that’s got me excited about Esoteric Ebb, evidence that it’s not just crying “Disco Elysium” for attention from a hungry RPG community, but that it can back it up with the thoughtfulness, charm, and dense, replayable design that Disco’s legacy calls to mind. This body, one of the first things I saw in the starting room, is a potential game-spanning mystery, an “ooooh, I gotta come back for that” little tease that’ll have me making tracks for the morgue the second I unlock Revivify in the final game⁠—even if it’s just to quicksave, resurrect the guy to find out he’s an ungrateful asshole, and promptly quickload.

Since the last time I checked in with Esoteric Ebb, lead developer Christoffer Bodegård secured a publisher, Raw Fury, leading to this updated demo, a new trailer, and a sheen of “we have a budget now” over everything. Esoteric Ebb already had a lovely cel-shaded art style, but everything has more depth and detail now, like when a cartoon gets a theatrical movie and all of a sudden there’s shadows and way smoother animation. Esoteric Ebb’s soundtrack is also noticeably expanded, with a vibe of “chill beats to fail skill checks to” that calls to mind Tunic or Hyper Light Drifter’s dreamy soundscapes.

The new demo consists of two core quests, same as the original: Deciding what to do with a group of protesting dwarves and the Pinkerton half-orc trying to get them to go home, and a sort of dialogue boss fight with a goblin queen that resembles the first Evrart Claire scene from Disco Elysium. The playable area of the town has been expanded, though, while the game has gotten a bit more forgiving and approachable. Character creation is more clear about how to effectively build the cleric, including helpful sample builds, and the dice rolls seemed to go my way a bit more this time around.

Even though you are a cleric⁠—that’s even what people call you despite your optional insistence on a skill check-gated, possibly misremembered given name⁠—you can build your guy however you want. Max out Strength and Constitution like a dumb brute fighter, or go all in on Charisma and Dexterity like a wannabe rogue, the game takes note of this and has a bit of fun at your expense. My brainiac Intelligence kept insisting I was actually a wizard, unlocking new dialogue options to that effect. It even opened up choices to insist I would become wizard-king of the city, or to express support for the cryptofascist “rule by wizards” political party in the upcoming elections.

Esoteric Ebb has a “D&D rules pushed to their logical conclusion” sensibility that’s half-Planescape and half-Shrek. One conversation implied that character alignment is a genuine force that can impact the world, while a lecture on magic hell law from a Lawful Evil imp is still my favorite conversation in Esoteric Ebb so far. Esoteric Ebb is very much imitating Disco Elysium from its user interface to some of its core conceits, but its more zany sense of humor, as well as its clever use of Dungeons & Dragons tropes and mechanics, have the potential to send things in an interesting new direction. Esoteric Ebb does not have a set release date, but you can check out its demo for yourself and wishlist it on Steam.