Over on YouTube, publisher Raw Fury has released “90 Minutes of Esoteric Ebb Music | A Lazy Day in Norvik,” a chill arrangement of the upcoming fantasy RPG’s soundtrack. The kicker is that it’s kinda spectacular, and very distinct from Esoteric Ebb’s primary inspiration, Disco Elysium.
With Disco, we got the dreamy indie rock of Sea Power, while Esoteric Ebb has some of what you might expect from a fantasy game—lotta wistful strings and the like up in here—paired with some truly surprising, memorable synths. The closest sound that springs to mind for me is the music of 2022’s superb Tunic—that crazy good Zelda-like where you play an adorable little fox.
It comes with that classic, long YouTube music video accompaniment of a subject-appropriate character in the lo fi hip hop girl setup. In this case, it’s Esoteric Ebb’s permanently behelmeted cleric main character doing some light reading as the city beyond goes through a full day-night cycle.
The video’s been on my work music rotation for the past few days, and it’s just the thing to get in the mood for Esoteric Ebb’s (presumably) close launch: The RPG is currently slated to release in the first quarter of this year (that just leaves until the end of March).
As for the game itself, Esoteric Ebb has seriously impressed us with its demos. You’ve got the Disco Elysium skills that talk to you and urban exploration, but Esoteric Ebb also does this cool thing where it folds some classic D&D stuff back into the mix (spellcasting, combat), but it’s practically approaching them from first principles to make them work in a Disco-style walk n’ talk RPG.
The lone fight in the demo, for example, is entirely dialogue based, with various ability checks you can make to fight or “charm” a hapless zombie. It’s reminiscent of Disco Elysium’s climactic Tribunal battle, but seems set to be a far more common occurrence throughout the game.
Esoteric Ebb is shaping up to be the best Disco Elysium-style RPG since Disco Elysium itself. In addition to jamming with the OST on YouTube, you can try out Esoteric Ebb’s demo for yourself and wishlist it over on Steam.