Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: an evil mega-corporation has harnessed the power of the sun (while also being named in some pretentious way after a deity of the sun) but is actually doing evil stuff that will cause the end of the world. Pretty textbook stuff, right? But despite feeling familiar, Ereban: Shadow Legacy doesn’t just want to talk about how private industries are a blight on society; it also wants to talk about the sins of the father, though not in quite as much of a biblical sense.
Told through the eyes of Ayana, you are invited for an exciting job with Helios – an energy company with the same corny naming practices as the Illuminati in Deus Ex – in which you can put your skills to the test as the last surviving member of your race, the Ereban, capable of harnessing an incredible set of skills, as you are able to traverse the shadows unseen and take enemies down with quiet precision as long as your target has their back to the shadows.
Predictably the giant mega-corporation then proceeds to do textbook evil stuff, with a mysterious rebellion plotting to help you escape. From here the gameplay begins to take shape, requiring you to leap into the shadows and swim around, both through platforming sections that require precise timings and through stealth-heavy areas filled with both robotic and human enemies (more on that distinction later). It follows the usual stealth conventions – cones of vision, low cover and stealthy takedowns from behind – but with the added ability to drift into the shadows and stroll straight in front of your enemies unseen.
At its core, this gameplay is fun – it combines the stealth and style of Aragami with the shadow-hopping puzzles of SCHiM, introducing new abilities in each chapter to give you a greater edge in every encounter – although this can feel unnecessary at times given how overpowered moving through the shadows can seem. In an effort to balance this, Ereban also uses a stamina bar to prevent you from overusing the ability, but in turn this can ramp up the difficulty in platforming sections – suddenly you are having to fight both an odd vertical climb and the clock.
There have been a few occasions where I have found myself failing a section – either dying or having to restart a climb – due to the controls being either unresponsive or overresponsive at times. If you are trying to beat your best time or complete a silent run, this can be incredibly frustrating and may lead to restarting a level, though thankfully the general size of each chapter and the game as a whole isn’t too expensive or bloated, delivering the story in a slightly more concise manner; a person could reasonably complete the entire game in 6 hours with their pockets full of collectibles.
As you progress through each chapter, your arsenal evolves to suit your play style, but the enemies also grow ever more difficult. Not only do human enemies pose a threat, but the large robot SYMs grow increasingly complex, from simple robots with torches to sentinel units designed to repair other fallen SYMs in the field and onwards to more complex types that use camouflage to cover their tracks. It still relies heavily on a slightly inconsistent control scheme but at least manages to keep encounters fresh.
Where the gameplay can falter, thankfully, the story does not – aside from the obvious “evil corporation doing a bit of genocide” plot, it also tells a fairly engaging story about cultural responsibilities and whether our legacy should be allowed to define us. Ayana is a brooding protagonist with her own past to be uncovered, but it’s through these pieces of knowledge that the bigger picture is built. Sadly, this can be somewhat undermined by another mechanic: the morality system.
In each chapter you are presented with opportunities to either sneak past your enemies or take them down – naturally taking them down provides the best short-term benefit, but the game incentivises a more passive approach, rewarding you for leaving enemies alive despite the risks it presents to you. I should clarify, however, that this only applies to human enemies, meaning you can still go absolutely ham on the SYMs – though your character is something of a glass cannon, so getting caught means game over.
There are three major flaws with this approach, as it presents both a mechanical and narrative gap; the first issue, and probably the largest, is the effect on the story – without delving into spoilers, the ending is decided largely by a single choice that you can make based on the information fed to you in the course of the game. There is a level of grey morals present, but this is then overshadowed by the game telling you whether you are in fact evil or not, turning this ambiguous story into a binary choice based on your approach to stealth.
The second flaw is more mechanical, with the morality system determining your abilities going forward. Play stealthily, and you will find yourself unlocking more abilities geared towards effective movement, but an aggressive approach leads to more destructive powers – this is very much a welcome addition, but it underlines a wider issue in that player choice suddenly becomes limited, particularly as these different moral meanings don’t impact the world around you. Where the Dishonored series changed the world around you to reflect your approach to lethality, introducing more rats or bloodflies if you opt for a deadly approach, Ereban seems to remain static, the world unbothered by your bloodlust.
The third flaw is frankly a petty one, but it shows the importance of narrative cohesion – as SYMs are exempt from your moral standing, it could be assumed this is because they are just robots programmed to follow orders, but a slightly silly collectible found hidden in a container gives one of the SYMs its own thoughts and feelings, suggesting a level of sentience and emotions – sure, it’s just a little side note, but suddenly all of those takedowns feel a little more hostile.
Robot philosophies aside, Ereban: Shadow Legacy manages to deliver an enjoyable experience for its low cost and suitably condensed runtime, but without some major improvements it can be difficult to recommend.
