Emberbane is an upcoming indie that blends a Metroidvania structure with elemental hand weaving that's reminiscent of Avatar The Last Airbender's super cool magic system.
Take one look at Emberbane's trailer below and you’ll see what I mean. Our main hero flings fireballs to melt ice blocks, sends gusts of wind downward for a double-jump boost, and zaps foes with electric threads. All these moves are accompanied by awesome Avatar-style hand gestures that verge on dance. Oh, and her hair totally changes color depending on the element you decide to bend. (How cool is that?)
I'm interested to see how these elemental moves affect combat and traversal, since the trailer hints at some abilities' multipurpose utility and a unique combo system between the four elements. Metroidvania connoisseurs are surely used to unlocking skills that further let you untangle the knotted maps and that joy seems to be in Emberbane in full force.
It's all held together by incredibly expressive animation, which likely comes in handy when performing those precision jumps, leaps, wind glides, and more. Though I should add that Emberbane looks notably darker and bloodier than the Nickelodeon show that (probably) inspired its moveset, but hey, the sight of walls made from fleshy, toothy faces only makes me more excited.
Emberbane's unique style didn’t just charm me, though. Developer Hamlet Games recently announced that the game reached 30,000 wishlists on Steam, which bodes well for its chances against the pesky algorithm at launch.
There's no release date so far for Emberbane aside from a nebulous "2024" window. But this year is shaping up to have a killer Metroidvania lineup between Prince of Persia, Hollow Knight Silksong, and much more - so we’ll at least be occupied.
Could it slot into our best Metroidvania games ranking?
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