# Esoteric Ebb review deep dive: why critics found a Disco-like with teeth

**June 22, 2026 · Perthro**

Esoteric Ebb sits at 88 on OpenCritic, with most scored reviews between 8 and 9.5 out of 10. That tells you critics like it. It doesn't tell you why several of them sound a little surprised by how much.

It's a PC RPG by solo developer Christoffer Bodegård, published by Raw Fury and released on March 3, 2026: a text-heavy fantasy detective game about a cleric investigating an exploded tea shop just before the world's first election. Nearly every review reaches for "Disco Elysium meets Dungeons & Dragons," and the better ones move past it. A few months on, it's worth a second look. It's a one-person RPG with no famous studio attached that launched in a crowded spring, and it's easy to lose track of if you didn't note it in March.

## Esoteric Ebb review scores

OpenCritic: 88 Top Critic Average, 90 median, 49 reviews, 98% recommend (Mighty).

- PC Gamer: 90/100
- GameSpot: 9/10
- DualShockers: 9/10
- COGconnected: 90/100
- TheSixthAxis: 9/10
- Checkpoint Gaming: 8/10
- Eurogamer: 4/5

Critics agree on the quality. What they're quietly debating is how much of the mess is charm.

Ted Litchfield at PC Gamer was blunt: "If you like RPGs, you owe it to yourself to play Esoteric Ebb." He calls it "the best game like Disco Elysium that anybody's made since Disco Elysium," but doesn't treat it as a copy. What impressed him most was the reactivity: attributes that talk back differently depending on your build, dialogue fights that play like tabletop encounters, and small choices that return much later as a joke, reward or consequence.

Moises Taveras at GameSpot called it "positively stuffed" with good things and compared it to a mimic: familiar in shape, hiding teeth. From a distance it looks friendly, with colourful fantasy art, a cleric, goblins, spells, dice checks and an election. Then the writing pulls you sideways into theology, labour politics, embarrassment, social anxiety and jokes smarter than they need to be.

Alexis Ong at Eurogamer gave 4/5 and names the catch. She praises the writing, comedy, flexible role-playing and the fun of playing an idiot with a job to do, but says parts get bloated or self-indulgent, and one fantasy-world joke about "the Japanese" lands badly. Critics aren't cheering just because there are a lot of words; they notice when the game gets too pleased with itself.

![Esoteric Ebb screenshot: dialogue, dice checks and the voices tied to your attributes](https://perthro.io/assets/blog/0a12f9f8e8bfab1d.jpg)

## What critics agree on

**The writing.** It's a comedy, a mystery, a political fantasy and a character builder where your stats are voices in your head. That could get exhausting, and reviewers mostly say it doesn't. PC Gamer puts the setting closer to Planescape or Spelljammer than comfortable D&D, compares some dialogue fights to Disco Elysium's Tribunal, calls the writing "Obsidian-Tier" and places it in the "99.9th percentile of videogame writing." TheSixthAxis calls it "one of the most endearing, hilarious and immersive roleplaying experiences" the reviewer has had, framed like a tabletop campaign that takes your cleric from level one to six. Gaming Nexus calls it a "dialogue-drunk RPG."

"Dialogue-drunk" is the right warning. DualShockers notes it's almost entirely text: exploration and interaction fold into long conversations between the cleric, NPCs and your attribute voices. If you want quest markers, frequent fights and short exchanges, the praise may not apply to you. If you like RPGs where a failed roll makes a better story than a success, it sounds unusually generous.

**The reactivity.** Critics keep saying the game has anticipated odd behaviour. PC Gamer carried a broken magic item for most of the game and found a late use for it as a trap. DualShockers praises the "freedom to explore the world and characters," even when the game won't give clear instructions. COGconnected says the number of variables makes a first playthrough feel personal, not just branching.

**The Disco Elysium comparison is fair but incomplete.** RPG Fan says it does a respectable job filling that gap while bringing fresh ideas. IGN Italy says it draws heavily on Disco Elysium and Planescape: Torment without being a shallow copy. Eurogamer says it finds its own tone. "Disco-like" can flatten a game before anyone plays it. Esoteric Ebb survives the label because it gets the real lesson: inner voices only work when they're funny, cruel, helpful, wrong and specific.

## Complaints: UI, guidance and a few bad jokes

PC Gamer mentions a cluttered UI, especially on Steam Deck, plus typos, controller-specific glitches and a couple of bugged feats in the review build. In a text-heavy RPG where you're reading, swapping gear for checks and scanning conversations for clues, small friction adds up.

Shane Limbaugh at DualShockers says it doesn't hold your hand, and the Questing Tree can be vague. Some players will love that. Others will end up taking notes and accepting they'll miss things. He still gave 9/10, but it's the clearest reason someone might bounce off.

Eurogamer's critique is about taste, and it cuts deepest. Ong admires how it blends Terry Pratchett, Terry Gilliam, D&D and modern anxiety, but finds some banter tedious and one bit of worldbuilding sloppy. When the writing is this good, reviewers judge it seriously, so its missteps can't hide behind being silly.

![Esoteric Ebb screenshot: a small, dense fantasy detective story](https://perthro.io/assets/blog/cc597a9bbaaa6dd6.jpg)

## Small, dense and specific

Nobody praises Esoteric Ebb for hundreds of hours of content. They praise a 10-to-15-hour first playthrough that bends around your build, failures and curiosity. Nobody says it reinvents D&D. They say it understands tabletop role-playing as something stranger than tactical positioning: arguing with yourself, using a bad spell cleverly, wrecking a plan because your character would.

It asks for commitment. You have to want words and dice, and be willing to feel foolish before you feel clever. The most repeated praise is about characters, choices, jokes, consequences and a world that reveals stranger rules the longer you pay attention. That's hard to show in a trailer, and it's exactly what critics are still better at spotting than a storefront tag.

## Should you play Esoteric Ebb?

If you loved Disco Elysium, Planescape: Torment, Citizen Sleeper, or the parts of Baldur's Gate 3 where a roll sent a conversation sideways, put it near the top of your list. It's one of 2026's strongest narrative RPGs so far.

If you need voice acting, clear direction, polished controller UI or fully tactical combat, read the praise carefully. The things critics love are the things that might wear you down: it's dense, talky, and asks you to listen, remember, fail, and occasionally sit through a joke that doesn't land.

DualShockers says D&D fans looking for something unique won't find a better game. If that's you, add it to your [Perthro](https://apps.apple.com/app/perthro/id6764673686) plan-to-play list before the next big release buries it.