Ereban: Shadow Legacyis a new third-person stealth platformer game set in a futuristic dystopia. Players will go through the story as Ayana, the last of her race, as she tries to find her people and uncover the truth. Whether it be completed aggressively with plenty of kills or passively by lurking through the shadows is the player’s choice.
In a Game Rant interview,Ereban: Shadow Legacycreative director Alex Márquez spoke a lot about the common light vs. dark theme at play, as well as the game’s use of shadows. While the latter may seem more mechanical than anything, it’s the way the three elements go hand in hand that helpsEreban: Shadow Legacystand out.
The Light, Darkness, and Shadows of Ereban: Shadow Legacy
Ereban: Shadow Legacygives away its plot in its name. Early in the game, players are introduced toAyana’s shadow powerslike Shadow Merge, which lets her disappear into any shadow, and Shadow Jump, which lets her jump to and from platforms while in Shadow Merge. Márquez said they had to create a “1:1 shadow detection system,” which means there needed to be a lot of light—one of the “most demanding” things, he added—and it had to be calculated accurately so players could also use the shadows of moving objects. The shadows had to be believable, and from a level design point of view, each object’s shadow had to be strategic enough to open a potential path for the player.
We had to create organic and believable scenarios, complex enough to be appealing but simple enough to make sure the Shadow Merge works well on those surfaces. We had to fake the lighting, so you could distinguish exactly what’s light and what’s shadow at first sight.
ForEreban: Shadow Legacy, Márquez explained that, because shadow mechanics were already in use, they wanted to explore light versus dark themes in “every other aspect of the game.” Though Ayana draws her abilities from the darkness, she is on the “good side” while Helios and its SYMULANTS, or robots, essentially serve the “light” and paint themselves as the heroes, though that’s not the case.
It’s a really strong duality that has been used in many other games, movies, etc, but in our case, it allowed us to start on the dark side, with our antagonists being on the light side. However, we didn’t want it to be a simple “darkness = bad / light = good” or vice versa story. Our world and its conflicts are much more complex and grey than that, and we wanted to reflect that in our game as well. In the end, shadows need light to exist, and it’s the light what casts these shadows.
Powers Left to the Shadows
Baby Robot Games is a small indie studio that’s passionate about the stealth genre. Márquez told Game Rant that while there were a “lot” of ideas, there wasn’t enough time or resources to bring it to life. Initially, the skill tree was going to be more complex. Each major Shadow Power, like Shadow Blind, was going to have an “evolution” that upgraded that power. Shadow Blind would have started off as a short-range ability and players would have to unlock the evolution, but the studio ultimately opted to simplify the tree and go directly with the upgraded abilities.
As with all games, there were mechanics/powers that had to be cut. Márquez said his favorite would’ve been one that allowed players to chain executions if robots were in range, by teleporting from one shadow to the other, like the single bulletmechanic inChildren of the Sun. However, it “wasn’t production ready” and opened the door to balancing problems and bugs in the game.
As you see, there were lots of challenges… But in the end, we think it was totally worth the effort, as navigating the shadows feels smooth and super powerful (sometimes, even too much!)
While it would have been interesting to see these more nuanced evolutions, it’s also great that the shadow-play inEreban: Shadow Legacydoes feel so powerful in a stealth game. Notably, this mechanic then goes hand-in-hand with its themes, and that can be felt throughout the game. There have been mixed reviews of the pacing and difficulty of the game, butEreban: Shadow Legacycould be an ideal title for someone who istrying to get into the stealth genreor looking for a lighter playthrough. The goal is clear, the lore is understandable, and Ayana is just determined to get what she wants.
