RPGs have come a long way from the usual choose-your-class and go on an adventure type that we all knew and loved. With familiar titles like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy still seeing popularity even if they are years old, it’s no surprise that there is still a huge demand for the genre. To be able to keep the same genre feeling fresh, innovations must be made so a game won’t feel stale. That’s where Ember Sword comes in; matching the same old familiar gameplay of the MMO RPG world with the new technology that the blockchain offers.

Graphics/Artstyle

Ember Sword looks gorgeous. Although the game may seem a bit cartoony at first glance, the art style is cohesive and makes everything look well put together. I’d compare the art style of the game to an RPG called Flyff and a bit of Runescape.The environments look well-lit and bright. Although it may initially look 2D in its default view, the game is actually 3D. Players can hop (even double-jump!) onto objects and structures in the game. Tall grass also somewhat covers the characters, and the overall texture of the game is easy on the eyes.

Based on the alpha gameplay, I think the game looks enticing, but I found it hard to see what objects you are able to interact with. This made actions such as mining, harvesting, and cutting trees somewhat hard to do even though they are vital in the overall gameplay, and I hope the developers fix this before releasing the public beta. 

Gameplay

You’ll be familiar with the gameplay of Ember Sword if you’ve played other MMO RPGs. Completing quests, going into dungeons, and rallying bosses with friends or other players. What makes it different though is the class system. Most RPGs require you to select a class that you must specialize in and make your playstyle revolve around that. Ember sword is different because you can change your playstyle depending on the items you equip on your character thus making the gameplay more dynamic. 

Owning a plot of land may also change the way you play the game since owning property is heavily incentivized in this game. The larger the land you own, the more you can earn since you receive a percentage from the trades and transactions that happen on your land. This means having a bigger land will up the chances of rare items and goods being found in your domain and increases the likelihood of players being in your lot.

Tokenomics

There is quite a gap in information regarding the token that this game will use. In the whitepaper of the game, they stated that they will use an ERC-20 token and name it EMBER although allocations and the coin itself isn’t released yet. The game is built on Polygon but announced that they will integrate Ember Land to Immutable X to lower the fees associated with transactions of NFTs in the blockchain. 

Players can buy land on OpenSea if they ever want to start investing in the game. A marketplace will soon be built for players to buy and sell their in-game items and cosmetics. The game highlighted that they are not pay-to-win and that the NFTs for items are purely cosmetic and won’t add any additional effects or stats to the players. 

Final Thoughts

Ember Sword looks like a good game, and maybe if it wasn’t in the blockchain people may have called it a Triple-A title because of the overall look. Not to mention the classless system mechanics in the game are rarely seen in RPGs these days. The lack of coin and the roadmap not being present on the site may raise some alarms in your head as it did for me, but so far, the game looks promising, and I hope the development team continues to improve the game as well as its systems they use to connect with the players as Ember Sword is an innovative take on crypto gaming and the RPG genre.