Our Review of Lost Ember

Lately, I have a thing about playing relaxing adventure games. There is something about being a character in an immersive world where the stakes are high but you can’t be killed if you aren’t paying attention for a second. This is the case for Lost Ember, which is an independent game from Mooneye that has an incredible premise and a very big world.

Like most games, there is a story involved, and honestly, I had a hard time following the story. The title refers to a soul that has not transcended into the afterlife, but is stuck on Earth in a form that is not what it once was. In the case of the main player, you play this wolf, and this wolf is on a quest to find memories of its past life.

These memories come the form of strange pink smoke, and when they are examined, a scene plays out. If this already isn’t unusual enough, the game not only takes place on some alien looking world that still has a lot of beauty. It also seems to take place in some time that looks to be Mayan, at least that seems to be the style that maybe they are going for.

Once you find these memories, they appear as these statues in that Mayan or maybe even African style. Seriously, I am not certain what kind of time period the creators were going for, but it completely succeeds at drawing the player in.

Oh, and it is really hard to describe the stuff in this game. I haven’t even mentioned that you in your wolf form is followed by this dancing light thing. It is revealed what it is, and I have played the game to its satisfactory conclusion.

Now, one of the great appeals of the game is that the wolf does not need to stay a wolf, but can change forms into another animals. The issue is that these animals have to be in close proximity, but you can use their abilities. For example, if you are a bird, you can fly. If you are a fish, you can swim underwater indefinitely. You can even become this digging beast that helps you to get to the other areas.

Yeah, if you haven’t guessed, this is one of those games where you need to keep moving forward. There are also those Easter Egg little prizes that you can obtain. There are these artifacts that are highly diverse, and there are there mushrooms as well. I had to admit that I didn’t really spend a lot of time finding these things, but many of them were not too far off the beaten path. I don’t think that I found half of them.

I’m going to have to rate this game highly, about four out of five stars. The lower rating comes from many times in the game where the scenery kind of takes over, and you are on a ride that you can’t control. The high rating comes from its story, albeit confusing, but is really about spiritual redemption in a wonderful world. You can find more information about the game on Mooneye website, and it is available for Steam, XBox One, PS4, and Switch a little later.