Info about LOST EMBER:

Official game description:
A breathtakingly beautiful world holds the secrets of its past for you and your companion to uncover in this 5-hour journey.  
Experience the contrasting stories of the fall of mankind and the lush life in a world reclaimed by nature with a wolf as your main character and a determined companion at your side.  
Explore the land, sea, and air, as you possess any creature you come across to experience life from a whole new perspective. Fly through gargantuan canyon valleys as a parrot! Tumble through the grass as a wombat! Swim through shimmering lakes as a fish! Your journey will take you from densely wooded jungles, to lush rainforest canopies, to barren desert plains and archaic temples.  
Ultimately, you'll discover a tale of loyalty, despair, and betrayal, as echoes of the lost Yanrana culture come to life in a lush wilderness devoid of man.

Release date: 22 Nov, 2019

Categories: Exploration, Single-player Story, Walking Simulator, Linear Progression, Collectibles, Animal Possession


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Stunning, beautiful visual presentation (weight 0.96): The game is visually stunning, featuring breathtaking graphics, a vibrant color palette, and diverse, well-designed environments. The art style balances realism and simplicity, creating a visually appealing and immersive experience that encourages players to take screenshots.
- Relaxing, immersive soundtrack (weight 0.88): The game features a memorable and well-integrated soundtrack that enhances the overall atmosphere and emotional impact. The music is relaxing, calming, and perfectly complements the gameplay, creating a peaceful and immersive experience.
- Relaxing, family-friendly experience (weight 0.8): The game is relaxing, calming, and family-friendly, with simple mechanics and no violence. This makes it accessible and enjoyable for a wide range of players, including children, teenagers, and adults.
- Compelling, emotional story (weight 0.38): The game features a compelling and emotionally resonant story that explores themes of love, forgiveness, loss, and redemption. The narrative is well-written, with surprising twists and turns that create a strong connection to the characters and evoke emotional responses.
- Unique animal possession mechanic (weight 0.38): A core mechanic involves inhabiting various animals, each with unique abilities and realistic movements, to explore the world and progress. This animal-possession mechanic adds a unique and enjoyable element to the gameplay, allowing players to experience the world from different perspectives.
- Emotionally impactful ending (weight 0.2): The game's ending is particularly impactful, leaving a lasting impression and evoking strong emotional responses, even tears. This suggests a powerful and memorable conclusion to the game's narrative.
- Fun, unique core gameplay (weight 0.1): The game has fun and interesting core gameplay mechanics and a fascinating concept that is unique and refreshing. The controls are easy to handle, and the game is immersive, making it enjoyable for new players.
- Focus on discovery and themes (weight 0.07): The game focuses on themes of discovery, self-discovery, hope, life, and nature, offering a contemplative experience. Players are rewarded for thorough exploration with collectibles and alternative paths that complement the game's universe.
- Short and sweet experience (weight 0.05): The game is relatively short in length, providing a sweet experience that is great for passing the time or enjoying a first playthrough. The gameplay style is varied, and the game has replayability due to hidden collectibles.
- Variety of collectibles (weight 0.04): The game features a variety of collectibles, such as relics, pots, and flutes, that provide neat information about the game world. Some collectibles even include pop culture references as Easter Eggs, adding a fun and unexpected element to the game.

Common complaints:
- Confusing level design; navigation issues (weight 0.72): Many reviewers reported getting lost due to confusing level design, lack of a map, and poor guidance. The large, empty game world and repetitive environments exacerbate the navigation issues, leading to aimless wandering and frustration. Some reviewers also mentioned getting stuck in the environment, requiring reloads.
- Clunky, unresponsive controls (weight 0.7): The game's controls are frequently described as clunky, unresponsive, and frustrating, impacting navigation and gameplay. Issues include stiff movement, camera control problems, and difficulty performing basic actions. Some reviewers also mentioned the lack of key remapping options.
- Uninspired, predictable, shallow story (weight 0.64): The story is uninspired, predictable, and lacks depth, with mediocre voice acting and dialogue that detract from immersion. Many reviewers found the narrative unengaging, with plot twists that are easily foreseen and characters that are difficult to connect with. The story's presentation, pacing, and emotional impact were also criticized.
- Boring, repetitive gameplay (weight 0.59): Many reviewers found the gameplay to be boring, repetitive, and lacking in meaningful content. The game is often described as a "walking simulator" with little to do beyond running around and collecting items. The lack of engaging activities and challenges contributes to an unsatisfying experience.
- Poor voice acting, audio issues (weight 0.54): The game suffers from poor voice acting, awkward dialogue, and inconsistent audio mixing. Reviewers found the voice acting to be flat, unemotional, and sometimes mismatched to the characters or setting. The audio mixing issues further detract from the experience, making it difficult to hear important dialogue and sound effects.
- Numerous bugs and glitches (weight 0.49): Reviewers reported numerous bugs and glitches, including getting stuck in the environment, clipping through walls, and experiencing soft locks. These technical issues detract from the overall experience and can force players to restart from the last checkpoint. Some reviewers felt the game was unpolished and rushed.
- Overpriced for content, quality (weight 0.44): Several reviewers felt the game's price is too high for the amount of content and overall quality. The short playtime and numerous technical issues contribute to the perception of a poor value proposition. Some reviewers expressed regret over purchasing the game at full price.
- Tedious, pointless collectibles (weight 0.31): The game features an excessive amount of collectibles that feel pointless and unrewarding. These collectibles often serve only to artificially extend the playtime without adding meaningful content or enhancing the story. Many reviewers found the search for these items tedious and unfulfilling.
- Poorly executed animal transformations (weight 0.17): The animal transformation mechanic feels gimmicky and poorly executed. Switching between animals can be clunky, and some animals have limited utility or relevance to the story. The controls for different animal forms are also inconsistent and frustrating.
- Camera causes motion sickness (weight 0.1): Several reviewers experienced motion sickness due to the game's camera behavior and tight field of view. The erratic camera movements, especially during shape-shifting or in confined spaces, can cause nausea and discomfort. This issue may limit the playability for some players.
- Inconsistent fall damage, jump mechanic (weight 0.06): The game features inconsistent fall damage and a restrictive jump mechanic. Players often experience immediate respawns after falling from small ledges, while surviving larger falls. The protagonist's jumping ability is also limited, making it difficult to overcome even small obstacles.
- Visual clipping issues (weight 0.03): Some reviewers experienced visual glitches such as seeing through walls and clipping into the environment. These issues can break immersion, though they are often minor and can be resolved by reloading the previous save.
- Signs of review bombing (weight 0.02): Several reviews contain emotional language without specific details, and hyperbolic claims without evidence. Some reviews also contain sarcasm instead of feedback. These reviews show signs of review bombing.

Gameplay feedback:
- Walking simulator with linear exploration (weight 0.14): The game is primarily a 'walking simulator' focused on exploration and enjoying the scenery. While it attempts to create an open world, the game is actually quite linear and the world can feel small. The gameplay emphasizes beauty and nature over complex puzzles or challenges.
- Casual, linear, non-violent gameplay (weight 0.13): The game is designed to be a relaxed and casual experience, with a focus on story and exploration. There are no challenging puzzles, combat, or permadeath; falling simply results in respawning at the last safe spot. The game is also very linear with gracious hints.
- Legendary animals lack unique gameplay (weight 0.02): The legendary animals only differ in appearance from their normal counterparts. They must be subdued, but they do not offer any unique gameplay differences.
- Simple gameplay, minimal challenge (weight 0.01): The gameplay can be very simple, sometimes involving just pressing the 'W' key or up arrow. This suggests a lack of complexity or challenge in some aspects of the game.

Performance notes:
- Inconsistent performance across systems (weight 0.14): Performance varies significantly. Some players report smooth gameplay even on older hardware, while others experience stuttering, freezing, and low FPS despite meeting the game's requirements. Adjusting graphics settings or disabling fullscreen mode may help mitigate these issues.
- High GPU temperature (weight 0.02): The game may cause the GPU to run hot, regardless of graphics settings. CPU temperatures appear normal with adequate cooling.
- Wonky and clipping camera (weight 0.02): The camera system is reported to be unwieldy, clipping through walls, especially in tunnels when playing as a bird. This can make navigation and exploration difficult.
- Bugged achievements exist (weight 0.01): Some players have reported that certain achievements are bugged, making them unobtainable. This can be frustrating for completionists.
- Cutscene camera stuttering (weight 0.01): One of the final cutscenes exhibits stuttering in the camera path. This can detract from the cinematic experience at the end of the game.
- Repetitive soundtrack looping (weight 0.01): The soundtrack can sometimes loop repetitively, especially when players linger in an area after completing tasks. This can become irritating over time.
- Lacking detail in small objects (weight 0.01): Small objects sometimes lack sufficient detail in their rendering. This can detract from the overall visual fidelity of the game.

Recommendations:
- Strongly recommended overall (weight 0.72): Many reviewers recommend the game, praising its story, emotional impact, and unique experience. Some consider it a must-play title, a masterpiece, or one of the best indie games they've played. Scores vary, but overall sentiment is very positive.
- Buy on sale (weight 0.48): Many reviewers suggest purchasing the game on sale due to concerns about the full price relative to the content or potential flaws. This recommendation is consistent across multiple reviews, indicating a perceived value proposition tied to the discounted price.
- Secrets and collectibles reward exploration (weight 0.37): The game world is noted for containing secret routes and interesting collectibles, encouraging exploration and rewarding players who take the time to discover hidden areas and items.
- Meaningful themes of forgiveness (weight 0.03): Reviewers appreciate the game's underlying message of forgiveness and its exploration of themes related to societal norms and personal growth. The story encourages empathy and reflection.
- Requires dedicated graphics card (weight 0.01): One reviewer advises against playing the game without a dedicated graphics card due to performance issues. This suggests that the game may be graphically demanding and not well-optimized for lower-end systems.

Other player notes:
- Inca-inspired setting and story (weight 0.04): The game's narrative and setting draw inspiration from Inca culture, particularly Machu Picchu, and incorporate elements of Yanren tribal culture. The story involves spirits needing to follow customs to reach the City of Light.
- Tone is calm, yet grim (weight 0.02): Reviewers had differing experiences with the game's tone, with some finding it calm and relaxing, while others found it grim and focused on themes of death and forgiveness. This suggests the game's atmosphere may be subjective and resonate differently with individual players.
- Inconsistent, unclear game setting (weight 0.01): One reviewer criticized the game's setting as unclear and nonsensical, citing a mix of American inspirations with animals that don't belong in the environment. This suggests a lack of cohesion in the game's world-building.

Emotions:
No emotions}