The State of Embers Adrift - The Greatest MMO You've Never Heard Of?

Welcome to State of the MMO where we talk First Impressions, Pros and Cons, and if you should download this game this year! Today we're pointing and clicking our way through the new Old School, Hardcore MMORPG Embers Adrift - let's get PLUGGED RIGHT IN!
I want to hear from you on this one - what do you think? Let me know in the comments below!
Rei Draco’s Twitch! - / rei_draco
Remember, you’re more loved than you know and more valuable than you realize!
Twitch! - / brightlifecommunity
Twitter - / brightlifemmos
Discord - / discord
#embersadrift #mmorpg #review
0:00-1:47 - Welcome to State of the MMO!
1:48-15:43 - First Impressions
15:44-17:42 - Rapid-Fire Pros and Cons
17:43-22:46 - The State of Embers Adrift in 2023
22:47-23:34 - One Last Thing...

[@BrightlifeMMOs]

SUBSCRIBE to hail Bluepiter, Lord of the North 🫡

[@notimeforcreativenamesjust3034]

Hey can you do Dragon nest next, games old as fuck but Is still think the games great and has some of the best combat for any mmo.

[@Stands-In-The-Fire]

All hail Bluepiter.... all hail Bluepiter....

[@attackfinch8397]

All hail Bluepitter!!

[@mariobroselli3642]

Was Jupiter a northern god?

[@adeitgames7066]

Discovered your channel for an older GW2 video earlier, enjoying the content thanks 😁

[@timit2thelimit]

As someone disgusted by modern MMO monetization practices… I’m really hoping this game grows into something special. Thanks for the video, President BL!

[@BrightlifeMMOs]

🫡🫡🫡

[@Arrow333]

I have been following this game for a while now, but didn't try it out myself yet. I think the onboarding price is really a hurdle here, as I am not convinced that I am the right type of player. As a typical GW2 player I love doing open world and exploration together with other people, but I would start out as solo player and have to find friends in game for that. The low population seems to be not helpful for that. For now I probably have to follow your advice and wait for a while and hope that it grows... and maybe watch some of the streamers of this game to learn more. So thanks for the advice.

[@BrightlifeMMOs]

Dude no worries! I’m with you - I think the barrier to entry is real with this one. My hope is that they’re able to pull off either some massive growth or give a free trial up to maybe level 5 or 10 at some point.

[@Humpypants]

the game is now buy to play in case you stopped watching

[@HallyVee]

I assume you meant free to play.

[@BlackSwanGamingTGK]

I just bought this game. Not sure if ill like it but i want to support small dev teams.

[@drinkingwalrus7644]

Love the videos man. I still play old school RuneScape haha definitely know about the mob grind. Might have to check this game out. Thanks for taking us through the gameplay President Sir!!

[@Annoying_Llama]

Now its 2024, Time for round 2!!!

[@attackfinch8397]

Game is a hidden gem. Been loving the past 2 weeks since I started playing.

[@BrightlifeMMOs]

That’s awesome man!! What do you love about it right now??

[@attackfinch8397]

@@BrightlifeMMOs Totally different experience than any mmo out there. Has a great foundation to build upon.

[@johnsonrojo3]

Hi! How's the population atm? I stopped playing and wondering how is it going now.

[@BryanRobinson0909]

@@johnsonrojo3 I've been playing for almost a week now. I'm an already slow leveler in most games, so only level six currently, but I have not found a lack of players roaming around the areas I'm in. Been in only one group so far, but that's mostly because of my limited playtime over the weekend. I plan to push that more this week and see what kind of groups I can get into.

[@johnsonrojo3]

@@BryanRobinson0909 Oh wow that's good to know. I might come back because I really miss the game. Thank you! Hope to see you around in game ✌

[@ElloaASMR]

This is probably the best review of Embers Adrift I've seen (THANK YOU) You did crak me up with "All Hail Blupiter, Lord of the North". I LOVE IT! (okay now I continue watching the review)

[@BrightlifeMMOs]

Thanks so much Elloa!! ❤️

[@ElloaASMR]

@@BrightlifeMMOs No, THANK YOU :D

[@MrDrPervCityEsquirePhd]

This was a great Review! Nathan Napalm also has a good one.

[@MrHuppj]

Very nice video. I'm a new subscriber.

[@coldcrush5921]

Tried it during the free weekend. Game wasnt bad. Combat could be a little quicker, swings are a tad slow and it could use more quests and some more interesting mobs. Love the map and exploration. How it only adds icons for points of interest after you discovered them unlike other mmos like wow where it shows the entire area after you've discovered it. Think it has some serious potential but seems it needs more time to be fully fleshed out.

[@HallyVee]

Remember though, that the whole *point* of the combat was to be slower. That's one of the main things it's bringing back, alongside group-centric design and anti-casualization. If we wanted one of those spastic action RPGs where your APM matters, we would just play [99.9% of MMOs].

[@BiboyEats]

I gotta say, i was judging the game very harshly at first because I didn’t realize how few people they had working on it, this is actually not bad for that amount of people. I also kinda got to love the running animation because there’s just something so uncanny about it that makes me uncomfortable. I would also love to see a state of the mmo on destiny 2, ever since i picked it up a month ago for the first time in 5 years it has just captivated me and i would love to hear your thoughts. Keep up the great work, i love mmoerica and would do anything for it.

[@pipz420]

Embers has one of the best armor systems and tab target combat ive seen in a mmo. Been loving it.

[@MYLITTLENINJA757]

Well, but also the game was in development for much longer than 2021. It was in development since like 2015 as Saga of Lucimia, then something shady happened, the original creators are gone and suddenly it's "Embers Adrift" which somehow looks worse in full release than the Alpha footage of SoL did.

[@pipz420]

@@MYLITTLENINJA757 cap. game is amazing and the devs will actually give you feedback and listen to your input if you have a question go ask them.

[@insmett1elf4]

Thanks for the video, every tickle to the algorhythm helps, hence my comment here xD I played ED during it's beta phase and experienced a really helpful and friendly playerbase - IF you find them. For me the lack of really basic QoL elements was a downer. Also that after I finally got my char to level 5+ or so and wanted to try out the crafting (which for me is an important aspect of any mmo), I learned that it was limited to 1-2 professions per char. So it would require me to level another char (potentially alone) AND level the other tradeskills, just to craft the low tier stuff I wanted to do because there weren't usually alot of players online to trade/communicate with. They might have changed that system after release though. So I'm totally d'accord with you - bring friends who play at your play schedule (and don't want to play a magic user except for heals!) if you want to enjoy the game. There weren't many players around that were even remotely near my level (most were already level 25+ and all of their alt toons as well). For a group-dependant mmo this is massively reducing the possibilities for a new player. Especially in a 40 + 15 bucks game...

[@BrightlifeMMOs]

Great great points man - thank you so much! ❤️

[@pip5528]

As someone who has played somewhat less complex/faster MMOs since 2008 and got into slower and more old-school MMOs later and tried this game recently, I like this game and even made a new friend on day 1. We're both new and apparently he got up to level 7 already and I'm still level 2. I played for 2 hours and am still in the starting zone and have leveled my profession a little bit. One thing to note about the combat system is that it is slightly more than just "I hit you, you hit me" as you do have basic abilities to use and can run out of melee range on cooldowns which cannot be said of Classic WoW's spell batching for example. I play the tank role in this game and the combat is reminiscent of a vanilla WoW warrior or paladin to me and when you "die" in this game, you have to find your backpack much like looting your corpse in vanilla EverQuest. I think this is a great casual/chill game and in definitely not for min/maxxers although my general play style as a main Classic WoW player these days is somewhere in between and after leveling a dwarf hunter in Classic Era for the past month who is now level 40, this is a nice change of pace.

[@blemonhead78]

...three nano-chips. You know what I am saying... Too funny. Keep up the great work. Really enjoying your content.

[@BrightlifeMMOs]

Hahaha thanks man! Loving that you’re loving the content man ❤️

[@Strayfegaming]

couple weeks in, and it still feels like I"m playing an Alpha version of a game from 15 years ago. The controls are super janky and the lack of uniqueness to your character is a let down. The crafting/gathering is really good. Has some great ideas, but not implemented very well

[@LiamsLyceum]

Part of me wants to try it, since I did boy Saga of Lucimia, I just haven’t heard a good reason to neuter SoL and can’t get over my disappointment to try it.

[@SpyZ86]

9:45 No indicator or compass. Meanwhile the compass at the bottom left of the map: Am I a joke to you?

[@davidhorning9782]

was really fun till around lvl 28 the game is fairly empty i think there's 19 quests in total xp curve is very heavy be prepared for as little as 5-9 % per hour sub 30 and sub 5% after 30

[@woahhbro2906]

This game feels like New World, if it was beat hard with a hammer until it threw up. There's some enjoyment there, but it just feels off and awkward mostly. The only 'Old School' quality is that it's hard to solo. The devs are trying though, and it's pretty common to see them online and interacting with players.

[@bobbyzig3879]

We just have to do something about those 2h weapon running animations. Idk who saw that animation and thought “oh, this looks good”.

[@coldcrush5921]

Walking with the two hand hammer is just hilarious, dude looks like he's struggling not to piss his pants.

[@woahhbro2906]

It's even worse, you run slower like that, so after every fight you need to press 'Z' to put your weapon away. Granted, there's an option to do it automatically, but it doesn't always trigger. Not sure why they put that mechanic in. It doesn't add to the game. It only annoys when you're grinding 60 mobs every 10 mins

[@devbysam]

Excellent review, thank you.

[@avoidconfusion]

Right - when are you going to check out Ultima Online: Outlands? :)

[@BrightlifeMMOs]

Soon ❤️ it’s on the list!

[@SadisticStang]

there is so much about this that is not Old School. If you want old school lookup Monsters and Memories. They have/plan to have the original style experience which is you break into a dungeon, use crowd control to separate out mobs from their camp, slay them on staggered timings and then setup camp while your puller brings more mobs back and you grind away. Games like Embers Adrift only sometimes cover half of that which is your main experience source is monsters, however you still have to stay constantly on the move through the dungeons. There is no pull style play as in the old days.

[@HallyVee]

Some differences, no doubt, but don't miss that it's the combat from the Days of Yore. Remember a huge issue was bat phones and six hour sessions etc. So same combat minus common issues.

[@mariobroselli3642]

Mortal online IS similar but there is a Low Level cap. Project gorgon IS the only old Style free to play on the Market.

[@Tetsu9701]

I was absolutely loving the game after release. Definetly barebones, but good bones nonetheless. I had a high twenties Warden (Ranger) and low teens Warlord (Bard). As someone who loves classic MMOs like EQOA & FFXI, this was right up my alley. Tbh, I'd be playing it right now if my favorite MMO, FFXI, didn't just release a new private server. I'm sure ill come back to it in a few months. It helps hold me over until Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen.

[@quohime1824]

Are you back

[@dvergrmort6334]

Looks like a game to remind us about old-school. Also it really looks like created to be played in group and trying it solo would be a challinge, which was the first point of MMO games.

[@myriad926]

That's weird. I've been randomly listening to that Paramore song a ton the last couple weeks, and been watching a ton of your Lotro videos the last couple weeks too... And then you play that song in the middle of your video. Get out of my head!

[@BrightlifeMMOs]

YES! 2000s punk gang unite!!

[@einer1314]

Thanks for the video. If it were high fantasy, then I'd try it out. Enjoy your week,

[@abnnizzy]

Game hasgood fondations and intentions, but the low budget animations and the low fantasy settings makes it passable. The fact that every asset looks store bought and mashed together is a red flag too.

[@Football0Lover]

Hey, are you ever gonna play LOTRO? it's a pretty cool game (:

[@BrightlifeMMOs]

Never heard of that one - what’s it about?

[@Football0Lover]

@@BrightlifeMMOs Its about this witch called Sara Oakheart that walks really slowly who's secretly an evil monster in service to Evil Incarnate and then she's also an elf or is an evil spirit that has influence over an elf or something like that. It's pretty cool man, i think its based on a movie or book. Poor Laerdan btw.

[@mercster]

@@BrightlifeMMOs It's a game where your goal is to find the Ring of Power and wield it against the mighty enemy Sauron. It's pretty cool.

[@Rogue615]

this game is just not finished. Its needs 3 more years IMO. There is only like 1 dungeon I think and its not even finished. I wish this game was ready but I dont wanna play monthly for a game that doesnt seem finished. I wanna try it

[@Fallout2Forever]

I'm curious, how many hours did you put into this game? Sorry if you answered this in the video, I'm super absentminded.

[@Jp808]

I've made more friends in a week in this game then in years of other MMO's. Also not having a wiki with every answer makes it fun to explore and group up. Honestly love the game

[@dogdren1396]

Game is trash and unfinished but being sold as a finished product. Don't waste your money. I bought two copies for myself and bro and we played for two months only to be severely let down. All these beginning starting videos are capturing because the starting area is the only damn zone that is finished. There's like 30 quests total in the game and 80% are in the first area. It needs a lot of work to even be worth getting past level 25. I hope this info helps some people not waste any money on an unfinished product, at least until they spend another 6 months on it.

[@Athe131]

this game looks lame as hell. Great video Brightlife, and your comedy was great, but watching you run while holding an axe (5:35) already had me falling out of my chair laughing.

[@letterpool]

Just met the dad of someone who is working on this game. Pretty cool! Game looks interesting!

[@Cyber_Nomad01]

I love Embers Adrift!

[@mercster]

There are a lot of niche games like this, Project Gorgon, etc... that I would play but the player count is so small.

[@mercster]

(And yes I realize how it's a self fulfilling prophecy, but there ya go.)

[@clvrswine]

There is nothing "niche" about this. Learn what niche means, then comment.

[@mercster]

@@clvrswine Haha.

[@bobbyzig3879]

@@clvrswine I would still call it niche. This is definitely not a mainstream flavor of mmo nowadays.

[@pipz420]

Best Armor system in any game.

[@BrightlifeMMOs]

Yes! Tell me why I’d love to hear your thoughts!

[@babute21]

do eso pls

[@BrightlifeMMOs]

Oh you know I will! There’s lots of news regarding ESO as well!!

[@babute21]

@@BrightlifeMMOs yay

[@gamhuin]

I enjoyed what I played, but sadly the population is just too small to sustain a hardcore grouping game. Only really good if you plan to go in with a group intent to play together. The team has done a stellar job and the music is excellent.

[@RavenCroftLoft]

Fun but unfortunately the game gets extremely boring pretty quick with not much to do and no vision for the project. Its worth watching but do yourself a favor and dont waste your money yet. I made it to almost lvl 40 but there just isnt anything to do, theres only like 20 quests in the whole game and crafting doesnt matter one bit because nothing has a value. Most people make such an abundance of things they will just give you stacks of items for free. The game literally just feels like minimum viable project being worked on to sell in the future.

[@Cashinn_Outt1754]

Not interested in grinding mobs to level like a Korean MMO. If they just add some quests or something to break up the monotony I’d give it a go

[@CarlKahler]

Yeah turn based combat will kill this game.

[@keldor8302]

Some context on this game and the studio you may not be aware of. This game originally started under another title as a kickstarter. Long story short, the original people behind that took the money and ran. What they presented was essentially nice trailers using mostly free UNITY assets and the engines new dynamic lighting systems. The team that you see trying to run it as a full game. Are the people that stuck with it. The question is, if they're just trying to wring what money they can for themselves out of these rehashed free UNITY assets for as long/much as possible. Or, are they ACTUALLY going to develop something? Time will tell. So, if you buy into and sub to this game. Just know that there's shady dealings in the games past. Also, of note. Since the "game" was never actually meant to release. And it was meant to be a kickstarter scam like many others. The game runs absolutely horrible. There's a reason there's a "potato" setting on such a barebones looking game: optimization. Perhaps I should say a lack of optimization. Even if you're running newer hardware with lots of RAM. The games engine doesn't have memory caps in place. It will utilize every ounce of memory that it can. You need a minimum of 16GB of RAM to run this game on anything but low settings. You also need at least an 8GB GPU. My aged hardware can play WoW, ESO, and everything else. Whilst streaming on Twitch and having other things up on my second monitor, just fine. When I played this? My computer had to forcefully stop rendering visuals on any program not acting as the main program. Because my 6GB of GPU RAM was 90% utilized by this game. With the rest being divvied up by the stream software and OS. I couldn't run any browsers or other programs. The devs released two new NPC's with a handful of dialogue for two small quests that added no new assets. And didn't implement any improvements to the games optimization. That's what they've done in the several months since the games release on early access. Which is a big red flag that this games early access is a money grab by the remnants of the studio that stayed behind after the people in charge ran with the kickstarter funding. Especially since they haven't put this on Steam. Where they would be liable to process refunds if they fail to release a full game in a satisfactory condition. Buy this game with caution.

[@coldcrush5921]

I dont play this game enjoyed the free weekend though. They're constantly adding updates and fixes as far as I've seen so you can give it a rest.

[@keldor8302]

@coldcrush5921 yeah, I'm not one to give telling the truth a rest. You could try giving it a rest and not acting as if the history and current situation of the game doesn't exist. Just because you enjoyed it for two days. Doesn't mean the Kickstart scam didn't happen. Doesn't mean the game isn't mostly free UNITY assets. Doesn't mean the game is lacking significant optimization. Doesn't mean that the classes are balanced. Doesn't mean that there is something to do after hitting lvl25. So on and so forth. I'll repeat myself. No, I won't give it a rest. This game is a cash grab. That's why it "early access" released at full price with a sub outside of steam. Because, when they shut it down. They won't be forced to issue refunds.

[@coldcrush5921]

@@keldor8302 that makes very little sense. They'd be idiots to make it a sub and box price. Its far more lucrative and reasonable that they'd have it f2p with an in game store if that was the case. Makes 0 sense to have it sub based if all they want is quick money considering that means they have to retain a player base to make out well enough to make the endeavor worthwhile. Keep trying.

[@pipz420]

Proof?

[@Shagrath06]

Embers Adrift? SKIP!

[@BrightlifeMMOs]

Haha bro 😂 thanks for the comment - I’d love the feedback! Why do you want to skip this one? Just wondering, I’d love to hear your thoughts 😄

[@Athe131]

yup!

[@pipz420]

I'm loving it.