An Esoteric Thank You
It hasn't even been a month yet. Mentally, I think my mind has already settled on it like it was years ago. Esoteric Ebb released on March 3rd 2026. Since then, I've mostly been focused on plugging the last remaining holes, and now with 1.2 out, I'm really happy with the state of things. There's probably a few wacky exploits left, and a ton of potential improvements to my spaghetti code systems, but this is it. This will be the last major patch for a while.
Now, Esoteric Ebb isn't exactly a live service game, so it obviously doesn't have a roadmap. And truth be told, I wouldn't be able to produce one for you. A term I learned a bit too late in game development is, 'Gold Master.' That's the version of the game that's historically sent off to get printed onto those CDs. When I started playing RPGs, that's how I got all my games (floppies was before my time) and I really find it horrifying in retrospect. How the hell did those developers make such amazingly huge RPGs and then just... never get a chance to hotfix them? The answer is, as I'm sure a lot of old-school gamers know, that RPGs often just ended up being released in very buggy states. Sometimes barely playable. Ebb's launch wasn't quite in such a poor state, but not far off. It still feels like pure luck that the early reviewers didn't run into any hilariously game breaking soft-locks. Genuinely. I think I'm really just that lucky.
Either way, what I'm getting at is: the version you all have now is the one I would call the true Gold Master. This is Esoteric Ebb. This is what I would have been happy to deliver to you on a CD back in 1999. And any bug you may discover moving forward can surely be explained away as just another Esoteric Event.
As for the future, I can tell you that I am currently working on a number of new projects. Yes, several. Some of them will take years, some less so. For those of you looking for localizations, I sadly have to ask you to be patient. My previously mentioned spaghetti code will take a long time to untangle. Same thing with any porting, I always said over the years that I would LOVE to get Ebb on as many platforms as possible, but it's gotta be done properly. That takes time. So for those of you who would love to play Ebb, but can't - take this as my official apology and a gracious: 'Hopefully soon! (Please don't hurt me!)'
Since I might have a hard time reaching out to you in case something Esoteric pops up in the future, I've also set up a mailing list that you can subscribe to. Won't be a weekly newsletter or anything. This is, as you can read on the website, just for the BIG STUFF.
LINK HERE:
https://esoteric-era.com/
Finally, I'd just like to convey a heartfelt THANK YOU from every single person who worked on Esoteric Ebb. The amount of care and love placed into every bit of background texture, character animation, recording, note, and illustration of this absolutely glorious achievement of artistic prowess is beyond any realm of expression that I possess. I wake up every day floored by the simple fact that all of these artists chose to put that love and care into this glorified tabletop session of mine.
I swear, I'm really just that lucky.
-Christoffer Bodegård
Changelog
Added a crypt key on the floor of the Temple of Urth if you received Caretaker (the powerful axe) while not having looted the key yet.
Changed how Shards of Jor and Slogdogs work in Oyu's and Kraaid's dialogs. You should no longer be able to buy infinite amount of these.
In the epilog, Oyu should no longer react like you're her best customer if you only bought a few things. Now she should only say that if you spent over 500 crowns in her shop.
Cantrips will now be recast after a dialog ends, if you had one active when you started the dialog.
If you talk with Lisa after figuring out the Necklace of Fireball clue, but before finding the elf corpse, her tea shop dialog will now make a bit more sense when you mention the necklace.
Fixed a problem where certain "Press Any Key" situations didn't work with a controller.
The Cleric feat should now properly use your Strength modifier when healing. Note: spells are modified only by your natural ability score amount, and is not affected by equipment. Obviously, I wouldn't force you to swap your equipment around every time you want to heal.
Fixed a dialog crash that would occur if you came back to pick up your book from the bookbinder, then didn't pay, walked away, and came back later to attempt to pick it up again.
Fixed several additional issues with companion dialogs popping up when they shouldn't.
Fixed some minor inventory navigation issues if you switched between keyboard and gamepad several times.
Fixed an issue where NPC stats increased when the player drank a potion.
Fixed an issue where you could just wander out into the BEYOND on election day. Which was kind of funny, but really, democracy is confusing enough as it is.
Updated the inventory filtering to include ability score modes.
Added a quick load on the F9 button.
409 text errors fixed.