About the Game

Esoteric Ebb is an isometric, Disco-like, TTRPG-turned-CRPG set in a bizarre post-Arcanepunk fantasy setting. You are The Cleric, an expert in esoteric events, and a glorified government goon. Inspired by classic CRPG games, Esoteric Ebb features deep and branching dialogs with a staggering amount of choices.
Create the world’s worst cleric. Take on the city through tense TTRPG dice rolls. Struggle to maintain control with your Stats chiming in at every moment. Let the voices guide you into insane encounters and hit that natural 20 right when you need it. Become the most interesting player at the table and completely ruin your DM’s day.

You wake up in a morgue with half the river in your boots, surrounded by ten thousand rotting apples, several corpses, and one zombie. Out of your depth and with no official backup, you delve into your beloved city to investigate the impossible mystery no one wants you to solve. Juggle factions and play them against each other. Explore the streets and tunnels of a fantasy metropolis. Debate devils, drunk sphinxes, and all manner of fantastical fools in a world where mythological creatures sell newspapers at corner shops and ideologies overtake the ramblings of dead gods.

Don’t forget the most important question: What are you voting in the election?
MAKE CHOICES THAT WILL COME BACK TO BITE YOU. Shifting alliances! Risky dungeoneering! Complete open-ended quests, low and high-stakes alike, set in the streets, towers, and dark tunnels of Norvik. Become the city’s savior, its demise, or bumble your way into absolute power.

TRUST THE DICE. Let chance guide you! Roll to wrestle dwarves, steal anything in sight, or to keep yourself from looking like a complete fool. But remember, in true TTRPG fashion, failure can often be way more interesting.

IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD. Debate yourself! Each Ability Stat has a conflicting viewpoint and loves to interrupt important conversations. No matter whose side you fall on, you'll complete quests in wonderfully ridiculous ways.

WIELD REALITY-SHAPING MAGIC. Use The Cleric’s power for unique narrative choices. Control minds for fun and profit. Detect secrets in the tunnels below or in the thoughts of your enemies. Speak with anyone, living or dead, just to see how they insult you.

TURN-BASED ENCOUNTERS. Clerics in Norvik are taught to use violence as a last resort. When the need does arise, a roll of the dice determines life or death. But you always have a bizarre solution to any problem, don’t you?

THE QUESTING TREE. Your quest log, skill tree, and mind map all at once. Each Quest Branch can take root in your mind and alter The Cleric’s playstyle through game-changing feats.

Screenshots
8 images
Version Information
Steam Patch Notes
Official update history
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42750137/631da1de9373bf9cf7a71bd634e215bc74ce2ba4.png"]
Changes
Fixed an issue causing certain dialog lines to be skipped.
Made sure a secret epilogue Vâtte does not appear before the epilogue.
Removed the ability to loot multiple Staff of Strings.
A few text errors fixed.
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42750137/631da1de9373bf9cf7a71bd634e215bc74ce2ba4.png"]
Changes
Fixed an issue causing story variables to not update properly during dialogs.
3 spelling errors fixed. Critical spelling errors, obviously.
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42750137/3beffc69002d568d6208d70f3c257f7cc53c3761.png"]
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.
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42750137/631da1de9373bf9cf7a71bd634e215bc74ce2ba4.png"]
Changes
Leaving Snell's intro dialog should now no longer give a fake error message.
Bribing Rixbiter should now no longer give disadvantage. Instead it gives -10 to the DC.
Alfoz should now actually hand you a reward instead of just telling you about it at the end of the Printer quest.
Going solo from Snell will now no longer trigger other non-present characters to join in the conversation.
A certain flirting that is possible before the cobbler will now no longer crash if you attempt it more than once.
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42750137/631da1de9373bf9cf7a71bd634e215bc74ce2ba4.png"]
Changes
Shrines should now have their choices saved between various areas.
Tinn should now not be mentionable after his demise.
The Duck should now no longer be found in the Temple of Urth after receiving his axe at the end of the Visken fight.
The sphere of annihilation event found in the City Below should now no longer be half triggered when Snell is around.
The Agrarian feat should now actually work instead of breaking the game when trying to loot food. The fact that it took almost two weeks for anyone to report this bug to me is hilarious. The fact that I completely forgot that this feat existed is even funnier.
Bondavol should now no longer be stuck in darkness after you complete his roll.
String manipulation during a certain secret dialog should now work more consistently.
Made the camera not go off to the side during Quest Branching Take Root dialogs.
The big dialog in Jor's Crossroad now no longer causes crashes on very, very low framerates.
You can now receive a certain Belt as an actual reward.
The shining guy now actually shines.
Fixed the Beautiful Lie feat description.
Fixed the missing Razz caught-stealing scene.
Updated a certain pipe-squeezing scene to include a missing portion.
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42750137/631da1de9373bf9cf7a71bd634e215bc74ce2ba4.png"]
Changes
Fixed an error that made the mushroom man unfreezing scene crash if you brought Snell with you. Did you know he's afraid of mushrooms?
Made sure to turn off the encounter UI once you're finished being destroyed by (or attempting to destroy) Visken.
Fixed a bug that made Slogdogs heal 10 instead of 7. They're not that strong.
Fixed one final (this time minor) bug relating to the Almost Lichdom feat. Now you can, in fact, consume powerful foods/potions - even while at full health. As long as this feat is equipped.
Made the Esoteric Ebb quest slightly easier to complete.
Made sure Drummer does not have sub 5 in each stat. Poor guy.
Fixed an issue that broke the dialog with the fiend if you rolled once, succeeded, and then tried rolling again. Also, he's now affected by Protection from Good and Evil and Etcetera.
Made sure you can't just get infinite money from Viira if you're charismatic enough. Come on. That's not fair.
Fixed some spelling errors.
Added a save file deletion button.
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42750137/3beffc69002d568d6208d70f3c257f7cc53c3761.png"]
Bug Fixes
Fixed the missingtable flip sound effect.
Fixed an issue whereSnell's sprite lamp would not display during the breather.
Fixed an exploit allowingmultiple rolls with the Bag of Holding.
Made sureOlzis accepts your emerald, even if you stole it before she asks for one.
Made sure the ant drop-off point functions correctly.
Fixed an issue where the BALANCE card was not working, because I had forgotten to implement it.
Fixed a bug crashing Ettir's initial dialog if you did not speak with her on day 1, and also got the key from Darrow on day 1.
Added a way to get a to sleep in case you happen to stay up all night day 1->2, and then not speak with Ettir all day 2. (If you're softlocked like this on your save, just go to the Guard Tower. And please, go to sleep.)
Fixed a bug that made the cobbler not comment on your Air Elronds.
Fixed a dialog lockout in Nessan's Undercoast dialog, if you had too low intelligence.
Removed the possibility to acquire infinite Scrolls of Wish.
Fixed the Almost Lichdom feat so it does not cause a number of issues if you die with it active - and it also allows you to self-heal exhaustion now.
Fixed an issue preventing the Updated My Journal achievement from unlocking on certain saves. (If you have over 99, go click a link now and it'll unlock.)
Fixed an issue causingKraaid to not mention his sighting of the Star Witness.
Made sure spells actually get set to their proper duration upon loading a save.
Made sure the cleric does not accidentally start to slide around on his ass if you leave a short rest too quickly.
Fixed an issue that caused incense burned during dialogs to not count towards the burn incense achievement.
Made sure trifling checks get unlocked on long/short rests.
Fixed a very, very, very tiny chance for a player to get locked out of completing the Lichhouse Blues quest if they asked about masculinity, then failed, and then chose to surrender (which is only available if the cleric lacks testosterone), If you had trouble completing this quest before, try talking with The Duck again.
Fixed Crusader's Mantle - it now actually works in combat. It's pretty good too!
Fixed some quests not finishing properly. (No worries if your save file is affected, it's just a visual bug in the Questing Tree.)
Buffed the Well-rested bonus. It now gives a permanent advantage on checks in dialogs, and you lose it when you gain a level of exhaustion.
You now gain the well-rested bonus if you go to bed anytime after 18:00, instead of only between 20:00 and 22:00. If you go to bed before 18:00 (due to skipping sleep) you will still mess up your circadian rhythm, and you'll regain exhaustion if you stay up past 06:00 the following morning.
Made sure Nearly appears on mornings of day 4 and 5, instead of just on day 1 and 2.
Made sure Braxo's dialog remembers which choices you've picked on subsequent days. Added him on day 4 and 5 also.
Changed the wording of all the feats impacting equipment stat modifiers to be less confusing. It's supposed to be +1 to positive mods, and -1 to negative mods.
Fixed an issue causing controller input to remove a proficiency from your build as you start the game.
Fixed an error causing the Whitemane Blessing to show -105 instead of +1d4 on rolls.
Made sure the tea shop safe does not get permanently deleted in certain saves. If you're missing a quest in the top left of the Questing Tree- you should be able to find the safe now, in the back of the tea shop!
Made sure you can't repeat rolls on item dialogs or companions by moving into a new area.
Made it so that you can finish Moongore's Philogynistic Agenda part in the epilogue if you punched Frank beforehand.
Fixed an issue causing Isk to be invisible during the epilogue. Sneaky snail.
Fixed an issue where inventories stopped being accessible if you got hit by the duplication glitch too many times.
Fixed the duplication glitch which occurred if you accidentally pressed the load game button two frames in a row. If you ended up with this issue, I suggest either dumping all the extra items in your inventory's Deep Storage (this will not impact your narrative variables), or reloading an earlier save.
Fixed an issue causingyou to get your fixed spellbook from Shen for free. That would never happen in real life.
Fixed a bug causing the skip credits button to freeze credits text on the screen during the outro.
Fixed approximately 7 broken dialog branches in the epilogue. If you go and replay your epilogue saves, there's a chance that some of your choices have a bit more reactivity now.
Fixed 704 minor typos and text errors across the game, along with 23 broken outlier choices.
Added 721 new lines of dialog to fill in gaps of missing reactivity (mostly in the epilogue).
Added 69 new dynamic lines for the final DM message, reacting way more to everything you've done. Hope you enjoy!
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42750137/631da1de9373bf9cf7a71bd634e215bc74ce2ba4.png"]
Bug Fixes
Fixed an error that made Snell continually tell you to go to the Freestriders, even when you've already been there.
Made sure Ettir does not give you a second set of the Guard Tower key.
Made sure one of the endings in the final fights did not result in invisible companions.
Made sure two missing Feats are now available.
Made sure the Encounter UI turned off a bit earlier during the final Cult Hit fight.
Made sure you didn't get stuck during the night Cult Hit fight if you rolled too well.
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42750137/631da1de9373bf9cf7a71bd634e215bc74ce2ba4.png"]
Bug Fixes
Fixed a companion line that appeared in the labyrinth, even when the companion was gone.
Fixed a double glossary entry.
Made the 'Lichhouse Blues' quest slightly less cryptic to complete.
Fixed an error that occurred when sleeping on day 3 while having completed every possible major quest before the end of day 2.
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42750137/631da1de9373bf9cf7a71bd634e215bc74ce2ba4.png"]
Bug Fixes
Fixed a companion line that appeared in the labyrinth, even when the companion was gone.
Fixed a double glossary entry.
Made the 'Lichhouse Blues' quest slightly less cryptic to complete.
Fixed an error that occurred when sleeping on day 3 while having completed every possible major quest before the end of day 2.
Current Release
22657387
Uploaded May 14, 2026
System Requirements
How to Install
Esoteric Ebb.exe to play
Troubleshooting tips
• Run Redist/_CommonRedist installers if game won't start
• Add folder to Windows Defender exclusions
• Run as administrator
Download
Direct link available
1.4 GB
22657387
010197CC
dcbcba8ac277fa2d7675dcba907a93121ae887ef5a60e16784057899bec082ae
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View AllDownload Esoteric Ebb for PC with a direct link or via torrent. Get the full version of Esoteric Ebb for free. Esoteric Ebb is a Indie released by Christoffer Bodegård.