Ember and Blade Demo · published
Hi everyone, this is J. Kim. It’s been a while!
First, a huge thank-you for all the support during the Steam Next Fest demo.
Far more people played than we expected, and the feedback we received has been incredibly motivating.
It also strengthened our resolve to make Ember & Blade the best game it can be.
Today’s devlog focuses on the issue we heard about most: dialogue and voiceover.
After reviewing your feedback from multiple angles, talking with many of you, and testing different writing styles, we’ve reached a clear conclusion:
we need to change Fenrix’s core presentation.
Fenrix’s characterization will be revised, and as a result, substantial dialogue across the cast will be rewritten, not just Fenrix’s lines.
Fenrix’s Original Intent & Your Feedback
Fenrix’s original model was the Prince from Prince of Persia (2008).
We wanted conversations between Fenrix and Ariella to evoke the Prince–Elika dynamic.
The reason was simple: even in a dark fantasy, keeping the tone relentlessly heavy can be exhausting.
Gameplay already demands a lot of focus; if the dialogue is equally tense, there’s no room to breathe.
We also felt that the “banter advancing the relationship toward the finale,” like Prince–Elika, would fit
Ember & Blade well. So we were surprised to see comparisons to Star-Lord (Guardians of the Galaxy) or Deadpool.
We’re not fond of exaggerated quips and boundless confidence either.
But stepping back—ignoring later story beats only we know about—and looking solely at the early sections, we can see how it might read that way.
A grown man trading earnest jokes with an animal companion can indeed feel like a kids’ animated show
to some players. Perhaps it would have landed better if, like Prince of Persia, Fenrix and Ariella were the
ones exchanging banter—assuming we cut back on expository lines and reduced the proportion of jokes
so the dialogue wouldn’t overwhelm the player.
Still, being honest with ourselves: characters who toss out “clever,” exaggerated quips you wouldn’t hear
in everyday speech feel stale and not contemporary. And, well, Prince of Persia was released in 2008.
Fenrix 3.0
Since SNF, we’ve tried several dialogue styles and thought hard about this; in the end, we decided to
reflect the premise honestly and portray his personality in a plain, restrained way, stripping away the
over-calculation. (Why “3.0”? Because the current Fenrix was already a “2.0” revision—hah.)
Fenrix is someone who hides his wounds and chose demon-hunting as a way to escape them.
If the old Fenrix used exaggerated humor to mask pain and anger, the new Fenrix is a man whose rage
and grief have been worn down by over a decade of relentless hunting—leaving him jaded and without a true sense of purpose. That doesn’t mean he’s powerless or unmotivated.
He still believes demon-hunting is his calling, and he knows he’s good at it.
Whatever others say, his emotional swings are small; he shows his feelings less often than before,
and when he does, it’s brief and understated. His tone isn’t warm, but it isn’t icy or cutting either.
After years in a line of work people tend to shun, he’s used to criticism and gossip and has enough social
sense not to create problems with his behavior. Practically speaking, the new Fenrix will speak more
briefly and use far less humor. He won’t react to every situation with surprise or wide-eyed fascination.
We tried a zero-humor, sharper delivery, but that made conversations with Ariella and Haniel too tense
and tiring.Instead, within a restrained emotional range, he’ll deflect or ignore other characters’ jokes as
no big deal rather than trading quips. Banter will be cleaner and sparser, especially early on.
As relationships grow, we’ll gradually increase the frequency—using that arc to show Fenrix slowly
opening up and growing.As an aside, for the new Fenrix we’re keeping Dabi from My Hero Academia in
mind as a reference point.
(Finding the right model wasn’t easy; for writing, we need a character we know well and fully understand.
We also considered Carmy from The Bear, but if every conversation ran at that tone, it would likely feel
too exhausting, so we dropped that option)
Dabi shows a languid, nonchalant attitude toward others while staying razor-sharp about everything
around him. He keeps his distance because of deep wounds and clings—almost self-destructively—to the
wrong means of addressing them. To be clear, we’re not adopting the nihilism or the explosive, villainous
flair you see from Dabi in combat scenes.
Closing
It’ll take a bit more time before we can share the updated lines and VO publicly.
For now, we’d love to hear what you think of Fenrix’s new direction.
Your feedback is what shapes Ember & Blade—thank you!