A few days ago, PlayStation sent us a code for Ereban: Shadow Legacy, a game that was released in 2024 and is coming to the new generation this April 2026.
After spending a few days on it (it’s a short but intense game) I come to tell you what I think of this Spanish-made game that, at the time, was quite well received by both critics and the public.
Shadows are your allies, embrace the darkness
In what seems to be a spiritual successor to the game called Aragami, from 2016, Ereban: Shadow Legacy turns you into a lethal shadow capable of merging with darkness: the ultimate stealth agent.
That said, the stealth aspect is so easy to apply from the very beginning (the first mechanic, blending into the shadows, already breaks the game in terms of stealth) that where the title shines the most is in the platforming part, and although its cast of characters could have benefited from a bit more depth, the futuristic science fiction world they inhabit is well recreated.
As its name suggests, the main attraction of Shadow Legacy is the use of shadows. You play as Ayana, the last of the Ereban, a people who possess the innate ability to merge with shadows and manipulate them. Thanks to her ability to merge with shadows, Ayana can sink into them to sneak past enemies, climb walls, and dispose of corpses, encouraging you to stay in the shadows, where the protagonist is more lethal.
In addition to these skills, Ayana has a variety of advanced gadgets (some always useful, like a recognition pulse that marks enemies and objects through walls, while others are more situational, like the mines that stun targets), which work independently of lighting conditions, meaning you don’t rely on shadows.
There is a good variety of enemies that want to take her down: the standard enemies are not a big threat beyond the flashlight they carry to take away your darkness, but the more skilled snipers can detect you from afar and the stealthy droids that can become invisible can ruin your day if you don’t take the time to look for the revealing flash.
And then there are the human enemies, which pose a moral dilemma more than a gameplay one: while the mechanical enemies like droids that dominate each level can be eliminated without hesitation, killing the flesh-and-blood human workers will negatively affect Ayana’s morality and how others perceive her.
Unfortunately, Ayana’s natural ability to merge with shadows and move unseen is very powerful; so powerful, in fact, that you really don’t need to rely on anything else. The enemies are not very smart either, so they are easy to avoid even if you only rely on shadow merging.
This means that, in reality, it is quite easy to complete the entire game without being seen or resorting to killing humans, which results in a stealth game that does not provide enough opposition to challenge you to think analytically when navigating a threat.
There are also no difficulty adjustments to make enemies smarter or more numerous, although you can adjust how many environmental guides appear in each level (purple lamps or purple paint that indicate the general direction you should go, for example).
A game that gets better when the platforms come into action
In defense of the gameplay, the second half of Shadow Legacy features some creative sequences from a platforming perspective, with one particular section that I loved for how well it challenged me and encouraged me to use everything I had learned up to that point in a thrilling test.
The fusion of shadows can be used to escape from them and perform jumps that would otherwise be impossible or interact with the environment to solve simple puzzles, skills that apply to challenges that become increasingly complex as the game progresses.
Although Shadow Legacy may not be a great stealth game, it is a good platformer. The environmental elements create a variety of shadows (some with strange shapes, others that move, and others that can be altered) and figuring out how to reach a secluded platform is sometimes a puzzle in itself, which becomes more complicated and rewarding to solve due to the stamina meter linked to Ayana’s shadow fusion.
You not only have to figure out which shadows to move, follow, or jump between, but you also usually have to do it at the right moment.
A powerful, original story… and one that needs more time
Guiding Ayana through these challenges there is a story that never gets a chance to breathe. Initially trapped by an AI-controlled entity bent on using her powers for some unknown purpose, Ayana quickly finds herself collaborating with the resistance seeking to free itself from corporate tyranny.
Ayana is reluctant to collaborate with them, as she has heard that they are nothing but terrorists, but she agrees to use her unique skills to help on the condition that the group reveals everything they know about the Erebano people.
Here are some interesting, albeit familiar, narrative themes, but Shadow Legacy tackles them in a rush: Ayana joins the resistance cause with remarkable speed, for example, despite not being given any reason to do so. And that’s how the story goes in the game, a bit “hit or miss”.
Ultimately, as a stealth game, it rarely posed a challenge for me, reducing the protagonist, Ayana, to a one-trick character capable of sneaking past any target with the same skill. But as a platform game, Shadow Legacy incorporates some entertaining puzzles that become increasingly complex and rewarding to overcome.
For an official price of 19.99 euros in the PlayStation store, you should definitely give it a chance.
