Some more pay-anywhere action is coming your way from casino game maker Pragmatic Play in the form of Grace of Ebisu. Ebisu, if you didn't know (and we didn't until a scroll through Wikipedia schooled us), is the Japanese god of luck and fishermen. Two rather diverse things to be the god of, though for an online slot, it sounds pretty ideal. As the site says, Ebisu is one of the Seven Gods of Fortune and comes entirely from Japan; therefore is outside any Taoist or Buddhist influence. He looks like a pretty happy god, too.
Mention pay anywhere/scatter paying slots, and one of the first games which may come to mind is Pragmatic Play's popular release Gates of Olympus. Apt association, too, as Grace of Ebisu is basically a reskin of Gates of Olympus with a bonus buy tacked on, meaning, yep, it's essentially another GOO clone. Obviously, we're not in Olympus this time, but somewhere with a different cultural angle, a delicately designed location incorporating cherry blossom trees and curved roofed structures, the likes of which regularly show up in Asian-themed slots.
>Grace of Ebisu is a scatter-paying slot which means that players collect a win when at least 8 matching symbols land in view anywhere on the grid. The grid itself is 6 reels wide, each reel holding 5 rows. Having a tumble feature means winning symbols vanish from view and are replaced by symbols tumbling down from above. Consecutive tumbles are possible, only ending when no new win appears. Tackling Grace of Ebisu can be done in 3 different ways – betting 20 p/c to $/€100 on each game round, buying free spins for 100x the bet, or by switching on the Ante Bet. The Ante bet increases the stake by 25%, doubling the chance to win the feature. All 3 methods have a default 96.5% RTP.
Pragmatic Play got its brushes out to create Grace of Ebisu low pay symbols which are brushstroke-styled 10-A card royals, while the 4 high pay symbols are a bird, frog, fish, and female character. Hitting an 8-9 of a kind scatter win pays 0.25 to 10 times the bet, and a 12+ scatter win awards 2 to 50 times the bet. Grace of Ebisu does not have a wild symbol in its arsenal.
>Multiplier symbols are present on all reels and can land on spins or tumbles in the base game or in free spins. When a multiplier symbol hits, it has a random multiplier value of x2, x3, x4, x5, x6, x8, x10, x12, x15, x20, x25, x50, x100, x250, or x500. When the tumbling ends, the values of all multiplier symbols in view are added together, and the total win is multiplied by the total multiplier value.
The treasure chest scatter is present on all reels as well. Landing 4, 5, or 6 of them awards 3x, 5x, or 100x the bet, respectively, plus 15 free spins. During free spins, whenever a multiplier symbol lands and the spin produces a win, the multiplier value is added to the total multiplier. For the full free spin round, whenever a new multiplier symbol lands and a win results, the total multiplier value is used to multiply the win. Players collect 5 free extra free spins whenever 3 or more scatter symbols land during the free spins round.
>Hate to state the obvious, yet Pragmatic Play seems to have really hit upon a formula they like here. It's a studio which favours keeping its foot on the production gas, and it must help to find a gameplay format that strikes the right note, not just with its maker, but no doubt with a bunch of players as well. This way, you can slip off, slip on skins as you see fit, try different themes, explore subject matter that's pretty esoteric for an online slot, like Gates of Gatot Kaca, and, one would presume, have a bit of fun in the process. There is no doubt these are thrilling pay-anywhere slots, yet at the same time, this repeated cloning thing is getting a bit old.
It makes it hard to think of what to say about the purely gaming side of Grace of Ebisu that hasn't been jotted down several times before. Well, there's nothing original to add, really, but players looking for a pay-anywhere slot who have stumbled upon Grace of Ebisu and Pragmatic Play's Gates-related range for the first time are in for something of a scatter-paying treat. Or those looking for a Japanese version. The potential for soaring multiplier action is possible in Grace of Ebisu, though don't count on the x500 to put in overly regular appearances. Then again, who knows? They're there bobbing around, and multiplier symbols can stack their values in free spins. It's worth repeating that if a multiplier symbol doesn't land alongside wins on a free spin, the total multiplier remains dormant.
You might have thought with such mighty multipliers able to land that Grace of Ebisu would come with a mighty max win as well. It's not as mighty as one might suspect, though 5,000x the bet isn't exactly the slot equivalent of reeling in an old boot. In summation, Grace of Ebisu offers a fun scatter-paying package, to be sure, but one which is teetering on the brink of being overdone.
Play for real money
