Some of my best gaming memories involve being thrown into an open space and given the player agency to explore, find my own discoveries, and write my own stories. Eternal Strands captures this essence, albeit in a smaller scope. Eternal Strands is full of thrilling player exploration and inventive gameplay and has a lot of great ideas that left me wanting more despite some systems never fully coming together.
Eternal Strands is a fantasy action-adventure game and the debut title from Yellow Brick Games. You take on the role of Brynn, a magical user referred to as a “weaver”. Brynn journeys with a caravan of fellow weavers, revisiting a long-lost homeland that has since been fortified and cut off from the outside world since a magical event known as “The Surge”. Eternal Strands picks up as Brynn and her team enter to discover what happened; things however, go south very quickly with the group becoming trapped, setting in motion the story of Eternal Strands.
The story is an interesting one, and Yellow Brick Games has really knocked it out of the park when it comes to fleshing out this world. A lot of love and care have gone into the many areas of this world with a very sophisticated and detailed codex that explains the world’s many elements, with the codex expanding heavily over time the more Brynn explores. Throughout my time, I enjoyed the story, Brynn’s nature, and her many companions, with each being excellently voice acted.
What surprised me was how Eternal Strands presents its world and game structure. Maybe it is the visual similarity to Immortals Fenyx Rising or Dragon Age: The Veilguard that made me draw these conclusions about having a familiar open map that I would be directed through. Instead, Eternal Strands presents its world in “expeditions” more in line with Monster Hunter. Brynn’s many quests have her go out into zones to explore new areas with no guidance other than “scour this area for a giant colossus”.
On my first expedition, I felt a true sense of wonder in line with Brynn, the character I was controlling. We were exploring this land together, from bright valleys to dimly lit swampy areas, filling out the map with each area we went to with nothing other than a loose general direction of what we should be looking for. Quite simply, exploration in Eternal Strands is fantastic, rewarding, and I couldn’t get enough. This approach to exploration is a nice change of pace and really helped me want to explore this world we knew nothing about. Over time, throughout expeditions, you’ll run into pieces of the environment that act as lore entries, rewarding exploration and furthering your knowledge of an area, what resources you could find, or the enemies you can encounter.
As Brynn journeys through the land, she’ll run into many different areas, each with their own hazards and enemies. Such as a cave that required me to have some frost resistance, elements like this make me adapt and utilize my kit more and feel more invested. Expeditions also have an element of tension; if Brynn dies, I lose most of my collected resources, making each expedition thrilling and dangerous. Adding to this as well, there is a day and night cycle that affects enemy placement and the area’s weather. There are many elements working in tandem that really tie Eternal Strands exploration together into a rewarding package.
Brynn is a magic user and has a wide range of magic abilities available that build over time, such as frost, fire, or kinetic manipulation. In addition, Brynn also has access to a sword and shield, a bow and arrow, and a two-handed weapon, allowing for different playstyles. These magic abilities have definitely been the selling point leading up to the game’s release and are definitely the main focus, with the additional weapons being more of a complement to Brynn’s combat abilities.
The combat in Eternal Strands is straightforward with the weapons all working as you’d expect; the magical abilities are also a nice touch, but this is also where Eternal Strands begins to trip over itself. Combat has an old-school charm to it but also brings all the jankiness and awkwardness from that era. Brynn’s combat moves are limited with the sword and shield, offering the same 3-hit combo each time, with slight variations in moves if I’m running or holding down for a stronger attack.
It’s not just the combat that feels a bit off; Brynn’s movement also feels strange. When Brynn runs and stops to turn in another direction, she literally slides like a drift car. This is hilarious at first, but this is a fine example of the many elements in Eternal Strands: a charming, fun appeal, but over time overstays its welcome as time wears on.
A standout feature in Eternal Strands is the heavy physics system where everything reacts to placement, and objects can be hurled to deal damage. This creates some thrilling combat sequences but would sometimes hurl me unexpectedly more than expected. One example is my first proper encounter with a fire-breathing drake; the force of its fireball propelled me in odd directions off a tower. On my way falling from the tower, I surely would have died due to impact, but brushing against random objects on the way lessened the impact. I am not sure if this worked as intended, but it does show the depth of how wild things can get in heated combat scenarios.
Throughout Eternal Strands, there is also a number of “great enemies”—colossal-like structures or beasts that are inspired by Shadow of The Colossus. These combat encounters are a great standout and ask you to really utilize Brynn’s arsenal. Climbing these beasts and dealing with their many elements are a blast, and I always looked forward to facing these in between the more standard-feeling combat.
In my later expeditions towards the second half of the game, I did run into a number of enemies that continued to have dramatic increases in health, almost feeling like invulnerable damage sponges. This made the repetitive combat stick out all the more. I can also say I definitely wasn’t underleveled, as some camp areas were either maxed out or said I needed to progress in the story, making the combat progression a frustrating experience.
The charm of Eternal Strands combat, despite its overstaying jankiness and health spikes, does succeed in creating engaging, fun, and sometimes hilarious scenarios. The aforementioned drake that continued to send me flying, I happened to land on its tail and held on for the majority of the flight, with my stamina lasting until the beast went back to the ground, allowing me to let go to regain stamina and latch back on whenever the beast took flight. Was this outright realistic? No, it wasn’t, and possibly not what the developers were going for, but I did have a blast and an exciting story to tell, and I think that’s what matters.
At some point I even gave a dragon an ice moustache. and it was great. I am upset that I forgot to capture this particular moment amidst the chaos, but trust me, it happened.
Quite simply, exploration in Eternal Strands is fantastic, rewarding, and I couldn’t get enough.
Breaking up your expeditions, you’ll take respite at camp, upgrading your gear for further journeys. This is where Eternal Strands shows more of its Monster Hunter-like inspirations. There’s no leveling system, and Brynn’s stats are based entirely off her equipment and the resources she’s gathered. Stations at camp can be upgraded to provide more carry capacity, stronger spells, or gear. These are all great familiar systems that tie in well with Eternal Strands exploration and put these found goods to good use.
However, in my first ten hours, I seemed to find no blueprints at all to craft a new sword and shield, leaving me with my starting “mundane sword and shield”. I searched high and low and went out of my way to complete each side quest; either I was very unlucky or missed every drop. I felt like I was not able to put these systems to their best use and did make my gear leveling journey quite literally mundane. At some points I was forced to switch to the two-handed weapon or bow, as my trusty sword and shield just weren’t cutting it.
The visual style of Eternal Strands does feel familiar, as mentioned previously, which is where it draws many comparisons to games such as Immortals Fenyx Rising, naturally due to its visual identity. This in itself makes it hard to stand out visually, and although it does look great, I can’t help but think we’re starting to see this stylized visual style a bit too much. However, interactions between fellow party members are not presented in traditional cutscenes but rather in a visual novel style. This may be due to budget constraints, but I felt this style stood out more, and I always looked forward to the party reconvening.
Music throughout Eternal Strands complements the many areas and encounters, especially during the great enemy fights, music pounding with each climb as I scaled to take down each great foe. However, I did notice that sometimes music would be noticeably absent as I made my way through areas, but I think this proved to be to its benefit, adding a serene calm to this undisturbed land before I encountered the next enemy.
Throughout my time in Eternal Strands, I ran into the odd minor bug, such as audio/subtitle syncing or map icons seemingly not being explained; this detracted only slightly from my enjoyment of Eternal Strands, and I’m positive it will be addressed in further maintenance and updates.
Pros
- Thrilling, rewarding exploration.
- Great enemy fights are spectacular.
- Alot of love and care put into this world and its surrounding lore.
Cons
- Upgrade systems never reach their true potential.
- Janky combat loses its charm as the story progresses.
I enjoyed my time with Eternal Strands, and I really think there is a great foundation here. Rewarding exploration and fantastic boss fights provide a thrilling gameplay loop. Despite combat and character systems never fully coming together, there is great potential, and I am excited to see how Yellow Brick Games builds upon this solid first showing.
A PlayStation 5 review code was provided by Yellow Brick Games.
