Eternal Strands

Everyone has been getting a massive kick out of the new Monster Hunter lately huh? A franchise well known for chasing down and fighting goliath bosses has finally gone open world. A choice that has garnished mixed reactions from people, and apparently not because the game is badly designed. In all seriousness most of my close friends who’ve played Monster Hunter Wilds state it’s a really good game. One of them maintains the franchise’s core gameplay loop without losing it too much to the open world approach. It’s one of the more accessible Monster Hunter titles out there, and I’m happy a series that was once extremely niche has obtained mainstream appeal. It’s a very good video game. The complaints I’ve been hearing have been about the performance. A year ago Dragon’s Dogma 2 faced the exact same problem. A massive open world RPG made by Capcom was poorly optimized especially for PC, and Capcom haven’t been doing much to fix the many bugs loaded in. Which is especially bad because the recent Monster Hunter games have been well known for their multiplayer engagement and online content added overtime. Not many people will want to stick around if they can barely run the game.

This is one of the reasons why I’m holding off from Monster Hunter Wilds. The other reason is because I’m not a big Monster Hunter fan, and I’m surprised I didn’t start off the review saying this instead. I remember explaining why during my Salt and Sacrifice review back in 2022, but just in case you didn’t read it here’s what I think. Monster Hunter is a fantastic series and I can understand why my friends and many others love it. I don’t mind challenging games seeing how I’ve grown up on a lot of them, and I don't mind grinding if the core gameplay loop is fun. The way grinding in Monster Hunter is not to my liking, because having to fight the same monster over and over again just to get RNG loot drops is annoying. Then using specific parts to craft an armor set or weapon to make three or four monsters a tad bit more manageable just feels like a massive disrespect to the player’s time. Especially if you’re someone like me who likes to make consistent progress even if it means getting frustrated. I never finished Monster Hunter World, didn’t touch Monster Hunter Rise, and if I didn’t get hooked in general then what is the chance of me enjoying Monster Hunter Wilds? Good games, but not my personal cup of tea.

Then comes Eternal Strands, the debut action RPG title by indie studio Yellow Brick Games. It is a game that draws numerous influences including Shadow of The Colossus, Monster Hunter of course, The Legend of Zelda, and Dragon’s Dogma. It wants to blend multiple things together, and I was afraid when hopping into it. I’ve never had any doubts with indie games or studios in the past, but when you’re mixing genres or multiple games together you often draw comparisons to the influences rather than have people appreciate what you’ve made. Little recently I finished Doom 3 and the number one thing I thought the whole time was games doing what it did better. System Shock, Prey, the first Half-Life, F.E.A.R, Alan Wake, etc. It was a game that drew too many influences and ended up being a mediocre experience. A game you will never look back on as it achieves nothing significant. Eternal Strands could’ve been the same thing, and from all the reception I’ve seen it has been for a lot of people. A majority of critics have claimed it’s either an okay game or a middling one at best. A good debut title from an indie studio, but rough edges that make recommending Eternal Strands difficult. A game you vibe with or drop after the first five hours. I kept my expectations low with Eternal Strands praying to not be disappointed.

Instead the exact opposite happened. Eternal Strands was a lot better than I thought. In fact, it is better than what a lot of people have been telling you. I think Eternal Strands is not just a solid debut title for Yellow Brick Games, but an amazing combination of several classics I and many others have grown up on. There are some rough edges and the plot isn’t something to write home about. Everything else though is amazing in my opinion. Despite not being a Monster Hunter fan I adored the approach Eternal Strands took to the hunt formula. Creating a core gameplay loop I never got bored or annoyed of during my twelve hour playthrough. It is astounding how much the team managed to get right on their first go, and if they ever decide to make a sequel or follow the same footsteps again I hope they properly expand on what is here. Eternal Stands is a hidden game, and today we’re going to be talking about why it deserves your utter attention.

Story

The world of Eternal Strands is a mystical wondrous land full of adventure and discovery to be uncovered. People have found a way to harness magic and energy beyond their physical form. They used it to construct cities for which they could cultivate and study, and one such society was the Enclave. A society of elite nobles and great minds who used their abilities to help others. Their city was the grandest of them all and they used the materials they had to construct Arks. These iron machine-like creatures who would help guard the city and other daily duties. They’re the protectors of the land, but one day something went wrong. Something for the Arks to stop working, and the citizens of the city to flee. Seeking refugees miles away from this once shining location. What was left of the Enclave and this disaster was contained within a massive wall. A shield to block any outsiders from entering and contain the madness within. No one has dared to step foot into Enclave territory and anybody who tried never returned safely to their homes.

However, the attempts don’t stop and you are the most recent expedition to be sent to the lost and forgotten Enclave homeland. You are Brynn, trained to be a warrior by your parents and newest member to a band of travelers known as the Weavers. Individuals who strive to uncover the truth and expose secrets. Your party journeys to where the Enclave lies only to be surrounded by a fog that slowly kills you. A feeling of being burnt alive without actually being burned. You manage to run safely as well as everybody else and make camp. Locating a gateway that allows you to quickly transport yourself to corners of the world. You’ll explore the ruins of the Enclave world, uncover their past, harvest the magical energy of the creatures left in this world, and locate the sinister secret lying deep beneath the surface. The story is somewhat generic and none of it ever managed to click with me, but that is not to say the characters or world is bad. We’ll touch more on this later. For now let’s focus on the gameplay and how truly brilliant it clashes about.

Gameplay

As explained earlier, Eternal Strands is a mix of multiple games you may or may not be familiar with. There’s a little bit of Monster Hunter, The Legend of Zelda, Shadow of The Colossus, and I would even say Dark Souls as much as I hate to bring it up. You load into an area and once there you explore it. Try to figure out where to or gain familiarity with the lay of the land. Along the way you’ll want to pick up resources and these are gained through either smashing crates or by defeating the many enemies scattered around. Different enemies drop different resources and the later areas in Eternal Strands will drop rarer resources more frequently. There is an extraction element at play as if you die while venturing about you will lose some of the resources you looted. You get a choice what resources are kept and sent back to camp before venturing out again. If you manage to travel back safely you get to keep all the resources you recovered. Why is it so important to loot everything you can find? So you craft better gear similar to that of the Monster Hunter series. Except in Eternal Strands the crafting element works differently. Instead of upgrading or forging better gear using specific gear you instead insert the parts you want to use. A recipe for chestplate may require some steel or stone. It doesn’t say what specifically, and with this you can use whatever you want. Different materials change the stats of the armor with the rarer ones being stronger. Mix and match different combos to forge good gear.

It doesn’t stop there. Once you forge or upgrade an armor piece or weapon you aren’t locked into the choice you made. You can swap the installed components out. Changing the gears’ stats and refunding any of the materials you spent at no cost. This allows adapting to the next given task to be much easier without feeling like a grind. Just note bringing heavier armor or weapons will add to your equipment load and if above a certain number you dodge slower. There’s a lot of smaller enemies roaming around, but what you’ll want to be on the lookout for are the giant enemies that roam around. The Arks, dragons, hawks, salamanders, etc. Killing these will grant you powers similar to the ones in Breath of The Wild. However, the ones here are elemental and they allow you to tackle problems in different ways. Use an ice ray to freeze an enemy to the ground or put out a raging fire. Use gravity magic to pull an environmental object towards you and hurl it at an enemy. Create an energetic bomb that sucks enemies and objects in, and use fire to make it blow up faster with stronger results. Messing around with the magic can be fun and to make spells stronger you have to kill the bosses in different ways to gain a specific material for crafting.

What do I mean by this? Bosses in Eternal Strands are much like Shadow of The Colossus. They aren’t giants whom you avoid the attacks of and strike at their feet. There are specific points on their body you need to slash away at to deal damage. Weak points become invulnerable once slashed at enough, so you have to scurry over to another part to keep attacking. Alternating your approach is important, especially when they’re constantly trying to shake you off or in the case of the Arks they’ll grab you so they can crush your body and throw you to the ground. Once one of the giant enemies is slain they drop a good handful of powerful resources and a strand. Either for the use of unlocking a new power or upgrading the ones you have depending on the way you killed them. All the systems at play form a game that’s fun to play even if you get something you don’t want. You can always give resources you don’t want to the camp supply manager who can use them to upgrade stations and further improve the forging process. Let’s just hope you unravel the truth. The mysteries beneath. The reason why you came and the destiny you shall fulfill.

Thoughts

Eternal Strands is a blending of multiple ideas that could’ve very well led to a disaster, but ends up sticking the landing to form a fairly well made action RPG. I’ve been seeing a lot more third person action games come from the indie scene lately and while Eternal Strands doesn’t have the best combat I would say it’s one of the more tightly designed ones I’ve experienced. Now I will admit that despite my high surprise and anticipation for this review Eternal Strands has a couple flaws and rough corners. Stuff that really shows it’s a first time project from a new studio, but compared to most reviews I wouldn’t say it’s busted. People will say this game is unstable, but all that’s really wrong is the physics not always working the way you expect. You get launched in the air a little too high or fair for what just happened, or trying to fall or jump on an object does not always register or work the way you want. It’s minor stuff you learn to work around, because the game as a whole plays wonderfully. I’m playing the PlayStation 5 version and not once did I run into any bugs, framerate drops, crashing, or input delay. The developers made sure they had made a fun game to play and the quality shows. The only aspect of Eternal Strands that I didn’t love very much was the story, but that isn’t to say the narrative at play is terrible.

It serves as a means to motivate the player to move forward and justify what they’re about to do, but it comes across more dull at times. There are moments the plot picks up and interesting stuff happens. Events that should hype me up for what happens next, but  it didn’t elicit any emotions from me. The characters aren’t interesting enough to pull me along for the ride, which is a shame because I really love the character designs of this game. They’re colorful, beautiful, and they’d always match the profession the character is pursuing without being too generic. Art direction is very good with each area doing enough to be different as well as each corner of every area. The world’s history is interesting and at times it reminded me of Arcane for some reason. You know, that League of Legends everyone really loves until the ending of the second season dropped the ball. I am going to get a lot of flack for saying this. There is interesting history here. I just wish they wrote it better, more specifically the characters for me to care about. Still, I like what’s here and I’m sure with future entries or projects Yellow Brick Games can create an experience that hooks me both with gameplay and storytelling. Speaking of which, that’s why I love this game so much despite the lukewarm narrative. Gameplay is where this game shines.

Whereas Monster Hunter followed the thrill of the hunt and always trying to outsmart your prey, Eternal Strands follows the thrill of adventure and questing out to perform an important deed. I don’t think quest design is original and some of the late game quests feel dragged out, but there is enough variation to prevent the game from becoming too repetitive too quickly. Exploration is good as areas loop and intertwine. Often leading or connecting back to places you’ve been to. It doesn’t show the easiest way to get to a place. You have to decide yourself how to navigate the world on your toes. Either by walking to it or scaling the environment using climbing mechanics similar to the ones in the newer Legend of Zelda games. The crafting system is smartly designed as you engage with the different materials you collect. Swapping them out to forge stronger gear or stuff that allows the next venture or hunt to be more manageable. To know certain info before entering an area like the roaming boss and weather you have to collect documents. Encouraging you to pay attention to your environment to find more snippets to the world. Gaining familiarity and learning how to gain the upper hand in case of emergencies.

In fact, the reason why I love the combat of Eternal Strands despite it not having the greatest feel is due to emergent gameplay moments. I love the different elemental reactions your powers have and using them on enemies to turn the tides. Freezing a big enemy’s foot to the ground so you have more time to scale up their body. Midway through the game you have these shadowy foes for when you light ablaze they explode. Leading to fun chain reactions if you’re fighting them in a group or blazing terrain. Clearing the way of rubble using a blackhole, and then sending that blackhole with circling debris towards your target. There’s even fun moments the developers did not even think about. For example, I unlocked a greatsword with a charge attack that lunges me up. Allowing me to scale up tall big guys if used correctly. Fun aspects like this are what makes these kinds of games more clever than you think. Setting boundaries so that players have to use their tools wisely, but not too many boundaries so players stop thinking creatively. It’s why titles like Prey or Dishonored are endlessly replayable despite not being the largest games out there.

The colossal monsters are a highlight for me. Reminding me why Shadow of The Colossus is the timeless masterpiece it is. Working more like puzzles rather than giant sponges you slash away at. I like how to unlock new strands to upgrade your powers you have to kill the boss differently. Creating a whole new challenge entirely as you work around their limbs and components. The healing system is nice. I forgot to bring this up, but basically you get a few potions with more being picked up as you smash crates. However, despite the low carry rate they always restore you to full health. Meaning the developers avoid the problem of giving you too much and letting your character be unkillable. It creates moments of stress where you gotta outrun the boss and hope by luck you get what you need to survive. Obtaining it and hopping back into the fight. It can be annoying especially when crates drop loot you don’t want or are spread far apart, but it is thrilling. There are a few complaints I have with Eternal Strands. The camera can be annoying as it clips through walls or doesn’t always give you a good view of where you are when climbing a large foe. As fun as it is to learn how to kill bosses differently, the upgrades to your powers don’t really feel all that different to me. Trying to parry is hard, because Eternal Strands does not have a lock on camera. You instead rotate towards the direction an enemy is attacking and block, and while not terrible it takes a lot of time to get used to or is annoying when in large groups. 

If you die and get resent back into the field I wish to respawn you with fully refilled potions. It sucks when I’m more than halfway into a fight, use all my potions, die, and know how to avoid it next time but have less resources to work with. Leading me to find crates to smash which I’ve destroyed most of by then, struggle harder, or travel back to camp giving up on the boss I was trying to slay as roaming bosses change whenever you travel to a different area. Aside from the annoying aspects I wouldn’t say Eternal Strands went over the edge. The game is fair, isn’t all too hard, and even if you are struggling there’s accessibility options. It’s a game you can finish in a reasonable amount of time, and while I can see people arguing it doesn’t have the amount of variety Monster Hunter has with its endless hours of play, I'd say it's more focused. It’s tightly woven which is my preference when it comes to playing games. I recommend Eternal Strands and wish the developers the best of luck when it comes to their next game. I give Eternal Strands a 9/10 for excellence at best. 

9/10, Excellence