
Eternal Strands was pitched as a sort of Shadow of the Colossus/Breath of the Wild smorgasbord, and while it checks off the main beats of both, it fails to feel as special or interesting as either. Maybe this shouldn’t be expected. After all, Yellow Brick Games is a new indie studio and Eternal Strands is a fresh IP. Still, even with a solid core concept and fine gameplay, Eternal Strands failed to keep me excited for long. What it does, it does well enough though, so let’s dig into its gameplay after establishing its basic story first.
Eternal Strands is about a band of magic users (called Weavers) exploring an ancient civilization that, you guessed it, mysteriously collapsed. Magic was outlawed and Weavers looked down upon following the extinction of this civilization. The story begins with a band of magic-users exploring inside The Veil – a magical barrier isolating the long-destroyed civilization from the rest of the world. As a magical Weaver, Brynn’s task is to find out more about this mysterious civilization and help her band survive its dangerous remnants.
Sounds like a premise made for exploration, right? A game like Eternal Strands could have the best exploration and combat in the world and still fall short if it controls terribly. This is one area where Breath of the Wild fans can rest assured on account of Eternal Strands‘ smooth movement tech. Brynn’s movement is direct, instant, and snappy. Climbing likewise feels smooth and all too familiar for Dragon’s Dogma or Zelda fans, which is great because pretty much anything in the environment can be mounted and scaled except for the small amount of invisible walls. In general, running around and jumping on stuff can be a fun time.
"You’re left wildly swinging weapons or using other less reliable means to mine materials."
The only time the game feels particularly clunky is when you’re breaking down objects for materials. Smashing rocks and barrels just isn’t as fun as it should be. For one, your character always steps forward when breaking objects down, which inevitably forces you to readjust positioning constantly until the objects finally breaks down. There’s no way to target lock onto objects either, so you’re left wildly swinging weapons or using other less reliable means to mine materials. The survival crafting genre has nailed the satisfying process of material gathering, but Eternal Strands falls a bit behind in that regard, despite the abundance of abilities within the player’s hands.
Thankfully, the target lock for enemies is snappy and quite satisfying to use. Dodging and partying multiple opponents never feels too overwhelming or clunky thanks to the appropriate camera positioning and quick lock-on. That said, some enemies are irritating to fight. The groups of invisible monsters plaguing the early zones of the game render lock-on useless, and they swarm you in packs. Combating the same enemies over and over feels redundant due to the limited inventory you have and the lack of experience points from defeating them.
"All those crafting materials you find must be strategically conserved due to limited inventory slots for each material type."
That’s right, all those crafting materials you find must be strategically conserved due to limited inventory slots for each material type. I still can’t figure out why there’s such a strict inventory limit in Eternal Strands. It feels like I’m constantly returning to the hub area and back instead of freely exploring the areas like a true open-world game. Though, it is true that Eternal Strands isn’t quite a genuine open-world title. This is because environments are separated into distinct zones with a hub area to store materials, craft, and talk to your caravan crew. The game’s flow can be summarized by the word ‘expedition’. You’re never exploring the wilds of The Enclave for too long before your inventory fills up and you need more health potions.
The save system accommodates this game flow with a semi-frequent autsosave and something I don’t like so much: limited manual saving. You cannot save the game during expeditions and must return back to the Southwall Waystation hub to do so. Restricted manual saving during expeditions is further hampered by the lack of fast travel during the opening hours of the story. You get the ability to fast travel back to the hub later in the game, but I still never found it fun going back and forth between the hub and expedition zones.
"Loomgate towers function as the game’s teleport points so you don’t have to hoof it all the way across a swamp just to continue an expedition."
Expedition zones each have their own regions and, you guessed it, towers to activate. These Loomgate towers function as the game’s teleport points so you don’t have to hoof it all the way across a swamp just to continue an expedition. Even with the Loomgate fast travel, frequently needing to end expeditions early due to a filled-up inventory or low health stagger exploration momentum a tad too much. The times you will have to backtrack aren’t very fun due to the slow traversal and rate of enemies dotting the environments.
No, Brynn’s magical abilities don’t really aid in traversal much. I never felt the need or desire to form ice bridges across any gaps or anything. It’s mostly in the battles where Brynn’s magical manipulation is used since the environments typically don’t require much clever use of her abilities other than climbing and jumping. Sure, some hot objects need to be frozen and some torches lit to progress forward, but the level design doesn’t live up to the potential that such magical terraforming powers can have. But my main issue isn’t with potential, it’s traversal speed and viscerality in general. Some kind of horse mount or glider would have made going from A to B much better, but I suppose the segregated level design didn’t necessitate those conveniences, even if they still felt needed at times.
"Some hot objects need to be frozen and some torches lit to progress forward"
Each of the zone maps are decent in size; nothing too vast or intricate to explore, but enough to warrant several re-visits. The Watcher’s Wisp ability helps Brynn find the direction of an objective as long as you have this ability unlocked after the first three hours. Oh, and there’s no minimap or compass to speak of in the game. The map in the menus also lacks any custom pin markers, which is disappointing considering how emphasized locating specific crafting materials are. If a simple compass isn’t patched, expect to constantly pull up the menu map just to see what general direction a region or point of interest is in.
But what else is there to do in the zones besides gathering materials and completing story objectives? Well, collecting enough manuscript documents in each zone unlocks a bevy of vital information, both in gameplay and lore terms. One interesting piece of info fragments unlock are the weather conditions of that specific area. Eternal Strands has an interesting weather system. Zones get beset by snowstorms, torrential rain, or by sunlight based on a weather cycle. Weather affects the types of monsters that appear in a zone, as well as extreme temperatures which can hinder your character if you’re not equipped to deal with it. Preparing for extreme snow, for example, with cold resist armor or potions is necessary if you’re to go forth on expeditions in that zone. And it’s impossible to know each area’s weather if you haven’t collected enough manuscripts yet. At least you can advance time and wait for the weather to change by resting at camp, because this system could get irritating otherwise.
"Zones get beset by snow storms, torrential rain, or blessed by sunlight based on a weather cycle"
Collecting manuscript fragments does more than just give weather info, it also unlocks reams of lore in the Codex covering history, politics, races, and location info. Besides collecting manuscripts and materials, there’s not too much to explore for in Eternal Strands. Well, besides the completing story objectives, that is.
The highlight of the game for me has to be the towering Ark bosses. These fights are clearly inspired by the Colossi in Shadow of the Colossus and Dragon’s Dogma enemy mounting. Ark battles mostly consist of climbing and stabbing weak points before being flung off hundreds of feet to the ground. The climbing and clinging controls feel responsive and satisfying, and stabbing away at each of the week points while avoiding retaliation is invigorating. Getting the timing right in between clinging for dear life and locating the weak spots for damage never gets old. The enemy design isn’t especially noteworthy for these Ark bosses though, and the strategy for felling each of them doesn’t escalate into anything surprising, but it’s a good time all in all.
"The highlight of the game for me has to be the towering Ark bosses"
As mentioned earlier, other enemies aren’t nearly as fun to fight. Parrying and dodging is fun, but this game needs hotkeys for weapon and spell switching. The swap wheel just takes a bit too much time to navigate in the midst of battle. I can’t count the amount of times I accidentally selected the wrong spell or weapon due to the unclear and unresponsive thumbstick scrolling. Enemy battles can lack urgency at times from a lack of any kind of musical cue. I’ve had skirmishes where no music is playing and others where the battle music pipes up, so it seems to be pretty random. And I know the soundtrack is scored by Austin Wintory, but it didn’t do anything for me. It’s appropriately atmospheric, but lacks any kind of throughline themes or motifs, making it feel inconspicuous and ultimately forgettable.
As for weapons and magic themselves, there’s a pretty decent variety for both throughout the game. You can find various different weapons within each category and they show on your character. Upgrading weapons and armor requires higher quality materials, or you can craft new ones out of different materials. Magic abilities can also be upgraded with materials, but unlocking entirely new abilities generally comes much slower than getting new weapons. I love freezing opponents and then just whacking them with my greatsword while they’re frozen in place. And speaking of the elements, there are fire and ice variants of most of the weapons, which is cool. It’s unfortunate that there’s no way to compare equipment in any of the crafting or buy menus. There’s also no tab showing you own a particular piece of equipment either. Hopefully these conveniences get patched later because they’re mandatory in a crafting-heavy game like this.
"I love freezing opponents and then just whacking them with my greatsword while they’re frozen in place"
But combat and gameplay is only one half of Eternal Strands‘ identity as this game is surprisingly story-focused. In particular, there’s a Bioware style of character interaction and lore within Eternal Strands. The lead designer is a former Bioware lead, after all, so this shared DNA makes sense. That said, while there’s oodles of character conversations and backstories to sift through, I didn’t find any of it interesting in the least. First of all, your band of Weavers tends to repeat plot points over and over again with lots of unnecessary exposition. The dialogue writing doesn’t feel organic, but rather safe and dull. Yes, each of the Weavers has their own personality and backstory, but it all feels by-the-numbers and, to an extent, clinical. And then there’s Brynn, the main protagonist who everyone just accepts as the band’s leader. She has no faults and the story doesn’t justify why she’s so much more competent than everybody else. Eternal Strands‘ characters lack the kind of grit and soul that gets us invested.
"This is not a game where branching dialogue choice matters, but it tries to present itself as such at times"
The hefty amount of lore in the game is impressive, no doubt. And the codex entries for the government bodies, races, and cities (much of which you never encounter) are well-written and filled with a minutia of detail. It’s just that the main plot itself lacks any urgency at all. I can’t think of a single interesting hook or twist in the entire game’s campaign. You’re exploring a destroyed civilization and trying to survive this new inhospitable landscape, but there’s no personal stakes involved or intrigue to get excited about. These story complaints wouldn’t be a problem if it were a game focused primarily on gameplay, but Eternal Strands is very much a character-driven, lore-heavy game as per its distant Bioware DNA. Also, some will be put off by the sheer amount of unique terminology being spouted off at every moment. The opening narration is a good example the way jargon is overused.
To cap off my disinterest in the plot and characters, there’s also no real consequence to the game’s dialogue choices. Conversations usually branch into three options; all of which amount to flavor lore or added context at most. This is not a game where branching dialogue choice matters, but it tries to present itself as such at times. From a gameplay perspective, knowing whether or not a character has something new to say is difficult in Eternal Strands. A speech indicator pops up even for unchecked dialogue choices within the same conversation. Furthermore, indicators even pop up when repeated conversations are available.
"The codex entries for the government bodies, races, and cities are well-written and filled with a minutia of detail"
Eternal Strands didn’t quite live up to my budget Breath of the Wild expectation. Sure, the movement and magic is fun to play around with, and climbing up those Ark enemies is a treat. But there wasn’t any hook compelling me to keep playing. Once I felled my first couple Ark and ventured into the capital, I felt fine to leave it at that. You’re getting a decent amount of game for the price point, but there’s not much here that you can’t get from other similar action/adventure games.
This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.
Very smooth and functional movement and controls; Good variety in weapons and magic; Ark bosses are a treat to fight thanks to fun climbing controls; Lots of lore in the Codex, and it's well-written even if a tad dull at times.
Breaking down objects for materials can be clunky; Backtracking back and forth between expeditions can be annoying thanks to no compass or minimap; Some QoL is missing here like equipment comparisons in menus, inconsistent dialogue indicators, etc.; Dialogue and banter feels a tad too dull and 'safe' at times; Story lacks urgency and any compelling hook.
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