Stray Blade Review – Strained Slicing

Thinking about Stray Blade, Point Blank Games’ Souls-like, Metroid-like action-adventure hack-and-slash RPG, I’m reminded somewhat of Remnant: From the Ashes. Developed by Gunfire Games, whose staff worked on the famous Darksiders series, it was a Souls-like third-person shooter without much hype. However, it surpassed those expectations, selling over 3 million copies and delivering great action, excellent lore and memorable environments. It was a game that over-delivered despite next-to-no expectations from it.

Stray Blade feels like it’s on that same cusp. Its animated visuals are appealing, striking a balance between fantasy and cartoony. The biomes aren’t super-inspired, but they’re not terrible-looking either, and some of the latter ones can be striking in some ways. Unfortunately, these positives and the various genre buzzwords don’t coalesce into a good game. It’s a shame because Stray Blade can be enjoyable when it’s not constantly tripping over itself.

"I can’t decide if they’re easy-going, awkward or goofy. But odd bloodlust in combat aside, Farren’s personality feels pretty dull throughout."

The story concerns Farren, a supposedly low-class explorer venturing to Acrea, the Lost Valley. After messing with something they shouldn’t have, they die. Not long after, they’re suddenly revived without any clue what happened and a mysterious stone in their chest. Unable to leave the land, Farren ventures forth, learning more about a mysterious ancient race, and the mandatory bosses that must be beaten.

I’m being non-descript with some things, and it’s not just to avoid spoilers. Stray Blade’s story starts out promising but is quickly let down by none other than Farren, who is constantly conversed. You could argue that Aloy or Geralt do the same, but Farren isn’t all that interesting. I can’t decide if they’re easy-going, awkward or goofy. But odd bloodlust in combat aside, their personality feels pretty dull throughout.

Sooner than later, Farren runs into Boji, who is searching for his master. While his motivations are interesting enough, backed by solid voice acting and decent lore drops, Stray Blade thinks it necessary to have Boji stop and speak to you whenever he needs to talk. No conversations on the go – stay a while and listen, instead. However, when it happens a half dozen times in minutes, I just start spamming “Skip” to get back to the game.

"You can’t dodge an attack that should be parried (unless you’re far enough away), and you can’t parry an attack that must be dodged. As enemies start mixing up the two, it becomes a headache to keep track."

Even worse is that Farren’s dialogue seems to deteriorate further after meeting Boji. Expect to hear about the “living backpack” a lot, which is and never will be funny. You’ll also have to get used to several repeated lines as you perform actions, from Farren’s “There’s so much to collect!” to Boji’s “May their souls be guided to the Flux” after slaying enemies.

If the Flux is Hell, then yes, by all means. While Boji does have some clever lines when dragging Farren’s corpse to a respawn point, having the option to skip these – since they also tend to repeat – would be nice. If nothing else, I want to return to the action after dying instead of watching the same animation, overtly long cutscene play out.

If the combat in Stray Blade were solid enough, I could forgive the story-telling, lame dialogue and subpar protagonist. There are things to like as you go further along, but it initially feels sluggish owing to the sheer energy drain required for each swing. Then there are the Parry and Dodge mechanics. You can also block, but that’s only for weapons with shields, and the energy cost makes it not worth it.

You would think that the Parry and Dodge would function similarly to Dark Souls or even Bloodborne. Use the Parry button at the right time to stun an enemy and deal damage or Dodge their attacks, which also requires proper timing but can be more forgiving. For the most part, Stray Blade follows those tenets, except that all attacks must be either parried or dodged, denoted as blue and red. You can’t dodge an attack that should be parried (unless you’re far enough away), and you can’t parry an attack that must be dodged. As enemies start mixing up the two, it becomes a headache to keep track.

"Hilariously, due to the lacklustre enemy variety – wild beasts apparently fit into every type of climate in Acrea – you can often predict when the next attack is coming, such are the repetitive combos throughout."

Maybe this is to give fights that feeling of coordinated dance. Parry and Dodge restore energy with the right timing, so it helps compensate for the slow energy regen. While it works out in boss fights, where the attack tells are decently sized, it’s annoying in regular fights, especially with spear-wielders. Even more annoying is that if you miss parrying a multi-hit attack, all the other hits land with no opportunity to parry, block or dodge.

It’s an annoying system, and the energy gains are often not worth it past the opening parts. Parrying doesn’t give that much of a window for counter-attacking anyway, but you have to do it or eat some free damage. There are also break gauge-like mechanics for enemies, where depleting their stamina opens them up to finishers. Which is fine, if their stamina didn’t recover almost immediately upon backing off.

Many enemies also seemingly have no hit stun threshold at times – I’m not sure if it’s weapon-based or due to their armor. Depending on the enemy, I’m likely to take a hit right after my initial attack. Hilariously, due to the lacklustre enemy variety – wild beasts apparently fit into every type of climate in Acrea – you can often predict when the next attack is coming, such are the repetitive combos throughout. Sadly, it doesn’t invalidate the various criticisms of the combat system, and nearly every enemy having delays to their attacks like they’re Margott the Fell Omen is certainly a choice.

It’s all a shame because when you get into it, the combat in Stray Blade has a decent heft. Sure, it’d be nice to have the infinite energy that some enemies do, constantly dodging and unleashing powerful hits (shout out to that one shove attack that almost every human enemy has, which takes off nearly a segment of health, every time). But some of your hits feel nice and chunky, and the finisher animations are appropriately visceral, if somewhat buggy.

"Since there is an RPG element here, Farren – the protagonist, in case you forgot, because I did – can acquire skills in a skill tree. Except they can’t, sort of."

Now, if only we could get some of the little things superior titles implement with their combat. Like enemies that aren’t immediately performing an attack after being caught off guard, or dancing off a cliff because they’re so into dodging. Or even that one random enemy stuck in an animation loop, or those others that failed to react, even as I was up in their grill.

Since there is an RPG element here, Farren – the protagonist, in case you forgot, because I did – can acquire skills in a skill tree. Except they can’t, sort of. You must actually equip a weapon, earn enough kills for mastery and unlock its “special attributes,” which are other skills in the skill tree. Why must I use and level the awful Firemace to carry more healing items? Your guess is as good as mine.

Furthermore, you don’t even get the weapons for free – their blueprints unlock on leveling up and must be crafted. The game is usually good about handing out materials, though you’ll need to travel off the beaten path for Bonedust, an essential element for anything. But it’s also required for armor, and sooner or later, you’re going to run short. So you’ll have skill points just sitting around, waiting to be spent until enough materials are gathered, a weapon accrues enough mastery or both.

There are also Arcane Forges to build super-cool weapons like the Crescent Twins, using Intium and Artifacts. They even provide access to two more skills on the skill tree, instead of one. Oh, and if you somehow forget how to reach the one Arcane Forge, don’t worry – you’ll probably never find another one, so it’s all moot.

"As you defeat generals, Farren also learns some traversal skills, including a teleport and a slam that creates paths from molten rocks."

As weapons gain mastery, they also unlock Rune Slots, allowing you to attach temporary buffs like restoring health on finishers, more critical hit chance and increased weapon XP per kill. You also gain access to its special skill, which ranges from decent – see the Assassin Blade’s two-hit attack – to questionable, like that one sword-and-shield’s rising uppercut that deals damage into a falling stab that does nothing. You can’t swap skills on similar weapon types with each other.

When you’re not in combat, exploration can be fun. There are all kinds of nooks and crannies, providing some interesting lore. The latter also grants Lore Points, which are necessary to increase the duration of Runes and upgrade Boji’s skills, including an Arcane Blast to “stun” enemies and a chance to revive Farren on the spot. There’s some platforming and almost no puzzles, but admiring the environment and learning more about the world can be a nice change of pace.

Along with Acrean Trees of Life, which don’t heal you and only serve as checkpoints if you die (but also require manual activation), there are giant fungi which act as fast travel points. There are never quite enough of the latter, so you’ll often have to do some hefty back-tracking to reach places. On the one hand, the Souls-like equivalent of a bonfire, with every Tree of Life serving as a fast-travel point and heal station, would have been ideal. Some Metroid-style games keep the fast travel points and save rooms separately. In the case of Stray Blade, I would have preferred the bonfires just to cut down on the time I had to deal with enemies.

As you defeat generals, Farren also learns some traversal skills, including a teleport and a slam that creates paths from molten rocks. Both look cool, though the former is susceptible to breaking. You need to target a point and teleport to it, then to the next, which is fine. Sometimes, you can’t lock on and manually targeting it does nothing, leaving you stuck in some places. Both skills are usable in combat, and while it’s cool at first to teleport to a target to catch them by surprise, it’ll mostly open you up to free hits.

"Stray Blade is a game that could have been something more. With additional polish, it could at least be more fun to play, ensuring smoother exploration and less problematic enemies."

However, the slam does some decent stamina damage. Oftentimes, I would slam, then use Boji’s Arcane Blast to nearly deplete an enemy’s stamina and then finish them. While it sounds like a fun mechanic, it’s more to circumvent some annoying enemies later.

Overall, the world is pretty sizable, and there are plenty of things to discover, even if you don’t care about the story (and rest assured it’s skippable). Some areas suffer from being little more than backdrops for plain stretches of combat, instead of lending some nuanced mechanics of their own, but the traversal skills do make up for it at times. The world does tend to change as you progress further, but all I really noticed were more difficult enemies popping up in some previously peaceful areas. By then, I had just given up on fighting them and running. The combat had become that tedious by then.

Stray Blade is a game that could have been something more. With additional polish, it could at least be more fun to play, ensuring smoother exploration and less problematic enemies. However, even if some of the design choices with the combat warrant some significant overhauls, you’re still left with a fairly average story, above-average to decent exploration, and a nice-looking aesthetic. It just isn’t worth dealing with, given all the other issues.

This game was reviewed on PC.