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.

SETTING AND STORY

Eternal Strands is set in a mystical realm known as the Enclave. Once a bustling hub of magical advancement, the Enclave has now been quiet and dormant for decades. The game will see players stepping into the shoes of Brynn, a young Weaver, who are warriors just as capable of unleashing magical abilities as they are adept with the sword. Part of a group of several fellow Weavers who entered the Enclave, Brynn’s goal is to uncover the mysteries surrounding its past, and try and bring it back to its former glory.

NOT NARRATIVE-DRIVEN

Eternal Strands developer Yellow Brick Games boasts talent that has worked on everything from Dragon Age to Assassin’s Creed and more, but in spite of that strong link to narrative-driven games, that’s not the direction that Eternal Strands is headed in. Speaking in an interview with GamingBolt, chief creative officer Mike Laidlaw explained that the action-adventure title is first and foremost a gameplay-centric experience.

“The story’s there to provide context, goals, quests and so on that push our players to enjoy and experiment while in combat and exploring the world,” he said. “With this focus in mind, we decided very early in development that Eternal Strands was not going to be a game about tough moral choices or dilemmas, but instead a tale of discovery. A group of competent experts unravelling the mysteries of what happened to the Enclave.”

OPTIONAL STORY CONTENT

Though story isn’t the focus in Eternal Strands, players looking for deeper narrative context are going to have a decent amount of optional story content to seek out. Laidlaw told GamingBolt that the game has “dozens of completely optional dialogs” (all of them voiced) that “react to Brynn’s progress through the story, her discoveries, and so on.” He added, “These aren’t needed to complete the game, but we feel they add both texture and depth for players who want to dig deeper into the story.”

ELEMENTAL ABILITIES

Eternal Strands’ moment-to-moment combat will involve plenty of melee combat, but at the heart of the experience is going to be an elements system. Brynn will be equipped with a magical cloak called the Mantle that will allow her to unleash fire and ice attacks, and every single thing in the world both in and out of combat will reach to heat and cold accordingly, further encouraging players to mix and match and experiment.

TELEKINETIC ABILITIES

Just as crucial as Brynn’s elemental abilities will be her ability to unleash telekinetic magic on her foes. That, of course, means you can pick up any number of objects or items in the environments and use them as weapons to be thrown at enemies from a distance (or perhaps to block incoming attacks). Though the elemental systems will remain at the heart of Eternal Strands’ gameplay, Brynn’s telekinetic abilities are also obviously going to have an important role to play.

BOSSES

Eternal Strands has made several intriguing promises that have captured people’s attention, and high on that list is the game’s boss encounters. The action-adventure title will see players taking on a number of massive, titanic bosses over the course of their journey. Yellow Brick Games’ has explicitly mentioned Shadow of the Colossus as one of the inspirations for the game’s bosses, with a total of nine gigantic bosses to seek out, climb over, and defeat.

TRAVERSAL

Eternal Strands is also placing quite a bit of emphasis on its traversal mechanics, with players seemingly being given many different ways to navigate the world. For starters, Brynn’s elemental and telekinetic abilities will be just as useful for traversal as they will be in combat- like building bridges made of ice to cross vast chasms, for instance. Meanwhile, similar to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, the game will also let players freely climb every surface in the world.

PHYSICS SYSTEM

A particular point of pride for Yellow Brick Games with Eternal Strands is the game’s physics system, which, according to the developer, is key to its systemic nature. As we already touched on, temperature and elements will play a crucial role- so heat will spread, while ice will, of course, cool things down. Everything in the world will abide by those rules (so fires spreading beyond control will be a possibility, as an example), while the game will also tout real-time destruction mechanics.

WORLD

No, Eternal Strands isn’t going to be open world, instead adopting a more linear and compact structure, but players will nonetheless traverse and explore a variety of different locations as they trek through the Enclave. The full extent of that environmental diversity obviously remains to be seen, but Yellow Brick Games has confirmed that players can expect to explore dense urban environments, untamed wilds, and more.

INSPIRATIONS

Eternal Strands clearly borrows a page or two from more than a few games. Chief among them is obviously Shadow of the Colossus, with Laidlaw telling GamingBolt, “Shadow of the Colossus inspired the scale of our foes. […] Like Colossus, there’s no way to bring these foes down by just hitting them in the ankle over and over. Where we differ from Colossus, though, is that where its foes had specific weak points that had to be struck to defeat them… almost like a “puzzle” approach to their defeat, we let you find your own solutions by casting and combining magic and weapons.”

In addition to Shadow of the Colossus, the game also takes inspiration from the likes of Dragon’s Dogma and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. In terms of tone and visuals, meanwhile, Laidlaw says Eternal Strands also takes inspiration from The Mummy and Game of Thrones.

LENGTH

Eternal Strands is going to be a pretty substantial experience, by the look of things. Laidlaw confirmed to GamingBolt that the action-adventure title will be about 25 hours long on average. However, it also features “a lot of exploration opportunities and side quests”, courtesy of which he says the overall play time can “vary a lot.”

MUSIC

Eternal Strands has plenty of big-name talent working on it, as we’ve already touched on, and that extends to the game’s music as well. Its soundtrack is composed by lauded musician and composer Austin Wintory, who is best known for his work on Journey, The Pathless, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, Hades 2, and more.

PC DEMO

If Eternal Strands has piqued your curiosity but you’re still not quite sure about whether you want to fully dive in, luckily for you, the game is going to have a demo on offer soon. On January 21, a week ahead of the full game’s release, a demo of Eternal Strands will become available on PC only. Players will be able to play through the prologue, and yes, you’ll be able to take all of your progress with you into the full games.

COMING TO GAME PASS

If you were thinking “this looks like the perfect Game Pass game”, as it turns out, that’s exactly what it is. Yellow Brick Games has confirmed that the game will be available to Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers upon release. Continued members of the old base Game Pass tier (which has been replaced for newcomers by the new Standard tier) will also get the game day and date.

PC REQUIREMENTS

Playing Eternal Strands on PC will thankfully not require a particularly demanding rig. On minimum settings, players will need either an i5-9400 or a Ryzen 5 3350, along with either a GeForce GTX 1660 Supe, a Radeon RX 5600 XT, or an Arc A580, as well as 8 GB RAM. On recommended settings, meanwhile, you’ll need either an i5-11600 or a Ryzen 5 5600X, along with either a GeForce RTX 3070, a Radeon RX 6800, or an Arc A770, on top of 16 G B of RAM. On either setting, you’ll also need an SSD and about 24 GB of free storage space.

While it launches on January 28th, the developer has confirmed a public demo for launch on January 21st. It will only be available for PC via Steam and features the game’s Prologue. Progress carries over to the full release, making this a great way to get a head start.

Eternal Strands is also coming to Xbox Series X/S and PS5. Game Pass subscribers can also play it on day one. The main story takes 25 to 35 hours, but completionists may require 40 hours. Check out our interview with the developer here.

Of course, the journey doesn’t stop at launch as Yellow Brick is teaming with Square Enix’s Creative Studio III of Final Fantasy 16 fame to release a new free Epic creature, armor, and weapons. Learn more about it here.

PINCH ME, IS THIS REAL LIFE?! We are SO honored to be on the cover of @edgeonline‘s next issue!! THANK YOU! 🥹💛

Inside, you’ll learn more about the public demo of the game’s prologue coming to Steam on January 21 – progress carries over to the full game on January 28! 😁💛 https://t.co/zpU7mCNUmK

— Yellow Brick Games ✨ ETERNAL STRANDS | 28 JAN 2025 (@YellowBrick_Qc) December 23, 2024

Taking to BlueSky, the developer announced that Eternal Strands has gone gold, which means development on the fantasy action-adventure title has wrapped up, with a gold master now ready. The studio will, of course, likely continue working on ironing out bugs and further polishing the experience. 

A new trailer for Eternal Strands was premiered earlier this month, with Yellow Brick Games also announcing a release date for January 28, 2025. Upon launch, the action-adventure title will be priced at $39.99. 

Eternal Strands will be available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC (via Steam and Epic Games Store). It will also be available via Game Pass at launch. For more details on the game, head on over here to read our interview with Yellow Brick Games.

Eternal Strands will launch next month, on January 28, and will also be available via Game Pass at launch. Check out its release date trailer below, which offers new glimpse of the action-adventure title’s world, combat, bosses, and more. 

Meanwhile, Yellow Brick Games has also announced a collaboration with Square Enix’s Creative Studio III, known for Final Fantasy 14 and Final Fantasy 16 for post-launch content. Based on art by the latter, Yellow Brick will release a free new Epic creature to fight, alongside unique armour and weapons. You can catch a glimpse of the Epic monster and the aerial fight it involves in the trailer below. 

Upon its launch, Eternal Strands will be available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. For more details on the game, check out our interview with its dev team through here.

"Having a small team is actually one of the reasons why Eternal Strands is using systemic gameplay. Although it was our goal from the start, building systems that allow for this sort of reactivity allows us as developers to integrate them more easily in the end."

One big way in which Eternal Strands is different from some of the studio alum’s previous games is that it has a pre-defined character compared to a custom player one. What was the big reason for that shift? Was it narrative-driven?

Mike Laidlaw (Chief Creative Officer): Before we started Eternal Strands, we established that a primary goal of our studio, Yellow Brick Games, was to build a project that responsibly matched the talents of the team and the scope that felt right for our capacity.

Working with a single character both fit that criteria, insofar as it let us focus our scope for our first game, and allowed us to build a story that introduced our world from a specific point of view. Brynn’s been training to be a “Point,” the field person that takes the risks in every weaver band, for most of her adult life. Eternal Strands finally presents her with her time to shine, even though she’s new in the role.

This balance: one of being a novice, but still prepared and familiar with the role, lets us move the story directly to the action, which we feel really suits the game’s tone of high adventure. In a lot of ways, her character is inspired by the early appearances of Lara Croft (who was already experienced in her first games), or the competence of military veteran Rick O’Connell, brought to life by Brendan Fraser from the Mummy movies.

You have mentioned Shadow of the Colossus as one of your inspirations. Do you mean that in the way the game will tell its story, the atmosphere it strikes, the world design, or something else entirely?

Laidlaw: Shadow of the Colossus inspired the scale of our foes. It was one of the first games where the foes felt truly outsized: a massive creature that filled the screen, and that you had to approach intelligently. Like Colossus, there’s no way to bring these foes down by just hitting them in the ankle over and over. Where we differ from Colossus, though, is that where its foes had specific weak points that had to be struck to defeat them…almost like a “puzzle” approach to their defeat, we let you find your own solutions by casting and combining magic and weapons.

Where Shadow of the Colossus and Dragon’s Dogma are in more gritty, dark fantasy worlds though, Eternal Strands draws a lot more on vibrant and bright color palettes. In terms of tone, are closer to something like The Mummy than Game of Thrones in everything from the visuals to the story.

Eternal Strands looks to be very systems-driven. Given that you are working with a relatively smaller team compared to most modern AAA productions, how challenging has it been to make a game that has to be so reactive to the player and what they do?

Louis Tremblay (Chief Technology Officer): Having a small team is actually one of the reasons why Eternal Strands is using systemic gameplay. Although it was our goal from the start, building systems that allow for this sort of reactivity allows us as developers to integrate them more easily in the end.

Creating systems-driven gameplay initially takes more time in the development process, because you must take time to conceptualize, design, and build gameplay architectures that can have such systemic interactions. Once the work is done though, you do not need to spend time crafting exceptions to your rules, one after the other. After a certain threshold of boundaries, these systems-driven mechanics become a time saver. You will spend a lot more time initially, so it is not always the best approach to building a game depending on your team size – but it was worth it in our case.

"Eternal Strands is first and foremost an action-adventure game, and fans of that style of game will find themselves right at home. The story’s there to provide context, goals, quests and so on that push our players to enjoy and experiment while in combat and exploring the world."

How much of an emphasis can players expect on the narrative and storytelling in Eternal Strands?

Laidlaw: Strands is first and foremost an action-adventure game, and fans of that style of game will find themselves right at home. The story’s there to provide context, goals, quests and so on that push our players to enjoy and experiment while in combat and exploring the world. With this focus in mind, we decided very early in development that Eternal Strands was not going to be a game about tough moral choices or dilemmas, but instead a tale of discovery. A group of competent experts unravelling the mysteries of what happened to the Enclave.

This decision opened up some interesting opportunities to our storytelling. While the various members of Brynn’s weaver band help her solve those mysteries through quests, they also react extensively to her progress. The game contains dozens of completely optional dialogs – and every dialog in Eternal Strands is fully voiced – that react to Brynn’s progress through the story, her discoveries, and so on. These aren’t needed to complete the game, but we feel they add both texture and depth for players who want to dig deeper into the story.

We are very interested in the process that went behind the game’s art style. Can you talk us through how you arrived at this aesthetic for Eternal Strands?

Sébastien Primeau (Art Director):  After many years working on realistic-looking games, we knew we didn’t want to go with the full physically-based rending (PBR) with 3D scans, photogrammetry, and hyper-realistic lighting. We wanted something different, and personally, I was eager to step out of my comfort zone. Games like Team Fortress and Dishonored left a lasting impression on me with their distinct visual styles, and I always hoped I’d get the chance to work on a project like that.

When I first met with Mike before joining Yellow Brick Games, he mentioned the art direction would be stylized. On my drive home, I kept thinking about that word—”stylized.” It’s simple but leaves so much room for interpretation. Honestly, creating a stylized game is challenging, and we had to start somewhere. For inspiration, I found myself turning more to short films, anime, and movies rather than games.

Our goal was to create something that, when you take a screenshot, looks more like an illustration than a typical game. During the pandemic, with everyone feeling anxious and uncertain, we also wanted to bring some light and hope into the game’s art. That’s why Eternal Strands has such a bright, vibrant color palette—it’s meant to feel welcoming and uplifting.

Being a small team, we had to iterate fast. Our process often started with quick thumbnails and sketches to brainstorm ideas. Limited time and resources meant we had to focus on the big picture first and refine the details later. For example, achieving the painterly texture look took multiple iterations. We focused on minimizing unnecessary details and stylizing elements like roughness and normal maps to avoid a realistic look. Impressionist painters and graphic novels were big influences during this process.

I hope we’ve created something unique with Eternal Strands, and I’m excited for people to experience it.

"Our goal was to create something that, when you take a screenshot, looks more like an illustration than a typical game. During the pandemic, with everyone feeling anxious and uncertain, we also wanted to bring some light and hope into the game’s art. That’s why Eternal Strands has such a bright, vibrant color palette—it’s meant to feel welcoming and uplifting."

How is the process of developing a game like this different from working with a smaller, independent team than it was for the AAA titles your team’s veterans have worked on previously? How does that past experience inform how you have worked on Eternal Strands?

Laidlaw: AAA development, especially over several releases as many of our team have tackled, prepares you for a lot of eventualities. If you want to be on a console platform, for instance, you’ll need to pass through their certification process, and veteran developers can anticipate the needs of that process and the timeline. It works the same for just about everything: experience makes you better at estimating how long a task will take, and knowing what tools will best help you achieve your goals.

Where things differ, to our considerable delight, is that a smaller team has fewer communication problems: we all know who’s responsible for which features, which levels, which creature and so on, and it’s easy to communicate progress or get answers to questions as a result. Similarly, there’s this sense that the team knows the game we’re making and, ideally, why we’re making the decisions we have. It’s easier to bring a smaller group into consensus and ensure everyone has time to get their questions answered, and that’s been one of the delights of working on Eternal Strands.

Roughly how long will an average playthrough of the game be?

The average playthrough time is around 25 hours. This game offers a lot of exploration opportunities and side quests, so depending on your playstyle, this can vary a lot.

Any chance this game could hypothetically hit the Switch successor in the future?

We’ve announced the launch of Eternal Strands for Q1 2025 on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC (Steam & Epic Game Store). We’re always aiming to reach as many players as possible though, so you never know in the future!

Eternal Strands will boast explosive, frantic combat that will see players commanding a variety of different magical abilities, from command over fire and ice elemental attacks to being able to telekinetically throw anything and everything (including yourself). Interactivity also seems to be a huge focal point here, so when the game says you can, for instance, burn or freeze everything, it seems like it means everything.

Of course, as past trailers have confirmed, boss battles against gigantic enemies towering over you will also be a big part of Eternal Strands, and we see plenty of glimpses of that in this trailer as well, with the game continuing to show shades of Shadow of the Colossus. Check out the trailer below. 

Eternal Strands is due out in early 2025 for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Yellow Brick Games has also announced that the game will be available via Game Pass day one. 

As a central home to many Weavers, the de facto magic users of the world, the Enclave made significant progress for humanity. It’s even responsible for those giant constructs seen in previous trailers. Cue disaster, causing the Enclave to seal itself within The Veil. Nations fight, economies collapse, and Weavers are viewed less than favorably.

This is where Brynn, the protagonist, enters, traveling with a Weaverband to investigate the Enclave. What ultimately caused the disaster is unknown, but it’s a journey of discovery and, in some ways, coming of age.

Eternal Strands launches in early 2025 for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Game director Frederic St-Laurent estimates a 25-35 hour playthrough for the story, while completionists can spend 40 hours. Head here for more gameplay.

Speaking during a recent interview with Wccftech, in fact, game director Frederic St-Laurent revealed exactly how long you can expect the game to be- and clearly, it’s going to be a meaty experience. As per St-Laurent, Eternal Strands’ main story will be roughly 25-35 hours long, though completionist playthroughs can be even longer going up to as high as 40 hours.

“In a past playthrough I did, I took my time and everything, but I ended up with 40 hours doing every quest in the game. I expect players are going to go a little bit faster than that, but still, just the main path is 25 hours,” St-Laurent said.

Eternal Strands is set to launch at some point in early 2025 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, with a specific release date currently unknown. Stay tuned for more info on the game in the coming weeks and months.

With the Mantle, players can climb and interact with anything, manipulating elements and the environment to defeat enemies. Of course, foes like the Ark of the Stricken Earth construct require much more to topple. If you’re not well-equipped, returning to base camp without losing loot and crafting upgrades can provide an edge.

However, no two fights against a boss are the same because they roam the world. This means you can fight the Ark in different weather conditions or unique environments, which could present new advantages. Mount it and harness Strands to unlock new abilities.

Eternal Strands launches in early 2025 for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.