A titan lies dormant next to a cliff face, as if soaking the sun’s rays. Part of its metallic shell contains a mission-critical item, so this song and dance will be quite familiar: the ten-stories-tall “ark” suddenly wakes up and is ready to crush you into pestle. Similar to Eternal Strand’s own protagonist, Yellow Brick Games is flanked by immediate comparisons to several of the industry’s own behemoths: Shadow of the Colossus, the Monster Hunter series, and Breath of the Wild. With such a confident fusion, does this freshman team do enough to stand on the shoulders of giants or are they ultimately crushed under the weight of such ambitions?
Our aforementioned protagonist is Brynn, and her band of high-fantasy tropes is trying to enter “The Enclave,” a land cut off from the wider continent after a magical calamity. The half-century since this event, known as “The Surge,” has led to Brynn and other magic users to being de facto outcasts across the Mayda Basin. Driven by the prospect of discovering what caused the Surge and what dormant technology lies behind its enchanted walls, the expedition discovers a rare opening and narrowly breaks into it. With their means of leaving sealed off, the only move now is forward.
The setup is expected but functions well in illustrating the crew’s setback. Because of your rushed ingress into this land, everyone’s initially strapped for supplies; worse yet, your leader – a bipedal avian humanoid named Oria – was injured in the commotion. Brynn’s new ascension to ‘point’ means she handles the dirty work, collects intel, and gathers resources, while this ragtag crew handles disparate responsibilities back at home base, be it crafting new materiel, improving Brynn’s weaver abilities, and so on, while also being incorporated into various questlines.
You’re initially strapped for resources, sure, but at least the camp has one hell of a view. Among the features festooned across this vast landscape, the closest to camp is a dormant archway. Venturing through the first zone on foot eventually reveals said archways to be loomgates: this fantasy world’s idea of interconnected fast-travel teleporters. The first woodland area sets the tone with enticing establishing shots of important areas of interest, alongside the towering beast or ark roaming the land. After that, its Breath of the Wild sensibilities come into greater focus; the leash is detached for you to fight enemies, complete questlines, and gather resources in a way more comfortable to your own tempo.
After acclimatizing to the fast-travel system and lesser enemies, that aforementioned awakened titan now enters stage right prepared to squash you like a bug. Its name – “Ark of the Stricken Earth” – and gargantuan health bar are certainly imposing at first blush, but Brynn’s natural pluck with Breath of the Wild’s climbing/stamina system makes any part of these giants immediately open to attack. The concept is relatively simple: either fire arrows or slice away at said titan’s fleshy weak points – be they exposed legs, arms, abdomen, back, and whatnot. You can’t keep hacking at the same spot, though. That exposed area will immediately indurate after several strikes, which then compels you to attack elsewhere whilst also avoiding being grabbed or shaken off. Rinse and repeat until that health bar hits zero. It’s an ersatz Shadow of the Colossus, basically.
Mentioning Team ICO’s masterwork is more than skin deep; it’s also an effective means of delineating between both titles’ mechanical and thematic goals. This world’s Great Foes (as they’re called) don’t die upon defeat. They’re having a lie-down until you egress elsewhere. And after greeting each one at their initial starting point, they’ll continually alternate between various zones. At first blush, that approach looks rather toothless – in both diminishing any thematic pull about mortality and that initial luster of these imposing figures. There’s a Teen rating… and then there’s a Nerf Teen rating. But this intentional decision also means there are different ways to skin a titan. While the first time defeating them unlocks a new weaver ability by default, upgrading said powers can only be done by ripping out their “strand.” The means of revealing this weak point varies between them; one requires destroying all the vent shafts on its weapon, while another needs to have a wing clipped. And only after successfully pulling the strand out without interruption does it count as a success.
As a testament to its freeform emergent design, Brynn’s magical gifts can also play a vital role in defeating her biggest adversaries. Her weaver powers fall into a triptych of fire, ice, and kinetic. Take some of the earliest spells unlocked here. The first one enables her to shoot streams of chunky, blue ice cubes. They come in handy to put out fires, freeze enemies in place, and even hinder bosses, such as clumping up a drake’s wing(s) or icing an ark’s free hand as it’s trying to snatch you. They can even become makeshift bridges or ramps, but it comes with a drawback: the frigid temperature will quickly harm you unless you’ve drunk a frost potion or are wearing good frost-resistant gear. The other early power is essentially Force Throw with almost every object that’s not nailed down: shrubbery, wood planks, incendiary bombs, enemies, your own ice blocks, and so on. When considering the humorous possibilities, especially the prospect of simply chucking minions over a precipice, it makes sense that it serves as the default.
Seeing the excited UI flip between so many environmental options feels reminiscent of Control’s delightful concrete destruction. As much as I enjoy Remedy’s paranatural shooter, one critique against its gameplay tempo is the favoritism to one specific ability at the exclusion of greater experimentation. Sure, that’s partly the case with Brynn’s first two abilities here, but it becomes increasingly less so as more unique situations are laid at your feet. There’s something so… nonchalant and welcoming about its magic system, simply because of how much can be destroyed on-screen. Anything with damage numbers – tall wooden doors, stone columns, etc. – can eventually be whacked down to bits. Even wood platforms and steps beneath your feet can break.
Beyond just the quaint experimentation of other powers to play with, launching every minion down a ravine also means you lose out on potentially-rewarding resources; in fact, one reason to put up with its more… lackluster combat is the rewarding loot. But instead of the more traditional routine of common (grey), uncommon (green), rare (blue), epic (purple), & legendary (orange) weapons and armor littered around a felled beast, Eternal Strands transplants those tiers strictly to resources. Finding new armor and weapon sets outside Brynn’s default is wholly reliant on finding those schematics tucked away. Beyond different stat bonuses, each resource alters the color pigment of said armor piece or weapon; for example, perhaps building the strongest bow translates to it having a teal body, red drawstring, and purple cloth wrapping for the grip. And once trading with Camp Supplies (in-game currency) opens up about midway through, there’s an incentive to value all loot, since lower-level stuff can still be salvaged.
Admittedly, many of these descriptive evaluations aren’t great revelations to the action-adventure/quasi-RPG genre as a whole; it’s an ersatz Shadow of the Colossus blended with an ersatz Breath of the Wild. But that’s part of what makes Yellow Brick’s entry so interesting: seeing a middle-market title ($40) experiment with such confidence. Yes, its modest production values and limitations do brush against that enthusiasm in several ways. Zelda fans have a stronger defense for the creative scenarios made by Breath and Tears’ weapon durability system compared to Brynn’s bow ‘n arrow, sword ‘n shield, and two-handed weapon options that remain stagnant (outside of cosmetics & one bonus move). Ranged and melee combat is quite flimsy, climbing the giants can get finicky, and other issues prevent it from reaching its higher potential; and yet, its emergent design, alongside its difficulty curve (especially on Hard), captures a flow state more games ought to follow.
Sadly, its concoction of familiar storytelling tropes doesn’t find the same success. To writer Kate MacMullin’s credit, I appreciate when world-building harmonizes with gameplay. From the randomized weather effects to harnessing a great foe’s strand, so many background gameplay details feel well-realized in this world. It’s a shame, then, that the characters you spend so much time with are mostly boilerplate tropes. There’s also too much reminiscent of Dragon Age: The Veilguard in tone and structure. Brynn’s most vocal critic early on pirouettes a mere half-hour later – despite her hesitations being quite reasonable. There are even group colloquies for each major plot point, each one another opportunity to spout bland aphorisms and therapy-talk. This toothless approach can’t help but sap most character tension and buildup.
It’s also a bit tough to be ensorcelled with this diverse troupe when most of the story is told through static illustrations & dialogue chains. You can tell by the scant anime sequences where Yellow Brick decided to limit the budget, which is understandable given its double-digit runtime (20+ for completionists). But if that sacrifice is what afforded a full roster of quality voice actors and Austin Wintory helming the soundtrack then fair enough. The problem is how safe and expected those qualities still ultimately feel. Between them and its “Fortnite Unity Engine” art design, there’s not enough creative escape velocity to leave me thoroughly rapt within this high-fantasy world. It still successfully goes through the motions, but it’s practically begging to get more adventurous and weirder.
In spite of these standard high-fantasy trappings, Eternal Strands feels more exciting than expected. Like our plucky protagonist, Yellow Brick Games went headfirst in clambering up the great industry titans to catch our attention. There are certainly some pitfalls along the way – individual design faults tempting anyone to shake the project off altogether – and its story isn’t the next Tolkien. But what keeps interest going comes back to those nuances: the intuitive crafting system, the experimentation of Brynn’s magical abilities, and the small unique emergent stories of your own borne out of triumphs or mishaps. That doesn’t necessarily make this freshman effort a new giant in the genre, but a sub-boss can be an imposing force all the same.
Contractor by trade and writer by hobby, Lee’s obnoxious criticisms have found a way to be featured across several gaming sites: N4G, VGChartz, Gaming Nexus, DarkStation, and TechRaptor! He started gaming in the mid-90s and has had the privilege in playing many games across a plethora of platforms. Reader warning: each click given to his articles only helps to inflate his Texas-sized ego. Proceed with caution.
Full Article – https://www.vgchartz.com/article/464056/eternal-strands-xs/
