'Eternal Strands' (Image: Yellow Brick Games)
Yellow Brick Games’ first game, fantasy RPG Eternal Strands, is the game of every wannabe-magic-wielder’s dreams if they don’t mind putting up with a couple of minor glitchy moments.
Fantasy RPG fans have been super excited to play Eternal Strands since the game was revealed last April, and now it’s finally here. The game was released on Jan. 28 for Xbox Series X|S, Game Pass, PlayStation 5, Steam and PC. So far, gamers have found Eternal Strands to be loads of fun as the game allows you to use magic abilities more or less to your heart’s content. However, because of the ambitious action and wide range of abilities combined with a small indie development team, the game can get a little goofy with physics at times. Most players agree, though, that Eternal Strands’ occasional hiccups don’t ruin the overall quality and wonder of the game.
Eternal Strands is an open-world RPG with multiple smaller-scale maps to explore within the greater world of the game. In the Eternal Strands universe, the people who practice magic are called weavers and are frowned upon by society after a tragic event took place many years ago. A large kingdom of weavers was at the center of this catastrophe and has since locked themselves away, disappearing in the wake of the destruction. The character you play is Brynn, a young woman who joins a band of weavers to set out to that lost kingdom in order to discover what actually happened.
Much of the game is spent exploring the maps and fighting enemies in order to collect resources to enhance your magical abilities and progress in the game’s story. The game feels reminiscent of Breath of the Wild or Immortals: Fenyx Rising in the style of art and character designs, and the gameplay isn’t too dissimilar either. Some basic mechanics include dodging, blocking, parrying, locking on to enemies, shooting arrows and using charged melee attacks to get some harder hits on your enemy. On top of that, Brynn can successfully climb up almost any surface as long as you properly account for the depleting stamina bar that limits how far she can go before needing to rest or otherwise falling.
Each map that you visit throughout your journey is ruled by a massive boss that can be defeated and harvested for rare resources that are necessary to learn more magic and upgrade your skills. The bosses do respawn, which allows you to harvest its resources as needed. When the game begins, Brynn is able to cast walls of ice that can be used to put out fires or hurled at enemies as well as telekinesis that allows her to lift up anything (objects and enemies alike) and throw it anywhere. Later on, you can learn to cast fire and some other useful spells and telekinetic tricks.
The downside to all of this freedom is that Eternal Strands will sometimes lose its balance – literally. Players have reported occasionally flying off of bosses or cliffs for no apparent reason, and there have also been some issues with fire magic not working as it should. Enemies may also get stuck amongst debris and overall game performance can become spotty if there are too many enemies around or items breaking at one time. However, these are some relatively minor issues and players report that even if things get a little weird, it doesn’t negatively affect the overall quality or playability of the game.
Eternal Strands’ story progresses when you return to your band’s camp, where you’ll be assigned quests that will require you to explore the varied maps of the world, sometimes at differing times of day or in differing weather conditions. These conditions may also impact the difficulty of the environment, but the loot is worth your efforts. With that in mind, dying before returning to camp can result in losing practically all of your loot, which raises the stakes and creates an exciting level of tension as you play through more difficult quests.
Despite some glitchy moments here and there, fantasy RPG lovers have agreed that Eternal Strands is loads of fun. Practically everything in the maps’ environments can be utilized as a weapon, including enemies, which makes the gaming experience unique and totally worth randomly falling off of cliffs sometimes (fall damage will practically never kill you anyway). Since the game is brand new, it’s also likely that Yellow Brick Games is well aware of these issues and is working to patch them.
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