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Eternal Strands


Maryokutai

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I think maf posted a trailer for this at some point but I couldn't find a topic, so might have been in the Random News. Got reminded of it through EDGE's current title story (which I haven't read yet).

 

This looks a bit generic, albeit not unappealing at first glance, with its inspirations clearly visible, but the mix is rather fresh I think. Fundamentally it's an action RPG, that much is obvious, but it seems to incorporate some of the BotW-style playfulness with physics and elements into its combat, allowing you, for example, to freeze an enemy's legs to make them immobile and climb on top of them (SotC/Dragon's Dogma style). I've also seen clips where parts of the environment could be destroyed, which all in all promises a bit more physical interactivity during engagements than is usually the case in this genre.

 

From what I understand, but don't quote me on this, this is made by a couple of BioWare alumni, even though it's vastly different from that studio's output. Comes out at the end of the month, and will be on Gamepass.

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So I read EDGE's feature on this today and it seems really ambitious. One thing I found extremely impressive is that it actually calculates the temperature of everything ingame, be it atmosphere, objects or characters. Which means that your fire and ice powers aren't just your usual videogame damage tools, but actually respond somewhat accurately to the laws of thermodynamics. Example: traditionally you would attack an enemy covered in ice with fire, but in this case that's actually not recommended because the ice has an insulating effect and reduces fire's effectiveness. On the other hand, heavy armour becomes more brittle when frozen, and attacks on heavily armoured foes do more damage in that state.

 

How this all works out in the end, who knows, but it's really cool (pun not intended) to see a studio use those modern hardware resources for something more substantial than Raytracing and 4K. It's also mentioned that the developer is self-publishing it, which just a couple of days into the year makes me already think about breaking my oath to buy fewer games. Maybe next month – if it turns out well.

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8/10 from Edge, which is a high recommendation from them

 

Quote

Eternal Strands succeeds because it's as forgiving as it is open ended. It wants you to play with fire - not to mention ice and kinetic energy...Even then, we're still frequently sidetracked by the temptation to test new magic on enemies we've fought before, or break something just because we can. The three core magic properties interact in such enjoyably logical ways, they beg to be tossed together like a wild chemistry experiment.

 

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Yeah, I think I might get this sometime next month. Will have to sprinkle in something between it and Dragon Age though, they're very different games but stylistically close enough that I might otherwise feel some fatigue when booting this up.

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That's a really good call I think for a game like this because it looks and sounds like something you have to give a proper try to really understand the mission statement.

 

Their launch trailer also is a weird collage of community comments, which I'd usually say is a bit 'eh' but again, in this case makes sense to pre-emptively embrace the idea of wacky social media content to keep it on people's timelines.

 

 

(Their studio logo animation is ace btw. Bit of an under-appreciated artform.)

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A good review from Eurogamer, 4/5. Seems like a mix of 8s, 9s but also 6s on the aggregate sites. One of those games where it might rate sort of average but some will be way into it

 

https://www.eurogamer.net/eternal-strands-review

 

I played a few hours of the demo and have some thoughts but I think there's not enough in the demo really to sink your teeth into. It's a bit like Bioshock meets Shadow of the Colossus, you can't do a whole lot with just 2 powers. But there's 9 total in the main game and the physics and stuff seem like it would add a lot with the environment interactions as well. Has a kinda Far Cry 2 thing with its fire for instance

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Metacritic is rather low so far (69). I haven't read any reviews yet, but from what I understand it has a bit of a Monster Hunter x SotC colossus structure, where your main aim is to beat a certain amount of bosses and you always depart from camp. Which is a bit unusual but I can live with that.

 

What I find more off-putting is that you seem to lose, Souls-style, whatever you have collected in case you die. I think that goes completely against the idea of this game, which is pretty much all about throwing stuff out there and seeing what happens. High penalties when dying usually discourage experimentation, at least for me – I usually just go for tried and tested lame approaches then. Still plan on checking this out at some point, but I might have to adjust my expectations a bit.

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So the way it worked in the demo is you lose supplies, but can 'save' three of them. I wasn't struck with a sense of this being a particularly onerous aspect of the game but I couldn't really see how important the crafting and gathering systems would be. They seem pretty important but I felt you could wing things a bit.

 

One thing that happened in the demo as well is you could get a short cut back to homebase while exploring. I don't know if this is a general mechanic which would allow for less danger while out and about. I got the sense you would eventually end up with a massive surplus of things back at home base with the way it works.

 

To me though the resource economy in this game felt less like Souls and more like Breath of the Wild. Not a totally educated guess though as I didn't explore it much, I just slotted in some upgrades to make my armour more warm or something, can't remember.

 

If I had to guess, I would gather they're being influenced a bit by Dragon's Dogma's focus on preparing before 'venturing forth'. They want that element of danger in the environment as a frictional element to interact with its progression systems. I do have to say though many of the reviews have me putting this aside until I've burnt myself out on the Chadley mines first. I am interested, but less than I was initially

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Yeah, the 'venture forth' aspect was what I was alluding to with the Monster Hunter comparison (which approaches it in a more arcade-ish fashion than DD). Right now I'm looking at these features in a vacuum and picking those out that I like and that I dislike which is probably a mistake for a game like this where everything is supposed to work in tandem. I hope they put the demo on consoles, too. With Gamepass' price increase it's unfortunately not really worth it anymore to hop in for a month just to try stuff out.

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