Eternal Strands

Ambitious, surprising, and full of brilliant solutions, Eternal Strands is clearly a title developed by a team brimming with passion and talent, pulling off an exhilarating and uniquely complex adventure. Unfortunately, however, the resources of an independent team are what they are, and Yellow Brick Games' work is held back by modest production values, a somewhat uninspired art direction, and a few too many technical hiccups. Yet, despite its flaws, this remains an undeniable gem, giving us hope for the team's future. We can only hope it gets the recognition it deserves and that these developers can continue on their path—because with a little more time and resources, they clearly have the potential to create something truly great.

Eternal Strands is an action-adventure with a rather generic, if enjoyable, aesthetic and gameplay that takes a while to get going. However, when you manage to uncover its best cards, you'll find yourself immersed in a well-conceived, well-written and damn entertaining title.

Eternal Strands weaves its myriad influences into something memorable, beautiful and utterly enthralling.

Eternal Strands offers minimal handholding and opens a vast world to explore, so you’re often left fumbling around in empty spaces to discover the path to your next quest. But even this padding just leaves you yearning for the next exhilarating encounter you know will be around the corner.

Eternal Strands has the DNA from familiar and critically acclaimed games of the last few decades. But, more importantly, it works tirelessly to differentiate itself from the pack. This game is the kind of sandbox players enjoy diving into, one both forgiving and fun. Yet it’s the brilliant narrative and character work that give Yellow Brick Games’ debut an edge, making you come back run after run.

Eternal Strands is a light and breezy fantasy action RPG that's elevated by its innovative use of physics-based magic that makes even minor combat encounters feel novel. It's also thrilling to take on the larger foes, though this is more short-lived than the likes of Monster Hunter.

The game has an addicting leveling up system where all of your decisions help you out in multiple ways. While gameplay is unique and offers a lot of different ways you can go about any given situation, actually controlling the character is clunky which creates a lot of inadequate moments while playing. The robust magic and gorgeous world really puts this game in a category of its own to be seen among the established titles out there.

If you’re in the mood for a charming adventure through a gorgeous fantasy world, Eternal Strands is worth checking out.

Eternal Strands is an ambitious and satisfying first game for Yellow Brick Games. Its sandbox is teeming with interactions and calls for experimentation, its world is a pleasure to explore, and you get attached to its universe and characters despite their somewhat uneven writing.

Eternal Strands is a good game with good ideas, but it doesn't have the right structure to make the most of them, stretching its use until it becomes completely repetitive and compromising the strength of its dynamic action proposal with magic and physics.

Eternal Strands has brilliant gameplay but a weak story. It’s easy to love or hate. If you value exploration and mechanics, there’s a great game here—just don't mind the dialogues.

Since its first announcements, Eternal Strands has never hidden its big ambitions, and it must be said that it has proven to be a solid and surprisingly engaging project. The game world, the clever management of powers, the inclusion of "Titans," and how these features interact create a deeply satisfying experience, evoking feelings akin to triple-A titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It’s clear that the development team at Tellow Brick Games has poured their creative energy into the project. Of course, the budget and size of the team cannot compete with more high-profile titles, but Eternal Strands has several notable strengths, despite facing some significant drawbacks. Frame rate drops, an occasionally unresponsive camera, and imprecise magic and combat controls risk undermining the core gameplay. The story and artistic impact aren’t particularly groundbreaking but serve the roughly 25-hour gameplay experience well, while the sound design offers a few standout moments. If you're looking for a good action-adventure game, Eternal Strands may attract your attention, even if it is heavily derivative in nature.

With a mix of inspirations from games like Shadow of the Colossus, Dragon’s Dogma, and Breath of the Wild, Eternal Strands offers a fresh yet familiar action RPG experience with engaging combat, strategic encounters against giant foes, and an attractive art style. However, its ambitious design leads to occasional clunky mechanics, repetitive encounters, a lack of tutorials, and an overuse of silence in its sound design, making it feel somewhat incomplete after around 15 hours of play.

Eternal Strands has some excellent ideas that are only in need of a few layers of polish, that would make the game a must-play. This is a fantastic starting point and I’m eager to see what Yellow Brick Games does next.

Eternal Strands is a solid debut title from Yellow Brick Games. Despite some limitations, its combat system and dynamic interaction with the environment offer a variety of tactical possibilities to face epic enemies and expand the magic arsenal to keep confronting the Enclave's threats.