The action/adventure genre is a crowded one in the gaming industry. And when games like Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom take the genre and elevate forward, one has to ask what horizons does the genre have left to explore? Yellow Brick Studios’ Eternal Strands takes multiple inspirations and puts their own unique spin on the genre.
Playing a few hours of Eternal Strands, I’m excited to continue my adventure through the Enclave with Brynn.
Developer & Publisher // Yellow Brick Games
Platforms // Xbox Series X|S (Xbox Game Pass Ultimate), PlayStation 5, PC
MSRP & Release Date //$39.99, January 28th, 2025
Reviewed On // Xbox Series X
Story of Eternal Strands
The narrative kicks off with Brynn joining a Weaverband, a group of magic users trying to find a way into the Enclave. This mysterious, closed off location in the world is one many Weavers have been trying to uncover for decades. But Brynn and her group manage to find their way through into the Enclave.
But when one of the team gets injured, it’s up to Brynn to explore the Enclave. Each character offers something to the team, everyone voice acted with enjoyable dialog to boot. I really enjoy Brynn’s character, being a strong leader character that wants to do right for her team.
In addition, the rest of the team bounces off Brynn’s dialog organically. One early dialog with Casmyn stood out, with Brynn picking up on her concerns about the band’s resources and ensuring her things will be okay.
While exploring the Enclave, you also hear dialog from the entire group, with them chiming in about discoveries and locations you find. While there is still much left to discover with the game’s seemingly deep history and world, early impressions are positive thus far.
Gameplay of Eternal Strands – Exploration
Eternal Strands has Brynn explore open-zones, collecting resources and using her weaver magic to find new paths. Controlling Brynn feels quite unique, using a mixture of systems I didn’t expect when entering the first major area.
Regarding overall movement, running and climbing uses stamina. In a lot of ways, it’s not unlike Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom. Unlike those games though, running doesn’t drain your stamina nearly as much and the climbing mechanics take more from Shadow of the Colossus. It results in exploring the initial area being very enjoyable.
But other options include Brynn being able to use two styles of magic early on; ice and telekinesis. The former lets Brynn freeze objects in place for a short time and put out fire’s, while the later lets her pick up objects in the world and pull them toward her or throw them away.
Early on, both magic abilities aren’t used specifically for exploration save for moving some debris away and putting out a fire in the intro, but they tie heavily into the game’s combat mechanics.
Gameplay – General Combat Encounters
The combat system in Eternal Strands is unlike any game I’ve played in recent memory. On the surface, it feels very traditional, with Brynn being able to easily lock-on to targets and dodge roll away from attacks. However, the stamina system and weaving abilities make encounters feel special.
For general sword play, Brynn can perform a basic three-hit combo and use charge strikes when holding down the X button. Same applies when using your bow and arrow, being able to freely aim your shots and attack with kicks. But when pulling off any attack, regardless if you charge up strikes or otherwise, it costs stamina.
Even blocking attacks with your shield costs stamina as well. This makes even the most basic combat encounters keep you on your feet, as it’s very easy to get hit if you get careless during encounters. One advantage you have is being able to use your waving magic, freezing foes in place or throwing objects around you into threats.
And throwing objects gets additional depth, with most of the world being able to lit on fire when throwing fire-based objects. While it took me a half hour or so to fully adjust to the weight of Brynn’s abilities, I was able to enjoy the combat mechanics a lot. However, you aren’t just fighting smaller enemies.
Gameplay – Giant Encounters
Brynn early on fights a massive giant character, forcing players to use the climbing mechanics they used for general exploration to climb up these threats to cut them down. Not unlike Shadow of the Colossus, Brynn needs to hit specific weak points to dwindle away at a larger health bar. But you aren’t just hacking away at weak points, you need to reveal their armor as well.
The initial encounter presents this as ‘oh this will be easy’, since I was able to easily get the armor off the giant without issue. However, after beating them the first time, other giants start roaming the open zones. This completely shakes these encounters up, making you have to make hard decisions.
Do you face these giants head on? Do you wait for them to walk to a specific part of the map and then attack when there are less enemies around? And do you hack away at the armor first, retreat, and then use your magic abilities to chip away at the weak points from a distance?
I struggled fighting the giant in the overworld, being flung off even though I held on for dear life and threw everything at the giant. But it felt amazing getting that health bar down halfway, even though I didn’t finish it off.
To think this is the first zone’s giant encounters. I can’t wait to see what additional giants I come across during my adventure.
Design of Eternal Strands
After Brynn finishes exploring, she goes back to camp through portal gates. Talking to her allies, she can trade in various resources gathered. By doing this, Brynn can upgrade the camp itself and by doing this, gain access to additional upgrades to her magic abilities and gear.
Returning to base also refills your health potions, which starting out you have access to three at a time. In addition, a ‘day’ system is in place, though with the initial open zone, this didn’t impact my exploration too much.
Brynn can also talk with her party after each exploration, getting additional dialog and learning more about the world itself. Being early on in the game, finishing the initial open zone and starting exploration in a second one, I look forward to seeing how this evolves.
Audio/Music
One aspect of Eternal Strands I really appreciate so far is some great sound design. Exploring the open zone with Brynn, every aspect feels alive. From Brynn’s dynamic footsteps across the world and objects having solid sound effects when breaking, it creates a very immersive experience.
The voice acting for Brynn and her crew are great as well, with every line of dialog being fully voice acted. And the overall score of the game is strong, making combat encounters engaging while keeping me immersed when exploring.
Presentation/Performance
Sporting a colorful art style, the world of Eternal Strands is striking to look at. The world just pops off the screen, with plant life and lakes as far as the eye can see. A major highlight so far for me, was seeing the initial giant. Covered in aged armor, it reflects a strong sense of history just waiting for Brynn to discover.
Speaking of character design, I love the character designs. They are colorful and varied as the locations themselves, fitting perfectly in the world they take place in. I particularly love the look of Brynn, having a striking look with her face tattoo and expressive eyes.
Regarding the game’s overall performance, it ran like a dream on Series X. Sporting a stable 60FPS and a high resolution, I had very few drops during my initial hours with the game.
Closing Thoughts
I am enjoying my time with Eternal Strands a lot so far and can’t wait to play more of this enjoyable action/adventure game. Melding various game mechanics together and using their own in creative ways, it creates a unique experience that wears it’s inspirations on their sleeves.
Stay tuned for our full review for Eternal Strands!
Note – An Xbox Series X code was provided by the publisher.
