Eternal Strands

This game is not terrible, but it is meh. I'll rate the specifics below. Combat: 2 - Way too floaty, you will fly off cliffs swinging at monsters. Exploration : 2 - You only loot crafting materials--never felt exciting. Art Style: 4 - This is subjective, but I thought the world was beautiful. Dialogue: 2 - There was a lot of over explaining going on (I started to skip). Bosses: 4 - The giant monsters are cool--wish there was more of that. Gameplay loop: 3 - Going back to camp constantly felt disjointed. I want to explore the beautiful world, and breaking that up constantly felt like a chore. All in all this game is decent, but has some questionable design choices that some will enjoy, and others will find to be pretty annoying.

Only complaint is a universal one. Developers... Look, it's 2025, button mapping is a must. The control layout isn't bad at all, I'd just prefer to move afew things to my liking. No other complaints thus far, will update if that changes. Fun game. Update: After few more hours had to take 1 star away for inventory. You craft items, cool. Materials are plenty but you can only carry limited amount. Only way to empty inventory is to go back to camp which resets the zone. This makes you either choose what to pick up, or potentially loose that rare material that enemy just dropped. This discourages exploration a little bit imo. Still a fun game though.

Gave the game a decent chance, and a couple complaints. One, I feel like the character needs better damage output. After upgrading my weapons to deal 3 times their base damage, it feels like I'm still hitting starter enemies too much. Also, nerf the darters. The acid damage is way too strong for them to be able to go invisible, take less damage while invisible, and melt you from afar. Combat is fun, world is gorgeous. Rework archery with an aim option that isn't tied to clicking the right stick to lock on to targets. Just, rework bows entirely. And maybe fix inventory being too small. To have such a limited inventory while needing a TON of resources is garbage.

Played for about 2 hours. Beat the first boss and upgraded some stuff. It feels like Breath of the Wild, Fable, & Shadow of the Colossus put together. I think $40 is fair. It has fun mechanics, combat is so-so, and the boss fight felt fun. I don't know if this is my cup of tea but it is a pretty good one nonetheless.

Enjoyed this game & the magic more than Avowed & Immortals of Aveum. Mainly for the gameplay. Story was solid, easy to follow with some interesting lore/codexes. Only complaint is it's too easy to start climbing. Kinetic fire & frost magic. 10 unique spells. Two of which can be used to traverse the map super fast late game & collect everything to get 100%, which took me 38 hours without a guide (can do Spellbound on dead Great Ark). Plus 9 weapon spells across 3 weapon types. Enemies can be weakened by fire or frost magic, & that magic can make it easier to get certain resources from enemies & rocks/trees. You upgrade your gear by increasing the amount of resources & the type of resources which, increases the stats & changes the look. Later in the game you can dye your gear, salvage & exchange resources. Defeat mini bosses to learn new spells & harvest them to Max out each unique spell. Weather can make some of the flights easier or harder. Adds some flavor to exploring areas again.