Eternal Strands - Review

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This game was so challenging for me, not in the context of mechanics or story, but in the many directions this game tries to go. It is a mechanically dense combat sandbox, while also being a being narratively driven game, while also being very similar in structure to monster hunter, and all these different elements sometimes con into conflict with one another. Yet overall I still think Eternal Strands is an incredibly well made game with some incredible ideas executed phenomenally, but at the same time, I think a lot of that potential is squandered due to some really disappointing pacing in the later half of the game due to it's mission structure.

But I can almost guarantee this was entirely a concession they studio had to make for the scope of game they were able to ship. In order to tie up all the loose ends of the story and get the narrative across the finish line, the game needed to have more padded out quests that have you fetching log entries, but it comes at the cost of all of the momentum gained from hunting the different boss monsters earlier. I get that they likely did not have the resources to pump out more boss monsters to fill out the end of that middle 3rd / the beginning of the last act, but I still couldn't help feeling more and more like I was rushing to end the because of it.

But I still do think this is an incredible game. The elemental combat sandbox gives you so much space to play around with and I can't imagine how hard it was to get it working as well as it does. It can still be a little jank (especially with the gravity powers), but that's to be expected with this flavor of physics systems. And the character writing is really what got me to stick with it till the end to see the conclusion of everyone's arcs.

Far from a perfect experience, but it's one that has stuck in my brain and really forced me to grapple with all the different aspects of gaming and my relationship to them. And I think that's all I can really ask from any piece of art.