Shoutout to Terminals for the free Eternal Strands key – I’ll be submitting this review as part of my coverage. There are no spoilers; everything I mention is shown on trailers or the Steam page.

Normally I’d add all my playthrough videos within my review, but I played it across multiple streams and in between other games, as well as farming collectibles offline. As of writing, I’m 25 hours in and still have the main story quest to finish. I plan on submitting this as is and only updating if the ending changes my opinion.

Review

Eternal Strands pitches itself as an action-adventure game. It gives strong “Breath of the Wild” and “Shadow of the Colossus” vibes with the classic hack-and-slash combat. The magic system peaked my interest and while it is pretty basic, it’s quite fun to play around with and critical for gameplay completion. Protip: throw frustrating enemies off ledges for easy frags.

The hack-and-slash combat is entertaining and fluid. I loved running around, destroying everything, fight bad guys, and collecting loot. It was overall seamless and fun. Many times, I’d embark on a side quest and get distracted collecting and exploring. However, in the boss fights, it falls just short of being a flawless combat system. Many times my character would act with a mind of her own or go flying off mid fight. I wish it had just a little bit more polish to avoid frustration, but it definitely isn’t a deal break by any means.

The story dives right in during the tutorial but I wasn’t immediately hooked. I remember skipping story elements because “why should I care” initially. Once I got past the introduction and learned more about the characters, both the main character and the support NPCs, I cared more about the details. I craved this hook at the beginning. Additionally, there wasn’t an easy introduction for the characters so it took a little bit to learn who does what on the team.

Eternal Strands is pretty hands-off on letting the player learn strategies. I remember fighting the dragon over and over and losing and couldn’t figure out why. Only when I talked to a friendly NPC did I realize they had documented the strategy yet never verbalized it. I wish there were more verbal clues and hints, rather than forcing the player to read walls of text after gathering collectibles for information. Most of the game is voice acted, not sure why they didn’t add more!

Otherwise, I find the hands-off approach appealing. I can explore the world and meet challenges however I prefer. Many times I would attempt a pretty large jump over a canyon, miss, and have to climb my way back up. I do prefer this approach rather than being punished when you don’t do it the “right” way per the developers (I’m still bitter at The Talos Principle for this).

Eternal Strands has superb artstyle, including anime-style cutscenes and the 3D character model cutscenes. When you change armor, it’s reflected in all aspects of the game excluding dialogue. I enjoyed how they portrayed the group dialogue, including highlighting the speaker and changing facial expressions depending on the topic. Highly recommend the auto-play option for a more engaging experience.

Sadly, there is the classic inventory management during exploration which is a big bummer. However, once collected items are back at the camp, you never have to worry about them. Makes it easy to stockpile and hoard valuables before you realize how you can use them.

Conclusion

Overall, I highly recommend Eternal Strands to those who enjoy action adventure and open world exploration. It draws heavy inspiration from Shadow of Colossus and those old school fans will love the boss battles. It has a high price tag but I’m also not the target audience. If you’re in the same boat, simply wait for a Steam sale and give it a try. It’s definitely worth playing!