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[Punished Miku]

Got the platinum. Absolutely loved the game.

I will just say that for people struggling with the bipedal limb freeze achievement there is an extremely funny way to cheese it with zero effort.

I'll be back for the updates.

 

[Punished Miku]

The DLC was okay. Pretty minimal but its free. The new power was a bit of a let down but its clear this was mostly a reskin DLC without a ton of manpower. New level, New monster and a couple pieces of gear.

Was still fun to revisit the game. Some of the best magic combat ever in a video game. Insanely underrated game.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Wow I completely forgot about this game and didn't even realize it launched 4 months ago. I haven't heard a single thing about it.

 

[Hollywood Hitman]

Wow I completely forgot about this game and didn't even realize it launched 4 months ago. I haven't heard a single thing about it.

It wasn't great. I platinumed it and only did so because I'm sometimes a masochistic completionist... But yea it had some decent stuff but overall alot of crap

 

[GymWolf]

Wow I completely forgot about this game and didn't even realize it launched 4 months ago. I haven't heard a single thing about it.

I saw cohh playing the demo some time ago and i thought it looked dull af.

 

[Punished Miku]

It's clear the overwhelming consensus is that this game is barely worth noticing or remembering, but I still am shocked at the degree of indifference. Since I'm apparently the only person on the internet that likes it, I'll leave a final summary of the cool things in it.

When I see an RPG, either to make a point or out of bitterness, I always partially compare it in the back of my mind to Metaphor rated 90. How long would it take the Persona team to make a game that pulls off what Eternal Strands is? Are they even skilled enough or capable? The answer is they couldn't pull it off in 20 years, if at all.

• The best physical magic system I've ever seen in a game. It's the western Dragon's Dogma. The fire feels like fire. The ice feels like ice. It has physics, environmental reactivity. Everything blends together seamlessly. Throw an ice mine and shoot more ice into the center and it does a snap hyper cold freeze. Throw out a kinetic orb and fill it with fire and it amplifies into a fire explosion. Go to an area with blizzard weather and use the ice golem transformation and you see in real time the weather effect changing in a radius around your character. Ice tempers active flames, and fire melts back the ice. Just the final fire power alone is truly shocking in how cool it is and how well it interacts with the world. You can run a strand of molten cannons across a ceiling and it traces the geometry perfectly, shoots out flames that destroy all the furniture and set blazes to environmental elements prone to it. You can even attach it to flying creatures and turn them into fire bombers that hit everything below. You can run it vertically along a skinny pole and turn it into a 6 level horizontal flame cannon and you do this on any surface and it just works.
• Giant parts of each level are destructible, and it all has physics and the game runs perfectly. This is a joy when using physics powers especially.
• Climb any surface like Breath of the Wild.
• Combat has weight and feels good. The two handed sword is one of the weightier melee weapons I've used in a WRPG.
• The game is just packed with lore; literally almost too much lore. It's hours of reading.
• Multiple interesting, giant bosses that are well designed and fun to fight. A nearly non-existent thing in WRPGs.
• Even the crafting system is above average. Each material that you pick for the stats corresponds to the actual color the armor turns out so you visually look like what you're picking.
• New IP and launched for only $40, and it's the studio's first game ever.

Yes, it is a bit repetitive but it's $40. You grind for mats, fight the same bosses multiple times, etc. But I think it's a towering achievement for a new studio and I would love a sequel. This is one of the few games where a new studio is started by "industry vets" and you can really see it. It accomplishes things that other RPGs dream of in their combat system, on a fraction of the budget and price.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

It's clear the overwhelming consensus is that this game is barely worth noticing or remembering, but I still am shocked at the degree of indifference. Since I'm apparently the only person on the internet that likes it, I'll leave a final summary of the cool things in it.

When I see an RPG, either to make a point or out of bitterness, I always partially compare it in the back of my mind to Metaphor rated 90. How long would it take the Persona team to make a game that pulls off what Eternal Strands is? Are they even skilled enough or capable? The answer is they couldn't pull it off in 20 years, if at all.

• The best physical magic system I've ever seen in a game. It's the western Dragon's Dogma. The fire feels like fire. The ice feels like ice. It has physics, environmental reactivity. Everything blends together seamlessly. Throw an ice mine and shoot more ice into the center and it does a snap hyper cold freeze. Throw out a kinetic orb and fill it with fire and it amplifies into a fire explosion. Go to an area with blizzard weather and use the ice golem transformation and you see in real time the weather effect changing in a radius around your character. Ice tempers active flames, and fire melts back the ice. Just the final fire power alone is truly shocking in how cool it is and how well it interacts with the world. You can run a strand of molten cannons across a ceiling and it traces the geometry perfectly, shoots out flames that destroy all the furniture and set blazes to environmental elements prone to it. You can even attach it to flying creatures and turn them into fire bombers that hit everything below. You can run it vertically along a skinny pole and turn it into a 6 level horizontal flame cannon and you do this on any surface and it just works.
• Giant parts of each level are destructible, and it all has physics and the game runs perfectly. This is a joy when using physics powers especially.
• Climb any surface like Breath of the Wild.
• Combat has weight and feels good. The two handed sword is one of the weightier melee weapons I've used in a WRPG.
• The game is just packed with lore; literally almost too much lore. It's hours of reading.
• Multiple interesting, giant bosses that are well designed and fun to fight. A nearly non-existent thing in WRPGs.
• Even the crafting system is above average. Each material that you pick for the stats corresponds to the actual color the armor turns out so you visually look like what you're picking.
• New IP and launched for only $40, and it's the studio's first game ever.

Yes, it is a bit repetitive but it's $40. You grind for mats, fight the same bosses multiple times, etc. But I think it's a towering achievement for a new studio and I would love a sequel. This is one of the few games where a new studio is started by "industry vets" and you can really see it. It accomplishes things that other RPGs dream of in their combat system, on a fraction of the budget and price.

I know this is petty, but I'm at the point where any time some action RPG is revealed with a Strong Female Protagonist, I immediately put it in the "assume it sucks until proven otherwise" category along with Forspoken, Flintlock, Unknown 9 Awakening, Star Wars Outlaws, etc etc

It's the equivalent of the "generic bald space marine" circa 2008.

 

[GymWolf]

It's clear the overwhelming consensus is that this game is barely worth noticing or remembering, but I still am shocked at the degree of indifference. Since I'm apparently the only person on the internet that likes it, I'll leave a final summary of the cool things in it.

When I see an RPG, either to make a point or out of bitterness, I always partially compare it in the back of my mind to Metaphor rated 90. How long would it take the Persona team to make a game that pulls off what Eternal Strands is? Are they even skilled enough or capable? The answer is they couldn't pull it off in 20 years, if at all.

• The best physical magic system I've ever seen in a game. It's the western Dragon's Dogma. The fire feels like fire. The ice feels like ice. It has physics, environmental reactivity. Everything blends together seamlessly. Throw an ice mine and shoot more ice into the center and it does a snap hyper cold freeze. Throw out a kinetic orb and fill it with fire and it amplifies into a fire explosion. Go to an area with blizzard weather and use the ice golem transformation and you see in real time the weather effect changing in a radius around your character. Ice tempers active flames, and fire melts back the ice. Just the final fire power alone is truly shocking in how cool it is and how well it interacts with the world. You can run a strand of molten cannons across a ceiling and it traces the geometry perfectly, shoots out flames that destroy all the furniture and set blazes to environmental elements prone to it. You can even attach it to flying creatures and turn them into fire bombers that hit everything below. You can run it vertically along a skinny pole and turn it into a 6 level horizontal flame cannon and you do this on any surface and it just works.
• Giant parts of each level are destructible, and it all has physics and the game runs perfectly. This is a joy when using physics powers especially.
• Climb any surface like Breath of the Wild.
• Combat has weight and feels good. The two handed sword is one of the weightier melee weapons I've used in a WRPG.
• The game is just packed with lore; literally almost too much lore. It's hours of reading.
• Multiple interesting, giant bosses that are well designed and fun to fight. A nearly non-existent thing in WRPGs.
• Even the crafting system is above average. Each material that you pick for the stats corresponds to the actual color the armor turns out so you visually look like what you're picking.
• New IP and launched for only $40, and it's the studio's first game ever.

Yes, it is a bit repetitive but it's $40. You grind for mats, fight the same bosses multiple times, etc. But I think it's a towering achievement for a new studio and I would love a sequel. This is one of the few games where a new studio is started by "industry vets" and you can really see it. It accomplishes things that other RPGs dream of in their combat system, on a fraction of the budget and price.

Physics and combat system are 2 separate things tho, the last 2 zelda have great physics engine and absolute dogshit combat.

You are literally the first person i read that doesn't shit on the combat of this game...(Reading the 6 pages ot on reeee as we speak).

 

[Punished Miku]

I know this is petty, but I'm at the point where any time some action RPG is revealed with a Strong Female Protagonist, I immediately put it in the "assume it sucks until proven otherwise" category along with Forspoken, Flintlock, Unknown 9 Awakening, Star Wars Outlaws, etc etc

It's the equivalent of the "generic bald space marine" circa 2008.

It's ex-Bioware staff. There are moments here and there where it's a little woke, so if that's a dealbreaker I can confirm its in there. It's a lot of lore dumps, and static pics of characters with lots of dialogue for cutscenes. Voice acting is mostly pretty good, but nothing amazing. By the very end, they fully establish the world's lore and manage to have a little bit of intrigue that could be built on for a sequel. Story and characters are not the strong point for the game though. It's a physics battle playground to just use the abilities and play around with it while scouring the environments for collectibles.

Physics and combat system are 2 separate things tho, the last 2 zelda have great physics engine and absolute dogshit combat.

You are literally the first person i read that doesn't shit on the combat of this game...(Reading the 6 pages ot on reeee as we speak).

Most WRPGs can't even hardly manage having bosses. I don't know what people really are expecting when they play games sometimes. This has multiple large well made bosses. Combat is simple but feels good and everything works very well. Magic is the absolute, unparalleled star of the show. The physics are completely integrated into the combat. You can be fighting multiple enemies and decide you want to go through to another room and just seal the whole door with ice so you fight an enemy one on one. The ice is just physics. You can pick up any item with telekinesis and toss it on people, or toss enemies 100 ft. It's just fun. You can fight someone on top of a tower with a wooden ceiling and just hit the floor and they fall down and die instead of fighting them. I think you have to have an imagination to get the most out of this game's systems.

 

[near]

It's clear the overwhelming consensus is that this game is barely worth noticing or remembering, but I still am shocked at the degree of indifference. Since I'm apparently the only person on the internet that likes it, I'll leave a final summary of the cool things in it.

When I see an RPG, either to make a point or out of bitterness, I always partially compare it in the back of my mind to Metaphor rated 90. How long would it take the Persona team to make a game that pulls off what Eternal Strands is? Are they even skilled enough or capable? The answer is they couldn't pull it off in 20 years, if at all.

• The best physical magic system I've ever seen in a game. It's the western Dragon's Dogma. The fire feels like fire. The ice feels like ice. It has physics, environmental reactivity. Everything blends together seamlessly. Throw an ice mine and shoot more ice into the center and it does a snap hyper cold freeze. Throw out a kinetic orb and fill it with fire and it amplifies into a fire explosion. Go to an area with blizzard weather and use the ice golem transformation and you see in real time the weather effect changing in a radius around your character. Ice tempers active flames, and fire melts back the ice. Just the final fire power alone is truly shocking in how cool it is and how well it interacts with the world. You can run a strand of molten cannons across a ceiling and it traces the geometry perfectly, shoots out flames that destroy all the furniture and set blazes to environmental elements prone to it. You can even attach it to flying creatures and turn them into fire bombers that hit everything below. You can run it vertically along a skinny pole and turn it into a 6 level horizontal flame cannon and you do this on any surface and it just works.
• Giant parts of each level are destructible, and it all has physics and the game runs perfectly. This is a joy when using physics powers especially.
• Climb any surface like Breath of the Wild.
• Combat has weight and feels good. The two handed sword is one of the weightier melee weapons I've used in a WRPG.
• The game is just packed with lore; literally almost too much lore. It's hours of reading.
• Multiple interesting, giant bosses that are well designed and fun to fight. A nearly non-existent thing in WRPGs.
• Even the crafting system is above average. Each material that you pick for the stats corresponds to the actual color the armor turns out so you visually look like what you're picking.
• New IP and launched for only $40, and it's the studio's first game ever.

Yes, it is a bit repetitive but it's $40. You grind for mats, fight the same bosses multiple times, etc. But I think it's a towering achievement for a new studio and I would love a sequel. This is one of the few games where a new studio is started by "industry vets" and you can really see it. It accomplishes things that other RPGs dream of in their combat system, on a fraction of the budget and price.

Thanks for sharing your impressions Miku. Wishlisted it. I'll pick it up some point down the line when I've cleared some of my backlog.

 

[GymWolf]

It's ex-Bioware staff. There are moments here and there where it's a little woke, so if that's a dealbreaker I can confirm its in there. It's a lot of lore dumps, and static pics of characters with lots of dialogue for cutscenes. Voice acting is mostly pretty good, but nothing amazing. By the very end, they fully establish the world's lore and manage to have a little bit of intrigue that could be built on for a sequel. Story and characters are not the strong point for the game though. It's a physics battle playground to just use the abilities and play around with it while scouring the environments for collectibles.


Most WRPGs can't even hardly manage having bosses. I don't know what people really are expecting when they play games sometimes. This has multiple large well made bosses. Combat is simple but feels good and everything works very well. Magic is the absolute, unparalleled star of the show. The physics are completely integrated into the combat. You can be fighting multiple enemies and decide you want to go through to another room and just seal the whole door with ice so you fight an enemy one on one. The ice is just physics. You can pick up any item with telekinesis and toss it on people, or toss enemies 100 ft. It's just fun. You can fight someone on top of a tower with a wooden ceiling and just hit the floor and they fall down and die instead of fighting them. I think you have to have an imagination to get the most out of this game's systems.

I'm a sucker for good physics systems so i'm probably gonna try the game sooner or later.

 

[CowboyLou]

I played about fifteen hours of this before putting it down. Despite some big issues, it's an ambitious debut title and I hope the studio gets the chance to iterate on its better aspects. Not sure I'd call it an RPG, though.

The Breath of the Wild influence is front and center, but it still manages its own flavor by really pushing the physics and elemental interactions to the forefront. I felt like I was being dared to create as much chaos as I could, especially in the colossus-style fights which usually left a trail of destruction across half the map. It's a gameplay-first experience, and there's a lot the general AAA industry cold learn from the design principles here. Also looks and runs great (PC) somehow avoiding or minimizing most of the common UE5 issues. Unfortunately the controls, balance, and overall "feel" leave a lot of room for improvement. Character control never felt great, and melee combat lacked much impact or hit feedback. Even the most common enemies are pretty spongy, and they respawn constantly. Becomes obnoxious to deal with, since the game wanted ot to deploy to the same locations over and over to farm materials. Even after the first couple maps I was already getting tired of the tedium necessary to get to the good parts. The crafting/looting system is extremely overtuned. Need to farm/grind way too many materials to get gear good enough that I actually felt a meaningful difference.

The writing and characters are painful to endure, but it's pretty upfront about what it is (just look at the character designs and you should have a good idea what you're in for), so it's hard to stay mad at it. They were pretty obviously going for a "cozy fantasy" Legends & Lattes deal with the story. Good if you like playing therapist to a bunch of "quirky" characters with their own flavors of mild mental illness, but not for me (although I guess it's perfectly in line with the path BioWare set us on twenty-five years ago). It's pretty damn woke but with a goofy, almost throwback tumblr style sensibility, not the slimy, subversive AAA modern sense, so whatever. Commits the cardinal sin of having a loredump codex full of more interesting stuff than we actually get to see in the game's own narrative, but it's easily ignored I suppose.

Despite not finishing it myself, I was fairily impressed with what this team accomplished with limited resources, and I'm bummed it flew under the radar while less deserving games hoover up all the attention.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

It's clear the overwhelming consensus is that this game is barely worth noticing or remembering, but I still am shocked at the degree of indifference. Since I'm apparently the only person on the internet that likes it, I'll leave a final summary of the cool things in it.

When I see an RPG, either to make a point or out of bitterness, I always partially compare it in the back of my mind to Metaphor rated 90. How long would it take the Persona team to make a game that pulls off what Eternal Strands is? Are they even skilled enough or capable? The answer is they couldn't pull it off in 20 years, if at all.

• The best physical magic system I've ever seen in a game. It's the western Dragon's Dogma. The fire feels like fire. The ice feels like ice. It has physics, environmental reactivity. Everything blends together seamlessly. Throw an ice mine and shoot more ice into the center and it does a snap hyper cold freeze. Throw out a kinetic orb and fill it with fire and it amplifies into a fire explosion. Go to an area with blizzard weather and use the ice golem transformation and you see in real time the weather effect changing in a radius around your character. Ice tempers active flames, and fire melts back the ice. Just the final fire power alone is truly shocking in how cool it is and how well it interacts with the world. You can run a strand of molten cannons across a ceiling and it traces the geometry perfectly, shoots out flames that destroy all the furniture and set blazes to environmental elements prone to it. You can even attach it to flying creatures and turn them into fire bombers that hit everything below. You can run it vertically along a skinny pole and turn it into a 6 level horizontal flame cannon and you do this on any surface and it just works.
• Giant parts of each level are destructible, and it all has physics and the game runs perfectly. This is a joy when using physics powers especially.
• Climb any surface like Breath of the Wild.
• Combat has weight and feels good. The two handed sword is one of the weightier melee weapons I've used in a WRPG.
• The game is just packed with lore; literally almost too much lore. It's hours of reading.
• Multiple interesting, giant bosses that are well designed and fun to fight. A nearly non-existent thing in WRPGs.
• Even the crafting system is above average. Each material that you pick for the stats corresponds to the actual color the armor turns out so you visually look like what you're picking.
• New IP and launched for only $40, and it's the studio's first game ever.

Yes, it is a bit repetitive but it's $40. You grind for mats, fight the same bosses multiple times, etc. But I think it's a towering achievement for a new studio and I would love a sequel. This is one of the few games where a new studio is started by "industry vets" and you can really see it. It accomplishes things that other RPGs dream of in their combat system, on a fraction of the budget and price.

I liked the demo, but I'd only get it for cheap. I was telling people to play this instead of Avowed. Both came to GamePass around the same time.

 

[sigmaZ]

 

[Punished Miku]

I liked the demo, but I'd only get it for cheap. I was telling people to play this instead of Avowed. Both came to GamePass around the same time.

whynotboth.gif

 

[Hollywood Hitman]

It's clear the overwhelming consensus is that this game is barely worth noticing or remembering, but I still am shocked at the degree of indifference. Since I'm apparently the only person on the internet that likes it, I'll leave a final summary of the cool things in it.

When I see an RPG, either to make a point or out of bitterness, I always partially compare it in the back of my mind to Metaphor rated 90. How long would it take the Persona team to make a game that pulls off what Eternal Strands is? Are they even skilled enough or capable? The answer is they couldn't pull it off in 20 years, if at all.

• The best physical magic system I've ever seen in a game. It's the western Dragon's Dogma. The fire feels like fire. The ice feels like ice. It has physics, environmental reactivity. Everything blends together seamlessly. Throw an ice mine and shoot more ice into the center and it does a snap hyper cold freeze. Throw out a kinetic orb and fill it with fire and it amplifies into a fire explosion. Go to an area with blizzard weather and use the ice golem transformation and you see in real time the weather effect changing in a radius around your character. Ice tempers active flames, and fire melts back the ice. Just the final fire power alone is truly shocking in how cool it is and how well it interacts with the world. You can run a strand of molten cannons across a ceiling and it traces the geometry perfectly, shoots out flames that destroy all the furniture and set blazes to environmental elements prone to it. You can even attach it to flying creatures and turn them into fire bombers that hit everything below. You can run it vertically along a skinny pole and turn it into a 6 level horizontal flame cannon and you do this on any surface and it just works.
• Giant parts of each level are destructible, and it all has physics and the game runs perfectly. This is a joy when using physics powers especially.
• Climb any surface like Breath of the Wild.
• Combat has weight and feels good. The two handed sword is one of the weightier melee weapons I've used in a WRPG.
• The game is just packed with lore; literally almost too much lore. It's hours of reading.
• Multiple interesting, giant bosses that are well designed and fun to fight. A nearly non-existent thing in WRPGs.
• Even the crafting system is above average. Each material that you pick for the stats corresponds to the actual color the armor turns out so you visually look like what you're picking.
• New IP and launched for only $40, and it's the studio's first game ever.

Yes, it is a bit repetitive but it's $40. You grind for mats, fight the same bosses multiple times, etc. But I think it's a towering achievement for a new studio and I would love a sequel. This is one of the few games where a new studio is started by "industry vets" and you can really see it. It accomplishes things that other RPGs dream of in their combat system, on a fraction of the budget and price.

See the combat to me was horrible and by end game I hated it all so bad I couldn't stand it, all I was doing was just picking up enemies and throwing them off cliffs because even with high level gear fights took forever, and they had absolutely no thought out enemy placement, just ganks of enemies all over. It felt like they wanted the game to not be a pushover so they just put enemies everywhere.

The gear was pointless ultimately tho, just didn't have much play In the game

The fetch quests were awful, go here, go there, come back, now go back where you just were... Nonstop it was bad..

The writing was just run of the mill "go team, you're amazing, no you're amazing!"... It was very amateurish I felt.

At first the opening area I was down it was unique, felt alright but the more I played I just found the flaws unbearable.

The climbing aspect on bosses were infuriating at times and then when you're harvesting, you start the harvest process and they'd still fling you off... Just ridiculous. And the end boss was one of the worst boss fights ever, it was just bad.

The game was to me the epitome of mediocre on every level, like I said I sorta finished it and got the platinum solely because most of it came as I played but I couldn't wait to be finished.

The enemies and combat could've been so much better, all in all its a 5 out of 10 game imo.

 

[jshackles]

This is 100% going to be part of Humble Choice soon

 

[Punished Miku]

See the combat to me was horrible and by end game I hated it all so bad I couldn't stand it, all I was doing was just picking up enemies and throwing them off cliffs because even with high level gear fights took forever, and they had absolutely no thought out enemy placement, just ganks of enemies all over. It felt like they wanted the game to not be a pushover so they just put enemies everywhere.

The gear was pointless ultimately tho, just didn't have much play In the game

The fetch quests were awful, go here, go there, come back, now go back where you just were... Nonstop it was bad..

The writing was just run of the mill "go team, you're amazing, no you're amazing!"... It was very amateurish I felt.

At first the opening area I was down it was unique, felt alright but the more I played I just found the flaws unbearable.

The climbing aspect on bosses were infuriating at times and then when you're harvesting, you start the harvest process and they'd still fling you off... Just ridiculous. And the end boss was one of the worst boss fights ever, it was just bad.

The game was to me the epitome of mediocre on every level, like I said I sorta finished it and got the platinum solely because most of it came as I played but I couldn't wait to be finished.

The enemies and combat could've been so much better, all in all its a 5 out of 10 game imo.

Im not trying to change your mind honestly. If you didn't like it you didn't like it. But I dont think the enemies are damage sponges if you use the magic stacking like I mentioned. Ice + ice just shreds through enemies. 2 shots from max ice bow killed everything but the tanks. Telekinesis to rip shields away. I felt like I was ripping through enemies with my fingers. They almost couldn't even attack because they were immobilized and shredded.

I had a max tamarkind armor set with all max 5 star ingredients and it gave me near total ice and flame immunity. I just stood in full flames. And it has a unseen damage hardness stat I've never seen. Most low to mid range enemies couldn't hit me. They hit and just bounced off with zero damage.

 

[Hollywood Hitman]

Im not trying to change your mind honestly. If you didn't like it you didn't like it. But I dont think the enemies are damage sponges if you use the magic stacking like I mentioned. Ice + ice just shreds through enemies. 2 shots from max ice bow killed everything but the tanks. Telekinesis to rip shields away. I felt like I was ripping through enemies with my fingers. They almost couldn't even attack because they were immobilized and shredded.

I had a max tamarkind armor set with all max 5 star ingredients and it gave me near total ice and flame immunity. I just stood in full flames. And it has a unseen damage hardness stat I've never seen. Most low to mid range enemies couldn't hit me. They hit and just bounced off with zero damage.

It just didn't feel good to me like I said I was using alot of the telekinesis as well, there were some enemies that I was torching with fire and they just took alot... I mean yea it's to each their own I just personally found the enemy placement and combat just a bit of a mess. Some stuff was ok but I think I put in 50 hours to plat it and maybe it was just too much time and it overstayed it's welcome for me.