Leave this blade where you found it
Nothing kills my hype for a video game than hearing it’s going to evoke the Souls formula. Which of course means that like every single game that has been announced has just turned me off; the joke being that ALL games have something from Souls games anymore. Unlike other games with the Souls formula, Stray Blade looked to differentiate itself by having a developed character and a bright a colorful art style; in that regard it was successful as for the rest, well…
MSRP: $34.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, PC
Price I’d Pay: $29.99
Stray Blade tells the story of Farren, a young anthropologist on their way to study the magical valley of Acrea. During her exploration she meets Goji and the pair work to unravel the mystery of the valley and its immortality gifts. The fact that developer Point Blank decided to focus the story on a character instead of the usual create a character that is found in a lot of the action RPGs was frankly a breath of fresh air. The amount of lore and history scattered around is also impressive, those fans who really love to dig deep into video game worlds will have a lot to chew on here.
Outside of the narrative there isn’t a whole lot to love about Stray Blade and that’s starting with the combat. If you’ve heard me on the ZTGD Podcast then you know that I am a fan of action combat game first and foremost. I have had fun with Elden Ring but I will always prefer the action of Devil May Cry, weirdly enough Stray Blade falls in between these two with its combat. Using the stamina bar approach to combat players will have to keep an eye on their meter as they dodge and attack. Enemy attacks come in three varieties, the first is the normal attacks that can be easily dodge rolled; the last two is where things get weird. All enemies in the game are capable of unleashing different types of attacks that must either be parried or dodged, signaled by blue and red flashes, respectively. The issue is the timing to perform either of the counters is ALL OVER THE PLACE. Truly there is no rhyme or reason for when I was successful with a parry or a dodge, even the same attack from an enemy would require completely different timing windows.
The clunky combat is just the tip of the iceberg though, navigation and exploration is difficult with the platforming being the biggest culprit. Stamina usage feels unusually high across the board with every action requiring the precious resource but then practically depleting the bar when used. And to make matters so much worse the enemies in Stray Blade LOVE to jump the player, meaning you will usually be fighting more than one enemy who will come at you with a blue and red attack leaving players to guess as to which counter to use ON TOP OF TRYING TO FIGURE OUT THE TIMING OF THE ATTACK…
I’m sorry, I am just so frustrated by this game’s decisions. On the one hand I am all for a gaming studio taking a big swing at trying to shake up a formula; it just sucks when it turns out poorly because it just means that other developers will stick with the status quo to find success. The combat in Stray Blade for instance is trying something new but due to the overall clunkiness of the controls and the timing of the enemies’ attacks it makes it all but impossible to find success with the system in place. Stray Blade has its ups with the colorful graphics and likeable protagonist but it’s a combat heavy game where the combat just isn’t fun which makes this one hard to recommend.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
