Skip To...
With so many games about magic, you’d think more would feel this magical. At its best, Eternal Strands harnesses the same raw creativity that let me conjure dragons on the playground as a kid. Its element-wielding combat is like a rainbow palette to a painter. There might be an optimal approach, but there’s rarely a required one, letting players flex their improv skills on the battlefield. Eternal Strands captures some of the best of Breath of the Wild and Dragon Age but is ultimately its own game. Sprinkle in some roguelite risk and a few beautiful bosses, and you have one of my favorite action games of 2025 so far.
Eternal Strands Review
You’re armed with sharp steel, friendship, and a set of elemental powers that would make an Airbender blush. Standing against you are giants a dozen times your size. Then there’s the armor, the fire, and the spells to worry about. Hunting these behemoths won’t be easy, but pull it off and you’ll acquire valuable crafting ingredients. Bend that arcane wood and metal to forge new equipment, conquer new foes, and survive an untamed and ever-changing wild. Eternal Strands offers an earthy power fantasy like few others.
Story: Taking Point
The game makes two fantastic decisions at the very start. The first is giving the player fun powers right away (more on that below). The second is skipping the “getting the team together” trope. Recruiting party members is a plot thread beloved by Dragon Age and other fantasy games, but it’s been done a lot. Worse, it’s done poorly far more often than it’s done well. Yellow Brick Games knows how good the cast is, so it throws us into the mob of endearing oddballs right away. Like Brynn, you’re the newcomer.
Brynn is the new point person for her troupe, making her the (somewhat nervous, in my playthrough) tip of a magical spear. Their target? The giants and other magical beasts standing between them and the restoration of Brynn’s cultural home. The ancient swamps and forests hold as many secrets as Dynevron, the capital, and neither Brynn nor her companions will rest until those secrets have been plumbed. Conversations use 2D sprites but are fully voiced, while boss encounters and other cutscenes use 3D models. It’s a blend that only enhances the game’s storybook feel.
Though the plot of Eternal Strands doesn’t venture far from the fantasy standard, its characters make every step of the journey worth it. To start with, Oria is a delight. I haven’t been this hyped about hanging out with a giant bird since I met the Owlbear in Baldur’s Gate 3. Every other member of Brynn’s band is just as packed with personality, however. In time, I started to look forward to my return to camp not only to upgrade my gear but also to chat with Sevastyan or badger the blacksmith for a joke. Mike Laidlaw (director of the first three Dragon Age games) founded Yellow Brick Games, so it’s no surprise that Eternal Strands has camp companions just as compelling.
If the actual plot isn’t a highlight of Eternal Strands, its cast very much is. The voice actors put in work, and even the few characters that I didn’t like I at least enjoyed. Want an example of how to write interesting, layered characters capable of both empathy and self-sabotage? Eternal Strands is a lesson in clear, deliberate prose. It also has a knack for pacing, giving you enough time to explore and bury your sword in some dragonhide before settling back into camp to chat up the librarian. I find Eternal Strands deeply cozy, and this rhythm is why. The familiar beat of an old friendship runs throughout it.
Gameplay: Some Say the World Will End in Fire
The first power you’re given is Weaver’s Grasp, letting you Force Grab any physics-based object, be it a boulder, tree, or corpse. Immediately giving the player a fun, powerful ability is one of the best decisions Yellow Brick Games could’ve made. Overwhelmed by guardian constructs? Do your best Starkiller impression and chuck them off a cliff. It might not be the most efficient way to farm materials, but rag-dolling a warrior in stone armor into the eternal abyss will always be funny. While not gritty the way something like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is, combat in Eternal Strands is still challenging.
As a Weaver, you possess a variety of elemental abilities. You’ll wield fire not just to set furry enemies ablaze but also to melt snow and turn water to steam. With a wave of your hands, you’ll conjure ice, laying down whole burgs of it to weigh a drake down and drag it from the sky. When the fire-breather opens its mouth to give you a kiss from the inferno, you can build a frozen wall to shield you or a bridge to flee. Failing that, you can always just telekinetically huck somebody else in the way to take the blow for you. You can even toss enemies straight up in the air like clay pigeons at the mercy of your bow. This is physics-based mayhem the way it should be.
Mostly you explore the wild, harvest resources, kill giant monsters, and then return to your camp to rest and craft. Sometimes you’ll dive into the wilds with no mission in mind, just to nab some ingredients. Whereas crafting systems in other games quickly become tiresome, clogging your inventory with materials that are useful for only a handful of infrequently used recipes, everything here remains valuable. That’s because anything that you don’t use you can trade for camp supplies, allowing you to upgrade crafting stations and unlock perks like additional healing flasks. Die and you drop all but a few of the resources you’ve collected, however, so mind your step on those cliffs.
Eternal Strands is also shockingly vertical: you can climb essentially anything. As long as you have the stamina, that is. Climbing is something you’ll do a lot of as you explore and search for chests. Unlike most resources, which reset upon your return to an area, chests are one-off rewards granting goodies like new weapon and armor recipes. You can improve the materials you farm from creatures, meanwhile, by inflicting statuses. Freeze that wolf before shooting it with your bow, and you’ll transform its hide into something even more valuable. It’s an elegant way to reward creative combat styles. Eternal Strands is a game that rewards you for playing it in fun ways, and I’m here for it.
Graphics & Audio: Deja You
The titan is an old, moss-wreathed thing, with limbs like granite towers. It looms above Brynn in the forest glade, but as it prepares to stomp her, the Weaver does something. Her hands perform some arcane choreography, and a jet of ice erupts from between them, snaring the titan’s legs and freezing it to the earth. Before the giant can break free, Brynn sprints forward and leaps upon its leg, hauling herself up its exposed calf. Her sword bites down again and again, and as the giant tries to shake her off, the Weaver braces and clings on. Brynn needs no sling. She has slain Goliaths before.
To begin with the obvious, the SFX in Eternal Strands looks and sounds great. Frost retreats from the soil around you as you deploy fire against your enemies. Steam rises from boiled rivers, while rocks and treetrunks splinter under your magical barrage. These effects not only look cool but also communicate critical information about the state of the battlefield: things like where you can stand without taking DOT and how much more of a beating your rocky cover can endure. Pulling off a diegetic HUD and preserving immersion is tough, but there are places where Yellow Brick Games does just that. It all just feels good.
If I have a gripe, it’s that the world of Eternal Strands doesn’t feel unique. We’ve seen not just this general style of fantasy setting before but also this specific palette and composition. There’s a yawning sense of predictability to certain structures and environments, too. It begins with some uninspiring lore and seeps down into the cobblestones and bedrock. I don’t hate it, but I can’t call it new, and some moments lost their glimmer because of how safe they felt. Your camp, for example, simply feels too much like The Crossroads from Veilguard and a dozen other similar hubs. It’s not done badly, but it’s been done, and the predictability doesn’t always feel justified.
The music and sound design are consistently good. It’s not my favorite OST of the year, but the songs fit the mood. The action always hits right, too. I also like how different the various environments feel from one another. That’s especially true as the passing hours and seasons bring different vibes (and often snow). Whether you’re pelting a giant with an uprooted forest or summoning an ember buddy to draw aggro, you can count on the music to carry you. Paired with its strong voice acting, Eternal Strands is a pleasure to listen to.
Conclusions: Just Like Magic
I experienced few glitches and no crashes during my time with the game. Eternal Strands is one of the best element-wielding fantasies I’ve ever played. At its core, it’s a rollicking action game with likable companions, excellent bosses, and tons of room for creative badassery. It belongs to that rare breed of game that lets you tap the real, joyous potential of magic. It also lets you climb up and take down giants without going all Shadow of the Colossus on your heart. Yellow Brick Games has woven simple, genuine fun throughout Eternal Strands, and that’s a thread that’s always worth picking up.
Eternal Strands (PC Reviewed)
An element-hurling action odyssey that triples down on fun and creativity, only minor weaknesses keep Eternal Strands from its rightful throne.
Pros
- Innovative elemental combat that rewards cleverness
- Dazzling SFX
- Charming characters
Cons
- Encounter balancing needs tweaking
- Semi-linear levels can grow repetitive
- The plot is just okay
