Everlasting Strands has quietly grow to be one among early 2025’s greatest surprises. Whereas it is not topping the gross sales charts nor dominating the net dialog, the sentiment which surrounds it’s typically optimistic, and within the age of bloated open-world experiences (that are in any other case good), many gamers are discovering nice consolation in its smarter strategy to world measurement and tightening the gameplay loop.
Yellow Brick Video games, based in 2020 by AAA business veterans from BioWare, Ubisoft, Blizzard, and EA, has knocked out a notable recreation that feels neither too huge nor small, in roughly 4 years. With the business going through many difficulties as I sort these phrases and polarisation main to larger and costlier experiences in addition to small itty bitty indies that always chunk greater than they’ll chew, Everlasting Strands is the form of uncommon beast that sometimes flies beneath many radars.
I arrived a bit late to this celebration as a consequence of my gaming commitments elsewhere, however largely optimistic chatter and feedback that got here from people who’re sometimes burned out from enjoying big-budget behemoths made me much more within the recreation than any piece of promotional materials. Yellow Brick Video games CCO Mike Laidlaw’s enthusiasm and customarily healthful vibes on Bluesky additionally helped, I am going to admit.
Current disappointments with formidable video games that have been constructed with UE5 additionally had me a bit apprehensive. Might Yellow Brick Video games ship on all it had promise, whereas additionally coping with that tech’s weaker factors on the primary strive? Effectively, I can say all that AAA expertise did not go to waste. Everlasting Strands is a darn wonderful online game that feels laser-focused on what actually issues most when devs haven’t got a ‘perpetually’ finances and creatively clueless executives respiratory down their necks.
Everlasting Strands’ premise is straightforward, and even the preliminary cutscene retains issues concise despite all the colorful worldbuilding completed with the textual content and the (wonderful) voice performing: Weavers are this world’s model of mages they usually’re not welcome in most locations after some unhealthy stuff occurred way back. In some ways, management of magic is a misplaced artwork, and whereas there are practitioners shifting from one city to the subsequent and trying to unearth misplaced secrets and techniques, the very fact is that most individuals do not care about or just hate these weavers and what they do.
After all, Brynn, a younger weaver, and her band of cheerful and passionate magic friends are on the transfer and looking for a approach to restore weavers to their former glory. With out stepping into extra early story particulars, they arrive throughout the Enclave, a area that was basically the centre of magic on the planet. These days, it is a hazardous magic wasteland the place nature thrives, however hazard lurks round each nook. And that features big scary constructs known as Arks, in addition to behemoths resembling drakes.
Yellow Brick Video games’ key members have not been shy about explaining the most important influences on their recreation. Shadow of the Colossus, current Zelda video games, and even Dragon’s Dogma have been introduced up repeatedly. You need not play a lot of the sport to really feel their DNA everywhere in the Enclave’s ruins and Brynn’s talents. There may be, nevertheless, a definite curiosity in making the gameplay loop breezier and much more centered than in your common open-world extravaganza.
Just a few hours in, Everlasting Strands should not be thought of a small recreation. Its areas, that are laid out like and comparable in measurement to Monster Hunter’s, change beneath totally different climate (and even magical) situations and are designed to be revisited throughout hunts and aspect quests. The important thing distinction right here is that they are fairly straightforward to memorize and navigate rapidly. It isn’t in regards to the sheer measurement of all of the mixed areas, however about how that house is used.
The final feeling is that the majority of Everlasting Strands’ growth was spent determining the right way to give gamers sufficient management over the sport slightly than the right way to maintain them engaged. It seems that, if the essential instruments and loop are cool and distinctive sufficient, individuals shall be curious about exploring extra of a world. There are clear aims driving the entire thing (exploring a misplaced civilization and defeating huge enemies with inventiveness) and greater than sufficient cutting-edge tech powering the inventive imaginative and prescient up.
Monster Hunter figured this out way back (Wilds is about to show Capcom proper once more), and Nintendo’s refreshed open-world tackle The Legend of Zelda was a huge win that labored twice as a result of its astounding freedom wasn’t restricted to ‘extra issues to do’ and a hanging visible presentation. Each Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are video games that merely are enjoyable to determine and ‘resolve’ in a mess of the way. Everlasting Strands feels precisely like a downsized model of the mix of these design philosophies.
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Essentially the most enjoyable I’ve had to date with Everlasting Strands has been making an attempt totally different spells on totally different components of an enormous automaton’s physique, luring big monsters into elemental traps when my well being bar was virtually depleted, or seeing how a lot I may actually break the sport’s environments with the restricted (however expertly crafted) instruments I would been given. It is the form of recreation that speedrunners will in all probability tear aside sooner slightly than later, and I am pretty certain they’re going to have a blast making an attempt to determine all of it out, as the sport actively encourages you to ‘mess’ with its limits and take a look at totally different methods with finite sources continuously.
After all, the very fact the thriller on the centre of the narrative is intriguing and that dialogues and exposition by no means go on for too lengthy (including to the general breezy vibes) are huge pluses that do not disrupt, and even elevate, the sleek pacing of an journey that strikes an virtually good steadiness between epic and swashbuckling. Plus, the artwork has a definite, clear fashion and is fairly cute!
I’ve obtained my complaints, certain, however they’re comparatively straightforward to miss when a recreation runs and performs so properly, along with having that visible enchantment. Extra importantly, Everlasting Strands absolutely is aware of what its limits are and what it needs to do. I want that occurred extra typically.
Everlasting Strands is now accessible on PC by way of Steam and the Epic Video games Retailer, PS5, and Xbox Collection X/S. It is also a part of Recreation Go’ present providing of third-party video games.
