Stray Blade is an Action-RPG where you play an adventurer who explores an ancient valley. We set off to discover a rich and very well developed universe in which we must recover and master mysterious powers. Our mission is to restore the balance of the country ravaged by war in addition to following our own inner quest and saving our souls…
A fascinating universe
Stray Blade is developed by German independent studio Point Blank Games located in Berlin. This is their first game, but shows great ambitions both in terms of gameplay and storytelling.
Stay Blade is one of those games where adventure is written with a capital A. To a lesser extent, it can largely be reminiscent of titles such as Outward for that great epic feel, with a level design construction à la Absolver, Decay of Logos or even Dark Souls first of the name. Finally, its rich and varied universe and gameplay are furiously reminiscent of Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning.
As the title of our test implies, Stay Blade is generous in many ways. The universe that we travel through is teeming with details, is excessively vast and diversified. Between ruins, forests, mountains, swamps, a jungle, an ice desert and more, it’s a complete, diversified and exotic journey that awaits all players.
Like a Dark Souls (without claiming to be so), the environments are interconnected, offering multiple shortcuts and hidden passages to facilitate our comings and goings between the different areas. Because yes, the title of Point Blank Games is not really an open world and is made up of multiple semi-open areas that we must go through and rediscover by progressing in the story once certain abilities are obtained.
In addition to an abundant universe, it is also on the side of the narration that Stray Blade can seduce.
The immense valley is bathed in the magic of an ancient civilization. Following a misadventure at the start of the game, our hero was bound to it and can no longer leave the premises. A solution is nevertheless possible, but for this, it is necessary to undertake a rite of passage which requires defeating various guardians in order to obtain their power and access the source of the valley.
A very sympathetic duo composed of our hero and the faithful Boji allows us to understand the universe in which we evolve. Our duo is complementary, our character is in charge of the fight itself while different skills can be assigned to Boji in order to have passive bonuses and some support attacks. A real chemistry will therefore develop between these two characters over several scenarios and dialogues that will forge a bond of friendship. A good touch of English humor is also present, infusing a certain amount of lightness into the journey that awaits us.
Quality gameplay
Stay Blade’s gameplay draws its Dark Souls inspirations into its DNA and is skillfully blended with a Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning. All the basic aspects of the famous die and retry are well checked, campfire (here being a tree of life), confrontation requiring dodging or countering, challenge and learning by death.
But where the title differs lies in its excessive diversification. We have around thirty weapons at our disposal, each of which offers its strengths and weaknesses. Like Dark Souls where each offensive equipment has its own attack style, it is also on the side of Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning that the type of sometimes very acrobatic movements adopted by the title is eyed, each equipped weapon modifying the animations of our character. Suffice to say that the discovery of new means of destruction and their associated gameplay never cease to amaze us.
Each weapon has a light and heavy attack plus a special attack and offers its own characteristics, between attack speed, weapon range, movement type, damage and stamina consumption .
It is by fighting that we discover at the same time the different sets of armor. By facing our enemies, we can recover the crafting plan of their equipment from their still warm corpse in addition to finding it in different chests. Each beaten enemy also grants forge materials that allow us to create our arsenal.
At the beginning, the clashes are quite difficult, we are not very well equipped and we must then call on our dexterity to parry or dodge the attacks. Blue attacks can only be parried and red attacks can only be dodged. It should be noted that the action windows are a bit haphazard, we feel like we are reacting at the right time, but sometimes the game decides otherwise. The reverse also happens, but it is most often against us.
The bestiary is equally provided, between the different species that live in the valley (classic and fantastic animals) and the three different warring factions, which are distinguished by their types of movements and armament.
Over the course of the adventure, we acquire three powers which are used to unlock new passages, but also hidden areas which are full of treasures and secrets. Optional bosses are present and allow you to obtain runes then offering passive bonuses in addition to new skills for our comrade in arms.
Exploration is at the heart of the experience, so much so that we can lose ourselves for hours on a secondary path and forget our initial objective. However, despite an interesting level design, playing a lot on verticality, we clearly feel that the game has trouble expressing and clearly distinguishing the different paths and environments within the same area. Everything is different, but the same patterns repeat themselves. This poses real orientation concerns, especially since we unlock a ton of shortcuts making us take many side roads, reinforcing this feeling of a labyrinth where we get lost and turn in circles.
Another important and very interesting element is when we return to a previously visited area, or after our death and reappearance at the previous checkpoint. The type of enemies and their locations can change, and you can even see the corpses of old monsters next to new opponents. In addition, a day/night cycle also occurs after a defeat. These elements give a believable and lively side to the universe, especially since after certain key events in the story (or after our passage) an area can totally change: an enemy camp that has been looted is now in ruined and invaded by monsters or conversely, a cave cleared of its occupants gives way to a small outpost of an army.
The failings of an AA
As we have seen, Stray Blade has great ideas and is very generous in many ways. But the studio’s ambition comes up against various problems that taint the experience.
Many bugs were present at launch, but a patch of more than 7 GB has been deployed in the meantime, fixing most of them and bringing new gameplay and interface elements. All weapons were missing stats, so it was up to us to find out by trying them out to see how much damage they did, attack speed, etc.
There was a simple black screen to act as loading between areas and following a death. A small bag of loot now appears when killing an enemy, whereas before, it was enough to press a button while passing over the body.
Unfortunately, there are still a few collision bugs with the scenery, through which we can pass and fall into an endless void. The game lacks a bit of finishing touches here and there and that unfortunately stains the board a bit.
Overall, the title lacks finesse, aesthetically pretty and exotic, but as mentioned, everything looks the same and nothing is visually striking. The game is vast and long and we constantly have this feeling of deja vu throughout the adventure. It takes more than thirty hours to complete the plot, but at the end, we clearly felt a weariness regarding the artistic direction.
Tested on Xbox Series X
