While you watch Stray Blade, full of color and sound, you might be led to think that this is yet another RPG with elements Souls Like and that probably given the nature of the game itself, you are faced with a simple and intuitive game: wrong! The game is more complex than meets the eye, although yes, some game elements are already known and seen in other productions. The release of the game is scheduled for 2023 and this is the chronicle of our test.
Sword, shield and… magic
In the world di Stray Balde you will never play alone: you will be accompanied by a small animal that looks a lot like the Felyne from Monster Hunter World but which, unlike the "cats", has a wolfish appearance and will be your magical companion. Starting the game, after the phase in which you choose your figure whether it is male or female, in any case it will be called Baron you will find yourself in the lands of Acrea, the Lost Valley. You die in the first phase of the game, and are brought back to life by a magical creature called Boji who will entrust you with the task of restoring the lands of Acrea, defeating a dangerous enemy in every area of this valley. However, the protagonist's life seems to be linked precisely to the power of the world in which he finds himself, so it is logical to think that once the balance is restored he will cease to exist. Basically you will have a small piece of equipment made of armor, sword, shield and two bows and the protagonist's movements will be the standard ones of an action game, therefore dodging and parrying as well as light and heavy blows. What really amazes is Acrea, colorful and freshmight remind you of Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning but there is a certain personality in Stray Balde that won't let you forget it.
Colorful but deadly
The game gameplay is summed up as an action game that becomes highly technical in hand-to-hand combat, almost as if it were in part a less punitive Sekiro: dodging and attacking your opponent at the right time will be fundamental, as will understanding how to break through the opponent's defenses without them hitting you. To cure ourselves, it will be enough to rely on the healing plants that are found almost everywhere and in optimal quantities, in this the game is certainly more user-friendly than Souls in general. By parrying enemy attacks, a bar of resistance from the enemy himself will be discharged, you will be allowed to launch a final attack as soon as the bar is exhausted. The game was designed to be a tasty challenge and not frustrating like Souls in general, so he told us Point Blank the developer and in fact it is like this: although the game does not cease to put you in difficulty, once you learn the basic tactics, the evolution comes by itself and you can have fun without stress. Boji will join you in combat by throwing magic bombs, jumping on the faces of enemies giving you the opportunity to hit them, he will revive you if you die, in short, he will be your sidekick in any situation, even in environmental puzzles. Be Boji and Baron have skill trees that can be customized to suit your playstyle, while Baron's armor can be customized with gear you find in the world or with crafting. Abilities are based on the points you earn from fighting - the more you fight, the better you become. There are no "classes" in the game: you become more proficient in the use of your favorite weapon as you use it and as a result, you will have chosen your class.
Concluding
An interesting feature of the game is a sort of Nemesis System, already seen but rethought: during the test we were killed several times in certain areas or we cleaned them up from deer-like monsters; when returning to those places the enemies who had killed us have become stronger (although once defeated they returned to normal) while in the areas that we had cleaned up, retracing our steps, the type of enemies had changed, in fact now there were humans in camp where instead there were other enemies before. Stray Blade convince, it won't be the title we expected but both the combat and the graphics offered us stimulation but in a relaxing way, so we can only imagine what the rest of Create the Lost Valley will be like when we can play it on our Xbox Series X and S consoles in 2023.
