Stray Blade is a Souls-like RPG title from indie developer Point Blank Games. You play as Fallon West, a self-proclaimed adventurer. Fallon West dies an untimely death when he stumbles upon the Lost Valley of Aclea. You wake up to find yourself bound to Aclair by a crystal shoved into his chest by Boji, the magical talking wolf companion who brought you back from the dead. You both set out on a quest to discover the mysterious power that holds you in these lands and how you can regain your freedom.
All the core mechanics of games like Souls are here: bonfire checkpoints, parries, dodge rolling, and backstabs for extra damage. Combat is overall a lot of fun, but you’re forced to wait for enemy attacks and react accordingly, rather than swinging your sword wildly and taking heavy punishment, slow and imprecise. There’s also a fair amount of enemy variety as you’ll be facing sword-wielding knights. Spider jumps towards you. A wild dog charging head first. Various other mystical creatures with mysterious attacks. Every enemy you face requires a different approach to takedown that makes the encounter even more exhilarating.
Gather resources to craft weapons, armor and ruins in the forge while exploring a beautiful cartoonish open world. Also, after defeating an enemy soldier camp, a chest will appear containing blueprints for a new weapon or armor with improved stats. A wide variety of weapons are available, from swords and shields to spears and crossbows, each with their own stats that determine range, damage, speed, and control, to be experimented with in combination with the route you choose along the skill tree. It’s never been before, but it’s always nice to have a little more control over your character’s build.
Unfortunately, Stray Blade has some pretty obvious bugs. First of all, there is the horrible user interface issue where the stats box stays open on screen even after closing the menu, blocking the entire screen and forcing a reload. Another very noticeable issue is frame rate. This will hit every time the game saves, loads, or enters or exits a combat encounter. Finally, the map for navigating the world is small and you have to pull out a magnifying glass to see anything.
Stray Blade is a fun entry-level Souls-like RPG with a beautifully constructed world to explore. With its intriguing story and comical companion, Boji will keep you entertained for over 20 hours. Despite its bugs and framerate issues, he recommends Stray Blade for anyone wanting to step into a genre like Souls.
