Strayed Lights Review

Strayed Lights is an action-adventure developed and published by Embers. Straight from the get-go you can see multiple inspirations Strayed Lights takes from: Ori and the Blind Forest, Ikaruga, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Not the most obvious combination of games but let’s see if it works.

The story is completely nonverbal. All the world-building and story is shown rather than told, and it’s up to you to figure out what’s going on and what to do next. There is some smart use of level design to get you on track, but there were some moments I felt lost. Still, I actually liked it. Putting the pieces together myself and just exploring the world was rewarding. But from what I gather it doesn't have the deepest plot or world compared to other games and the exploration itself is… not great.

The levels are very beautiful, but also very linear. Going off the main path will just reward you with a point or two towards levelling up your energy gain. Sometimes, it’s guarded by an enemy, but that’s it. I do like that they lead back to the main path, but overall these were less fun little secret areas and more like slight deviations. The hub areas are too big – making it a real bother to navigate and easy to get lost in or get yourself killed in. Some drops that looked survivable weren’t and instantly killed me, which felt a little frustrating.

Combat is easy to understand, but takes a while to master. It centres around the use of your colour, allowing you to switch between orange and blue, and your goal in each fight is to fill up your energy bar to end the fight. The main tool you’ll be relying on throughout the game is your parry. Parrying negates all damage, but if you parry using the same colour the enemy is using you gain health and energy. If the enemy attacks with purple, however, the attack must be dodged with a quick dash. You can also unlock special moves to stun enemies, steal energy, or allow you to parry without worrying about colours. Playing aggressively is ill-advised – sorry to any button mashers. Heck, every combat encounter can be finished without attacking, instead relying solely on parrying and dodging. It’s a nice system, and getting good at it will take some time, but it can be a real drag after a while and I feel like the system is more suited for encounters with only one enemy. Seriously, you don’t fight more than two enemies at a time. Strayed Lights also lacks enemy variety, but it more than makes up for it in the boss fights. They’re amazing to look at in motion, tough to fight but fair enough that every mistake you make is your fault… except for one boss towards the end that had an instant kill for some reason.

Onto technical issues. Now, I don't have the most powerful PC in the world, but it can play most games at a consistent framerate. Strayed Lights however had frequent frame drops from 60 FPS to about 18 FPS. I was playing on Medium graphic settings with DLSS set to Performance. I also encountered stutters, audio issues, pop-in, one or two crashes leading to me needing to reset either the game or my PC. I've definitely suffered through worse, and it didn't really affect my overall enjoyment of the game, but it was something to note.

At the end of the day, I liked my time with the game, but I felt like it could’ve been more. It is pretty short, clocking in at around five hours, so it doesn't overstay its welcome. It is a little pricey for such a short playtime so I suggest maybe waiting for a sale. Otherwise, Strayed Lights is a fun game for what it is, and beauty to look at. However, underneath all the spectacle and wonder, the foundation is a little shaky and needs more to truly make it memorable. What it shows in the light doesn’t hide what it has in the darkness.