HHW Gaming Review: It’s Just Parrying & Atmospheric Vibes In Embers’ ‘Strayed Lights’

During PAX East, one game that stood out was Strayed Lights, and after getting hands-on with the title from the France-based studio Embers, we have plenty of thoughts about it.

Strayed Lights’ Strange Story

In Strayed Lights, players take control of a newborn light that wakes up in a beautiful, sometimes dark, and dangerous world, immediately thrown into a quest to figure out what is happening around you as a mysterious shadow energy distorts and twists the environment and fellow lights.

The young light quickly grows after encountering a shadow form of yourself that imbues with dark shadow energy that allows you to change your light with the press of a button.

A quick tutorial that also serves as a small boss fight gives you a preview of the baddies you will encounter during the game while teaching you the game’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice-inspired parrying mechanics that will see your character matching the enemies’ colors to counter their attacks successfully.

After that, developers seemingly put the job of interpreting the game’s story in the player’s hands because there is no dialogue.

During the 5 to 6 hours of gameplay, you’re exploring a world and doing things like liberating other creatures that look like you without any clear reasoning as to why you are embarking on this adventure, and that could either be positive or negative, depending on your experience with the game.

Parrying & Atmospheric Vibes

Strayed Lights is nothing but vibes combined with a combat system that relies heavily on your parrying skills and that is quickly easy to learn and better executed when playing with a controller.

As mentioned above, there is no dialogue in this game, so the game’s amazing atmospheric soundtrack from Grammy award-winning composer Austin Wintory (Journey, Abzû, and The Banner Saga Series) does all of the heavy lifting as you explore the world that could be compared to game’s like Shadow of The Colossus in terms of scale and idea, being the latter was also extremely light on dialogue.

But, in Shadow of The Colossus, players knew why they were on the journey to kill the massive Colossi and about the world they were exploring. The same can’t be said for Strayed Lights.

Strayed Lights is nothing but vibes combined with a combat system that relies heavily on your parrying skills and that is quickly easy to learn and better executed when playing with a controller.

During my experience, I played the game on Steam Deck (it’s not verified) and found the game challenging when facing two enemies simultaneously.

When encountering two enemies, players who love the finesse gameplay parrying provides will see themselves giving up entirely on using the technique and just hitting the attack button because, most times, it can be challenging to parry two enemies rocking two different colors.

Your character will eventually learn an ability that will allow you to counter enemies without switching your light color, but you will often find yourself forgetting to equip it.

Enemies also have an unblockable purple light attack that can be very annoying and difficult to dodge, especially during boss fights and encounters with multiple foes.

Where’s The Map?

Yes, the game is well-designed and does help with keeping the story progressing, but man, was it frustrating running around in circles or not being able to find collectibles.

Yes, without a doubt, the world of Strayed Lights is beautiful to look at, and you will find yourself snapping screenshots in each location you have to liberate from a shadow boss that developers explained represent a different emotion.

But, exploring Strayed Lights’ world can be very frustrating due to the lack of a map, especially if you’re a completionist like myself. I found myself accidentally stumbling into collectibles that help your character level up, and I did find myself getting lost or turned around after easily veering off the path.

Yes, the game is well-designed and does help with keeping the story progressing, but man, was it frustrating running around in circles or not being able to find collectibles.

Final Verdict

Strayed Lights was high on my list as one of the games I was eager to experience in this stacked 2023 because it gave off either being a hidden gem or an unexpected banger in a year full of exceptional triple-A titles. It did not blow me away, but I did enjoy my time with Embers’ game, which presented some unique ideas and experiences.

The world of Strayed Lights is beautiful, the soundtrack is fantastic, and even though I didn’t fully understand what was happening in the game, I still loved picking up the Steam Deck, “getting lost” while just parrying and vibing to Wintory’s score.

The bosses you encounter in the game are impressive to look at, and some fights are fun, but I won’t be surprised if some people sometimes feel they don’t present much of a challenge.

My biggest complaint is a lack of a map in the game, and it’s a bummer. I honestly don’t want to return to the game to find things I missed because I lack the desire to further explore the world after completing the game.

Still, this is a very solid effort from Embers, and they should be proud of what they accomplished with Strayed Lights. If your looking for something to play that won’t take up too much of your time, you can’t go wrong with this title.

Strayed Lights is available now on PC (via Steam), PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

*Steam key provided by Embers*

—

Photo: Embers / Strayed Lights