Strayed Lightsis the debut title from a small French game studio named Embers. From its unique world filled with inky corridors and blinding lights to its parry-centric gameplay mechanics,Strayed Lightsis a simple and fun little game that just wants to deliver a tight experience and let players take in its world. It is one part rhythm game, another part action game, and another part immersive visual experience. Even though some technical quirks prevent it from being a truly stellarindie game, it does enough to always keep things enjoyable.
The main story ofStrayed Lightsstarts with the player character coming to life - birthed out of embers and then thrust into an alien world that routinely demonstrates how hostile and dark it is. However, no parts of the game’s storyline are ever explicitly told to the player. Things are only presented to players, and it is up to them to piece together this world and the main character’s goal. Most of its visual themes are about battling light and dark, and the game reflects that in its world progression as it gradually sheds its somber nature.
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It’s in the gaps in the storytelling whereStrayed Lightsis the most interesting. The world design is filled with gloomy, inky purples and warm golds, but the game also kicks up the brightness in a few scenes to show off incredible color palettes andbeautiful landscapes. Its gloom-and-doom aesthetic works to heighten those brief moments of clarity and show that something better exists in a land covered in darkness. The game’s aesthetic choices and visual design do a lot to let the player’s imagination run wild in this world.
However, even though the game’s art direction can look great at times, at other times,Strayed Lightscan look a little too processed, especially with its bloom effects. There were a few instances where the brighter sections of the game washed out all the detail and color of the world and made the game downright unpleasant to look at. Moreover, one of those instances of cranked-up bloom led to us not being able to read the white button prompts in aQuick Time Eventsimply because the prompt was so drowned out in color and light. There was definitely enough room inStrayed Lights’ art design to tailor some of these bright lights down and still maintain that same theme of the light contrasting the dark.
Complimenting the whole package is a subtle soundtrack that doesn’t draw too much attention to itself when it doesn’t need to, instead allowing players to sit and meditate with it. Sonically, everything typically sounds very somber as players navigate the world, but then are moments when combat picks up, and everything sounds very grand and epic. The whole audio direction inStrayed LIghtsdoes a good job of tailoring the experience to exactly what it needs to at the moment without compromising on the game’s vision of an empty and melancholy world.
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In terms of gameplay,Strayed Lightstakes the standard dodge-and-parry approach to combat and gives it a slight twist. In this game,parrying an enemy’s attackswill be what causes their health bar to drop and is the preferred method of attacking, as it also regenerates the player’s health. Uniquely, combat also relies on switching to the enemy’s corresponding color–either blue or red–to parry their attack and eventually land a killing blow that rewards players with shards for leveling.
Strayed Lightsends up playing out likeSimon SaysmeetsSekiro, as players change colors in time to the enemy’s attack window and repeat the process until the combat encounter is over. Many games with a dodge-and-parry combo like this tend to be equated to rhythm games, where timing is everything, andStrayed Lightstruly takes that notion and runs with it. When it all comes together, the whole process really does look like a dance, and it can be incredibly intoxicating to play once players get in the groove.
This can all sound very challenging, and it certainly can be at first, butStrayed Lightsis more forgiving than most other parry-based games. The parry window for each attack is often very generous and lets players hit the parry button well in advance of when an attack lands. There are other abilities that allow players to stun the enemy or mitigate the enemy color coordination system for short periods of time, but they are complementary to the main parry-based system.Strayed Lightsdoes a good job of keeping its core combat focused and offers just enough on top to make the game a little more interesting.
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One of the big highlights ofStrayed Lightsis itsgreat boss battles. The few hubs in each zone of the game contain branching paths that culminate in a spectacular boss fight that puts players to the test. Movesets are more elaborate here and require more precise timing to get the parries right. The game also pulls some clever tricks on the player, like masking which colors the boss is that can be easily missed unless players pay close attention. A chief issue inStrayed Lightsis its lack of interesting enemies, but the game’s boss fights more than make up for it and are genuinely fun to play and cool to watch.
However,Strayed Lightsdoes manage to feel a bit unrefined and clunky to play in anything that isn’t mostly parrying. Its platforming elements, in particular, are pretty clumsy, as climbable ledges are never clearly defined, and the game’s overall movement feels floaty and sluggish. Additional quirks, like the main character facing in one direction and walking in another, are commonplace and are often jarring to look at. Meanwhile, dodging never truly felt like a reliable way to avoid attacks due to the overall mechanical clunk in the game. Occasionally, we would also fall off the side of the map and end up stuck on the lip of some rock like a bug out of aPS2 game.
At roughly six hours from beginning to end,Strayed Lightsis a charming little game that doesn’t overstay its welcome. It can certainly feel clunky in its execution, but it finds its groove in its parry-based combat and does enough with its systems to keep things interesting until the very end. However, what sells the whole experience areStrayed Lights’ great boss battles that come together in a wonderful dance, bursting with color and to the tune of an excellent soundtrack. For its debut game, Embers proves that it has a knack for gameplay and a great eye for visual design.
Strayed Lightsis available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Game Rant was provided a PS5 code for the purposes of this review.
Strayed Lights
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Strayed Lights is an immersive action adventure set in a wordless, dreamlike world of corruption and shadows. You are a nascent light on a journey to free yourself from the grasp of shadows surrounding you.RESTORE YOUR LIGHT: Play as a newborn flame torn by shadows. Progress in a hostile world on a quest to restore your light by facing your inner demons and helping beings along the way. Unlock new abilities as your light brightens.PACIFY YOUR ENEMIES: Find your siblings who went rogue, each deformed by a specific emotion. Battle these monstrous forms and pacify the emotions that control them. Face your inner demons taken form to hinder your progress.SHIFT COLORS TO FIGHT: Face creatures torn by shadow in fluid and rewarding combat. Repel their attacks while shifting between blue and orange to match their color and overcome them in vivid finishers.
