Eternal Strands: Shadow of the Colossus Meets Tears of the Kingdom in this Promising Action-Adventure – IGN First

ign.com:

Even in its early alpha state, my extensive hands-on time with Eternal Strands gave me a lot to be excited about. Whether it’s the Monster Hunter-esque boss fights against giant creatures, the interesting and flexible physics-manipulating magical powers, or the obvious dedication to telling a wholesome story filled with lovable characters, this upcoming indie repeatedly surprised me by being very different from its action-adventure peers. By combining a hodgepodge of some of my favorite elements from different genres into one action-packed package, developer Yellow Brick Games hopes to pull off something wholly unique with its inaugural title. After numerous hours climbing atop fiery dragons and freezing pesky knights in a block of ice, I think Eternal Strands stands a good chance of delivering something really special, and I’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on it.

The first major draw in this cross-genre cocktail’s repertoire is its boss fights against enormous foes that seems to draw clear inspiration from the likes of Shadow of the Colossus then adds a dash of Mega Man by giving you a new magical ability for each behemoth you defeat. Though I was only able to do battle with a handful of these formidable foes, which ranged from bipedal fire benders to four-legged snow salamanders, I was quite impressed by just how crafty these massive monstrosities were. While climbing atop them, they’d do everything from lighting themselves on fire, to picking me up and squishing me in their hands, to taking flight when endangered to attack me from afar, often surprising me when I thought I’d developed a plan of attack against them. Admittedly I also encountered times where a boss would seemingly not know what to do with me, letting me get away with laying the beat down for far longer than I should have been able to, but I have to imagine that will get ironed out in the months to come, and I’m hopeful that each of these titans will be every bit as intimidating as they appear.