Strayed Lights Preview: Pixar Would Be Pleased

ign.com:

Everyone's got demons. Sometimes, you get to fight your own demons in a video game, and the upcoming action-adventure game Strayed Lights is possibly the artsiest allegory I've seen for this exact trope since playing the Kingdom Hearts trilogy. For visuals junkies, it's not totally dissimilar from Ori and the Blind Forest in style either, and its gorgeous soundtrack by the famed Austin Wintory immediately stood out in the short time I got to try it out. I was able to explore several areas in its imaginative, physics-defying world -- but unlike Ori, Strayed Lights seems way more like a linear campaign than a side-scrolling Metroidvania. Regardless, its action combat system is tight enough to carry its abstract story, and it even introduces an interesting mechanic that could make Strayed Lights worth checking out when it finally releases in April.

Action-adventure games have drilled their combat formulas down to a science at this point. In most action-adventure games – let's use God of War or Devil May Cry as examples here – you usually have at least one or two attack buttons, an ability button, some sort of special ability bar, a block button, and a dodge roll that lets you become momentarily invincible. This is all pretty standard stuff, and Strayed Lights doesn't seem to stray too far from what already works. It's in its favor that beating up these giant elemental creatures (that look like Flame Atronachs from The Elder Scrolls series) feels exactly as good as it looks, with attack timings and patterns that are both predictable and responsive.

However, Strayed Lights does something interesting within its established patterns: in order to properly block attacks, you need to switch your avatar's color to the color