Strayed Lights: A Dreamlike B-Brawler With a Heart

Strayed Lights, a breathtaking action-adventure title that will take you on a journey to discover and transcendence. As a tiny light being, you will grow and evolve as you explore the beautiful but dark world of nature ruins. You will encounter a wide variety of enemies in this world.

Strayed Lights was the first game I played at PAX East in 2023. I was blown away by its art, music and combat. The game prompts you to use a gaming controller in order to get the best experience. Combat relies heavily on the triggers and bumpers of the controller. Parrying with the correct color will help you to reduce the enemy’s health. The left bumper is used to switch between the colors, and the right bumper is used for parrying. Although your character can use a few attacks, mastering parrying will help you in combat. This may seem like a difficult task to some but I have never felt cheated during the different enemy encounters. You gain health when you parry an attack from an enemy, and your enemy loses it. The controls are responsive and feel fluid, which is crucial when you’re in a game where your life depends on parrying. The lack of accessibility features is a criticism when it comes down to the gameplay. A color-blind option would have been useful for those who are color-blind. We will also see, over time, if there are accessibility options needed for the parry/timing mechanics. We won’t be too harsh on it because these are issues that can be fixed with an update.

As you progress through the game you will unlock more upgrades and abilities. The skill tree is divided into two sections in Strayed lights. In this review I’ll call them passive and active. You can unlock new attacks and abilities by defeating boss enemies. You can upgrade health, abilities points and stun duration by defeating normal enemies. Orbs are scattered around the world and can be collected to increase energy.

The overall feeling of the game reminds me of Journey and Ori. The creature designs and art are beautiful, yet simple. The game’s environments and creatures represent different emotions and states. This title does not have voice acting, but it has a great deal of environmental storytelling. It also conveys a lot emotion through facial expression and movement. Add the incredible soundtrack to the stunning art and you have a truly unforgettable experience. Austin Wintory, a Grammy-winning composer, composed the soundtrack for Strayed Lights. Austin Wintory is partly responsible for the fact that Strayed lights reminds me so much of Journey. Austin’s work on Journey’s soundtrack was the reason it became the only videogame score nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Score for Visual Media. It’s a huge achievement when video games can convey such emotion through their art. You can buy the music and art in the Epic and Steam game stores if you’re really into it.

Strayed Lights offers a brief but captivating experience. Its minimalistic art style and incredible soundtrack will draw you in. It is a smooth, engaging game with accessibility options that will make it a wonderful experience for most. Strayed Lights can be purchased for 24.99 USD on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.