Developers of Eternal Strands Address Clunky Mechanics, Yet Embrace Them as a Core Feature

A new Eternal Strands update has made various adjustments to the fantasy action-RPG‘s movement and so, restarted the inexhaustible debate as to what manner of jank is ‘good’ jank.

Posting in their latest dev roadmap, creators Yellow Brick acknowledge complaints about protagonist Brynn’s motions feeling a bit slippy-slidey, particularly when accelerating or decelerating or being struck by an object. “Some of you described that her walking/running felt a little bit too much like ‘skating’ and that the lack of precision could be frustrating at times,” they write.

That slipperiness is sort of the aim, however. Eternal Strands is broadly a Dragon Adjacent physics sandbox, with objects you can lob about with your legally distinct Jedi mind tricks, and elemental gimcrackery such as freezing and combustion. Brynn’s character model doesn’t stand aloof from all that – while she has more capacity to direct the proceedings, she’s also basically another child in the ballpit.

“Something to note about Brynn’s movement is that much of how it feels is intended and attributable to how a 100% physics-based sandbox game like Eternal Strands is designed to work,” the post goes on. “Being an object that reacts to the physics surrounding her, just like any other object in the world, means that her weight and inertia have an impact on her movement.”

They are, however, trying to find some common ground with the detractors. Difficult to find common ground when you’re coasting about like a seal, I guess, but it definitely sounds like change for the better. As of today, Bryn’s “minimum acceleration speed has been enhanced”. Following the next update “reaching a target speed or slowing down to a full stop will happen quicker” to avoid the impression of sliding, though if you’re lightly clad and equipped there will stil be a touch of “skating”. Furthermore, “direction changes will be much ‘snappier’.”

Occasionally eccentric handling notwithstanding, Eternal Strands has found a following on Steam. While our own reviewer Sophie Glass noted its “janky controls”, she also pointed out that it’s the work of a small team, and described it overall as “consistently surprising and enjoyable”.

In particular, Sophie highlighted “the lovely improvised chaos of physics systems bumping into each other”, adding that “every time I get flung directly into the sky, or a triceratops thing mistimes its own attack and slams a rock the size of a piano into its own face, I am filled with the wild joy of being alive.”

Personally, I like games in which the physics often betray you. Many are the laughs I have had while accidentally judo-throwing myself in Gang Beasts. I’m also fond of how Eternal Strands harkens back to a sillier age of video game telekinesis, long before Control came along and made it all seem so stylish.