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Strayed Lights

Strayed Lights is a solid debut title from Embers that delivers atmosphere in droves.
Strayed Lights Game Cover
73%Game Brain Score
gameplay, graphics
optimization, stability
78% User Score Based on 239 reviews
Critic Score 68%Based on 23 reviews

Platforms

Nintendo SwitchXbox Series X|SPCEpic GamesPlaystation 5Playstation 4Xbox OneXboxWindowsPlayStation
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Strayed Lights Game Cover

About

Strayed Lights is a single player casual role playing game with fantasy and dark fantasy themes. It was developed by Embers and was released on April 25, 2023. It received mostly positive reviews from both critics and players.

Explore a dark and oneiric world of rampant nature and corrupted cities. Embody a tiny being of light on its path towards awakening. Fight your inner demons and restore your balance.

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Strayed Lights screenshot
Strayed Lights screenshot
Strayed Lights screenshot
Strayed Lights screenshot
Strayed Lights screenshot
Strayed Lights screenshot
Strayed Lights screenshot
Strayed Lights screenshot
Strayed Lights screenshot
Strayed Lights screenshot
Strayed Lights screenshot
+10
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78%
Audience ScoreBased on 239 reviews
gameplay48 positive mentions
optimization5 negative mentions
  • Stunning and beautiful art style with vibrant, colorful, and intricately designed environments that provide an immersive experience.
  • Unique and satisfying combat system focused on color-based parrying and timing that offers a pleasant challenge without being overly frustrating.
  • Engaging boss fights that are varied, memorable, and serve as highlights of the game with their design and mechanics.
  • Short game length with limited enemy variety and somewhat repetitive combat outside of boss encounters.
  • Performance issues including crashes, frame drops, stutters, and bugs that sometimes hinder gameplay experience.
  • Lack of clear narrative direction and minimal storytelling, which can leave players feeling disconnected from the world and story.
  • gameplay
    108 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay centers on a unique color-based parry and dodge mechanic that adds a fresh twist to traditional combat, offering a satisfying challenge especially in boss fights. However, the core loop can become repetitive due to limited enemy variety and simplistic progression, with some frustrations around inconsistent mechanics and pacing. Overall, while visually stunning and mechanically interesting, the gameplay may feel underdeveloped or monotonous to some players despite smooth and engaging combat moments.

    • “The parry mechanic is very nicely implemented and provides a decent challenge from the get-go, without ever feeling frustrating.”
    • “The key combat mechanic involves color matching your opponent while parrying blue or orange attacks, which heals you and fills your energy bar.”
    • “The color-switching mechanics of the enemies are really interesting, it keeps you focused.”
    • “The guard mechanic—which is mandatory to advance—seems to operate on a random number generator for exactly when you need to activate it, and only works for what appears to be a 0.1 second window.”
    • “The gameplay is repetitive and nothing special or different compared to other games, which made me bored halfway through.”
    • “[Undercooked gameplay mechanics lead to repetition; the narrative is excessively vague and fails to give players any reason to get invested in it; linear levels with no interesting objectives or side paths.]”
  • graphics
    82 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game boasts stunning, hand-drawn visuals with a vibrant, immersive art style reminiscent of Ori, complemented by beautiful character designs and breathtaking scenery. Its graphics effectively convey story and atmosphere without dialogue, creating a deeply aesthetic experience praised as a standout feature even if some technical aspects or textures feel less polished. Overall, the visuals are widely regarded as a highlight, elevating the game's mood and making it a must-play for fans of artistic, atmospheric games.

    • “Absolutely criminal that this gem only has 181 reviews - it manages to take you through so many graphically and aesthetically breathtaking areas, while leading a deep narrative completely without dialogue and sporting a truly amazing parry-based combat that I'll argue is on par with Sekiro.”
    • “The hand-drawn art style is breathtaking, with vibrant colors and intricate details that bring the game's world to life.”
    • “The game's visuals are incredibly vibrant and colorful, reminding me of Ori and the Blind Forest.”
    • “And, for all the emphasis I've left to give to the visuals... the game starts you out in some pretty bland, one-color environments.”
    • “Changing graphics settings doesn't have any noticeable influence on the frame drops.”
    • “Graphics were decent without being demanding, but sometimes lacked some textures to really give some definition.”
  • story
    76 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The story in this game is minimalist and told almost entirely through visuals and gameplay without dialogue, encouraging player interpretation. While some find its abstract, wordless narrative charming and emotionally resonant, others feel it is vague and underdeveloped, offering limited context or direction. Overall, the story complements the atmospheric art and action but may leave players wanting more depth or clarity.

    • “The story of Strayed Lights is told with no dialogue, and embers manages to craft a compelling tale entirely through environmental storytelling and character actions.”
    • “Strayed Lights is a beautiful game that tells an abstract yet meaningful story.”
    • “The story is told in a subtle, heartfelt way.”
    • “As far as the story goes, Strayed Lights gives absolutely nothing: I couldn't give you a synopsis even if I wanted to.”
    • “Whether it be the boss finishers relegated to QTE-riddled cutscenes, the unimaginative, linear level design, or the story that provides little to no direction or context for my actions, I never felt drawn in or engaged by the world, instead mindlessly trudging through skin-deep environments, not entirely understanding why.”
    • “Yet that doesn't mean an attempt at a story isn't made; the first hour or so is just infested with 30-second cutscenes literally every few minutes, though they don't say or show anything worth seeing.”
  • music
    63 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in Strayed Lights is widely praised for its atmospheric, haunting, and beautifully composed soundtrack by Austin Wintory, which perfectly complements the game's visuals and mood. While some users noted occasional issues like abrupt music cutouts and moments of discordance, the soundtrack overall enhances the immersive experience and adds emotional depth, especially during exploration and boss battles. The music is considered a standout feature that enriches the game's unique and engaging ambiance.

    • “Strayed lights is a hidden gem that effortlessly blends stunning artwork, mesmerizing music, and engaging mechanics into a must-play experience.”
    • “The music is hauntingly beautiful, drawing players deeper into the experience and adding an extra layer of immersion to the gameplay.”
    • “Besides the game's stellar visuals, Strayed Lights' music accentuates each of the game's areas with a soundtrack that reflects the mood each area's creatures are feeling.”
    • “Firstly, the music cuts out awkwardly in several scenes during transitions, throwing you out of the mood.”
    • “At several points, the music feels discordant, like several tracks playing on top of each other.”
    • “Other than a few bugs (music cutting out randomly being the most notable one), this is a fantastic time.”
  • atmosphere
    27 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its ethereal, immersive, and unique qualities, featuring gorgeous visuals, a captivating color palette, and a fitting, often tranquil or haunting soundtrack. Players appreciate the peaceful yet mysterious mood that enhances the experience, particularly during boss fights and throughout its beautifully crafted environments. Overall, the atmosphere is considered a standout aspect that sets the game apart despite some criticisms of gameplay.

    • “From the moment I stepped into its beautifully crafted world, I was captivated by its ethereal atmosphere and immersive gameplay.”
    • “The eerie atmosphere, gorgeous visuals, and outstanding soundtrack make it stand out from the plethora of action-adventure games.”
    • “The bosses all look amazing and have very cool design, very fair and fun attacks, amazing arenas and atmosphere, and each one is very unique.”
  • optimization
    14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game suffers from poor optimization, with frequent frame drops, stuttering, and inconsistent performance, especially on platforms like the Steam Deck. While it runs acceptably on PC, improvements are needed to enhance stability and maintain smoother gameplay. Overall, optimization issues detract from the experience despite the game's unique mechanics.

    • “Good short game which has an okay performance on Steam Deck.”
    • “Some small critiques include some frame drops in certain foliage-heavy environments which suggests it could use more optimization.”
    • “Performance on the PC side of things is not awful, but also could use some work.”
    • “Overall it runs pretty bad with major drops in framerate and stuttering with really no recognizable reason.”
    • “Considering the Deck runs games like RDR2 or Elden Ring just fine, I guess it's because of bad optimization.”
    • “If you're playing exclusively on the SD, the performance is all over the place and will hard crash the system.”
  • stability
    6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's stability is inconsistent, with some users encountering frequent bugs, random freezes, and issues especially when using a controller, while others find it generally polished and responsive during combat. Visual glitches and long load times also contribute to a frustrating experience for some players.

    • “This game looks great, but plays very poorly and is pretty buggy, especially if you use a controller.”
    • “The game randomly freezes in the middle of an attack and the next frame I get hit without being able to do anything about it.”
    • “Not to mention, the game is buggy here and there.”
  • grinding
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Grinding in the game can be tedious and time-consuming, especially for achievement hunters, as missing collectibles forces a complete restart. This makes the process frustrating and demands significant patience.

    • “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
    • “My only complaint is for achievement hunters - the Meeting Again trophy is tricky and very easy to miss, and missing any collectible means automatically restarting the game all over, which is very tedious.”
  • character development
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Character development is praised for its strong visual design and expressive art style, effectively conveying personality without dialogue. The characters contribute to a captivating atmosphere, complemented by engaging boss fights that enhance the overall experience.

    • “I like the character design and art style, and the game has great expression for one with no talking.”
    • “The atmosphere and visuals are absolutely gorgeous, the character designs are great and the boss fights are amazing and fun.”
  • emotional
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game delivers a deeply wholesome and heartfelt emotional experience, with a story told in a subtle yet impactful manner.

    • “It just gives off a super wholesome vibe.”
    • “The story is told in a subtle, heartfelt way.”
  • humor
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The humor in the game is mostly unintentional, with moments like enemies awkwardly dodging into cliffs providing unexpected and genuine laughs that align well with the Souls game experience.

  • replayability
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Replayability is currently limited due to a lack of modifiers and difficulty options. Adding features like adjustable parry windows, health/damage settings, or new attacks would significantly enhance the game's replay value.

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68%Critics’ scoreBased on 22 critic reviews
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6h Median play time
6h Average play time
5-6h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 2 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

Strayed Lights is a casual role playing game with fantasy and dark fantasy themes.

Strayed Lights is available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 5 and others.

On average players spend around 6 hours playing Strayed Lights.

Strayed Lights was released on April 25, 2023.

Strayed Lights was developed by Embers.

Strayed Lights has received mostly positive reviews from both players and critics. Most players liked Strayed Lights for its gameplay but disliked it for its optimization.

Strayed Lights is a single player game.

Similar games include Kena Bridge of Spirits, Death's Door, Islets, Outland, Blue Fire and others.