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Striving for Light

Striving for Light Game Cover
83%Game Brain Score
Most mentioned positive aspects:gameplay, graphics
Most mentioned negative aspects:optimization, story
83% User Score Based on 139 reviews

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About Striving for Light

Striving for Light is a single player and multiplayer casual hack and slash game with fantasy and mystery themes. It was developed by Igniting Spark Games and was released on July 11, 2025. It received positive reviews from players.

Striving for Light is a rogue-lite ARPG where you utilise a unique infinite expanding skilltree to fight your way through the darkness, striving for light.

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Reviews

83%Audience ScoreBased on 139 reviews
gameplay10 positive mentions
grinding4 negative mentions
  • Unique and infinitely expanding randomized skill tree providing extensive build customization and replayability.
  • Addictive and challenging ARPG roguelite gameplay with a satisfying combat system blending melee and ranged tactics.
  • Active and responsive developer support with frequent updates, bug fixes, and community engagement.
  • Performance issues including crashes and lag, especially in long runs and late game stages.
  • Visual and UI clarity problems, with overwhelming effects, poor animations, and difficult to spot traps impacting gameplay.
  • Some repetitive content and limited loot and item variety, leading to pacing issues and diminished long-term engagement.

  • gameplay

    43 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    23% positive mentions, 70% neutral mentions, 7% negative mentions

    The gameplay combines elements from Diablo 3 and Path of Exile to create a challenging and addictive ARPG with a unique infinite skill tree, varied builds, and engaging map events. While the core loop of combat, looting, and progression is praised for its smoothness and depth, some mechanics like the dodge and traps receive criticism for feeling gimmicky or ineffective. Overall, the gameplay is enjoyable, offering strategic variety and long-term replayability despite occasional bugs and balancing issues.

    • “This game takes certain mechanics from Diablo 3 and Path of Exile and melds them together in a challenging ARPG where you can obtain endless power.”
    • “There's crazy builds, huge tree, theorycrafting during runs, RNG loot, crafting, endgame systems, gameplay modifiers/modes, real challenge if you want, boss mechanics, screen-wide pack explosions, meta progression, classes, variety, everything!”
    • “The gameplay loop is very fun and there's so many builds to explore.”
    • “There are some really good ideas here but the gameplay itself is mediocre.”
    • “I went into this expecting more of a 'pure arpg', so I was initially disappointed by the roguelike mechanics.”
    • “To finish a level you need to beat a 'key' boss that makes it so you can progress further but now there's a new mechanic where each level has a 2nd boss which is awful.”

  • graphics

    28 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    39% positive mentions, 50% neutral mentions, 11% negative mentions

    The game's hand-painted, hand-drawn art style is distinctive and charming, offering a unique indie aesthetic that many players grow to appreciate despite its rough edges and uneven detail. While animations are somewhat light and movement can feel unpolished, the overall graphics effectively convey diverse, atmospheric worlds with a style reminiscent of titles like Hades and Little Misfortune. Though some find the visuals occasionally overwhelming or stale, the art direction remains a notable and appealing aspect of the game.

    • “The graphics and overall art vibe impressed me; I enjoyed admiring diverse worlds and cool character art!”
    • “The art style is a drawn world and characters, refreshingly different from many other indie games.”
    • “The handpainted art style is rough around the edges but has an indie charm.”
    • “At first, the visuals and the way the character and enemy mobs move and attack felt quite strange, and I even thought they looked unpolished.”
    • “At first, the art style threw me off — it’s not pixel art or clean minimalism, but hand-drawn textures with uneven detail.”
    • “The artwork is detailed, but the animations are not.”

  • optimization

    11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    27% positive mentions, 46% neutral mentions, 27% negative mentions

    Optimization receives mixed feedback: while some bugs and performance issues have been addressed by the developer, significant problems like jittery performance, animations, and slow gameplay persist even on high-end rigs. Early access status partially explains these issues, but many users remain frustrated with stability and optimization despite patches and beta fixes.

    • “If you played before version 1.0.4 and didn't like how slow the game got in late game or in descent defense, give it another try.”
    • “One would assume that most of these issues will get addressed with patches over time, especially regarding stability and optimization.”
    • “Complaining about performance in an early access title isn’t entirely fair, but it's still important to note.”
    • “Performance issues, slow and boring gameplay, hard to plan builds (which is essential for me in games like this), very limited loot and endgame progression — that's a no-go for me.”
    • “But that is overshadowed by horrendous animations, jittery performance, and floaty everything.”
    • “Unfortunately, even on a very good gaming rig, the performance is very bad.”

  • story

    5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    40% positive mentions, 20% neutral mentions, 40% negative mentions

    The story mode offers a variety of mission types including boss battles and trials, providing engaging challenges without requiring excessively long playthroughs. It incorporates meaningful choices without forcing players into lengthy restarts, showing potential for a compelling narrative.

    • “Phoenix fights, tower defense missions, elemental trials, shadow fights, and boss battles - the list could go on.”
    • “It holds some potential for a good story.”
    • “Story mode nodes that are 'required' to unlock higher tiers.”
    • “Nice to have some hard choices to make, but also not be stuck in a 120 hour story game where I don't want to restart the game just to try a different build.”

  • replayability

    5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    80% positive mentions, 20% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The game offers strong replayability with a well-balanced mix of randomness and player control, supported by a large skill tree that enhances variety. While some runs can be challenging due to RNG factors, the overall content and difficulty provide engaging and repeated playthroughs.

    • “It's a very nice rogue-lite with a lot of replayability and a good balance between randomness and control (though you can still get those runs where you just can't get the passives you're looking for).”
    • “There's content, there's replayability and there's fun allowed!”
    • “Game gets quite hard but the skill tree is massive and adds in a lot of replayability.”

  • grinding

    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions

    Grinding in the game can feel repetitive and sometimes risky, especially in higher-level maps where damage taken is significant. While some players find the grind enjoyable and rewarding, others see it as a tedious loop of moving between maps and defeating bosses. Overall, grinding is a mixed experience, balancing fun progression with moments of monotony.

    • “The maps get tedious and the in-map activities can be too risky at higher levels, especially considering each hit can do more than 15 damage.”
    • “Sometimes it feels like it is all about grinding from one map to another and beating bosses.”
    • “Besides some of the visuals growing a little stale, the overall feeling of the environments, as well as the loop itself felt strangely tedious.”

  • stability

    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions

    The game, currently in early access, suffers from frequent crashes, bugs, and menu issues, significantly impacting stability. While the gameplay shows potential, the numerous technical problems hinder a smooth experience.

    • “As this game is in early access, glitches and bugs are abound, and I myself ended up having the game crash at least 3 times for no clear or apparent reason.”
    • “Buggy mess, unable to access keybinding and stuck on blank screen when clicking on menu.”
    • “Good gameplay loop and potential, but incredibly buggy.”

  • music

    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The music is atmospheric and complements the game's distinct art style well, enhancing the overall immersive experience. It provides a fitting backdrop for enjoyable and addictive gameplay sessions.

    • “Just like survival, I can say only good things about its distinct art style, atmospheric music, and most of the gameplay.”
    • “The gameplay is fun and quite addictive, perfect for 'wasting' some time, perhaps listening to a podcast or some music.”

  • atmosphere

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The atmosphere is praised for its distinct art style and atmospheric music, creating an engaging experience. However, some gameplay elements like the dodge mechanic and skill tree design slightly detract from the overall immersion.

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Play Times

5h Median play time
5h Average play time
5-5h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 1 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

Striving for Light is a casual hack and slash game with fantasy and mystery themes. Common tags for Striving for Light include indie, trading, roguelite, isometric, action roguelike and others.

Striving for Light is available on PC, Web Browser, Steam Deck, Windows and others.

On average players spend around 5 hours playing Striving for Light.

Striving for Light was released on July 11, 2025.

Striving for Light was developed by Igniting Spark Games.

Striving for Light has received positive reviews from players. Most players liked Striving for Light for its gameplay but disliked it for its optimization.

Striving for Light is a single player game with multiplayer and local co-op support.

Similar games include Heroes of Hammerwatch II, Dwarven Realms, The Slormancer, Tower of Babel: Survivors of Chaos, Night Swarm and others.