I feel very alone in really liking Stray Blade. Maybe that's because I didn't play the game in its original state, which must have sucked, because no one in the internet dared to rate this game higher than 6.

But, man, Stray Blade is kind of fire. In the sense that it is badly optimized and turns your GPU into an ambient heater? Yeah, that too. But, also, this is the best simplified soulslike experience I've ever had.

Soulslikes often fall into the trap of trying to best Dark Souls in frustration. Like, I love Lies of P, but that game is hard as nails, and inflexible: the player gits gud or quits. Lords of the Fallen, from what I've been hearing about it, has too many ganks and ranged enemies... The list goes on! But Stray Blade is oddly relaxing.

The game relaxes a lot of the soulslike staples. You don't lose your hard earned XP after dying. You explore areas blindly at first, but you're also able to get a map for them, usually hidden in a corner at their end. The build system is simplified and has a cool gimmick: you don't have attributes, only upgrades that you can buy on a skill tree. For open an upgrade, you have to master the weapon correspondent to its upgrade.

The upgrade system is nice because it ties up a lot of the aspects of this game. You want to explore throughly so you can find crafting resources, as you only acquire weapons and armor by crafting in this game. Using a new weapon fastly leads to mastering it. And mastering it make you able to invest your level up points on an upgrade. Those upgrades are substantial: they add damage to your attacks, life and stamina to your bars, etc.

The story is a soulstory, but streamlined AF. It's like playing Dark Souls with a chatty friend explaining it to you. Farren West, the main character (the armor dude, who is always in armor), is at least somewhat of a prick. He sounds like a jaded game dev. But it isn't too bad, actually. He has some qualities too. Your furry companion, Goji, is more charismatic. Both characters kind of have their arcs, which may culminate in a solid friendship.

I'm some 6h into the game, so I'll probably change my rating and add something here if the game suddenly gets too bad. But it doesn't seem like it is going too.

Edit: You are in a single valley for the whole game, and although the game can pull off some visuals, the limited scope of the fiction (and probably the limited resources, also) makes the environments look a little too much alike. That doesn't ruin the game, because you have guiding tools that really help you navigate the world. But it is something to be mindful of: the game gets visually repetitive after a while.

Edit 2: The level design got a little more confusing, too. I already walked some circles in early areas. Then I went further into the game and felt that the design was getting more confusing. Maybe this game really is a 6/10, lol.