Stray Blade: Release date, gameplay, trailers, & more

Stray Blade is an upcoming action-adventure game that draws inspiration from the Soulslike genre for its gameplay while using an art style that's reminiscent of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. This makes for a unique combination that brings together some of the punishing gameplay aspects of the Soulslike genre, with a bright and colourful aesthetic that's heavily stylised. If Stray Blade isn't on your radar, it should be.

If the game sounds like something you're interested in, then check out our explainer of the Stray Blade release date and more.

• Make sure you also check out our Stray Blade preview to see what we thought about the first few hours of the game. 

Stray Blade release date

Stray Blade is confirmed to be released on April 20, 2023, which is just under a month as of writing this. During its initial reveal, it was given a 2022 release window before being pushed back to this year. 

Stray Blade trailers

The first trailer for Stray Blade was the official reveal trailer, which debuted in August 2021. This was a short 37-second trailer that showed off a few scenes of pre-alpha gameplay, along with a cutscene of one of the bosses. It didn't really tell players much about the game but showed that it was an action-adventure with third-person combat.

The next major trailer came in December 2021, which gave much more in-depth coverage of the combat system, explaining some of the different mechanics and features, while also covering some of the different weapons. This trailer also explained a little bit about the story, revealing that players would need to battle ancient God-Kings during their journey. 

Since then, the game has received a few different longer-form trailers, such as the story trailer and gameplay trailer from Gamescom 2022. These showed off a lot more of the game and started to paint a clearer picture of how it would play.

Stray Blade gameplay

Stray Blade is a third-person action-adventure game that draws some inspiration from the Soulslike genre. Combat features the standard lock-on mechanic, with both light and heavy attacks that can be turned into combos with enough button presses.

A big feature of the combat is the parry and dodge system. When some enemies attack, they will display a blue or yellow sign above their head, which indicates you should parry the attack or dodge it respectively. Landing these moves at the right time can also reduce the stamina of your enemies, allowing you to hit a devastating attack if it hits zero.

Where many games with similar combat systems focus on lowering the enemies' health, the focus here is on the enemies' stamina, as it's the key to killing them quickly with a special attack. You're also encouraged to take part in this system when fighting enemies instead of spamming attacks, as enemies don't stagger easily and can finish their animation before you can lower their health.

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There's also a big focus on boss encounters, ranging from smaller bosses that you find while exploring, to the God-Kings who need to be defeated to progress the story.

Outside of combat, there's an open world to explore that unlocks with a Metroidvania progression system, meaning you'll unlock shortcuts to previous areas as you uncover more, and you'll gain special abilities that let you traverse the world in different ways over the course of the story.

Stray Blade platforms

Stray Blade will launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC platforms where it will be available on Epic Games Store and Steam.