Current Events > The Pathless is shaping up to be PS5's answer to Breathe of the Wild

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The Pathless takes place on an island taken over by darkness. The protagonist, one of the last Hunters in this world, befriends an eagle companion that allows her to glide through the air. Together, they work to cleanse corrupted spirits across the island.

In the first area, players put magical objects called Light Stones into towers scattered around the map to weaken and ultimately subdue a corrupted Elk spirit. Once players are aware of this task, The Pathless is extremely open-ended, just like Breath of the Wild.

The structure is similar, with key areas scattered around the map that players can explore in any order to progress. Nava wasnt shy about the inspiration for the game either, citing Breath of the Wild and even the Far Cry series as major influences on the game

We looked at what they were doing and what we loved about them, Nava says.

Giant Squid tried to go its own way, he explains, with one major change being the removal of a world map the player can reference. Players instead have to use a Spirit Mask, which will highlight important landmarks around the player.

[A map] is a super useful tool, super intuitive, but we wanted to try and keep you in the world as much as possible, Nava says. You feel like you just are in a myth, you're living a legend here. Youre not reminded that you're in a game as much as you would be kind of switching modes and dealing with user interface and a map.

Two other things that allow The Pathless to stick out from other open-world games are its movement and bow mechanics. You gain speed boosts by shooting arrows at talismans that litter the landscape, and they allow you to move around the world faster. Shooting subsequent talismans restores these boosts, so anyone able to skillfully maintain momentum can continue their fluid dash through the world.

While the main character wields a bow and arrow, they do so differently than games like Skyrim or Breath of the Wild. Instead of aiming a reticle, players simply have to lock onto talismans and time their shots correctly to a meter that guarantees a successful shot when full.

My time with the game culminated in a boss fight briefly seen in Augusts State of Play, as I chased a corrupted Elk Spirit, dodging fire and shooting its legs in the same way to cleanse the darkness that had infected it.

Mechanics like these prove that The Pathless is far more than a simple Breath of the Wild clone or knockoff. Even in the more open areas, the game is still engaging when players can just focus on its hitting talismans to get a boost and move even faster or dodging the giant storm caused by evil spirits. Similarly to games like Marvels Spider-Man, movement is half the fun in The Pathless.

https://youtu.be/amOG5zk3-DI

Rest of the article here: https://www.inverse.com/gaming/pathless-ps5-launch-title-breath-of-the-wild


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