Recent reviews by Lai

Super succinct and well written. The story is wrapped up very nicely in a way that put a very big smile on my face! I really enjoy how they take advantage of the story book's physicality when telling the narrative.

Music is fun and varied, and the main menu is positively charming. The game doesn't rest on its core mechanics and instead constantly finds new creative ways to surprise you, be that in the form of solutions to puzzles or brand new avenues of gameplay. The environments, both 3D and 2D are interesting as well.

I'm a big fan of the character designs. "The Plucky Squire" is the main protagonist of course but through good character development you learn to love the supporting cast as well.

Press X to Pet Eagle in Mini Mongolian Zelda of the Colossus


The Pathless by Giant Squid tasks you, Usane "Soo-Nyung" Bolt, and your newfound eagle partner, with the herculean task of freeing the beast gods corrupted by "The Pathfinder", and in doing so, bringing light back to the region each beast god governs.

Justifying the pricetag are the game's extraordinary setpieces and incredibly evocative score. The music firmly fits the scene of exploring the remains of the island-nation the game takes place on, as well as fighting tooth-and-claw with the bosses the game throws at you.

The bosses really are a standout act I feel. A standard fight mainly consists of dodging attacks until you're presented with a juicy target in the form of a glowing red eyeball, but the build-up to the fight as well as the pacing of the fight itself is handled expertly. You spend your time in each region almost like prey, fleeing from objective to objective, weakening the beast so that you can strike back in gloriously cathartic fashion.

The movement system seems promising at first, and is good, but could be great provided a bit more flexibility. If you don't plan your path two steps ahead you may see yourself face-planting into cliff-faces more often than you'd like.

Shooting arrows works with an auto-targeting system so you can pay more attention to the environment, visuals, and avoiding obstacles, rather than hyperfocusing on striking an apple 100 meters away while moving at mach 5. I think the system could use some tweaking however, as I would often find the game not targeting what I expect it to target. For example, the game would often place priority on targets close to me, rather than one further away but almost in the center of my viewport. The game locks your orbit camera while charging an arrow as well, which feels quite awkward sometimes. Provided you hit what you wanted to hit though, the feedback is immediately satisfying. I don't think I ever tired of loosing an arrow into a talisman and the burst of speed that came with it.

On the other side of the coin are the puzzles, which provide a relaxing contrast. Barring one featured puzzle in each region, the puzzles quickly get repetitive however. The overworld puzzles are similar in nature and solution to the Korok Seed puzzles in Breath of the Wild. I don't think there are so much that it will get tiresome though, even for a completionist. You will be rewarded for your efforts, and there are some pleasant surprises if you're curious when exploring the world.

World building is done very well. A lot of detail is put into the lore surrounding each beast god and the relationship they had with the people. The messages of those people long-passed also provide a saddening lens to which you can piece together the recent history of this island and its tragic conflict.

The Pathless would have been a standout favourite of mine if not for a couple of gripes I had with the gameplay mechanics. None-the-less, it is still an awesome title and a great step for Giant Squid that I hope a lot more people give a go!

2/10, toybox not big enough to fit all these dismembered elf limbs.