Inspiration day - To roam, unhindered
Hello all, Ohms again!
Its inspiration day! The day I bring you information about games and other media that inspire me as I continue working on Project: Lovers.
This week’s Inspiration is actually a recently played entry, a game known as “The Pathless” by Giant Squid Studio.
Disclaimer: All Images and footage taken from my own gameplay
“The Pathless” only recently came out on Steam, but it has been lauded for its unique method of open world traversal. It is what would be considered an Open World Adventure game.
Adventure games, for those unaware, heavily emphasize the story in nearly all aspects of the game mechanics, and are less focused upon overcoming combat-related challenges than most RPGs. “The Pathless” epitomizes this, as the only combat challenges are related to the 5 gods you need to purify in the story quest, and even there the mechanics treat it as an obstacle course which you need to overcome using your exceptional agility, one of the main components of the game.
Traversal that feels cool
Inspiration - Open World Traversal
As shown above, traversing the vast open world of the Pathless is facilitated with a mini-game that boosts your speed. By accurately firing your arrows at nearby talismans, you can generate and maintain a high level of momentum that improves the speed at which you traverse the landscape. This not only allows you to get to new locations quickly, but is a fun experience overall, and subtly prepares you for at least the initial part of the boss battles to come.
You can even maintain momentum in midair!
In combination with this is a flight mechanic, where players use ‘flaps’ to glide around on an eagle and ascend to higher locations, allowing for traversal across difficult or elevated terrain, and a True Sight Mechanic, which allows the player to locate areas where items may be found across the map.
I can see everything!
All three of these main mechanics combine to form the basis of nearly all elements of gameplay, with the exception of some of the puzzles strewn about the world. It serves as an inspiration to all developers of open world games to try and make their overworld as entertaining an experience as their other avenues of gameplay. I for one intend to use this experience to make my own creations unique and interesting for players in my own way.
I would highly recommend “The Pathless” to anyone interested in playing and/or developing Open World games. If you enjoyed this post and want to learn more about the game I am working on that is so inspired by these games, please follow me on my social media, or subscribe to my newsletter for more information!
May the Branches light your path!
- Ωs Emmanuel