History YMMV / PathToNowhere

* MagnificentBastard:
** [[TheUnfettered Shalom]]. Through both the Rain Burst and Floral Unfurl events, [[spoiler:She plays simultaneous games of chess with the Underground, the Garden, Paradeisos, Rahu, Christina and Coquelic and pretty much come out on top with all her goals achieved. She made two people who came after her for revenge her subordinates. She baited an attack from the Garden and use them to eliminate Underground elements. She fakes a massacre on the garden to provoke an attack from Coquelic, very nearly successfully brainwashing her if not for Christina's intervention. She successfully avoids being "decommissioned" and replaced, effectively putting the HUSH unit on ice. She manages to slip Rahu into Paradeisos, which will provide valuable knowledge and connections to the Chief through Rahu's interrogation in the future. Even her seemingly failed attempt on the Chief's life achieves the intended purpose of putting them out of reach of both the Underground and Paradeisos.]]
** Eirene. She's brilliant, calculating, and smooth becoming the CEO of the Quinn Group at such an early age. Many fans enjoy Eirene for her ability to tackle on Chief and being close to getting what she wanted from them during her interrogations. [[spoiler: She wanted to usurp her father's strength after becoming a Sinner since she realized her father viewed her as a tool.]] [[spoiler: While it doesn't necessarily apply to this trope, Eirene is one of Bryce's illegitimate children from one of his trysts with her mother and she had many siblings she had to surpass.]]

* EvilIsSexy: It can be argued that this can be applied to a great many characters among the cast as the majority of them are technically criminals. However, a few do stand out.
** Suspect R is shown to be an antagonistic and ominous force at the start of the game and had not appeared since. However, her attractive design, mysterious nature and romantic undertone with the Chief earned her a number of fans who is very keen on learning more about the apparent villainess.
** Chameleon stands out as one of the only Sinners whose Interrogation, rather than showing a sympathetic side to her, instead highlights the depth of her self-described sadism and manipulative nature. She is also incredibly attractive, with many fans acknowledging how openly malicious she is only further endears her to them. It helps that she also serves a very specific [[MindControl kink]] for people who are into that.
** Eirene is an expert chessmaster who is always one step ahead of the Chief, to the point the Chief explicitly says they know there's no point imprisoning her because her wealth will buy her freedom back. Eirene has plenty of fans that love her unscrupulous nature.

* MagnificentBastard: [[TheUnfettered Shalom]]. Through both the Rain Burst and Floral Unfurl events, [[spoiler:She plays simultaneous games of chess with the Underground, the Garden, Paradeisos, Rahu, Christina and Coquelic and pretty much come out on top with all her goals achieved. She made two people who came after her for revenge her subordinates. She baited an attack from the Garden and use them to eliminate Underground elements. She fakes a massacre on the garden to provoke an attack from Coquelic, very nearly successfully brainwashing her if not for Christina's intervention. She successfully avoids being "decommissioned" and replaced, effectively putting the HUSH unit on ice. She manages to slip Rahu into Paradeisos, which will provide valuable knowledge and connections to the Chief through Rahu's interrogation in the future. Even her seemingly failed attempt on the Chief's life achieves the intended purpose of putting them out of reach of both the Underground and Paradeisos.]]

* {{Narm}}: You're asked to [[HelloInsertNameHere name]] the [[PlayerCharacter Chief]] at the start of the game, however because that name also serves as a unique identifier to other players, it can't be a name that another player is already using, which means common first names are out the window for most players and a lot of players end up using common Internet username conventions (numbers, decorative letters, etc) to name the Chief. This gets awkward when dialogue refers to the Chief by name, such as when a Sinner has a friendly and heartwarming conversation with you...and they refer to you as "[=XxTroper69xX=]" or whatever.

* {{Narm}}: You're asked to [[HelloInsertNameHere name]] the [[PlayerCharacter Chief]] at the start of the game, however because that name also serves as a unique identifier to other players, it can't be a name that another player is already using, which means common first names are out the window for most players and a lot of players end up using common Internet username conventions (numbers, decorative letters, etc) to name the Chief. This gets awkward when dialogue refers to the Chief by name, such as when a Sinner has a friendly and heartwarming conversation with you...and they refer to you as [=XxTroper69xX=] or whatever.

* {{Narm}}: You're asked to [[HelloInsertNameHere name]] the [[PlayerCharacter Chief]] at the start of the game, however because that name also serves as a unique identifier to other players, it can't be a name that another player is already using, which means a lot of players end up using common Internet username conventions (numbers, decorative letters, etc) to name the Chief. This gets awkward when dialogue refers to the Chief by name, such as when a Sinner has a friendly and heartwarming conversation with you...and they refer to you as [=XxTroper69xX=] or whatever.

* {{Narm}}: You're asked to [[HelloInsertNameHere name]] the [[PlayerCharacter Chief]] at the start of the game, however because that name also serves as a unique identifier to other players, it can't be a name that another player is already using, which means a lot of players end up using common Internet username conventions (numbers, decorative letters, etc) to name the Chief. This gets awkward when dialogue refers to the Chief by name, such as when a Sinner has a friendly and heartwarming conversation with you...and they refer to you as [=XxThisTroper69=] or whatever.

** Torture sexy prisonders and uncover hidden secrets.[[labelnote:Explanation]]In late 2022, the game became infamous for a social media marketing campaign that boasts that you can "torture sexy prisoners". This turned off a lot of people from playing the game, and people who did play the game collectively groaned at how this marketing misrepresented the actualy content of the game, as while the game indeed features prisoners (the Sinners) with sexualized designs, there is no actual torture mechanic in the game ''and'' it's made a point again and again that the Chief is a benevolent leader who is very kind to their Sinners. Even the part that could be even nominally called "torture", the Interrogation system, is really just a heart-to-heart interview/therapy session with one of your Sinners where the Chief just wants to get to know one of her Sinners better and help them come to terms with what got them designated as a Sinner in the first place.[[/labelnote]]

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: The end of Floral Unfurl call into a whole bunch of questions about Shalom. By her own account, she is a tool that secretly broke during use. Then when did she "break", what are her goals, and how genuine are her feelings toward Rahu and Christina?
** She is the longest serving Hush, with a near spotless record that Paradeisos almost can't find any fault in. Is this by choice because she believed in their cause, or is it because she knows they are always watching and evaluating her actions and she cannot do otherwise or else they would simply "decommission" her and have her replaced with another Hush? Did she perhaps once believe in their cause until she "broke", or has she been biding her time all along, only to use the Chief as a way to hurt Paradeisos? Or is her motive revenge, seeing as they have separated her rational side and her emotional side, and the latter is seemingly very upset to say the least.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: The end of Floral Unfurl call into a whole bunch of questions about Shalom. By her own account, she is a tool that secretly broke during use. Then when did she "break", what are her goals, and how genuine are her feelings toward Rahu and Christine?

** Despite knowing how she manipulated them, are Rahu's and Christine's positive feelings toward her a result of being brainwashed, or do they genuinely like or are sympathetic toward her? Christine herself wonders this, but a later evaluation by Paradeisos suggests that Christine's mind was not fully controlled, which further calls Shalom's motive into question and suggests that at least some of Christine's feelings toward Shalom are genuine.

** While popular for her attractive design and interesting writing, Stargazer is often considered rather subpar in gameplay for her relatively low damage output compared to her peers for someone with not much utility in her kit either. This is because in order to make full use of her ultimate called Land of Dreams, she first needs to summon two Victory Stars on the field in order to inflict 60/70/80% of self-attack magic damage to self and all the Victory Stars in the nine-square area every second for 8 seconds. The first problem with this is waiting for her to summon two Victory Stars and by the time she does that, the fight will be halfway over. The second problem is keeping herself and two Victory Stars alive long enough to activate her ultimate as both are GlassCannon that can't survive long without healing support. Given how Victory Stars have to be positioned to make use of nine-square area damage to maximum, it can be hard to position Victory Stars safely for maximum effectiveness if players do not plan accordingly. To make matters worse, her banner was immediately followed by Eirene's, a Sinner of the same class who is wildly considered the best magical DPS in the game at time of writing.

MagnificentBastard: [[TheUnfettered Shalom]]. Through both the Rain Burst and Floral Unfurl events, [[spoiler:She plays simultaneous games of chess with the Underground, the Garden, Paradeisos, Rahu, Christine and Coquelic and pretty much come out on top with all her goals achieved. She made two people who came after her for revenge her subordinates. She baited an attack from the Garden and use them to eliminate Underground elements. She fakes a massacre on the garden to provoke an attack from Coquelic, very nearly successfully brainwashing her if not for Christine's intervention. She successfully avoids being "decommissioned" and replaced, effectively putting the HUSH unit on ice. She manages to slip Rahu into Paradeisos, which will provide valuable knowledge and connections to the Chief through Rahu's interrogation in the future. Even her seemingly failed attempt on the Chief's life achieves the intended purpose of putting them out of reach of both the Underground and Paradeisos.]]

* {{Woobie}}:

** Even before she became a sinner, Ariel didn't have the best life. [[spoiler:Her father is abusive towards her even before he learnt she became a sinner, didn't even care that she had gone missing, and even attempts to shoot his own daughter after finding out.]]

* GameBreaker: As is usual for gacha games, some Sinners stand out above the rest.
** Hamel is the best healer in the game bar none. While she cannot block or attack any enemies, she cannot be targeted by her enemies. Her dance called Requiem which she performs instead of normal attacks constantly heals all allies in a 3 x 3 square around her with her ultimate skill called Bewitching Dance enhancing her healing even further. Her first passive called Infinite Spin not only enhances her healing but also increases her healing range to a diamond shape at the 45th second and covers the entire field at the 90th second. Her second passive called Life Touch grant allied Sinners damage reduction. Upon obtaining her exclusive Crimebrand called Compassionate Strike which is added as an exclusive skill, it reverses the effects of Requiem which provide AOE healing, and Life Touch which provides AOE damage reduction for allies into AOE damage for the former AOE damage taken debuff for the latter. Her exclusive Crimebrand can be turned off when using the skill again. This means that not only she can still heal, but she can also deal damage when needed. She just needs to switch according to the situation. All of this means that not only Hamel alone can help you tank massive attacks and survive maps that would have otherwise caused a total party wipe, but she can also do the opposite against her enemies.
** Nox is initially not a game breaker, but everything changes once she acquires her exclusive Crimebrand called Pitch Black Sunset. This is because it enhances her already strong ultimate skill of 3x3 area damage with breaking one core of all enemies in range and her getting a 10 percent damage reduction per each enemy hit by the damage up to 5 times. This means that she not only becomes a core breaker, but also a good tank as well. All of this means that she becomes JackOfAllStats.
** Langley is the best long-range physical damage sniper in the game. She has one of the longest ranges in the game. There is also her special called Gunfire Edict covering a 3x3 area that shoots 5 shots at enemies within her range with 1 core damage. This is good because if one enemy dies, the remaining shots go toward the remaining enemies within her range, which ensure that each of her 5 shots does not go wasted. An added bonus is her two passives called Causality and Execution of Fate as the former deals additional physical damage to all marked enemies when hit with her own attack while the latter deals additional physical damage within the grid when marked enemies die. This means that not only does she debuffs the enemy to take more damage against her attack, but she can also deal area damage each time she kills her enemies. All of her abilities mean that not only she is a sniper that does not suffer from the typical sniper problem of focusing only on a single enemy, but she is also a debuffer and area damager. Finally, her Shackle is absurdly strong, debuffing enemies she marked by forcing them to take 10% damage from all sources, essentially boosting the damage output of your ENTIRE team. Her only weakness is how she is a GlassCannon but considering she's a long-ranged sniper if the enemy manages to reach her you're probably already doomed anyway.
** Bai Yi is a core breaker who can dish out a lot of damage in a short period of time. Her basic attack called Shadow Attack has her 1st and 2nd attack quickly followed by her 3rd attack. Her ultimate skill called Tempest deals 1 core damage to all enemies in a cross area around her target grid upon her next 3 movements. Her first passive called Efficient Raid grants her a "Poised" position if she stayed put for 10 seconds which stacks up to 2 times as moving when she is "Poised" grants her Attack bonus for 10 seconds. Her second passive called Warm Up Exercise increases not only her critical rate by 20 percent, but also gains 1 energy when dealing a critical hit. Her exclusive Crimebrand called Buried Underground: whenever her crit rate exceeds 100 percent, each 1 percent of the excess crit rate converts into a 0.6 percent attack.
** At first glance, Labyrinth's ability to break two cores seems unimpressive compared to Bai Yi. However, as soon as she reaches phase 2, she gains a passive ability that lets her refresh her Ultimate immediately after completely breaking an enemy's core. Considering most enemies save for the boss have only one core, she essentially fulfills all your core breaking needs by herself for most of the map. Not only that, because she is only a B-ranked Sinner, it is incredibly easy max out her Shackles (and every player acquires one Labyrinth from doing the story anyway). While her damage may be less impressive than Bai Yi and she breaks cores less effectively when it comes to bosses, for pretty much everything else her core breaking capability is so absurdly good that she trivializes a lot of maps.
** Eirene is the best Magic DPS with some interesting abilities and passives depending on how she is used. This is because her ultimate skill called Contract Destruction has different effects depending on the type of target enemy. If it is used against an Empty grid/Coreless target, she summons a black hole that deals damage to all enemies within a 3x3 square around the target and slows their moving speed by 50 percent. If it is used against targets with an intact core, she detonates a dimensional rift in a 5-grid X-shaped area that deals a total of 2 core damage. If it is used against a target with all cores broken, she creates destructive turbulence that deals overwhelming damage to all enemies on the target grid. Her first passive called Hidden Chessmaster has her gain an additional 15 percent damage increase for her ultimate skill called Core of Destruction if an ally casts an ultimate skill before her and this effect can be stacked up to 2 times. Considering how other sinners get to use their ultimate skill way earlier due to how it takes a long time for Eirene to have enough energy to cast her ultimate skill, this passive can be easily used. Her second passive called Conspiracy has her generate 1 energy for the Chief and 5 energy for herself every 30 seconds if she is within the cross area around the Chief. This is good because gaining energy for either the chief or Eirene allows them to gain enough energy to use their abilities more often. Considering how the fight usually lasts around 2-3 minutes, this means that the Chief can gain 4-6 energy which either allows 4-6 uses of Chief's skill that cost 1 energy or 2-3 uses of Chief's skill that cost 2 energy. For Eirene, this usually allows at least one more use of her ultimate skill. This only gets better with the maximum skill upgrade to every 20 seconds. Her exclusive Crimebrand called Dark Chessmaster enables her ultimate skill called Contract Annihilation to stay on the battlefield if it is placed on grids without an enemy unit if exclusive is enabled. The effect is released when an enemy approaches it and its effects depend on the type of enemy. While this exclusive Crimebrand may seem useless at first as it relies on enemies stepping on the "mine" with no additional benefits compared to her original ultimate skill. But the unexpected benefit is how it allows Eirene to use and "store" her ultimate skill as a mine. This is useful in a situation where Eirene already reached her maximum energy limit and is ready to use her ultimate but there are no good enemies to use it. If you, however, know where your enemies will eventually come from, you can "mine" that path and have her gain energy again because she is not at maximum energy limit anymore. This means that you can potentially have enemies take on two Eirene's ultimate skill at the same time if done correctly.