"To follow another's path to salvation is to never truly know it. Each person must find their own way. The truth is a pathless land!"
— The Hunter
The Pathless is a third-person action-adventure video game created by indie game developers Giant Squid (creators of ABZÛ) and published by Annapurna Interactive. It was released on November 12, 2020, and is playable on PC, macOS,PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and iOS. It was later ported to the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on February 2023.
In The Pathless, the player takes the role of the Hunter, whose goal is to bring light back to the world that is shrouded in darkness, while fighting against hostile creatures controlled by the evil Godslayer, who desires to use the darkness to destroy and reshape the world in his twisted image. Along the way, the Hunter is accompanied by a small eagle who can carry her while flying, allowing her to glide and reach high places, and also help her solve puzzles.
This game provides examples of:
- After the End: The game takes place in what is essentially a post-apocalyptic world: darkness covers the planet, the gods are dead or insane, the Godslayer defeats the creator goddess at the start of the game, and the entire island the game takes place on is completely deserted, littered with corpses and covered in the crumbling ruins of what used to be towns, temples and other communities.
- Always Accurate Attack: The Hunter is a real hotshot. She is a master archer who is so skilled that (with just the right timing) she never misses a thing when using her bow.
- Ax-Crazy: The Godslayer did something to his followers; one collectible talks about them attacking with their teeth and nails like animals.
- Body Motifs: Eyes.
- Call-Back: This game has a few callbacks to Giant Squid's previous game, ABZÛ.
- Heroic Mime: Zig-Zagged for the Hunter; She is silent for the majority of the game. She only speaks in full dialogue whenever she confronts the Godslayer, and that only happens a few times.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: When the Huntress confronts the Godslayer a second time, comes a very brief boss fight that ultimately ends with the Hunter knocked unconcious. Your arrows have no effect on the Godslayer and his attacks are unavoidable. The Godslayer has to hit the player 3 times before a cutscene plays.
- Human Sacrifice: On the first plateau, you can find two lore entries in a shrine. One is the memory of a man willingly offering up his life as a sacrifice, and the other is lamenting that he sacrificed his best friend to the god of fertility to end the famine and it didn’t work. The Pathfinder’s power is also said to have grown when his followers died in his name as sacrifices to his godhood.
- Knight of Cerebus: The corrupted spirits and the Godslayer.
- In fact, when in the presence of a corrupted spirit, the world around you changes into a dark and fiery landscape, and you become separated from your eagle. The spirits hunt for trespassers, and it's very crucial to hide in the grass to avoid their detection until you find your eagle, which then turns the world back to normal.
- Last of Her Kind: The Hunter is the latest in the long line of hunters that went to the island to reverse the curse, but failed to do so. She's the only one left to fix everything. She does, but nearly at the cost of her own life.
- Level-Map Display: Absolutely Defied. This open-world game does not feature a mini-map display. It doesn't even have warp points. However, the player can always peek into the spirit world anytime in case they feel lost, and it will tell them where they've been and where they haven't.
- Loyal Animal Companion: The Hunter's eagle.
- Mask of Power: The Spirit Mask and the Mask of Ancients; both are worn respectively by the Hunter and the Godslayer.
- The Spirit Mask allows the Hunter to "see the cracks in the world, to find paths where there would be none." In other words, since there's no mini-map display, the player can use the mask to peek into the spirit world and reveal where they've been and where they haven't.
- The Mask of Ancients allows the Godslayer to see the world from a godly perspective, akin to the Tall Ones. When he wears it the first time, he was unhappy to find out that there's not a single, clear path to be found in the world. So he decides to destroy the Tall Ones and reshape the world to fit his "One True Path" philosophy.
- It should be worth noting that when the Hunter acquires the Spirit Mask, she receives a fair warning that "those who wear the mask never see the world the same way again". That same warning should apply to the Mask of Ancients.
- Musical Nod:
- The music that plays during the second half of the final boss is a remix of the music used in the game's first trailer. Which, according to Austin Wintory, also happens to be "the very first sketch [he] ever made for the game" back in early 2017.
- When you enter the spirit world in the final parts of the game, its music reuses the choir part of "No Field Was Formed" from Abzu's soundtrack.
- When you finally open the secret door after collecting all the shells, the music that plays is a rendition of Abzu's theme.
- No Mouth: This seems to be the case with both the Hunter and the Godslayer (a.k.a. the only non-animal characters in the game). The hunter wears a scarf that covers her whole mouth whereas the Godslayer wears a mask that covers his whole face. Ultimately, while the Hunter never shows off her mouth for even a second throughout the game, the Godslayer is shown in his One-Winged Angel form to, indeed, have a mouth.
- Non-Human Sidekick: The Hunter's eagle.
- Opening Scroll: From the very start of the game..."A dark curse shrouds the world. Legends say the curse spreads from the ancient isle on the edge of the world, where the realm of man and the realm of spirits intersect. Man have gone to the isle to stop the curse. None have returned. The darkness grows stronger. The last Hunter makes the journey to reclaim the light that has been stolen from the world..."
- Plot Coupons: In each level, you have to return certain artifacts to the three obelisks whilst avoiding a corrupted spirit. Then afterwards, you will face off against the spirit while it's weakened in a climactic battle. You have to do this four times before reaching the final segment.
- Precursors: The land that the Hunter goes to was once populated as evidenced by colossal ancient structures and many dead bodies. Using the spirit mask, the memories of the dead can be examined and would give the player some insight into what happened many years ago.
- Shout-Out: This game takes many cues from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, considering that they're both open-world games.
- This game has korok seed puzzles of its own. Whenever the player finds a puzzle hidden within the environment and solves it, they will earn crystals as a reward. The crystals are used to help improve your eagle's flight capabilities.
- You can use your eagle to glide in a similar fashion to the paraglider.
- There are 4 humongous creatures that are all hijacked by the Big Bad, and every time you defeat a boss, you get new abilities.
- The obelisks that you go to are sort of like the terminals in each divine beast.
- Silence Is Golden: Zig-Zagged.
- While the game is mostly silent, it will begin with a brief worded exposition, and a textbox would appear on-screen whenever you interact with ancient texts and spirits that hover over dead bodies.
- There are certain parts in the game where spoken dialogue will be heard. The only characters the speak in-game are the Hunter, the Godslayer, and the Mother Eagle. Although, they all speak in a distinct language that is translated through subtitles.
- Stealth-Based Mission: Getting too close to a corrupted spirit when it's surrounded by lightning and fire results in the player being absorbed into it and forced into a sequence in which they must hide from the spirit, whose eyes act like searchlights, and try to reach the eagle companion.
- The Stormbringer: Fiery thunderstorms follow the corrupted spirits everywhere they go, at least until it's time to fight them to unlock the next area. These storms can appear various places in the game world and move wherever the corrupted spirit does. Getting too close results in the player being engulfed by the storm and entering into a Stealth-Based Mission.
- Stronger Than You Look: The Hunter's eagle, despite its small stature, is entirely capable of carrying the Hunter while gliding. It can also carry heavy objects while puzzle-solving.
- Super-Speed: The Hunter is really fast. Her speed is fueled with a dash meter that can refill when she shoots the floating talismans with her bow. She can also gain momentum for every talisman she shoots while running.
- Villain with Good Publicity: The Godslayer once gained many followers who were willing to die for his cause.
