Overall, The Pathless is a critically-acclaimed indie darling that just doesn't do it for me. However, similar to the gameplay, I didn't find much encouragement to persevere through the irksome puzzles to learn the conclusion, which I'm guessing involves defeating Godslayer and purifying all the land anyway. You do meet the Godslayer early in the game and I found that rather compelling, and I also don't mind the diary trope as it allows the player to invest in the story at their leisure. The story of The Pathless is told via the cliche of picking up dribs and drabs from what are essentially diaries as you explore. Of course I could be wrong, but the game didn't offer anything to show me otherwise.
I played until after the first boss fight and had had enough of the gameplay because it felt like the path ahead was predictable and monotonous, as well as feeling like I've already experienced the majority of what the game has to offer. I found it very arduous that the game basically lays its progression out before you early on, in that I could see three elongated puzzles and boss fights ahead.
From what I played, the rest of the game is similarly protracted. Shooting the crystals to refill the energy bar can make for skilled traversal, but this fundamental mechanic became very tiring for me and repetitive to the extreme. The gameplay also leaves a nice first impression but irritated me the longer I played. When boss battles commence the graphics show their true colours and this is quite a sight but also falls into being a bit one-dimensional once you see the patterns and style. My qualm with these graphics is that I don't think they do the game enough justice, especially in the opening hours where everything is dark and morose. Generally nothing overly complex, but smooth and fluid graphics that are similar to cell-shading make for a pleasant first impression. As mentioned, the graphics of The Pathless immediately drew my thoughts back to Journey. So why am I lamenting rather than lauding its achievements? I'll explain below. The Pathless has received near-universal critical acclaim and it's not hard to see why from the premise it comes from an indie-darling The Pathless has received near-universal critical acclaim and it's not hard to see why from the premise it comes from an indie-darling perspective, touting similar graphics and game mechanics to highly regarded titles such as Journey, Gris and Abzu.