Pathway

 Switch
User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 5 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5

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  1. coreygeier
    Jun 27, 2021
    6
    I love the game art, and it's the first thing that brought the game to my attention. The combat is very fun. The style and theme are interesting. The music is very boring. There should at least be a new music theme for each mission. Overall it is a good game but I have some specific complaints of aspects that bring my score down.

    This game relies on lots of menu navigating since you'll    I love the game art, and it's the first thing that brought the game to my attention. The combat is very fun. The style and theme are interesting. The music is very boring. There should at least be a new music theme for each mission. Overall it is a good game but I have some specific complaints of aspects that bring my score down.

    This game relies on lots of menu navigating since you'll be checking and comparing weapon and character stats often, however the menu system is very clunky and often frustrating. I constantly lose the cursor as the visibility is poor and it jumps all over the menus. It seems on top of this, there are several bugs I've encountered where certain menu areas are at times impossible to access without closing and reopening the menu or doing some other arbitrary ritual. This game suffers from some avoidable user interface issues.

    Why is all of my pre-mission item arranging undone if I go back to the mission selection? After only twenty minutes of playing, I just quit the game to write this review after mistakenly undoing minutes of item placing and selling two times.

    Why is it so incredibly easy to accidentally skip my turn during combat? I've just finished mission 2 and have done this at least 5 times. This problem could be fixed with a quickly skippable window reading "You want to pass your turn? You have remaining moves left." I actually skipped two turns consecutively at one point while still becoming familiar with the controls which got my healer killed and ended with me losing the mission halfway through.

    Why when using the X button to compare weapon, armor, or item stats does the currently selected tool's toolips window jump from right to left of the tool being compared when switching characters? Why isn't it always clear which is the new tool and which is already equipped? In the pre-mission recruitment menu, why do I have to re-open the storage view each time I cycle over a locked character? If I want to check one tool against every team member, I have to re-open the storage menu, navigate to the tool, and open tool tips each time I pass over a locked character. Consider grouping the unlocked characters together in the team members menu if this must be the case.

    Maybe some of these issues are less on the PC version of the game. It seems that most of the selection in the Switch version should use either a mouse-style cursor or the menu should be broken into blocks that could be entered and exited, so that the player isn't forced to constantly move across the entire menu one item at a time while getting lost along the way.

    In the early game, when introducing the "Tumult" combat mode where the player can only place their characters before the enemy's turn, why would you explain that rule only after the player had already placed their characters, removing the only opportunity for them to strategize?

    These things are additionally frustrating because they seem to be simple to fix and obvious errors in design. I can't think of when I've been as frequently frustrated with a game. Maybe I'm just bad at navigating all these menus and staying organized, or maybe Chucklefish needs more people with ADHD on their design team so I can read this stuff.

    All that being said, It is a good game and worth the price. Sorry to whine so much.    … Expand
  2. NindieSpotlight
    Dec 17, 2021
    8
    Elevator pitch time: Set off on an adventure with a party of your choosing with a wide variety of skills. Every step of the way is filled with the potential for fortune or peril, with you sometimes being forced to make tough decisions about how to proceed with the hope it’s the right one. Whenever you’re thrown into combat it’ll be pretty solid (if a bit on the well-worn and generic side)Elevator pitch time: Set off on an adventure with a party of your choosing with a wide variety of skills. Every step of the way is filled with the potential for fortune or peril, with you sometimes being forced to make tough decisions about how to proceed with the hope it’s the right one. Whenever you’re thrown into combat it’ll be pretty solid (if a bit on the well-worn and generic side) tactical fare, with your needing to carefully manage your people, their cover, and supplies in order to survive. Oh, and Nazis! All in all while I wouldn’t say Pathway does anything that strikes me as revolutionary, I really dug the narrative elements, the diversity of the characters you can set out with (with quite a number to unlock), and the tough but fair challenge I typically faced.

    https://www.nindiespotlight.com/2021/06/mini-reviews-june-2nd-edition-nintendo.html    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
69

Mixed or average reviews - based on 10 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 10
  3. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. Starbit
    Aug 18, 2021
    60
    There are several good ideas put to work here, including a wide cast of characters and a simple but functional combat system. At the same time, Pathway's ideas don't quite live up to their potential, and while the game is indeed a competent effort, it loses appeal rather quickly and won't captivate many players to pick it up again once finished.
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  2. GameSpace
    Jul 2, 2021
    70
    Sure, the idea’s aren’t genre defining and the story itself is a bit of a cheesy romp, but when my biggest complaint is that the port to Nintendo Switch could really have done with narrative and UI text that isn’t minuscule, there’s not a lot wrong. Pathway is a wonderfully upbeat ode to adventure flicks of old. The deliberately arcane pixel art shines though while the tone and setting never make gameplay a second fiddle. If you’re looking for a chilled out Sunday afternoon with the desert wind at your back and some treasure in your sights then grab Pathway now over at the Nintendo eShop.
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  3. Hey Poor Player
    Jun 27, 2021
    80
    Pathway has a lot to offer. It’s got aspects of a tabletop roleplaying/board/resource management/strategy game all in one. And while that may sound like a confusing mash-up, it’s executed quite well. Really, my biggest complaint is the steep difficulty curve, as each mission seems significantly more difficult than the one before it. While there are options to reduce the difficulty, even still it felt needlessly hard at times.
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