The Pathless- So this is basically made by the same studio who made Abzu, ,which itself was an underwater homage/spiritual sequel to Journey. Though unlike either of those games, this is a "open field" type game that has taken some pointers from Breath of the Wild it would seem.
Basically, the game's premise is that the world is coming to an end and you, as the Last Hunter, have gone to a remote island at the end of the world to find a way to save the world. Once there you find that the main gods of the world have all been corrupted and you need to free them from their corruption. The game takes place(outside of the beginning and ending portions) on 4 large plateaus with different seasons and theming, where you do 3 things: Run around and solve puzzles in temples and ruins to gain medallions, which can then be used in 3 towers to turn them on(at least you don't have to climb them) which finally allows you to fight the boss(the corrupted god) and purge the evil from them. The good thing is that it doesn't overstay it's welcome much and you can beat the game in about 5 hours or so. It also feels like it has some of the same mythical vibes as Journey and Abzu, which is the big draw for me. Also each of the boss fights is interesting and starts with you chasing the thing down before you corner it in an arena.
There are a few other things of note. The first is that your traversal consists of a fast run and also the ability to glide/ascend with the help of a magic eagle buddy, and you shoot magical floating diamonds in the air to recharge your dash meter which means it feels kind of like a sonic game of all things with the emphasis on dashing. The other is that while you engage in combat with the corrupted gods, you can't actually die that I can tell. At worst you get knocked down for a bit, or even out of the arena, but that's effectively the same thing as dying with a quick reload and generous checkpoint. Finally, while roaming the plateau solving puzzles the corrupted god will be in a large red scary looking ball which will both move and teleport around, and if it gets too close to you, you're forced into a stealth gameplay section where you try to hide from it. However, I failed it every time with almost no consequence and really it just takes you out of the main game for a few minutes, so it's a much better idea then execution, but it happened like once per plateau I think.
Overall a good game though. If you want something else like Abzu/Journey, this kind of scratches the same itch.
