I love:
…the atmosphere, and exploration. I don’t know how large the woods are, yet, but tomorrow – when I have enough time for the snail’s pace paces – I’ll get to it. Even just walking along the path seems fairly… not realistic, but true to life? Seedlets float on the wind, insects can be heard in the grass, and birds occasionally fly past, or land on the path nearby.
…how the game handles interaction. The controls in general, really; hold the mouse-button to walk. Move the mouse to turn. Let go to stop. Let go near something your character of choice will interact with – different for each of them – and they’ll do something. Fairly simple, very easy to pick up.
I like:
…getting a rank at the end of the journey. It might seem rather mundane, but… yeah. You get ranked. You get told how many things you’ve missed. I, (un)fortunately, am a gamer; I like knowing I’m getting somewhere, working towards something. This doesn’t really spoil anything – it doesn’t tell you what there IS to find, just that there are things out there that you haven’t seen.
I loathe:
…the walking speed. I know why it’s slow, but that doesn’t stop me from wishing it were at least a little quicker. Though it is nice seeing a walking animation that doesn’t slide over the floor one way or another.
…the lack of footsteps, talking of walking. For all the other effects the game has, it’s very strange that there’s no sound for footsteps. It’s not too obvious on a dirt path, but once you hit something different, it’s very strange walking silently with a cricket in the background, and a girl humming.
…the screenshots. Nothing to do directly with the game, but it looks far prettier in those than on my screen. Maybe I should see if there are settings to poke at, but as is… well, it still looks nice, but not as great as the screenshots suggest.
Verdict:
Tale of Tales’ previous major thing, The Graveyard, was not a game to me; there was no challenge, very little to be discovered in the tiny world, and ‘buying’ the thing just added one possible outcome which didn’t seem any more entertaining than what you get in the free version. You can’t fail… unless you buy it and don’t like it, but that’s more of a metagame, and not a proper loss. I’d call it ‘art’, but… no, still not enjoyable. Appreciable, perhaps, but I prefer even my art to have some kind of interaction. Shadow of the Colossus is more my kind of ‘art’.
The Path, however, is much more like a game than the Graveyard; there are choices, there’s more than one possible outcome, and it’s possible to miss things. You probably still get what you pay for, though. I don’t know if the screenshots in previews were using better settings or something, but I’ll need to check next time I play.
Lioleus' Lair 
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