Preview: Pathless Woods – Exploring and surviving in an open world inspired by ancient China
AniYa Games Studio’s Pathless Woods is a cozy, open-world crafting and survival game influenced by ancient China’s heritage. Inspired by Byron’s poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, ” Pathless Woods aims to let players find joy in exploring a new world far from civilization. As someone who enjoys the gameplay loop of gathering resources, building a base, and defeating enemies, this immediately appealed to me. Its cute graphics and interesting setting were a huge plus, and I was curious to see how this Chinese studio of two would incorporate it into their debut title.
Pathless Woods opens up with a short tutorial teaching players the ropes – from the basic controls to different stats to keep track of – such as hunger and hydration -and the crafting system. My favorite part is the resource gathering – you can choose between a quick time event, which will help you gather materials more efficiently if executed correctly, or the slower but simpler button press. After going through those ten minutes of introduction, I was charmed by the world – the art style is charming and colorful, bringing a certain cozy feel to a genre that can often be quite dark and stressful to me.
I was ready for a more relaxed experience that still offered the joys and challenges of exploring a new world.
The end of the tutorial brought me back to the title screen, where I could choose between starting a single-player or multiplayer world. I got to pick between two characters, each with their own stats and mechanics, and with the implication that more characters would unlock later. And so I chose the cute girl – obviously – and hopped in. And immediately, I was greeted with an onslaught of information, any misguided confidence that the tutorial had inspired in me quickly disappearing. Pathless Woods has a pretty busy UI, with numerous windows and trackers that were not explained in the intro – for example, in additionally to the health, hunger, and hydration bar, there is also a spirit, physique, nutrition, and digestive power level tracker to keep an eye on. I spent most of my gameplay reading through all the quite wordy instructions.
Most of it became pretty clear the more I played, though some mechanics are still a mystery to me several hours into the game.
This is due to some UI elements sometimes overlapping, making them difficult to read – one example is the quest tracker on the right, which extends over half the screen whenever you finish one of the goals.
There are also some issues with the translation, making explanations challenging to follow. The most striking issues, however, are when certain NPCs come across as almost rude due to a poor choice of translation. Despite this, the NPCs I met were cute and quirky, especially Tudigong, based on one of the Chinese deities watching over different locations. Tudigong follows the player throughout the adventure, giving helpful quests to guide them through what would be best to craft next or where to go. However, players can skip quests if they have played before or would instead explore by themselves. While I found most of them to be very useful, a few are best left ignored – for example, the player is tasked with building a house. I followed the instructions and accidentally built a structure that could compete for the world’s most humble abode title.
As I explored, following Tudigongs’ instructions, I discovered my favorite feature in Pathless Woods: the ability to add crafting recipes to the quest log.
This might seem like a small quality-of-life detail, but as someone who often struggles to remember the many resources needed for more complex builds, it came in very handy. In Pathless Woods, players can tackle several challenges, most notably the Jaer cultists and the so-called Lunawells, a shrine guarded by mysterious creatures. I enjoyed the Lunawells—while the puzzles are straightforward, the rewards they offer are nice, and the guardians are really cool.
The first time I saw one in the night sky was a genuinely beautiful moment I wish I could have shared with my friends.
The Jaer cultists are the main enemies in the game and are strewn throughout several camps in the world. The more camps the player defeats, the more difficult those fights get. I enjoyed the challenge of facing the Jaer in different environments, and defeating them will usually offer a series of excellent rewards, including NPCs that can join your party. However, the fighting system is a bit clunky, and the controls are confusing, as sometimes, the same type of action (e.g., picking up an object) is randomly mapped to different keys. Luckily, the player doesn’t get punished too harshly for dying, so I always felt motivated to keep going and try again.
Pathless Wood’s Early Access was an enjoyable experience that offered an exciting balance between cozy vibes and an interesting survival challenge. The ancient Chinese influence makes this a unique title, and I would be keen to play more in this genre. Some details, such as the translations, UI, and controls, need a bit of polish to make Pathless Woods stand out, but I look forward to trying this with my friends in the future!
