The Eightfold Path

I waited for the sale to end to purchase this game. What an interesting experience, not preachy, very relaxing vibe and fun to explore, Thank you!

This game is beautiful. The art style is beautiful. The world is beautiful. The sound design and music is beautiful. The implementation of the meditation as a mechanic is beautiful. The things it tries to teach are beautiful. This game is also incredibly frustrating and suffers from game design issues. Pathways are long, meandering, and maze like, difficult to navigate and lacking any sort of map or signage to help you keep track of where you've been - so I hope you remember every aspect of this complex map across every play session. Also you walk extremely slowly. The puzzles range from cryptic (the rabbit puzzle) to unforgiving of even slight error (trying to move boulders in a cave). If you "die" you get sent back to a random checkpoint, sometimes it's a million miles from where you just were and there's no way of choosing or knowing how to get back to where you were, so making progress can be very tedious. Sometimes an enemy can fly off the edge of the map and even if you know what you need to do to stop it (no spoilers), there's no time do execute on it. The same is true if you stop the game and pick it back up. Are you where you left off? Not likely. So now time to fumb…

Game is so close to being good, which makes the flaws more painful. The pull of the subject material is the games greatest strength. Seeking wisdom is a compelling reason for exploration. But the game has multiple puzzles subvert established mechanics for their solutions, movable objects become nearly immovable if they collide with another movable object; breaking puzzles and forcing reset, and being able to pull movable objects would make the puzzles fun to play. Adjustment > reset to make puzzles fun. Resetting the turtle ball 8 times to get the collisions right just isn't that fun. Respawns are punishing because they disorient the player in a game with slow movement speed. The added walk time after respawning makes labbing out the puzzles excruciating. A map would be less frustrating and so would some indication of the animals which have already had their challenges completed. Ex. a statue corresponding to their light in the center once the path has been complete. I think a map would let the player learn the overall layout better, improving the ability to navigate, and would make the caves feel less like teleportation and more like an understood tool. I'd have left the r…

Eightfold path is thematically unconventional as a videogame, relying on patience and stillness rather than reaction speed to progress, resulting in a scenic adventure of appreciation and mindfulness. I would describe this game as only having 2 major mechanics: meditating and a sprint. Sprinting itself is hilariously underwhelming, making the mode of inaction into meditation the key component. But the game's lack of convention is all for the sake of the wisdom within it's message. And although mechanically slow, Eightfold Path's puzzles are challenging and gratifying. The slow pace mixed with the charming graphics conclude for a pleasing experience that results in a transference of tranquility.

I love this game. It's a great combination of reflective and stimulating. Beautiful pixel art graphics and music combine with really simple gameplay and a wonderful varied world to explore. Each Buddha quote you uncover is not only a moment for pause but also a reference to something occurring in the game. Highly recommended!

i really enjoy this game. its really good