Summary
- The Path of Innovators in Enotria: The Last Song claims to offer versatile build-crafting opportunities.
- Unfortunately, Enotria: The Last Song's Path of Innovators lacks a respec option, limiting build experimentation.
- Enotria: The Last Song should update the game to allow players the opportunity to respec their perks in the Path of Innovators.
More and more Soulslikes are experimenting with different ways to expand on the formula that FromSoftware created and continues to evolve. Much of this experimentation revolves around offering players unprecedented levels of freedom that will help them tackle the arduous challenges of Soulslike games, and that's something Enotria: The Last Song makes every attempt to achieve, though it falls short in many ways.
At the heart of Enotria: The Last Song's gameplay is the Path of Innovators, which is essentially its version of an RPG skill tree. Unfortunately, in its current state, the Path of Innovators could use a bit of innovation itself, as its claim to allow players the freedom to experiment backfires and becomes a giant wall instead.
Enotria: The Last Song's Elemental System Explained
Enotria: The Last Song's elemental and status effect system is a core part of its gameplay, so players should know the ins and outs of how it works.
Enotria: The Last Song's Path of Innovators Needs a Respec Option
Enotria: The Last Song's Path of Innovators Is a Core Part of Its Build-Crafting Gameplay
One of Enotria: The Last Song's main selling points is the freedom it provides players to customize their build any way they wish. It attempts to accomplish this in various ways — like with Enotria's elemental system, unique weapons, and dozens of skills called Mask Lines — but its Path of Innovators is another core part of its gameplay that can't be put on the back burner by players who wish to succeed. The Path of Innovators works similarly to passive skill trees found in most other RPGs, except Enotria's passives aren't all automatically applied once they're unlocked. Instead, players can only have six of them equipped at one time, allowing for much more strategic build-crafting.
The Path of Innovators in Enotria: The Last Song consists of four different classes (paths) for players to choose from and the skills from each path can be mixed and matched as much as necessary. The four paths in the Path of Innovators are Battlemage, Bruiser, Trickster, and Elementalist, each one providing unique passive skills to utilize in their build. Battlemage perks revolve around buffing Enotria's Mask Lines, Bruiser perks enhance the player's Health and Physical Power, Trickster perks primarily focus on Stamina Regeneration and evasion, and Elementalist perks specialize in increasing the player's Elemental Power. All in all, combining perks from each of these categories, in theory, should result in some fairly versatile builds.
Unfortunately, the whole system is held back by an interesting design choice.
Players Can't But Should Be Able to Respec the Path of Innovators in Enotria: The Last Song
While players can respec their Bruiser, Assassin, Elementalist, Trickster, and Battlemage stats, it is currently impossible to respec perks unlocked in the Path of Innovators. While some players may not find this to be an issue, anyone who doesn't take a considerable amount of time to develop a firm strategy before unlocking perks in the Path of Innovators may find themselves spending valuable points on perks they may never use. This is especially disappointing, given that there are 68 skills to unlock in the Path of Innovators and Enotria boasts 150 million different build combinations that can be formed from them.
Ironically, it's impossible to experiment with any build combinations as far as the Path of Innovators is concerned, unless, of course, players manage to unlock every single perk in the game. However, that kind of game design caters more to hardcore gamers than anyone else and alienates those who don't have the time, skill, or patience to acquire enough points to unlock every perk. If allowing players the freedom to experiment with various builds in Enotria truly is important to the game, then it needs an update that will give players the option to respec their perks, even if it costs them something valuable to do so. Perhaps then, Enotria might see the 150 million different build combinations it claims to offer become a reality.
Enotria: The Last Song
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 69 /100 Critics Rec: 31%
- Released
- September 16, 2024
- ESRB
- Teen / Alcohol Reference, Blood and Gore, Mild Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Jyamma Games
- Publisher(s)
- Jyamma Games
WHERE TO PLAY
Enotria: The Last Song is a thrilling soulsike set in a sun-lit land inspired by Italian folklore and filled with danger.
The world has been gripped by the Canovaccio - a twisted eternal play that keeps everything in an unnatural stasis. You, Maskless One, are the only one without a given role and master of your destiny. Defeat the fearsome Authors that created it and free the world from stagnation, by harnessing the power of Ardore.
Become the Mask of Change.
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG, Soulslike
