(Rating based on build 1)

Secrets of the Path is quick to set up the premise - 5 "friends" plus 1 are going on a weird camping trip which involves solving puzzles. It all seems innocuous at first, but with the intent of these puzzles becoming more enigmatic with each one and the ??!? world-building being handwaved as normal, it'll hardly stay that way.

What really shatters the fun trip premise are those quotation marks around "friends". Every conversation is physically painful to read. If people aren't passive aggressive, they're downright hostile. (I say this positively, it's written well!) Despite this, the mute character is casually accommodated by using phone texting so he can add to the strained character dynamics like everyone else, which is a good way to portray a mute character in my opinion.

For the audiovisuals, the sprites look great - they're very expressive and there's a lot of visual storytelling in their designs alone. (I'm happy to report the KnowIt Bara Tiddies™ haven't gone anywhere).

The background art's lineless and saturated style lends everything a sense of sterility, which works so far. Depending on where the horror goes though, it could potentially end up clashing with the tone - of course, that's not an issue currently, just something I thought about while playing.

There's not a lot of music yet, but it's all custom and the pieces work well for the scenes 🎵

All around, a good first build and I look forward to more!

(I don't know if there will be any romance, but Zach's really cute so I'm holding out hope 🙏)