Enotria: The Last Song's Path of Innovators Needs a Fresh Approach

As more games in the Soulslike genre push the boundaries of FromSoftware’s original formula, they experiment with providing players more freedom to tackle the challenging gameplay. Enotria: The Last Song is no exception, striving to give players unprecedented flexibility. Unfortunately, while it tries hard to deliver this freedom, it falls short in a few key areas.

At the core of Enotria: The Last Song is the Path of Innovators, the game’s version of an RPG skill tree. However, despite its promise of flexibility, the system feels more like a barrier than a means to experiment and customize builds freely.

Enotria: The Last Song’s Path of Innovators Needs a Respec Feature

One of the main selling points of Enotria: The Last Song is the level of customization it offers players when creating their ideal build. It attempts to provide this freedom through multiple systems—such as Enotria’s elemental abilities, unique weapons, and Mask Lines, a set of dozens of skills. However, the Path of Innovators, a crucial part of the gameplay, cannot be ignored by players looking to excel. Unlike traditional RPG skill trees, where passive abilities are applied once unlocked, Enotria’s passives require players to choose and equip only six at a time. This adds a strategic layer to the game, but it also limits flexibility.

The Path of Innovators is divided into four different classes or paths, each offering a distinct set of passive skills. These are the Battlemage, Bruiser, Trickster, and Elementalist, and players are encouraged to mix and match perks from any of these paths to create versatile builds. Battlemage perks focus on enhancing Mask Lines, Bruiser perks improve Health and Physical Power, Trickster perks emphasize Stamina Regeneration and evasion, and Elementalist perks boost Elemental Power. In theory, combining perks from these categories should allow for endless strategic possibilities.

However, the system is hindered by one frustrating design decision.

Why Players Should Be Able to Respec the Path of Innovators

While Enotria: The Last Song allows players to respec their stats for different classes like Bruiser, Assassin, Elementalist, and Trickster, the Path of Innovators does not offer the same option for its perks. Some players might not see this as a problem, but for those who don’t carefully plan their build from the start, it’s easy to waste valuable points on perks they may never use. This is particularly disheartening given that there are 68 skills to unlock in the Path of Innovators, and Enotria boasts about the possibility of 150 million different build combinations.

Ironically, despite the game's emphasis on experimentation, it’s nearly impossible to test out different builds unless players manage to unlock every single perk in the game. This design caters more to the hardcore gamer audience and can alienate players who don’t have the time, patience, or desire to unlock every possible perk. If Enotria truly values giving players the freedom to experiment, the game needs an update that allows players to respec their perks, even if it comes with a cost. Only then will the promise of those 150 million combinations feel achievable.