Path of the Midnight Sun

Path of the Midnight Sun is a gorgeous hybrid of visual novel and turn based JRPG. The story is decent and has lots of twists and turns, and it kept me interested. The characters are well written, and the voice acting is really good, although not all lines are acted. I liked that there were romance options in the game, I always enjoy that. The music and sounds are nice, and the artwork is really gorgeous. There are some things I didn't really like, such as the food/sanity systems, because they seemed a little pointless. It would have been nice to be able to unlock more skills in the skill tree, but grinding is capped due to the time limits on the fight maps (I liked the skill trees but didn't have enough mana to unlock many of the skills). It would also be nice if they added some Steam achievements at some point. Overall it's a really nice little indie JRPG, and it's definitely worth a play through.

The characters are fun and cute. The voice acting is really good. The combat is fun. The story has a lot of fun mysteries to unravel. I always love having romance options.

Review contains story spoilers, be advised. I had played Path of the Midnight Sun on the hardest difficulty for almost the entirety of the game. The time pressure felt just tight enough in the first few chapters that it seemed to be very meticulously tested, and that deserves high praise. This time pressure seemed to loosen up significantly after Chapter 10, I almost always had an extra hour of time (the only exception being the first time based objective in 11B, in which I got everything before reaching the target area which did not seem intended). Granted, at this point of the game, only 3 chapters have time based objectives. The only point in time where the game didn't tell me something important to my knowledge is that after defeating the boss of Chapter 8 (The Squinking) it takes additional time to reach the hotsprings (I believe around 15 minutes), so even if you beat the boss something like 10 minutes before the secondary time requirement, you still don't get the "full" reward of the Hot Springs (if you're curious, it just becomes free as opposed to 5K gold) As for the difficulty of fights, the only fight that required lowering the difficulty was the first proper fight against the Demon King in Chapter 10. Perhaps some of it came from poor Mana distribution (especially if you didn't know of the story beforehand from their previous interpretation like me) The only part of the story I could say I did not like was the end of the game, the Church being evil just felt shoehorned into the end of the game. Yes there were hints of it in 11B, but I feel it only serves to humanize the Demon King after his death (although I suppose if the conflict that caused the birth of the Demon King came from Orni's ancestor, it would be odd to make that the main crux of the connection between Orni and the Demon King) There was an error with the auto advance after the first boss phase on the final boss, where the text would advance before the dialogue was fully voiced. This issue persisted for the rest of the chapter if I recall correctly. Cristoph is cool, would dump 2200-ish mana into him every time to have downright stupid buffs

A fun game with turn-based combat and a decent story. It is playable on steam deck with the touchpad, although sometimes it started to lag a bit (a restart usually fixed this). The characters are likeable, but you only get to know them superficially. There is also a little romance, although one of the couples I chose felt like he was her second choice (which made me feel a bit bad for him). The combat is fun and the boss fights can be challenging even on normal. I would have liked to be able to save on the battle field or at least adjust the formation. Overall though I recommend this game if you like turn-based combat with a nice story.

A few bugs and bad game balance , but characters are amazing, Shiori is the best girl, period.

Fun experience overall. The balancing of the time management during battle maps is a bit tight. Due to that I never took opportunities to explore safe spaces and missed out on a chunk of content. The story and characters are well written and I look forward to seeing more from this creator in the future.

Path of the Midnight Sun è stata una delle sorprese più piacevoli che abbia trovato su Steam. Un titolo capace di unire la profondità narrativa di una Visual Novel con le meccaniche tattiche e gestionali di un RPG a turni, dando vita a un'esperienza unica e curata nei minimi dettagli. Fin dai primi minuti, il gioco trasmette passione e dedizione. La storia è eccezionale, piena di colpi di scena, momenti toccanti e personaggi incredibilmente ben scritti. Il mio preferito è Shiori, un personaggio che spicca per sensibilità, spessore e sviluppo emotivo. Le musiche meritano un plauso speciale: ogni brano si adatta perfettamente al tono della scena, amplificando emozioni e tensione nei momenti chiave. La colonna sonora è splendida e rende l'atmosfera ancora più coinvolgente. Ho inoltre molto apprezzato la linea ironica di alcuni dialoghi: nelle situazioni più intense spuntano battute leggere o scambi sarcastici che spezzano con gusto la tensione, mostrando che il gioco sa essere divertente senza perdere profondità. Il gameplay è profondo e vario. I combattimenti a turni sono strategici e ben bilanciati, con un sistema che valorizza la pianificazione e la sinergia tra i membri del gruppo. Un elemento che ho apprezzato moltissimo è la possibilità di scegliere quattro supporti da un roster di alleati diversi, ognuno dotato di abilità attive e passive uniche che influenzano lo scontro in modi sempre nuovi. E' una meccanica intelligente che aggiunge una dimensione tattica in più alle battaglie. Fuori dal combattimento, il gioco offre sistemi di gestione del morale e delle relazioni tra i personaggi, che influiscono realmente sulla storia e sulle prestazioni in battaglia. Sul piano tecnico, Path of the Midnight Sun è ben ottimizzato, con una direzione artistica di grande fascino, doppiaggio di qualità professionale, e un'interfaccia chiara e intuitiva. Tutto comunica la cura e la passione con cui è stato realizzato. In sintesi, Path of the Midnight Sun è un piccolo capolavoro indipendente, capace di fondere alla perfezione narrazione profonda, atmosfera e strategia. Consigliatissimo a chi ama le Visual Novel con elementi RPG tattici, ma anche a chi cerca un'esperienza coinvolgente e ricca di emozioni. Un vero gioiellino del panorama videoludico moderno.

Included in this awesome dating sim is a pretty good JRPG

The beginning is very bland – the starting character is the worst and blandest combat unit – and the game itself is very rough around the edges; the combat animations are often ridiculous (many of the character’s splash screens make they look like they’re about to fall asleep) and the levelling system is incredibly weird. But, despite all that, Path of the Midnight Suns is actually a good game. The characters are very interesting, voice acting (as intermittent as it is) is great, and the narrative is worth following through. Maybe this wasn’t the best medium in which to tell this story, but it’s engrossing enough for me be left wanting more content in this universe.

This game ending up being WAY more enjoyable than I expected it to be. Wasn't really sure what I was looking for when I was browsing steam that day but I have no regrets for playing this one out. A great story with no empty holes to be filled at the end, the perfect sprinkle of romance throughout the game, and enough mystery and twists to keep me interested till the end. Id be happy to play another game like this one.