Frontier: Path of Shadows is an upcoming sci-fi tactical RPG from Oduvan Games, published by Brightika, Inc., with a public Steam demo due on 29 May 2026 and the full game currently targeting Q3 2026. Its official pitch is a mix of X-COM and Final Fantasy, with a focus on stripping away some of the more annoying randomness and putting more emphasis on planning, positioning, and squad management.
That all sounds lovely on paper.
And after getting early access to the playtest version ahead of the public demo, I can say this much: there is definitely something here.
It is not all smooth sailing. Some bits still feel rough, some systems could be explained better, and the AI clearly has a few odd habits it needs to kick before release. But there is also enough in this early build to suggest Frontier: Path of Shadows could become a very solid tactical RPG once it tightens the screws.
Jay might be a courier, but he is not exactly delivering missed-parcel slips
You play as Jay, a courier dragged into something much bigger after a strange crystal lodges itself in his life and turns a simple job into a much messier problem. The official Steam description introduces him as part of the crew of the battered corvette Simurgh, alongside Rob, Alice, and Khan, as they try to survive out on the barely charted edge of space known as the Frontier.
It is a decent setup, and the game uses the demo to walk you through that world while teaching you its basics.
There are no flashy cutscenes here. No voice acting either. Instead, it all comes through dialogue boxes and character conversations, which is fine enough for this sort of game. You click through the text to move things along, and one thing I appreciated was the option to go back in the dialogue if you clicked too fast and missed something.
That said, there is also a skip option, and this is where things got a bit messy for me. Yes, skipping through text is a player choice, so if you miss story details by hammering that button, that is partly on you. Fair enough. But I am fairly sure it also skipped past some dialogue choices I should have been able to make, which feels like a problem. Skipping flavour text is one thing. Accidentally skipping decision points is another.
The English is also a little rough in places. Nothing disastrous, and never so messy that I stopped understanding what was going on, but there are definitely lines and phrases that could do with another polish pass before Frontier: Path of Shadows’ release.
The combat has some smart ideas when it actually behaves itself
This is where Frontier: Path of Shadows begins to show why it might be worth keeping an eye on.
Combat is turn-based and built around action points, letting you spend them on movement, attacks, interacting with objects like terminals, and the usual tactical mucking about you would expect from the genre. On top of that, there is an adrenaline system that builds during battle and lets characters pull off stronger special actions without spending AP, which is a neat touch and one of the game’s better ideas. The official materials also frame combat as one of the core pillars, with choices, squad upgrades, exploration, and tactical battles all feeding into each other.
Each character having their own adrenaline ability helps give the party a bit more identity, too. You can cut off enemy routes, pin someone in place, and generally do a bit more than just stand there trading shots until one side keels over. Another nice touch is that characters can equip multiple weapons and swap between them, so even a more melee-leaning fighter can still take a ranged pop when needed, and vice versa.
That flexibility works well.
The problem is that the enemy AI does not always seem fully committed to the idea of fighting back.
In a few missions, enemies would just bounce between two empty spots like they had suddenly remembered they had left the oven on at home. Every now and then, one would buff itself, but rarely did they feel especially aggressive. There was even one of the later demo missions where you are supposed to keep Khan alive, and he mostly just sat in the corner doing very little while I picked off enemies and had a good old rummage through chests. That is not ideal. If the game wants tension, the AI needs to start acting as it means it.
Exploring space is one of the bits that genuinely clicked for me
Outside of battle, I actually enjoyed the map and exploration side of Frontier: Path of Shadows quite a bit.
You can move around space in your ship, follow the coordinates to your next story objective, or just wander off and see what trouble you can find for yourself. That helps the game feel a little broader than just “click through story, load battle, repeat”, which is always welcome in something trying to sell you a bigger frontier to survive in.
It also adds to the sense that there is more going on beyond the immediate mission structure. The official Steam page talks about exploring unknown worlds, making difficult choices, and shaping the fate of the sector, and while the playtest is obviously only a small slice of that, the broader structure at least hints at a game with some scope.
The visuals help here, too. It is not some jaw-dropping sci-fi showcase, and I do not think it is trying to be, but it captures the right sort of spacefaring mood. The general art direction does enough to sell the setting, and the main characters look decent.
Enemy variety, though, is another matter.
No matter what type I was fighting, they all seemed to look pretty much the same. Now, because this is a playtest, I am not going to start chucking toys out of the pram over that. This is exactly the stage where things can still be placeholder-heavy. But it is something I noticed, and something I would hope looks a lot more varied by the time the full version lands.
Some systems need explaining better, and chest rewards need to feel worth the bother
There is a crystal at the heart of things in Frontier: Path of Shadows that emits different colours, and depending on which colour it is leaning towards, it seems to affect the battle modifiers or abilities you can choose before a mission. These can be very strong too. One option, making ranged attacks always hit at 100%, felt especially daft, because it strips a huge chunk of tension out of a tactical system that is meant to be built around careful decisions.
The bigger issue, though, is that the playtest did not really do enough to establish what each crystal colour is supposed to mean. You can tell the system matters. You can tell it is meant to influence the way you play. But at this stage, it still feels under-explained, so a lot of it comes across more as “pick the nice buff” than “make an informed strategic call”.
The chest rewards were also a bit underwhelming. I would open several and come away with maybe one item, and if there was currency or something else being added alongside that, the game did not make it especially obvious. For something that asks you to poke around maps and break off from the main objective, the rewards need to feel a bit more meaningful than that.
First thoughts on Frontier: Path of Shadows
There is definitely roughness here.
Some of the writing needs another pass. The skip function seems too aggressive. Enemy AI can act strangely passive. Certain systems are not explained well enough yet. And a few of the rewards and combat modifiers still need balancing or clearer feedback.
But even with all that, I came away interested.
There is enough in Frontier: Path of Shadows to suggest a good tactical RPG is trying to take shape underneath the messy bits. The action point system works well enough, adrenaline abilities add flavour, the weapon flexibility is a nice touch, and the space exploration side gives it a bit of scale beyond just its fights.
It took me around 45 minutes or so to get through the playtest build, and while it did not completely win me over, it did exactly what a demo probably should do: leave me curious about what the fuller version might become.
Right now, Frontier: Path of Shadows feels a bit rough. But there is promise there.
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