Shape of Dreams launched on PS5 on September 17 with The Starless Path update, according to developer Lizard Smoothie's PlayStation Blog announcement. It supports solo play and online parties of up to four. The more interesting design change, however, is what players can alter before a run even begins.
When a character's passive stops being exclusive
The developer distinguishes between an active Traveler Memory and a passive Identity Memory. The update adds six Universal Identity Memories that can replace the character-specific passive. During a run, equipped abilities called Memories can also be modified with Essences.
That puts two kinds of customization alongside one another: changing the starting character setup and changing how an acquired ability behaves. A larger pool of options does not necessarily produce more meaningful choices, though.
Our hypothesis is that shared passives could let an otherwise awkward party composition work without anyone abandoning a favorite Traveler. The opposite risk is convergence: if one universal option is broadly stronger, different characters could gravitate toward the same starting setup. Both are possible readings of the announced system, not results from GG Bulletin testing.
A revealing comparison would hold the Traveler and encounter constant, then swap the passive. Does the alternative open a different way to handle the encounter, or merely make the same approach faster? That distinction separates a new tactical choice from an upgrade that is difficult to refuse.
A party needs compatible plans, not just compatible platforms
Lizard Smoothie says cross-play is available at launch. Its co-op examples include one player freezing enemies for another to damage, and grouping enemies for a collective attack. The new Traveler Cetus specializes in frost control and shields.
Those examples suggest a practical conversation for a group starting together: who creates an opening, and who can exploit it? Four individually appealing builds are not automatically a coordinated team. If one player commits to gathering enemies while another spends their strongest attack before the group is assembled, the intended combination may never happen. This is an illustrative coordination problem, not a reported incident from a play session.
Cross-play addresses who can enter a lobby together; it does not by itself establish cross-save support or how reliably a mixed-platform session will run. The announcement is not a substitute for those checks.
The update's appeal, on paper, is therefore less about accumulating options than making them work together. GG Bulletin has not tested the PS5 release, its balance or cross-platform sessions. For players weighing it as their next group game, those are the open questions behind the launch announcement.