Forced to take desert path?

[ssmj46]

I don't believe this! When I got to the deep river where it says you either swim or go around it through the desert, I picked "swim" 3 times in a row and it FORCED ME to go through the desert anyway 3 times in a row now!

I hate the desert path! The targets are REALLY SMALL making them hard to hit! And trying to just dodge them result in me taking a cheap hit! I ALWAYS lose at least one party member on this path and the ONE time I didn't, the RNG spun me around and had me go through the desert AGAIN! I cleared the desert on my second/third pass, why did it STILL force me to take the desert path?!

There's 3 things I can think of at the moment as to why:

1) You MUST beat the game at least once to take the water path.
2) The water path is broken.
3) I'm just INCREDIBLY unlucky and got forced to take that path 3 times in a row.

Can someone please explain why I was forced to take that desert path MULTIPLE TIMES IN A ROW despite picking the water path?

[Peter B]

Evil RNG :)