Stories: The Path of Destinies is a new action-adventure game developed by Spearhead Games, who have made Tiny Brains and Arena Cyber Evolution before. Following a game style similar to “hit” Bastion, Stories is a colourful and story rich game set within a world full of floating islands where airships fill the skies and Ravens patrol for the powerful Emperor.
Story
Rebels Vs Empire, sounds all too familiar.
The game starts off with a short backstory of the world, a Rebellion has formed to combat the oppressive Empire, whose emperor has been rumoured to have gone insane. Talk of sacrifices and mistreatment forces people into revolt. Among them is an Anthropomorphic Fox by the name of Reynardo, an ex-pirate turned “babysitter” of a kid who wants to help the Rebellion a lot more then Reynardo does.
The kid is killed off pretty quickly, leaving behind a Book, with a mysterious but powerful magic behind it. Taking the book, Reynardo vows to carry on this kids wishes to aid the Rebellion. It isn’t long before he is betrayed, killed, exploded, possessed and much more, thankfully the book he took from the kid allows him to control his own Destiny. Looking at the choices he has made, the Book draws him in to just after the kid was killed, to try it all over again with the knowledge of what lays ahead of him.
The good side of time travel, live through life until your death with a chance to go back and change it all, like Groundhog Day. As you play you will uncover 4 truths, who are you allies, what is your main weapon to use and more, using these truths you will be able to reach a future where both Reynardo lives and the world is set to peace. Plenty of funny endings are spread around, with enough to annoy the heck out of you, what a twist.
Going through the game for a first run will take between 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on the route you take. Each route has about 4 or 5 chapters, each one ending with a decision that splits off into another path with a possible new ending. To get the “correct” ending will take around 5 hours if you take the minimal amount of routes needed to get the truths. There is around 25 different endings for you to find, though it does require you to replay a route to make between 1 and 5 different choices.
Gameplay
Taking on an almost isometric view, you control Reynardo through holding down right click in a similar fashion to Torchlight (though that uses left click). Left clicking makes Reynardo attack with whatever sword is equipped or parrying if you have the mouse in the direction of an attacking enemy. Shift activates your current Sword’s ability, Ctrl for Dashing and Alt for grapple hook.
As you play the game you will find chests that contain ore and elemental stones that allow you to forge different elemental swords, allowing for new abilities as well as being able to use them to open new doors. Each sword has 2 levels, the second unlocking their abilities or increasing the potency of them. Opening the doors grants you access to more chests, rare chests that drop gems you can slot into your glove, increasing defences, attack speed, drop rates and more.
As you defeat enemies you will gain EXP, gaining a skill point after a certain amount which can be spent at Altar’s scattered around the maps. Skill points can be used to unlock new skills like the grapple hook, Dash and counterattack slow times, or to increase health or magic amounts. You will need higher amounts of exp to level up as you go through the game, with exp and levels being rewarded for getting certain endings or unlocking truths.
Overall Thoughts and Feelings
The music in Stories is beautiful, from action tunes for battle and ambient tracks for travelling the worlds. However you won’t be listening to the music most of the time, with an ever present Narrator similar to Bastion who will narrate most actions throughout the levels on top of scripts being read at particular parts of the level. The narrator also voices all the characters in a fashion similar to book reading, ending each character’s line with “she said”, “He replied” etc.
The difficulty of Stories starts off pretty easy, with simple enemies combined with simple controls, this raises with each death. Enemy types continue to grow in variety and numbers, following your characters progression in levels and equipment. Around 4 runs you will find the game to reach its pinnacle of difficulty, dying a few times for the 4 chapters you run through. I felt the difficulty was great for the majority of the game, as when I started to master the mechanics it threw harder obstacles at me, driving me to play even better.
Overall Stories: The Path of Destinies gets a 9/10, it’s a great game that uses the “correct” form of time travel that doesn’t leave too many annoyances in its wake. The characters are fun, bordering on unique, though some clichés are dotted around to keep them on the fence. Comedy is spread out and doesn’t take too much from the overarching story, with references to games/movies both old and new, the “Construct Additional Pylons” got to me as an older gamer. There isn’t much that Stories can improve on, replayability is the main concept of the game with 25 different endings, sadly the combat can become stale after your 5th or 6th run as you will unlock most abilities by then on top of some of the information you gain through the “truths” or “collectable” diaries isn’t really used by the protagonist, which can infuriate a bit. If you’re a fan of Bastion, you will definitely love this game.
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