Stories: The Path of Destinies Reviews
Stories: The Path of Destinies may not redefine the way we think about narrative choice in video games, but it doesn't have to: it's just damn good fun. The idea of playing a game repeatedly to experience all its branching paths may bring to mind unnecessary padding and repetition, but the developers at Spearhead Games clearly took the initiative to avoid that. Stories is a lot of fun to play through multiple times, thanks to some thoroughly smooth and enjoyable combat — even though it's snatched its main ideas from the jaws of the Batman: Arkham games — and great level layouts that let you explore new territory even on multiple return trips. From an aesthetic perspective, I really think a lot of players will dig the fairytale-inspired character design and colorful environments, which might help them overlook the occasional technical hiccups. Overall, this is one action-RPG fans won't want to miss.
Solid action-RPG gameplay is elevated by the meta-puzzle that is the game's branching storylines. The entertaining trial and error of trying to find the one "good" ending channels Choose Your Own Adventure books, and lends itself to a story that you'll love playing again and again.
Despite some setbacks, players need to experience this charming and inventive adventure for themselves.
A lot of fun, but get it on PC if you can.
Stories sets a very high bar for writing and story in a video game. Similarly, while many games tout that player decisions matter, Stories truly delivers. Visual design would rate well alone, and audio/narration is nearly perfect. The price of admission is a good deal, with gameplay developing new wrinkles through about a dozen stories to keep it fresh, which would land you about 6-10 hours of gameplay. Some players will get tired of combat sooner, some will persist for the stories. Completionists looking for platinum will likely get tired of killing ravens. Replayability's only blemish is that the game is so fast to "complete" that you pretty much need to go through a few times just to start grasping the true nature of the game. This is a small nitpick to be sure, and players will likely stick with this game for a bit to see what Reynardo will do next.
Stories: The Path of Destinies suffers from being extremely repetitive, which drags down an otherwise entertaining tale.
An action RPG for all ages to enjoy that unfortunately gets muddled down by a mediocre soundtrack and lack of enemy variety.
When you take it for what it is, Stories: The Path of Destinies is a cute, charming isometric action-RPG with a central idea that feels fresh and unique.
A different take on the choose-your-own-adventure genre, Stories is fantastic breath of fresh air. Though environments will soon become repetitive alongside the general gameplay, there's no reason why this can't become a series of it's own.
I can’t speak highly enough of Stories: The Path of Destinies. All I wanted to do after I finished each story was start another one to see what different choices I could make and different worlds they would take me to.
By relying on countering it creates an almost rhythmic display as you jump from one enemy to another and rack up a hell of a combo score. It's like watching a very satisfying, very aggressive ballet… with swords
Each path takes about 30-45 minutes to complete (depending upon how powerful Reynardo has become), which makes it all too easy to fall into the trap of trying one more path before closing up the game for the night. Even if you do play the game extremely efficiently to get to the end, you'll still absolutely get your $15 worth of the game.
If you find yourself loving fast paced action RPG titles and enjoy an immersive story that forces players into making touch calls then Stores: Path of Destinies is a must-play.
I enjoyed carving out a hero's path during my time with 'Stories: The Path of Destinies,' and I even entertained a non-gamer with the melodrama inherent to game's branching story. Action game fans will wish for a greater challenge, and everything that the game does well will make players wish that there was more of it.
It would be so easy to praise Stories: The Path of Destinies far more. So much of it is actually done right and is competent, from the great voice work and decent visuals to solid story and plethora of endings. The problem is that these multiple endings also offer little to no variation in regards to level variation, which quickly causes what would have been a fun and enjoyable story romp to, instead, having to start over in a "choose your own adventure" book from Page 1 every time an ending was reached. Even a bit more level variation would have easily driven this up the ranks, but, as it is, it just becomes a chore to play through. It is worth the play regardless, though. Just be ready to play through the same things a lot.
If the RPG mechanics are your main attraction, you'll probably be disappointed, but as an experiment in choice-driven narratives, Stories is clever, impressive, and well worth a look.
Stories: The Path of Destinies is a decent game.
Stories: Path of Destiny has a lot of good ideas and tries to implement them as best it can. Ultimately, most of the best ideas fall a little short of the mark. The combat is ambitious but ends up being sloppy. The story is large but ends up being repetitive. The RPG elements are fun, but most of it is maxed out very early in the game making it sort of pointless. Everything that this game does, starts out well, but always falls short. In most cases, these drawbacks are enough to ruin the experience. The end result is a game that tries to do a lot, but doesn't try hard enough.
Overall this is really good game that just doesn’t quite hit the lofty heights it could do but there is a lot of entertainment to be had and it very well crafted, especially for the asking price.
Stories: The Path of Destinies is a unique adventure game where we control a fox that owns a book. A book tells a story. What story you might ask... It depends, because you choose it and that's a lot of fun!
Review in Polish | Read full review