Stories: the path of destinies

Stories the path of destinies is a narrative led action RPG that has been set in a bright and vibrant fairy tale universe where all the character as animals and it is filled with a assortment of floating islands, airships and magic, this has all been created by people at spearhead games. It originally saw release back in 2016 but has now found a new home on Xbox one today (March 22^{nd, 2019}).

You play the part of Reynardo an ex-pirate and less that intended hero who has become the only thing that can help the rebels and stop the mad toad emperor and his raven army. The only issue is he needs to find a plan that wont actually blow up in his face for a change, oh and did I mention Reynardo is a walking talking fox and for some reason in my mind a fox would make a good pirate.

The graphics and art style in Stories the path of destinies are amazing they use a very stylized and expressive art style in the game which is a running theme through a few of spearheads titles and it looks great and really suits the game, if you have read my previous reviews it is very similar to the style used in Aragami. The world is expensive and beautifully designed with lots of different paths and sections that you move through where you get to experience many different landscapes, but I will come to that more in a moment.

The first level to the Stories the path of destinies is the tutorial and it covers everything you need to know really, it is fairly simple to get to grips with the game’s controls, but It covers what you need to know. You get your hook and your sword of heroes on this first level and you learn about the toad in charge the mad emperor and that the rebels need help. You acquire the book of destinies here as you would expect it to be the title to the game and the essential part of the story.

As you move through the game there is a massive range of decisions to be made as after each level the book updates and moves to the next page for you to pick you path, all the while you have a wonderfully upbeat narrative going on which is all effected by your decisions whether they be noble, evil or selfish. There is a lot of humour in the game which I loved as it references a lot of cult and current culture shows and games, for example Reynardo tells us how fast his airship completed the kessel run or when you wipe out a squad of ravens and he proclaims take that Jon Snow.

The game is fluid with lots of replay value with all the endings revolving around 4 different aspects in the game, but in total there is 24 different possible endings and each run through will take you around 45 mins all in search of the one true ending which I can only assume you will succeed in you plans. If you choose a ending where you perish at the end don’t worry, its not actually game over the book flies into life the pages flick backwards and you find your self back at the first decision you had to make after the tutorial. Each time you play the game though you will gain more abilities thought the sizeable skill tree that game has with skills ranging from hook moves, to stat boosts to even the ability to slow and stop time briefly, when you start over you keep all the abilities, weapons and gems you may have previously found in the game so each story you play you become a little smarter and more powerful.

You have 4 different swords to switch between, well you will once you gain everything you need to craft them, and they all have different abilities and looks which are all explained. As you progress and build these new swords you will be able to open new hero doors that were previously closed to you opening new paths and new crafting materials that were not previously accessible to you.

I realise that I said there are 24 endings to this game which at 45 mins a piece that is a epic 18 hour adventure to stop the mad toad and his feline daughter (I know I questioned that too at first) but it is not as repetitive as you are thinking it will be, you will take different paths thought the different islands depending on your choices and the enemies change as you progress with new unit styles appearing over time to continue to test you skill.

Overall the game has been a great deal of fun to play and one I have really enjoyed it as you can see via the Stoffel presents twitch channel as there is an hour and a half video on there from me playing it the other day if you want to take a look.

I give Stories the path of destinies a strong 8/10