Quick Review: Stories: The Path of Destinies

It’s never easy fighting a despot. At least you’ve got options. Many, MANY options.

Floating islands? An expansive combat system? A witty
narration? Oh, this is gonna be fun.

A creation from Spearhead Games released to Steam on April 12th, 2016, Stories: The Path of Destinies tells the storybook tale of Reynardo, famous robber of the floating isles in a time of turmoil. He laid low after making hearty promises to a good friend, but adventure found its way back to him. He attempts to save a bunny child he was supposed to protect, only to see the kid reduced to ashes by the forces of the Emperor, once a fair ruler, now a monster that disappears entire villages using an army of crow-people. All that remains is a magical book, which Reynardo picks up. The only way to honor his deed is to take down the Emperor. And his daughter Zenobia, if need be.

This game is an action RPG divided in chapters. You move Reynardo by holding down the right-click button of the mouse. When battle engages, Reynardo attacks with the left-click button. Holding the button down after attacking an enemy lets Reynardo grab them and throw them into other enemies. Exploration-wise, he can break pots and open chests for health, crafting materials, or gems.

Ruffle their feathers!

There aren't a ton of different environments or enemies, the
plot as you discover it is more interesting than the

After a fight has ended, you receive EXP. When Reynardo levels up, he gains a skill point, which he can spend at altars to improve his skills or gain new ones. Most skills are specifically useful in battle, but others can be used outside of it, like a hook (activated by pressing the left alt key) to travel across chasms, using lampposts as targets. The skill tree has abilities locked in tiers, with each next one requiring a “secret”. At crafting tables, Reynardo can use the materials he found to craft new swords or equip very special gems he obtained that grant him additional perks and bonuses. Beyond the first, each craftable sword has an element, and can be used to unlock doors of the same element, with better treasure hidden behing said doors. You can switch between swords by pressing the 1 to 4 keys.

The game helps you discover new story beats you haven't
seen thanks to those "!" indicators. Time to find out where
the story takes Reynardo...

The story format: After a chapter ends, you are given a choice between two options to continue. This dictates what you’ll play through next. This goes on for five chapters, after which Reynardo's story will end in tragedy. Gee, downer AND spoilers. However, turns out that everything that happened was more a vision of a future, and a secret truth is revealed about a major character or significant item. You then start the story over at the first choice and can take a different path. A new possibility unlocks the second run onwards, based on the knowledge obtained. New narration bits will be added depending on the truths you’ve discovered!

That glowy thing following Reynardo? It's not good.
That is one of the truths. 

Ah yes, getting cornered, while the fire mage is loading up
a deadly blast. Always a fun time. Like in DnD:
Kill the spellcasters first. If you can get to them, that is.

Enemy encounters will keep up with your progress. As you level up and unlock new perks, Reynardo becomes a killing machine, but you also discover new enemy types that are headaches to deal with, not to mention the growing number of enemies in encounters. It becomes very easy to get cornered into a death trap, surrounded by enemies that often attack, while a wizard opponent is readying an even more devastating move. Reynardo dies at the end of pretty much every run, story-wise, but when he dies in gameplay, he respawns just before the latest battle encounter, so the game is lenient there. Still, those encounters can be annoying, due to the targeting system; Reynardo will attack the enemy closest to where you click, since the base attack is still done with the mouse; activating special sword skills is done with the left Shift key, and the hook with the left Alt key.

Not a lot of proper "cutscenes" in the 3D realm here.
Most of the story is told either through the narration, or
the gorgeous book pictures between chapters.

Not the first “roguelite narrative” I see; Heck, it’s not the first this year! But it’s a different take on the idea. Bit of a Groundhog Day thing going on, which I love. The narration is playful, and has many jokes and pop culture references to make. The true ending requires uncovering the four truths, no way around that, so you must play the five-chapter story at least five times. Getting said true ending grants Reynardo ultimate power to burn through the enemy armies, to speed up finding any stories missing out of the 24(!) possible. The swords give you an incentive to explore, and their effects combined to any Gems found behind the associated doors can turn the tide.

A deep knowledge of blades can open many doors for you.

Combat itself can be tricky, but after enough level-ups and perks are unlocked, the enemies struggle to keep up. Thus, difficulty can be a little all over the place on the way to the true ending – however, the small number of different enemies means that combat gets a little repetitive over time, and there are no bosses to break the monotony. Still, overall, a very good game, worth checking out.

Stories: The Path of Destinies is available on Steam for 14.99$ USD.