What if you could play a Choose Your Own Adventure game? Would you abandon a friend? Would you kidnap a princess? Would you steal a legendary weapon to help your cause? These are the decisions you’ll make in Stories: The Path of Destinies by developer Spearhead Games. Stories is an isometric action RPG with a combat system that takes cues from games like the Batman Arkham series and Assassin’s Creed. The bright and colorful art design really reminds me of games like Bastion and Transistor, which is a welcome association in my book. However, the main crux of Stories is, well, the story.
Stories: The Path of Destinies is all about the decisions you make as Reynardo, the one-eyed fox protagonist. Reynardo and the player will be faced with choices throughout Stories, many of of which will lead Reynardo down a path that will probably end in his death. However, dying isn’t the end of the game. In fact, dying is a necessary aspect of Stories. Every time a wrong decision is made, both Reynardo and the player will, in theory, learn from your mistakes and choose to a different path instead. In this sense, Stories is much like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. As you progress through the story you might make a decision that leads to an unfavorable end. But, like a book, you can always flip to the beginning of the story and make different choices. And even though you make the “wrong” decision, it may lead you down a path that’ll add context to another aspect of the game; you might learn a character’s backstory for example.
The moment to moment gameplay of Stories is simple but deep. Your first inclination is going to be to approach the game like a hack and slash brawler, but let me tell you, that will not work. Instead, the combat in Stories feels more rhythmic and fluid compared to a brawler. Rather than mashing the attack button as quickly as possible like you’re playing Devil May Cry, attacking in a much slower and methodical fashion will get you through most combat encounters unscathed.
A big part of the combat is the parry system, this allows you to freeze time whenever you successfully execute a parry. To do this, you just have to time your attack to hit just as an enemy is trying to attack you. If done correctly, Reynardo will knock away the enemy’s attack and leave it wide open for a counter. However, instead of immediately attacking the enemy, you have a few seconds to plan out your next move. Do you attack the enemy that’s coming up behind you? Do you grab the enemy that’s in front of you and throw it aside to open a path of escape? These choices can also spell the difference between life and death, so quick thinking is pretty much required to play Stories expertly. Fun fact, if you don’t touch a single button when you enter the time freeze mode after a parry, you’ll get a few extra seconds to breath and plan.
Stories: The Path of Destinies is a gorgeous game with engaging combat, however the story seems a bit standard. But it’s story telling mechanic is what is really interesting about it. And, to be fair, it’s hard to glean much of the story from the twenty minute demo so we’ll just have to wait until when the full game is released in 2016.