Stories: The Path of Destinies

 PC
User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 98 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 57 out of 98
  2. Mixed: 35 out of 98
  3. Negative: 6 out of 98
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  1. TitaniumDragon
    May 13, 2018
    10
    Stories: The Path of Destinies is a surprising little gem of a game. You play as Reynaldo, a roguish fox who has come into the possession of a magic book that shows him the potential choices he has laid out before him. As an isometric action game, this isn’t anything special – there’s fairly limited enemy variety, and the combat is quite simple.

    But as a choose your own adventure game,    Stories: The Path of Destinies is a surprising little gem of a game. You play as Reynaldo, a roguish fox who has come into the possession of a magic book that shows him the potential choices he has laid out before him. As an isometric action game, this isn’t anything special – there’s fairly limited enemy variety, and the combat is quite simple.

    But as a choose your own adventure game, I haven’t seen anything quite like it.

    The game is, at least ostensibly, quite short – after the introductory/tutorial level, you are thrust into the main plot. There are five chapters to the main story, and before chapters 1-4, you make a choice, with the final chapter always being the climactic showdown with the emperor’s fleet. You are presented with 2 choices at each junction point, save at one, where you are presented with three – but unlike most games, these choices are iterative. If you make a choice, in the second chapter, the game’s choices and narrative will be altered because of that choice. But what’s really crazy is that this continues on throughout the game – this is an actual branching-paths narrative, so there are, in total, 3 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 24 paths through the game, each of which ultimately has a unique storyline and ending.

    The reason for the game’s seeming brevity – a run through the game takes an hour, maybe less – quickly becomes apparent. This is not just a game with multiple endings, this is a game where you are hunting for the correct ending, based on the knowledge you’ve gained from previous runs. And not just player knowledge – the narrative changes as well as you discover various “truths” about the world, with additional knowledge being supplied to the player via the narrative. You realize that a certain approach won’t work, so you try another, until you have figured out the games four “truths”.

    The narrative is well-delivered to the audience – the reading of the story is quite whimsical, and the narrator seems overly amused by some of his own terrible puns, just like someone who was really reading a story to you might be. The game does make use of some referential humor, but it has a lot of other humor besides, and the actual core plot is surprisingly charming. The great sense of agency you get while playing the story really sells it to you, and the game calling the player out on seemingly nonsensical choices and lampshading the tendency to go wandering off the obvious path never ceases to be amusing. And yet simultaneously, the game has a certain sort of internal logic to it, and your choices actually feel like they do carry weight and actually do make sense. Of *course* you went off to visit the girl you definitely totally don’t have a crush on instead of completing the weapon of doom – you don’t think these things through, you act based on your heart, not your head! Whereas of course if you make the other choice, the logical one, you regret passing up on the opportunity, and maybe wonder if things could have turned out differently, and perhaps better.

    Each of the paths fall apart in their own unique way as you make your way through the game, showing some fatal flaw that leads to your downfall – but these flaws all arise naturally through the narrative and are hinted at beforehand, meaning that rather than simply feeling like something arbitrary has destroyed your plan, instead it feels like the failure is a natural (if oftentimes amusing, and sometimes tragic) consequence of the choices you and other characters have made.

    The game itself has a very small cast – only four characters of actual consequence – but it gets a lot of mileage out of them, and we see them interact in often-amusing ways. The characters are a bit silly – Reynaldo in particular is a lovable doof – but there’s also a somewhat serious core to the game, as while it is silly, there’s also the underlying fact that there is a war going on, and while it can be funny, it also manages to pull off some darker moments pretty well. The fact that your choices are indeed your own invests you in the story in a way you wouldn’t be otherwise, and while each of the stories is simple enough on its own, they flow together pretty well.

    This game’s greatest weakness, sadly, is the lack of level variety. The game has 10 levels, but by your third playthrough, you’re likely to have seen all of them. And while the levels are visually pretty distinctive, and their narrative changes from playthrough to playthrough, gameplay-wise they’re all pretty similar, without a huge amount of variety between them. The combat becomes a bit perfunctory later on in the game, as you gain more skills and better weapons while the enemies stop really improving after the second run or so, and while encounters do get a bit tougher, the game is never actually all that challenging.

    If you're at all interested in the premise from the trailer, play this.    … Expand
  2. Underpants158
    Jul 17, 2017
    6
    Pros:
    -Action is simplistic but fun for the short time the game lasts relying on smashing and countering.
    Neutrals: -The narrator is alright, definitely not on the level of Bastion, and the writing for him is mediocre. -branching stories/alternative paths is a cool idea but nothing interesting comes from it. Cons: -Some of the story logic seems like it was written by an    Pros:
    -Action is simplistic but fun for the short time the game lasts relying on smashing and countering.

    Neutrals:
    -The narrator is alright, definitely not on the level of Bastion, and the writing for him is mediocre.
    -branching stories/alternative paths is a cool idea but nothing interesting comes from it.

    Cons:
    -Some of the story logic seems like it was written by an unmotivated high school student.
    -The level design is very generic. Just a connection of small floating platforms and the ones with more room will spawn enemies    … Expand
  3. arthur55623
    Dec 29, 2016
    8
    I played this on PS4, from the PlayStation Plus thing, so I can't say anything about the controls for PC, but on PS4, it feels really good. I liked the game as it has a choose your adventure like game, and it gives you freedom onto your choices, to let you play it out how you wish to. I honestly hate the movement speed and you start dashing all over the place just to try to get a move on,I played this on PS4, from the PlayStation Plus thing, so I can't say anything about the controls for PC, but on PS4, it feels really good. I liked the game as it has a choose your adventure like game, and it gives you freedom onto your choices, to let you play it out how you wish to. I honestly hate the movement speed and you start dashing all over the place just to try to get a move on, and having 5 islands max, each of them ending in the exact same way just gets boring really quickly. however, i honestly feel that the story makes up for that, and though the combat is mash square to win while making sure to counter everything, it's pretty fun to play. great for a relaxing time(which is actually hard to get nowadays, with most games being fps and for hardcore like gamers) and a good story, the controls are tight, the graphics are good for the ps4(though I would love to see the characters more, they're so tiny!) It honestly reminds me of SolaRobo with the art style, just a bit however, personally it's a good game, but not the best game I have ever played. If you want a more casual, laid-back game, that has a great story to pass your time, play this game. but don't binge play it, play it one or two of the paths at a time, or the levels will get really tedious, really quickly.… Expand
  4. gameboy92
    Sep 29, 2018
    9
    what a game.. I dont know where to start .. let start with story .. The game have cool story and the way you going thought it is kind of unique !! (Thanks to developers ) in this game your choose matter !your choose will effect the game and the story however there is one ending and you need to found it that mean you need to try it many time to get the real ending each story play take 30 towhat a game.. I dont know where to start .. let start with story .. The game have cool story and the way you going thought it is kind of unique !! (Thanks to developers ) in this game your choose matter !your choose will effect the game and the story however there is one ending and you need to found it that mean you need to try it many time to get the real ending each story play take 30 to 40 min so you will not play that much lol I finish the game in 5 hours . The game play is simple jump around and kill birds The graphic is cool too .
    Story 10/10
    Realistic 8/10
    Graphic 10/10
    Game play 9/10
    Sound 10/10
    ---------------------
    Total 9.4

    Single player time 5 h or more
    Worth to buy this game with $ 14.99 YES    … Expand
  5. Dubeau
    Sep 17, 2017
    8
    Fun hack and slash game. I like the principle of the game that open many endings. The graphics are pretty good. Small fps problem when there is too much enemies. The narrator thing was a hit and miss for me. It was better in Bastion. They could at least have acquired one female voice narrator...that was odd. Game is relatively short but interesting. Once you complete the main truth, I amFun hack and slash game. I like the principle of the game that open many endings. The graphics are pretty good. Small fps problem when there is too much enemies. The narrator thing was a hit and miss for me. It was better in Bastion. They could at least have acquired one female voice narrator...that was odd. Game is relatively short but interesting. Once you complete the main truth, I am not sure it's interesting to see to others, but there is an option to continue to explore. Give it a 78%.… Expand
  6. Dakoda_
    Jun 24, 2018
    8
    I got this game for free during a Steam promotion. Honestly, I was so pleasantly surprised because the game caters so well to me personally. The combat is very smooth and intuitive, kind of like a Batman Arkham game, actually, and the story's many different endings were actually addictive for me to complete all of. My only gripe is that, although the game is fun, some areas areI got this game for free during a Steam promotion. Honestly, I was so pleasantly surprised because the game caters so well to me personally. The combat is very smooth and intuitive, kind of like a Batman Arkham game, actually, and the story's many different endings were actually addictive for me to complete all of. My only gripe is that, although the game is fun, some areas are increasingly repetitive and need more incentive for them to be replayed as the game goes on.… Expand
  7. SSVII
    Oct 12, 2021
    10
    This game is Just AWESOME. It got.. A rogue like with swords and it is an RPG. This game Is One f the best
  8. ADHGO
    Apr 15, 2016
    8
    POS:
    * appealing Graphics
    * sweet environment
    * interesting interactive narrator
    * smooth play
    NEG:
    * very simple
    * too small characters even don't know how do they look like
  9. SuperkenGaming
    Apr 12, 2016
    8
    Stories: The Path of Destinies
    a hack and slashy choose your own adventure book
    Stories The Path of Destinies tells the many stories of Reynardo, 25 to be exact The game introduces itself with the hack and slash gameplay tutorial.. There’s beautiful levels waiting to be explored with chests full of crafting materials and enemies ready to be picked for their xp. When you’ve gathered    Stories: The Path of Destinies
    a hack and slashy choose your own adventure book
    Stories The Path of Destinies tells the many stories of Reynardo, 25 to be exact
    The game introduces itself with the hack and slash gameplay tutorial..
    There’s beautiful levels waiting to be explored with chests full of crafting materials and enemies ready to be picked for their xp.
    When you’ve gathered enough materials for a weapon you can go to a workbench and craft it or upgrade it…
    fairly simple stuff…and as you defeat enemies you gain xp to level reynardo up..
    when you level up you can stop at an alter to learn a new skill such as dash, or increase your health, as well as collect gems to give your weapons and skills a boost…
    The gameplay is super basic…
    on its own nothing special at all..
    The magic in this game comes from the story telling…
    your entire journey is being narrated.. and at the end of a level you get to make a choice.. after doing this 4 times, you go through the final level and receive an ending..
    but this isn’t thee ending..
    you used your choices to find out the truth about an artifact or a character..
    The pages flip backwards and the story starts again..
    take your choice and strategically make other choices to uncover the truth about something else…
    once you’ve uncovered the 4 different truths with 24 possible different endings the book starts over one last time for you to take what you’ve learned from these 4 truths and use this knowledge to take the right path towards the definitive ending
    I love this idea and love the fact that I can play through the story 24 times to hear new jokes, and hear how different choices play out..
    In fact I was almost certain the story telling and narration was good enough on its own for the gameplay to not even matter…
    Luckily the variety of choices can change up sections of the levels you see…
    the sword upgrades for example will unlock matching element doors that you couldn’t go through before just to change your path up a bit…
    But by time I got to my 4th story run out of 5 I was pretty much over the gameplay…..
    It’s far too repetitive to play for a possible 25 hours to see and hear all there is…
    A fast forward summary option would’ve been greatly appreciate for skipping a choice you’ve already made in a certain sequence…
    for example… I’d much rather not have to play the same 3 choices 2 times in a row just to see a different ending... and then do it all again this time changing the third choice.. And again changing the 3rd and 4th…
    I’ve heard it all… give me the credit
    I loved the story telling and the idea of having to learn from your mistakes of past playthroughs...
    but ultimately there isn’t enough in the gameplay department to keep me hooked long enough to see it all…
    I give
    Stories: The Path of Destinies an 7.5/10    … Expand
  10. Rudal
    May 29, 2017
    5
    Good, fun game and interesting approach to re playability.
    Why 5/10 then? Reeks of console. It's a PC port and it's terrible to play with mouse and keyboard.
    You can't even remap keys to make your life a bit easier.
    Fortunately I had this game with a bundle so didn't spent that much money.
    If you don't mind to handicap yourself with a controller then it might be fun.
  11. Hack
    Jul 10, 2017
    6
    A fun little game that doesn't take its self too seriously. It reminded me quite a bit of Bastion. I enjoyed the art style and the narration for the most part and the gameplay was responsive and enjoyable, but there were a few technical issues, a complete lack of video options bar low, medium and high, asset load hitching, a few areas where performance was noticeably lower for no reasonA fun little game that doesn't take its self too seriously. It reminded me quite a bit of Bastion. I enjoyed the art style and the narration for the most part and the gameplay was responsive and enjoyable, but there were a few technical issues, a complete lack of video options bar low, medium and high, asset load hitching, a few areas where performance was noticeably lower for no reason and it was capped to 62fps with no way to change it. Overall though I enjoyed it.… Expand
  12. AbeMC
    Feb 25, 2018
    7
    Stories: The Path of Destinies is an isometric hack ‘n slash with pleasantly simple combat, RPG skill trees, beautiful graphics (Unreal 4), great soundtrack and voice acting. The repetitious mode of story-telling can quickly bore if gameplay, not story, is your focus. Still, given all the positives, easily worth a buy at 33% off, and it frequently discounts much lower than that.Stories: The Path of Destinies is an isometric hack ‘n slash with pleasantly simple combat, RPG skill trees, beautiful graphics (Unreal 4), great soundtrack and voice acting. The repetitious mode of story-telling can quickly bore if gameplay, not story, is your focus. Still, given all the positives, easily worth a buy at 33% off, and it frequently discounts much lower than that. Recommended.
    Total size on my hard drive: 1.8 GB

    + Beautiful comic-book-style graphics (Unreal 4).
    + Beautiful soundtrack.
    + Excellent voice-acting. The narrator carries almost the entire burden of the dialogue, and he is more than up to the task.
    + Narrator’s monologue is funny and engaging. From funny observations upon death (“Where’s the cake? I was told there would be cake!”) to wry self-congratulation after a perfect combat sequence (“Such a pity there were no cameras to record that!”), the narration kept me smiling. The commentary pool for non-story-related actions is large, too, so repeated phrases are not a concern.
    + Good skill-tree. Talents make a big difference in gameplay.
    + Full controller support.

    +/- Frame-drops in a few areas (the desert / lava level in particular), but otherwise runs locked at 60fps maxed @1080p on my RX 470.
    +/- Isometric camera angle is usually handled well enough, but the usual frustrations of poor angles in tight hallways is still present.
    +/- Combat flows well enough once its tricks are learned. Targeting is sometimes weirdly inaccurate. The hero is easily staggered, leading to near-helpless death at times. Other times, the action queue gets clogged. Remember that combat is timing-based, and you’ll be fine. Button-mashers will die often.
    +/- Story is decent, but nothing special. Save a kingdom from its evil, power-hungry ruler. You play as a fox, who is in love with a cat. Ravens are the enemies, while the scientists are toads and the rogues are rabbits.
    +/- The story is divided into 5 chapters. At the beginning of each chapter, a choice is made regarding where to go next. The choices are mutually exclusive. Reach the end (in about an hour), and the story returns to the first chapter, where you can play the story again and make choices you didn’t make the first time. It’s cool to discover what happens if you choose choice B instead of voice A, but you’ll still be playing the same levels (with small variations) throughout.
    +/- Crafting is rudimentary, simple, and only for crafting swords.
    +/- No waypoint marker. Can result in missing chests and side-loot. Not a major worry, as chances are you’ll be playing the level again.

    Stories: The Path of Destinies is a fun if repetitive experience. The developers do their best to hide the repetition in a variety of finely-wrought trappings, and for the most part, they succeed. A solid 7/10.    … Expand
  13. Mobile
    Jun 26, 2018
    6
    ENG RU
    Inconvenient control (mouse+clav), poor optimization (in the game sags fps), you have to run many times on the same locations, due to the fact that to pass the game, you need 4 times to pass it (as if) and then there will be a true ending, it is also worth mentioning the flow of text from the mouth of the narrator, which is not shut up almost never. Boevka Batman-style, pleasant,    ENG RU
    Inconvenient control (mouse+clav), poor optimization (in the game sags fps), you have to run many times on the same locations, due to the fact that to pass the game, you need 4 times to pass it (as if) and then there will be a true ending, it is also worth mentioning the flow of text from the mouth of the narrator, which is not shut up almost never. Boevka Batman-style, pleasant, but because of the management sometimes enrages, there is a light pumping, different types (namely 4) of different swords, different elements. In General, not bad, but I would instead of 24 different stories, would choose 2-3 and would add new locations to no repetition, as the location is quite nice, especially the rabbit farm, well, add enemies in a variety, and then some crows and all.

    Неудобное управление (мышь+клава), плохая оптимизация (в игре проседает фпс), приходится бегать по многу раз по одним и тем же локациям, обусловлено это тем, чтобы пройти игру, нужно 4 раза ее пройти (как бы) и потом будет истинный финал, так же стоит упомянуть потоки текста из уст рассказчика, который не затыкается практически никогда. Боевка в стиле бэтмена, приятна, но из - за управление порой бесит, есть лайтовая прокачка, разные виды (а именно 4) разных меча, разных стихий. В целом не плохо, но я бы вместо 24 разных историй, выбрал бы 2-3 и добавил бы новых локаций, чтобы без повторов, так как локации вполне приятные, особенно ферма кролика, ну и добавить врагов по разнообразней, а то одни вороны и все.    … Expand
  14. Larux18
    Feb 18, 2020
    6
    This title is so full of cool ideas however it comes up short where it needs it the most. The main concept behind the game's story and the way it is delivered is interesting and original, in fact for the first couple of hours you will definitely have that sense of awe as you discover the branching paths and how different they can actually be. That being said, it gets overshadowed by theThis title is so full of cool ideas however it comes up short where it needs it the most. The main concept behind the game's story and the way it is delivered is interesting and original, in fact for the first couple of hours you will definitely have that sense of awe as you discover the branching paths and how different they can actually be. That being said, it gets overshadowed by the often lackluster story, where certain elements make little to no sense, jumping from one place to another or jumping to conclusions that the player could have never reached. The core gameplay is pretty fun though it gets repetitive towards the end especially if the player takes their time or decides to explore all of the branching paths, which will hold many back, including myself, from enjoying all the different options this game has to offer. The controls of the PC port are lackluster and the lack of rebinding options really make life difficult for those who do not use a controller, which may lead to feeling like the gameplay is tiring even quicker. The visuals and sound design are fantastic however, despite the fact that the environmental repetition can tire them out towards the end. I want to see more from the developers, since they are full of excellent ideas and potential everywhere, however Stories: The Path of Destinies lacks the variety and polish that it deserves.… Expand
  15. Claytality
    May 23, 2019
    6
    Decent game with some fun combat and RPG elements. It is a short game that you replay several times, making different choices each time to eventually reach the "true hero" story.

    The graphics are good and the fighting is a bit of fun. The narrator is good, but he plays the voices for 3 different characters which mostly sound the same. The combat is mostly click to combo. Combat is    Decent game with some fun combat and RPG elements. It is a short game that you replay several times, making different choices each time to eventually reach the "true hero" story.

    The graphics are good and the fighting is a bit of fun. The narrator is good, but he plays the voices for 3 different characters which mostly sound the same.

    The combat is mostly click to combo. Combat is clunky and he often just stands there when switching from attacking to moving/dashing.

    The story seems a little random, but it isn't bad.

    Key bindings cannot be changed.

    Got it free, played 10 hours, got 95% achievements. Estimated value of $5. Not recommended.    … Expand
  16. pmasterfunk
    Jun 19, 2022
    5
    So I got this game for free a while back, and I decided to give it a fair shake.

    Eeeeh It has some things going for it. It doesn't look too bad, the story UI stuff going through a book looks good, character design is solid, and the illustrations are great. The actual gaming portions look fine, though a bit bland. There's a great sounding voiceover that functions similarly to the one    So I got this game for free a while back, and I decided to give it a fair shake.

    Eeeeh

    It has some things going for it. It doesn't look too bad, the story UI stuff going through a book looks good, character design is solid, and the illustrations are great. The actual gaming portions look fine, though a bit bland. There's a great sounding voiceover that functions similarly to the one in Bastion. There are some interesting upgrade systems in the game, though it doesn't seem to affect gameplay much.

    I don't remember the music.

    The story and how it's presented are interesting at first, but the way the game is structured makes it very frustrating to press on. The game necessitates many "endings" to access the actual ending of the game.

    Combat is not very responsive yet very easy. I don't want to gatekeep and say every game has to be Ninja Gaiden, I'm also very okay with middle-of-the-road action like Zelda, but here the action doesn't really do anything for me. It's just not very snappy, and that kills the fun. I never felt in control, but I would still blow through enemies like a herd of wildebeests trampling through... through whatever wildebeests trample through. There are no boss fights, only a handful of enemy types, and of these about 4 are mild variations. It's not really fun.

    Compounded by the fact that there are only a few areas to visit - and without a guide I visited these few areas many, many times - and playing through bits of the story in hopes of getting one of the correct endings to progress is a slog. Even though a single run takes about 20 minutes, I was still bored way before I had exhausted the possibilities of landing on a useless ending. So to Steam discussions I went.

    "Wait, THAT's the correct path?!?"

    If the action was half as good as Hades, I would have tried to get every single ending. After about 5 runs, I had maxed out my weapon and amulet upgrades, so there was no point anymore in exploring locales. The detours had nothing to offer except restorative items I didn't need. I just went as fast as I could to the end of the level - not as some sort of challenge, but to rid myself of the burden of the gameplay.

    Sadly, Stories: The Path of Destinies is a really interesting concept with middling execution. I'll steep keep an eye out for the devs' next game.    … Expand
  17. ArcanaThe4th
    May 29, 2019
    7
    This is an actually pretty good game, if somewhat bogged down by the basic mechanics and repetitive gameplay and some buggy elements. I do love the art and the humor that the game has, and it's thing for pushing me towards exploration was what made me stick with it to the end, .
  18. apokalipto
    Aug 25, 2023
    9
    Very good game. I enjoyed playing this game a lot. I strongly recommend this.

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
74

Mixed or average reviews - based on 8 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. Games.cz
    Jul 18, 2016
    70
    Interesting and stylish RPG fighter, which surprised with elaborated story and the possibility to alter the story. Only if they sort out a few bugs related to other parts of the game. Hopefully next time.
    Read full review
  2. CD-Action
    Jun 29, 2016
    70
    The way the story branches out depending on your choices is really impressive, but experimenting with it becomes repetitive after a while due to scarcity of levels and too easy (but otherwise enjoyable) combat. [06/2016, p.47]
  3. PLAY! Zine
    May 5, 2016
    80
    One of the most interesting choose-you-own-adventure style games we've played so far, where each of you choices has actual consequences. You will want to play Stories over and over again, discovering all its secrets and branching paths until you get the full picture. And that is one of its greatest powers.
    Read full review
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