REVIEW: Stories The Path of Destinies

Developed by the Canadian studio Spearhead Games in association with Nephilim Game Studios and published by Digerati, Stories: The Path of Destinies will follow the steps of the fox Reynardo, a former pirate turned into hero after a series of unfortunate events that finds himself trapped in a conflict between a mad frog emperor and his army of crows and the rebel animals, fighting against his oppression.

The mad emperor is trying to acquire some ancient and unmeasurable power and, with it, eliminate the rebel threat (Star Wars anyone?), while these rebels are trying to find a way to stop this onslaught. And in the middle of this conflict, we find our reluctant hero, caught between old friends and enemies, ancient powers beyond comprehension and his support to the rebel cause. Armed with a magical book and his sword, he will fight his way through a story in which you always define the next chapter in this action-RPG.

• Visuals: The world of Stories: The Path of Destinies is really impressive. With colorful landscapes that go from farm villages to icy peaks, passing by ancient tombs, dark caves and fiery depths are very detailed and pleasant to see. Character and environment animations and special effects help to create a very interesting world to explore. The story book-visual of the cutscenes through which the story is told is also great and perfectly transcripts the feeling of a tale of the game.
• Sound: The soundtrack that accompanies your adventure is top-notch and gives the right tone for each moment throughout your adventure. The game also has some nice sounds effects that reminded me of cartoons, fitting the visual of the game. But both soundtrack and audio effects go unnoticed thanks to the superb voice acting performed by Julian Casey, the storyteller of the game. He does an outstanding job giving life and personality to each character. And his performance is hilarious, with plenty of funny lines. I found myself laughing a lot while he was singing songs like the old chant Na Na Na Na Hey Hey Hey Goodbye or What does the fox say? Nice work, man!
• RPG Elements: Fighting enemies grant Reynardo experience points. Every time the bar is filled, your character levels up and gains one ability point that can be used to learn or upgrade and ability in his skill tree. These abilities improve your fighting skills, your movement, your agility or increase your life, vigor or energy bars.
• Combat: The combat is fast-paced and very fluid in this game. Enemies pop up in pre-determined areas in each level to fight you. And whenever an enemy is on the screen, the game locks you inside some invisible walls so you can only advance after eliminating them all. To do so, you will use one of your four magic swords with elemental related powers or abilities unlocked in your skill tree like your grapple hook or your dash. To become good in combat, you must master the ability to counter attacks, which allows you to link big chain combos.
• How the story is told: Yes, I left the best part for last. ‘Why best?’, you ask me? Well, because the story in Stories: The Path of Destinies is one of the most originals and well executed I’ve ever had the pleasure to play. Without giving any spoilers: you are trapped into the threads of fate that will take you to nothing less than 24 different endings according to your choices during the story! This is huge, my friends! And every time you reach one of these endings, you’ll be sent back to the beginning of the story with all the knowledge from the previous gameplay. ‘And how the story ends?’ you ask? No need to hurry, my young grasshopper: the story will only end after you uncover the four hidden truths throughout these gameplays and with them unlocking the true ending. Who’s asked about replayability for the game?

• Camera: It took me some time to get used to the camera angle of the game. During my first playthrough, I found myself trying to move the camera with the right trigger all the time. So, here’s my advice: don’t do that. The game has a fixed camera that reminds me of the game Diablo and feels a little odd for this kind of game.After a while you will understand the magnitude of each level, with many different ins and outs according to your choices. Splendid!

• Few enemy models: After a few levels, you will start to see enemies getting very repetitive. I may be wrong, but there are only six different enemy types that I noticed. After you understand their patterns, they will cease being a threat. They will be more numerous and vary in the combinations thrown at you. But in the end, they are all the same. Maybe increasing their difficulty level would help to keep things interesting for long.

Developer:  Spearhead Games / Nephilim Game Studios   Publisher: Digerati
Played on: Xbox One X  
Achievement difficulty for 1000 Gamerscore: Fairly easy
Time to finish: Main Story: 6 hours. Completionists: 18 hours
Perfect for:  Good for those who enjoy a colorful adventure, action-RPG fans or those who enjoy a good story
Xbox Game Store link:Click here

Rafael Faria

With a history of gaming that goes from his old man’s Atari 2600 to his Xbox One, Rafael or RAF687, our Brazilian editor, has a love for games as old as he can remember. He has already spent countless hours in many consoles (Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega Saturn, PS1, PS2 and Xbox 360) and is always ready for more (as long as his wife is asleep). Raf has been writing for LifeisXbox since 2017, with a passion for games of almost all genres – though we know he has a special place in his heart for RPGs, racing games and anything that includes pixel art. Writing about games has always been a childhood dream to Raf, dream that he has fulfilled reviewing games for you here. You can drop him a message at Twitter, Facebook or Xbox Live at any time.