[xy_game]And they lived happily ever after. That’s not necessarily the phrase you’ll hear or think of when you play Stories: The Path of Destinies, but that’s a good thing. This latest entry from Spearhead Games borrows elements from some popular titles of the past, but it adds their own originality to expand the experience.

Stories puts you in control of Reynardo the Fox, an ex-pirate who wants to take down a tyrannical empire, although he’s still in love with his childhood friend, Zenobia, who happens to be the daughter of the emperor himself. However, rather than being a single story to play through, Stories takes you through over 20 different stories. Each of these tales has five “choices” where you choose where you want to go and the route you want to take, each of which will end up with a different outcome so you’ll never know what to expect. Sometimes you may end up with a happy ending and other times it won’t be so good for you.

The most powerful aspect of Stories, besides its unpredictable story-telling is its art design. Stunning. Jaw-dropping. Wonderful. Those are all words that come to mind when I’m exploring in the game.  Levels can vary drastically and while sometimes it’ll look like you’re in a very similar world to a previous story, it changes up and there’s an all-new design using some of the same art style.  It’s an extremely colorful world with so many hidden pathways and optional goodies to find, if you’re willing to take the time, and sometimes the chance against some enemies.  You never really know if you’re going the right way because the level design is a little ambiguous and it basically pushes the game to force you into a little exploration. This isn’t a bad thing by any means because you’ll find hidden chests and maybe even some health and sword charge power-ups.

Forrest Gump would agree here – when it comes to the stories, you just never know what you’re gonna get.

Speaking of swords – there are multiple swords available and they can all be leveled by the collecting ore and various essence boxes (wind, fire, etc.) from around the world. These may be hidden in chests, or they may be rewards for battles that you win. Ore is pretty plentiful though some of the essence crates will take a little more time to accrue to the point where you can upgrade your sword. Different swords carry different abilities including a healing ability which, despite being the first one you earn in the game, ends up being the most-used ability as well, at least it did for me. Certain swords can open new pathways including doors in previously-explored areas and if you take the time to go back and open these doors once you have the applicable sword, you’ll gain access to the some loot for further upgrades.

You also earn skill points in the game by battling enemies and there’s a pretty detailed skill tree to fill up in the menu. It definitely takes some time to really start building your character but you’ll be able to unlock new abilities for Reynardo and he’ll become a lot stronger in battle, and even faster at just moving throughout the game. If you happen to master the counter attack/blocking system early on in the game, you’ll be treated to a “Perfect” bonus score which helps to earn more skill points in less time. Mastering the battle system takes some time though as the enemy A.I. is pretty good and they’ll swarm you from every direction, and you need to constantly be watching for their rush attacks.  I sometimes feel like it’s not as responsive as I’d like it to be when countering or blocking their attacks, but really, it’s just such a tiny window of opportunity to pull it off, so I’m just not good enough…yet.

Stories: The Path of Destinies isn’t a perfect game, but its pros definitely outweigh its cons making it more than worth your time and money. It’s a beautiful game with hours of fun to be had, lots of upgrades to unlock, and many stories to tell. However, because of how the stories jump around and change – you never really get to build a bond with any of its characters, and there’s really no true climactic points that keep you on edge, and this brings the overall plot aspect of the game down a bit. But if you look at the game for exactly what it is, it’s a bunch of short stories that will entertain you for many hours.