This past week at GDC we got to see a lot of games. Many stand out, but one of our favorite things is finding a solid independent game and bringing it to your attention as players. For an action RPG, Stories: Path of Destinies gave us a great run through and had a lot of fun elements for people to enjoy. With the coming of a lot of RPG over the next few months this one shines as a great game for hardcore and casual players alike.
Stories follows the adventures of Reynardo the fox who is a mercenary helping in a rebellion against a mad emperor. The game is set in a fairy tale like environment with anthropomorphic animals as the main characters. Reynardo is a combination of a rogue swordsman who is as quick with a blade as his wits.
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The game begins with choices on how you want your story to go, everything is set up in a large leather book interface which gives the player choices on how Reynardo discovers his story. Once you choose a path, you will be launched into a full action RPG trying to explore and complete quests in the zone. The world has a cartoon feel to it similar in a way to the Zelda series. The gameplay really kicks in with many ways to fight and combinations for all sorts of foes. Imagine if the old Choose Your Own Adventure series, Diablo, and Zelda had a fusion of ideas and you will get the full scope of Stories.
The demo we played was a lot of fun. We chose to go rescue one of our old companions who had got himself caught, a funny rabbit sidekick. The companions will show up every now and then but are not part of full gameplay. The zone had a great map and offered plenty of nodes to upgrade our weapons or craft on. The crafting system in the game is rather simple which makes it easy to improve the look and feel of your gear. We were able to upgrade our sword throughout the first story and add some cool effects to it on screen.
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As we explored the zone we collected resources and did small quests to find our rabbit friend Lapino. All the while facing the emperor’s evil crow minions. The area for the demo was only the first part of the story. The developers said that each story is about an hour long and there are twenty five of them for launch. It all really comes down to the choices you make. Having the interactive narrative gives lots of options. So you are never playing the same story twice.
The demo kept our attention and the progression tree had a lot of options on how to build up Reynardo’s skills. We found ourselves using some dash skills to get out of rough spots with some nasty two handed sword attacks to quickly kill foes and move around the screen. The action in the game was fast paced and will appeal to any fast rpg type player.
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Overall, if there was any criticism of Stories, it is that we wanted more. While Reynardo was an appealing character and his lines of dialogue are hysterical, we thought it would be fun to have a range of characters. Also, the world has a great feel to it and we wanted to see elements like multiplayer added so we could all join in the quests.
Right now the game is set for release on April 12th on the PS4. It will be coming to other platforms quickly so don’t worry. You can pre-order the game now at the Sony store. The team did mention launches on Steam and GOG as well for all of us PC gamers. Definitely check out Stories if you like action RPGs it is a fun world and something we’d like to see more of!
