Stories: The path of Destinies is an action-RPG take on the old “choose your own adventure” type of books I loved back in the day. Turning a page after making a decision was a huge draw because one bad choice would end my run in an instant, forcing me to start all over again. If you are ready for a very fun and colorful adventure, then core read our review!

 

The game begins with a short tutorial level to show you the main gameplay mechanics, and the controls are simple enough to quickly understand. You move from point A to point B on the map, destroying everything in your path to secure ore, health and energy picks ups as needed, battling the evil ravens from the empire that won’t stop until you’re dead. So, you hack and slash and combo your way through battles, and gain experience after each combat section is over. As you level up you gain skill points that can be used to unlock and improve skills that will come very handy during your adventure. These include upgrading your combos to being able to move faster to increasing your stamina, and more.

After an hour of playing, I ran into my first ending, finding out that character X (no, I won’t spoil the story in this review!) was in fact a traitor, a fact I found at the perfect time before he/she could do more harm. Finding this ending also unlocked Tier 2 skills for me, which means that after starting all over again I was able to use my skill points to further unlock (and improve) stronger and more diverse skills. Obtaining one of the endings also unlocked a new location for me to visit, thus keeping the story fresh. It was interesting to see how the narrator had new lines to say between book chapters after the information I gained from the ending I found, and this definitely kept me going for several hours as I made new choices here and there to try and find the combinations for all stories in the game. There are 24 stories, and depending on your choices, you’ll end up unlocking one of four major truths for the story as well.

Figuring I might need to at least make the same first choice in the game to then branch out, I started at the same stage I selected after finding the book an hour ago… and realized the game allowed me to take a different path on the same level, giving me a whole new route to explore and a large magical chest to find! The path I had taken the first time was blocked, which was a very subtle hint that I should find another way to get to my goal.

And speaking of trophies, trophy hunters will be very happy to hear that Stories: The Path of Destinies includes a Platinum trophy! Due to the amount of content in the game and the large variety of routes you can take depending on the choices you make, it can take 20+ hours to see all stories and get all trophies, but it’s definitely worth your time since the game is fun and the story is very entertaining. Luckily, and to speed things up, you can skip the story cutscenes for choices you’ve already made, and this definitely cuts down a couple of hours on the total count.

 

In order to make the most of your time with Stories: The Path of Destinies, be sure to craft each of the extra swords available at the workbench as soon as you find enough ore and essences for them, because this way you’ll be able to open every door you run into by using the corresponding sword as the key, granting you access to extra paths or closed routes that will usually reward you with a large chest with essences and a magical gem inside. Magical gems can be set on your gauntlet (at a maximum of three at the same time) and grant you bonuses such as, say, an increase in attack speed, a % bump in your odds of finding rare loot, protection against elemental attacks, and more.

I had a blast playing Stories: The Path of Destinies for review. I love the game’s setting, action sequences and dynamic and colorful art style, not to mention it’s playful twist on storytelling and how you can replay previous areas several times and still find something new on your quest. The road to the Platinum will be long but well worth the effort. You should definitely purchase this gem on PlayStation 4!

[review
pros=”Excellent art style
Fun gameplay mechanics
Very interesting choose your own adventure premise” cons=”No complaints” score=91]

Disclaimer
This review is based on a copy of Stories: The Path of Destinies provided by Spearhead Games