You know, my last four reviews have been three horror games and a dark fantasy. Obviously, I like that kind of thing, or else I wouldn't keep playing it, but I think I was beginning to forget that a game's atmosphere could be something other than lonely, miserable, or spooky. It was therefore a happy coincidence that just after I finished reviewing Jotun, I opened up Steam to an announcement that Spearhead games was temporarily giving away Stories: The Path of Destinies, their whimsical 2016 action-RPG. I picked the game up just intending to play it as a decompressor, but since Spearhead gave it away in order to plug their next game, I thought the least I could do is give them a review on this one.
One negative marker, right out of the gate, is this game's title, which is clumsy, generic, overlong, and tells you nothing about what kind of game you're buying. If the name of your product has a colon in it, either the title or the subtitle needs to be able to stand alone, because no one wants to have to say the whole thing every time they refer to it. The Path of Destinies, by itself, sounds like a terrible generic phone game, and just imagine the confusion you'd cause if you tried to open a conversation by telling your friends you'd been playing "Stories". I can't even imagine how many people passed up on buying this thing, just because of the title.
But hey, with that --admittedly petty-- nitpick out of the way, let's talk about the actual game.
We play as Reynardo, a retired pirate and colossal dunce, living in a science fantasy world that reads like a cross between the Last Airbender and the Secret of Nimh. So, we're in one of those talking animal worlds where for some reason everyone's species determines their moral compass and political alignment. In this case, we seem to be building a theme of mammal supremacy, in that all of the friendly creatures and love interests are cats or rabbits, and all of the bad guys are frogs or ravens. There's some allied toads, too, but they're played as weird mystics that our kind of people can't relate to.
Don't take the setting too seriously, though. The writers are planting their flag squarely in the comedy game zone, here. Stories goes for a Bastion-esque active narrator, who not only reads out the plot exposition, but occasionally jumps in with one-liners triggered by particular player actions. But unlike the way that Bastion's color commentary subtly reinforces the game's world and tone, Stories' narrator sometimes just seems to be interrupting the action to crack wise. The developers tried to make almost every line that comes out of the narrator's mouth a joke. And while there's a few solid chuckles in there, the jokes are way too thick on the ground, and what with a few really cringe-worthy pop culture references, it all ends up wearing out its welcome.
Stories uses a very Arkham-esque rythmic-combo/counter combat engine, complete with a suspiciously Batman-like hookshot. But this is a perfect application of that system. Whereas most recent melee combat engines emphasize slow, deliberate actions, that are designed to give a feeling of physical exertion, the Arkham style of fast, free flowing movement is pretty much unparalleled for making you actually feel like a badass. That makes it a perfect mate for an upbeat, cartoon romp like this, and I can't remember the last time a game made me feel this much like Errol Flynn. If you don't get a sense of childish joy from flawlessly parrying a baddie's attack, and then front kicking him off the deck of an airship, then you, my friend, are the one with the problem.
Of course, all this cartoon swashbuckling fun does jive a bit strangely with the actual plot, which is about a genocidal regime, trying to summon a Lovecraftian cosmic horror. And there's a generally schizophrenic quality to all of the writing, with the Douglas Adams quips often mashed right up against maudlin reflections on the depravity of war.
This is partly a result of Stories' other unique selling point, which is its unusual take on the choose-your-own-adventure style of branching narrative. Now, I usually hate this kind of thing, because I don't often replay story games, and I can't stand the feeling that every choice I make is locking off some of the content to me. But in this game, a single run-through of the story only takes about an hour. Once you get to one of the endings, which will most likely be a bad one, a transparent deus ex machina intercedes, and invites you to start the story over with all of your items and upgrades, and try to get it right this time.
Mechanically, this is a great idea, because it encourages you to replay the story without losing a sense of progression, and because the different story choices alter which levels you do, each replay brings a little bit of fresh content. The combat scales up well, too, with new enemy types appearing as you upgrade your weapons and abilities, and the difficulty of the fights is pegged to your current level, rather than where you are in the story.
All this Groundhog Day stuff doesn't work as well with the narrative, though. We're trying to do a Rashomon thing here, were we uncover the truth by seeing all the possible permutations of the story. But because each run-through is so short, the story arc practically stampedes from carefree beginning to dramatic conclusion, and some of the decisions get to be a bit silly when you know what the twists are. Why, for example, should I give a character the time of day, when I already know they're the one that betrays the location of the secret rebel base? I get the impression we're not really supposed to be role-playing, here, which is good, because how sympathetic, and indeed how intelligent, the protagonist is vary widely depending on which story path you're on. I might say that there's a too many endings, too. There's 24 in total, and there isn't really enough variety to sustain that many runs, but you'll probably get to the true ending in four or five tries, and you're under no obligation to then go find all the others.
The big problem with discussing this game, though, is the fact that I'm not entirely sure if the developers are punking me. Most of my beefs with it are things that are so obvious that I can't help but feel like they have to be intentional. I can point out that the title is generic and stupid, or that the protagonist is a dope, but maybe all that's meant to be a knowing jab at the flood of dull, samey fantasy games that Steam is always drowning in. I can complain that the writing is all over the map, but then I have to worry that I'm just being obtuse about an intentional juxtaposition of themes. Of course, I might counter-argue that that would be like mixing chocolate ice cream and goulash, and then declaring yourself a master chef, but I suspect no one would listen to me.
At the end of the day, I had a good time with this. For a story game, the plot's fairly inconsequential, and a more disciplined approach to the comedy would've helped, but the fundamentals are solid, and the quibbles never graduate to actually being annoying. I can't really speak to the value for money, since I got it for free, but on the strength of this, I'll probably buy Spearhead's next effort.
This is the kind of empty-headed, popcorn experience that you probably shouldn't think too hard about. Get the game on sale, and then play it until you get bored. You won't likely regret the purchase.
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