Quick note:

Sorry for keeping all of you waiting huh, their where some circumstances and some predicaments disabled me from playing the game. And from posting in steem

This is post was originally an answer for a musing.io question i posted which states what is you favorite obscure indie title and why so here is an interesting title. I have got this title on both my PS4 and my steam account for free, once through ps plus and once where the developers, SpearHead, made it free on steam to promote their next game omensight.

---

Stories the path of destinies

1).Overview:

For me, an obscure title can be stories the path of destinies. I have encountered it first through PS plus. Then I meet it again through the steam where it was free for some time. It is an interesting game with an interesting premise where you play through a couple of missions for each play-through making a choice after each one and a unique conclusion would meet you depending on your decisions and you turn back to the start.

So it is obvious that the game can get quite repetitive, yet some choice results in you entering other places/levels. Regardless through every play-through your character gains more insight to aide him into finding the true good ending, and at least you are going to go through 3 ending to be able to reach it,. as if the mind of your character travels back to the beginning with the important aspects remaining with him as instincts. Moreover there are 24 different endings for this game.

This game has adequate good game-play with quite some options and tricks to use in combat, which makes it enjoyable. Also the main character makes compelling remarks on your weird actions while playing that is done in some games. For instance smashing boxes which makes it kind of self-aware and more appealing.

All in all this game is good and enjoyable. Despite of its repetition especially if you try to get all the endings.

---

2).Story

This game take a storybook aesthetic where it literally has a narrator and a book where you chose your decisions, However the protagonist, Reynardo a fox, did not have the book at the beginning. It was with, peter a rabbit, the protagonist brother had it. In fact he was fleeing with it, and Reynardo was trying to stop him. That is because the book was said to be powerful and the king sent the ravens to retrieve it. That king was once humble; building universities however he feared death and began massacring people doing rituals to succeed. Reynardo wanted to protect the kid as that was his mother dying wish. Nevertheless due to the kids stubbornness in aiding the rebels, Reynardo failed.

---

Thereafter Reynardo hopped into his ship and opened the book. This book has the power to restore you to that point whenever you finish a play-through to try various combinations of choices until you are able to successfully kill the toad king without destroying the world, getting yourself killed or turning into a madman. (Yeah these are some of the endings).

---

You are confronted with two choices at the beginning as he must be a rebel now, after killing the ravens and getting the book after all the kids life did not go out for nothing. Thus you must either seek a game changer by chasing a relic which has tremendous power, the artifact that deafeated the gods, the Skyripper,or aide your friend, Lappino, who is captured. This is due to the fact that he was selling a Pegasus who he did not own. after that he was discovered to be a rebel spy. and I won't spoil the game for you any further. Follow your own path and have fun.

The third choice would be unlocked later

---

Note : you can not reach the true/ good ending with sheer luck. as the Reynardo must know the truths he unlocks after each run. there are a total of 4 in total and once they are known you can attempt reaching the true ending.

This represent the place you arrive in after completing a play-through showing you every ending you have completed

---

3).Game-play

---

After each choice you leave the Farfarer into a floating island, where you go to accomplish the task you chose. you will always encounter ravens trying to kill you. Moreover provided that you try to explore you would be rewarded with chests , holding fruits to heal you, ores, essence, and Gems all will be talked about in detail later. and scrolls giving you insights about the world and the story.

I).Combat and Movement

Reynardo moves using the moves and not the WASD keys. he moves to where you right click with your mouse. he attacks with the left click and he can grab while holding the left click and moving the mouse towards an enemy. Once the enemy is grabbed; you can use him as a shield; throw him into another enemy to damage him or drop his shield; or even throw of the ledge completely. In addition parrying an incoming attack is also achieved with the left click where you look, let your mouse move above him, at the raven throwing the attack and click

---

Reynardo can also dash anywhere even through enemies (that can cause damage through spending a skill point) using the "Ctrl" button and grapple enemies with his hook and bring them towards him to grab them using the "ALT" button.

Source the control configuration for playing using a controller

---

Other combat techniques include switching between your swords and using their special abilities. This can be done by having sword crafted choosing it through the "1", "2","3", and "4" buttons and pressing "shift" to activate their power. The Hero's sword can heal you, The fire sword light up enemy who are hit and if upgraded would light up nearby enemies. The ice sword freezes hit enemies and freezes nearby enemies when upgraded, and last but not least the void sword allowing you to move and attack faster. You can not use the sword's ability forever though as it consumes energy

	Source

---

Note that every sword can unlock it corresponding gate, fire swords can open up the fire gate and etc...

---

II).Crafting and Gems

In this game provided that you take a look around the map in every level, you would find smash-able objects and two tiers of chests. Smash-able objects only drop ores and fruit which if red increase your vitality and if blue increases you energy. Chests on the hand drop essence (wind, fire, ice), ores, fruit and gems if the chest is big and red (tier 2). In this game you can craft swords using essence and ores and but gems into you gauntlet in the workshop present in that image.

---

Gems are special not only are they exotic stones, but they grant Reynardo especial abilities like breaking shields with normal attacks (not hook or throwing enemies needed), increased chances of finding ores and treasures. Resistance against attacks etc...

---

III).Exploration

As mentioned before there is quite the repetition in this game, as certain areas would be visited multiple times with your 5+ play-through you are going through the game. For example their are only 3 levels available at the beginning of each play-through that do not change. (During your first play-through there would be only one). However this is counteracted by locking alternate pathways through the aforementioned gates(that can only be unlocked with certain swords). Hence when you start out you first couple of play-through-s certain area would be locked and it would be available later.

Moreover certain choices would give you buff ups or challenges throughout some levels changing the feel a little bit.

In addition there are multiple paths to your objective in the level, which can hold secrets and chests. and that would act like shortcuts. In conclusion despite of playing the same level you can transverse different area. Also there are blue square tiles that teleport you to where you are suppose to go if you branch out to closed place with chests, which can also teleport you closer to your destination.

---

IV). Skills

As Reynardo enters battles he gains experience, which when accumulates would increment your level giving you skill points, which can be spent on a plethora of aspects from boosting your health or stamina to freezing time after a perfect parry/hit.

---

Enemy types

There is a good cast of enemy types in this game to keep things interesting from the normal raven who is normal. then we give him a shield to block your attacks. You can only attack that raven after throwing another raven at him or hooking the shield. thereafter there are one eyed beasts who can roast you if you get caught in their sights. There are ravens whom blast you if you do not move. and ravens who buff up other ravens and last but not least suicide bomb ravens

---

4).Art and Style

.

Provided that you have not noticed from the screenshots Stories path of destinies posses a 3d top down low poly unique style, It also has some good particle/VFX when a power up of a certain sword from certain effects from choices or from dashing

---

The music is good not as good and memorable as UnderTale or the Withcher 3 but good none the less. The voice acting is all done by Julian Casey. He did a wonderful job voicing all the characters from the narrator to Reynardo to Zenobia (the daughter or the king and Reynardo's old friend that suddenly disappeared.)

---

5).Options

When you first open the game on steam you will be confronted with a pop up stating the recommended quality for the game for you and enabling you to change it. then after opening the game and pressing the options menu.You would be confronted with three sections:

Audio section enabling you to change the Music, dialogue and effects volume
Graphics section enabling you to change the brightness, resolution and quality of the game. and enabling you to toggle full-screen on and off.
Gameplay section enabling you to toggle Subtitles and HUD on and off and enabling you to take a look at the credits and the controls

---

6). Problems and bugs

There are some bugs and problems that I have with that game. Some of which halted me a bit from producing this review. Let's begin, There is an issue where sometimes the game would take forever to load up and to give credit where credit is due the developers already stated all the reasons for that predicament and stated how to solve it (the link is here :https://steamcommunity.com/app/439190/discussions/1/2592234299558602607/ ).

---

Also there are some bugs/glitches in the game where sometimes a small section of the map does not load, though that is rare. In addition sometimes you get stuck in the pillars or even breakable objects you are suppose to hook to to transverse gaps, nevertheless button mashing can be a savior in that case. and last but not least (thats a nitpick) not being able to dash up stairs.

---

7).Conculsion

The game is a good game with good sense of humor both in the story including the ending and the commentary on your action. The combat and gameplay is decent. but the main appeal here is the branching story where it would lead to utterly different consequences, which sometimes end with a bizarre ending. This game has its own flaws, but I see that it makes it up with its advantages.