When I first received my PS4 as a gift and subscribed to PlayStation Plus back in December 2016, one of the first free games I downloaded was a nifty looking game called Stories: The Path of Destinies. It looked awesome, but it’s been buried in a metaphorical pile of games to play for almost a year and a half without being touched. After playing through Omensight, a game that takes place in the same universe from the same developers, it’s easily made its way to the very top.
Omensight is a unique game from the descriptors alone: “action murder mystery.” In addition, it’s played out in the style of a beautiful, fantasy version of Groundhog’s Day. You’re the Harbinger, a mythical being that appears only when the world ends, and you’ll be reminded of that fact frequently as everyone is blown away to see you. As such, this is far from an ordinary murder mystery: this murder ends up somehow leading to the end of the world, and it’s up to you to find out who killed her and how to stop the end of the world.
Luckily, you’re granted some amazing abilities in your quest. In addition to being a great fighter, you can relive the same day as many times as necessary by joining a character that’s vital to the story and allying with them. Just because today is the day the world ends doesn’t mean everyone is just sitting around; there’s a huge war going on between Emperor Indrik (the ruler of Pygaria) and Rodentian rebels led by Ratika. After a brief introduction you’re given two characters you can follow throughout their final day: General Draga who leads the Pygarian forces or Ludomir, a powerful warrior whose final day consists of hunting down Emperor Indrik to kill him himself.
What’s really cool about playing out these days is that, as long as you don’t merely choose the same person to follow and do the exact same things, you’re always learning something new. Not only will you gain new pieces of information from characters, you’ll discover lore about the main characters’ backstories, you’ll learn to unlock various types of seals to allow yourself access to new places (and loot!) and see where the various characters were throughout the day. You’ll also retain any experience and money you gain throughout the day, allowing you to learn new moves and purchase upgrades to health, attacks or special abilities.
What was especially intriguing, though, was how the titual Omensight powers come into play. Omensight is an ability you have as the Harbinger that lets you pass on a very important key bit of information to another character. Not only do they see it happen just as you did, they immediately know it to be true without question. These massively change the events of each character throughout their day, for better or worse, and leads to even further clues.
Each day, when the world ends, you’re secreted away by a witch where you can look over your clues, get your upgrades, level up and choose which character to join in their final day. These characters fight alongside you in battle, and when the day begins with them you’re given the option to use your Omensight powers or not (once you obtain one or more omensights). These days vary wildly, and without spoiling things you may even have to replay a day with a particular character and make different choices. This was one of the little touches that went a long way: if you do end up returning to a day to make a different choice, or with a piece of information you didn’t have before, the game will offer to let you jump close to that point in the day instead of making you replay all of it. Each day only takes 20-60 minutes or so (depending on what happened and how much exploring you do, although I didn’t actually time it or anything myself), so it wouldn’t be terrible to replay the day anyway, but when you’re excitedly trying to see what will happen next those precious moments feel like forever.
The days are all made up of a blend of running around following your partner, exploring for hidden goodies and fighting. The combat is spectacular – you’re the powerful Harbinger, and with that title comes some spectacular abilities. You can zip across the screen, use telekinetic abilities to grab exploding barrels and chuck them at enemies, toss enemies at your partner to have them take them down and more. The parrying/dodging/attacking loop is very solid! I was also surprised that I ended up dying a few times even though I played the game on standard difficulty, and I appreciated the good challenge.
Speaking of difficulties, you’re given five options when you begin the game. You can play with easy combat, the balanced experience, the standard mystery with harder combat, standard combat with a harder mystery or the ultimate challenge of harder combat AND a harder mystery. I played the balanced experience, and while I can’t be certain, I’m assuming the harder mystery is the same story but without any hints about what to do next. If that’s the case, the only thing I wish there was more of was the mystery itself – I never really felt confused by what to do; even without the clues I was able to ascertain what would be most beneficial next. It also seemed a bit shorter than I would’ve liked; the experience was very solid, and this isn’t a game you finish in a few hours by any means, but I just wanted MORE when it was done. That’s likely more due to my enjoyment of the game than it is the game itself – the story flowed wonderfully and having much more may have made the game drag on. In either case, the story was full of twists and turns, and I loved every one of the main characters. Heroes have flaws, there are things about even the worst villains to empathize with, and everyone had some fantastic moments. Ratika was definitely the best, she’s adorable with a huge personality; she’s a bard, a leader and a badass! Her voice acting is especially fantastic as well, although everyone did a great job. I’d preorder a prequel based on her story right this second.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning how colorful and gorgeous this game is. The music and sound effects are solid, sure, but the art is just stunning. Pretty much any random screen grab would be a work of art, and I had numerous members of the family who walked by to see what I was playing comment on how gorgeous it is. It’s rare that something that isn’t super realistic gets comments like that, but I agreed with them entirely – it was lovely!
Omensight is available on PS4 (reviewed) and Steam (Windows)
I received a free copy of this game in exchange for an honest review.