Epistory - Typing Chronicles

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4.4/5

( 23 Reviews )

4.4

23 Reviews

English & 10 more

Overall most helpful review

Posted on: October 18, 2016

Matewis

Games: 165 Reviews: 10

Easily the best typing game atm

Epistory is kind of like a hack-n-slash rpg in a lush and beautiful world, except you don't hack at enemies to kill them, but instead type the words that appear above their heads. The enemies are all kinds of weird monsters. Some incredibly fast, but with short 3-letter words like 'fox', some slow and lumbering but with longer words (and/or simply more words above their head), and some even qualifying as boss enemies with a very long word above their heads. Like any rpg you have special attacks, which in Epistory are elemental attacks discovered during the game. For example if you type the word above a monster's head with your lightening power enabled, then a word above an adjacent monster's head gets zapped. It can be incredibly satisfying to avoid typing 'photosynthesis' by typing 'hand' at the right time with your lightening power! The killing of enemies in general is extremely satisfying, with very well done animations and sound effects. Like any rpg there is also experience earned towards upgrading your various powers, like having lightening zap more than just once, or to upgrade your character's running speed. Epistory has an adaptive difficulty which adjusts itself according to your ingame performance. Though unlike Typing of the Dead, and as hinted at above, it's not just about typing speed: a good strategical mind will make the game massively easier if you use your elemental powers wisely. And in some cases those powers are absolutely necessary to prevent you from getting swamped. Expect the game to keep you busy a few days to finish. It's a bit too repetitive to finish in one sitting, but the novelty of it all will keep luring you back for more until you've finished the game. There's even a story of some sort, but I don't really understand it at all :P And if nothing else, it's a remarkable fun way to give your typing speed a small boost. Perhaps you'll even do some online exercises to boost your arena scores :)

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Posted on: October 18, 2016

JKeift

Games: 551 Reviews: 1

A short but entertaining typing ARPG

+ Beautiful, varied scenery + Great typing/combat mechanics + Simple albeit satisfying puzzles + Good light RPG elements (upgrades) + Serviceable music and voice acting + Support for many languages - The game gets tediously repetitive a few hours in (explore, loot chests, combat wave of enemies, rinse, repeat multiple times until the end) - Very short (although this could be viewed as a positive, considering the repetitiveness) All in all, I get the impression that this was made with a pretty limited budget and the devs were able to successfully mask that fact in most aspects of the game. I bought it on Steam at a discount a few months ago and I don't regret the purchase.

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Posted on: September 11, 2019

qaston

Verified owner

Games: 457 Reviews: 7

Really dull and boring

The "story" in epistory is 3 narrated sentences repeated over and over: "She was here", "She encountered an obstacle", "She was strong and overcame the obstacle". The gameplay consists mostly of killing the same couple enemies over and over the entire game. There's very little variation and the enemies just go to you in a straight line. It's really boring even on hardest difficulty. The puzzles are ok, although a little annoying due to the odd controls. I don't get why people think the visuals in this game are great, they are ok for an indie game, but nothing interesting. Overall, I do not recommend this, play Textorcist or The typing of the dead, those are way more exciting games.

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Posted on: September 26, 2017

Chauncellor

Verified owner

Games: 323 Reviews: 7

A Refreshing and Unique Experience

Rather than a 'Typing Game', the Epistory feels more of a game with typing as a core mechanic. Most welcome! I came into this game from a fresh perspective, having never heard about the title when it was teething in early access. This came at a welcome time as I was interested in learning the Colemak layout (The game offers QWERTY, Dvorak, Colemak, and even Workman's layouts!). While my good-old QWERTY typing speed surpasses 100 words-per-minute, my Colemak barely handles a fraction of that number. The auto-adaptive difficulty mechanic brilliantly keeps the gameplay frantic: My S.O. bangs word after word out like a machine against the swarm of enemies while I sit here desperately juggling two or three. The art and design delighted my eyes: I never grew tired of the magnificent colors and geometry. While I thoroughly enjoyed Epistory, a few items could have been improved. The narration tends to overbear, often speaking words written as though they needed something to say: Sentences tend to swirl together into repeatable fragments, lessening the dialogue's impact. The combat mechanics, while very fun and often unique, could have been explored more: Often, skills are relegated to one or two functions for both combat and puzzle. I feel they missed an opportunity to have puzzles delve past the simple facade towards unique skill usage and discovery; The adagio could contrast well with the fiery battles. Such shortcomings paint a rather disappointing final act once the drought of discovery belies tedious grind. Oft-recycled music does not help the situation. I highly recommend experiencing Epistory as it innovates on a formula not often explored. I have typed this review with my more practiced Colemak layout. While Epistory does not directly teach the keyboard, it makes for a great practicing companion alongside other learning tools. What a joyous way to practice something I kept putting off for laziness! Epistory runs beautifully at 4K resolution on Linux.

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Posted on: November 12, 2016

FSHero

Verified owner

Games: 93 Reviews: 2

Great type-'em-up game

When I was young, I used to love Typing of the Dead. I loved the concept -- use touch-typing skills to defeat enemies and progress through the story. Epistory appears to be its conceptual successor. Much like TotD, you type your way to unlock items and kill enemies. Epistory moves this up a level by allowing you to walk through the world and choosing power-ups (earned by gaining experience points). Therefore it combines 'type-'em-up' with RPG for a fantastic gameplay experience. The typing challenges were slightly on the easy side (despite leaving the adaptive difficulty setting on). Nevertheless, I feel that this was a good decision, as I never encountered an unbeatable challenge. The graphics are truly a work of art, inspired and modelled against paper and origami. There is a theme here revolving around paper, writing and story-telling, the artwork reflects this. This game also gets a bonus point as it runs flawlessly on Linux (using Kubuntu 16.04). Despite my enthusiasm for Epistory, there is room for improvement, which I hope the developers will take note of if they ever make an 'Epistory 2'. The story is quite metaphorical and relies on implication. I didn't really understand it, but this is a personal preference. I found some walking and typing set-piece puzzles rather simple. I would have enjoyed some extra challenge. The font ought to be adjustable, though the default was easily readable. There should be an option for British English typing words (though a mod is available for this, I understand). A greater variety of enemies (visually) would have been more entertaining. Some additional music tracks might have made each boss encounter unique. There appears to be a scoreboard for "Arena" challenges, but a true LAN or internet multiplayer would have increased the replayability immensely - and add some much-needed human competition! Well done Fishing Cactus, I'm looking forward to a sequel!

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