Epistory - Typing Chronicles

 PC
User Score
7.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 54 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 33 out of 54
  2. Mixed: 17 out of 54
  3. Negative: 4 out of 54

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  1. GAMERamble
    Apr 19, 2016
    9
    Basing an entire game around typing is not a new idea, but Epistory does it extremely well and never feels like it is an “edutainment” title. It has a vibrant game world to explore along with plenty of enemies to kill and puzzles to solve. Seeing as the entire game is keyboard driven and requires lots of typing it is a bit of a niche title, but definitely worth the effort. Unless youBasing an entire game around typing is not a new idea, but Epistory does it extremely well and never feels like it is an “edutainment” title. It has a vibrant game world to explore along with plenty of enemies to kill and puzzles to solve. Seeing as the entire game is keyboard driven and requires lots of typing it is a bit of a niche title, but definitely worth the effort. Unless you absolutely hate typing or still get by using only one finger Epistory should not be missed.… Expand
  2. CoryMcQ
    Apr 8, 2016
    8
    I decided to give Epistory a try yesterday. Comparative review: Bastion meets Typing of the Dead with a touch of Zelda.

    It tells its story in a very interesting way. Literally a storybook that's being created as you move about the world. The core mechanic is switching into a "typing mode" and quickly typing out words hovering over the environment, chests, and enemies. Typing quickly    I decided to give Epistory a try yesterday. Comparative review: Bastion meets Typing of the Dead with a touch of Zelda.

    It tells its story in a very interesting way. Literally a storybook that's being created as you move about the world. The core mechanic is switching into a "typing mode" and quickly typing out words hovering over the environment, chests, and enemies. Typing quickly extends a combo meter and when the meter is finished, it adds XP to your level bar. The XP bar gates abilities and places you can go. As you unlock new areas, new dungeons are discovered. Within these dungeons are "tools" that grant you new special abilities. The two I've encountered so far is my attacks/typing are now Fire & Ice based. By entering "typing mode" I can switch between them by typing "fire" or "ice". Fire burns enemies after the first correctly spelled word (most enemies take two words to defeat) and Ice will stop an enemy for a period of time. Since your character dies after being touched by an enemy, combat consists of using your typing skills to pick the right targets and switching between your two attacks.

    My only criticism is that the movement is a little clunky. It Tries to teach you an alternative control screen at the start of the game but I found myself naturally using WASD to move. It works well enough and you can quickly put points into movement speed (and a sprint skill) but traversing the world feels very rigid.

    Apparently the difficulty adjusts as you play the game. The worse you are at typing, the easier the words are. I spend my entire day typing so I'm getting some very long and difficult words thrown at me. There have been a few occasions where part of a word was not inputted since I was typing too fast. This isn't a normal occurrence, however.

    Did I mention you are a young girl riding around on a fox being narrated by a the author writing a book? I probably should have mentioned that.

    I really recommend this. Despite it being very Bastion, it's incredibly unique.    … Expand
  3. blasttypist
    Apr 29, 2016
    9
    Epistory is indeed a typing game, but this is one of the most incredible and unique games I have played in a while. The art and storytelling in this game is phenomenal. It's all typing but the gameplay and the mechanics that are used in this game are so much fun to use and varied that it creates nice combos and you never get bored.

    The storytelling is such that you want to find all the    Epistory is indeed a typing game, but this is one of the most incredible and unique games I have played in a while. The art and storytelling in this game is phenomenal. It's all typing but the gameplay and the mechanics that are used in this game are so much fun to use and varied that it creates nice combos and you never get bored.

    The storytelling is such that you want to find all the collectables because the art design and story are just beautiful. A writer myself typing the words to push the story forward, feels almost like asking me to write the story a little and that's very fullfilling. Epistory is one of those games like Journey, Brothers, Undertale, Bastion, a true indie gem that deserves to be better known!    … Expand
  4. otisurdoden
    Apr 28, 2016
    9
    Epistory est un jeu assez unique en son genre qui combine aussi bien des aspects RPG que de l'aventure. Tirant ses inspirations aussi de Bastion (coté aventure et découverte) que de Typing of the Dead (pour sa mécanique au clavier), le jeu est une petite pépite indé pour tout ceux qui cherchent quelque chose de frais.
  5. Sjalka
    Oct 7, 2016
    9
    I love and adore the graphical style. It is light hearted and also light in its origami pape style. The colour palette gives it a sort of 1960s look (or at least that is the pastell colouring that i personally associate with the 60s...)

    Well - there is not much to say... The game difficulty felt rather high for a non native speaker/typer - but managable. (although i would not    I love and adore the graphical style. It is light hearted and also light in its origami pape style. The colour palette gives it a sort of 1960s look (or at least that is the pastell colouring that i personally associate with the 60s...)

    Well - there is not much to say...

    The game difficulty felt rather high for a non native speaker/typer - but managable. (although i would not recommend this game to someone with poor typing skills or people who are not familiar with typing with 10 fingers)
    It does a very good job making typing fun.

    The story itself could have been more engaging - more interesting and mature - ... but it is alright in the end.
    I give this game a high score of 9/10 because ..

    .. it is very well done, pretty and fun...
    .. and because it is fairly unique (well - yes.. there is typing of the dead and a few very low budget typing "games" ...but still unique enough)    … Expand
  6. IndieCoinCoin
    Sep 6, 2016
    9
    Epistory est une vraie belle surprise! Une perle indé pleine de charme, de poésie et un jeu entièrement jouable en Français. La bande sonore et les voix sont en anglais pour le moment, mais l'interface, les textures et le texte sont en Français.

    Avec un visuel à l’aspect très léché qui rappelle l’origami et Okami, le jeu explore des mécaniques tout au clavier (comme Typing of the Dead).    Epistory est une vraie belle surprise! Une perle indé pleine de charme, de poésie et un jeu entièrement jouable en Français. La bande sonore et les voix sont en anglais pour le moment, mais l'interface, les textures et le texte sont en Français.

    Avec un visuel à l’aspect très léché qui rappelle l’origami et Okami, le jeu explore des mécaniques tout au clavier (comme Typing of the Dead). Les contrôles sont donc un peu originaux, mais le gros avantage est que le jeu est adapté à tous les claviers possibles (AZERTY, QWERTY, QWERTZ, etc.), c’est bien pensé et on se laisse rapidement gagner par la facilité d’utilisation. L’histoire même si elle peut paraître simple peut vous emmener loin si vous vous laissez prendre par celle-ci.
    Finalement le jeu dispose d’une ambiance très sereine et finalement assez peu violente ce qui permet à toute la famille d’y jouer.

    Une belle réussite qui mérite d’être mieux connue !    … Expand
  7. gameintheattic
    Sep 6, 2016
    10
    So I'm more a RPG/ Strategy game player. So picking up a game where you're a girl riding a fox through a whimsical land is not something I would normally pick up. But god, i'm glad I did, the art style is sublime, the music enchanting and the gameplay addictive and tense during final battles; it is here that your typing skills will really be put to the test especially when multi elementalSo I'm more a RPG/ Strategy game player. So picking up a game where you're a girl riding a fox through a whimsical land is not something I would normally pick up. But god, i'm glad I did, the art style is sublime, the music enchanting and the gameplay addictive and tense during final battles; it is here that your typing skills will really be put to the test especially when multi elemental enemy types are skittering their way toward you.

    Purging the landscape you explore of the insectoid corruption is satisfying while making things grow to the- already mentioned- enchanting soundtrack is cathartic.

    A true Indie gem that deserve much more attention!.    … Expand
  8. ave
    Jan 8, 2018
    9
    It is often said that it is harder to convey emotion through gameplay than words or visuals, but Epistory disprove that.

    By using the typing as a core mechanic to progress within the game, and carefully choosing the words to type, as a player, we literally "play" the story threads, and can sometimes foreshadow the ending. Progressing in the game "feels" like reading a book, almost    It is often said that it is harder to convey emotion through gameplay than words or visuals, but Epistory disprove that.

    By using the typing as a core mechanic to progress within the game, and carefully choosing the words to type, as a player, we literally "play" the story threads, and can sometimes foreshadow the ending.

    Progressing in the game "feels" like reading a book, almost with the tactile sensation of turning the pages. The art style is just perfect, and on top of that, overcoming the waves of enemies by typing fast and switching powers is really rewarding. It is almost as if you can feel the power of the words coming from your tip of your fingers.

    Congratulations to the team!    … Expand
  9. Mandulum
    Aug 2, 2017
    8
    Five Word Review: First typing game experience positive.
    Favorite Thing: I didn't know what to expect going into this but I was pleasantly surprised by the exploration and challenge.
    Lease Favorite Thing: No matter my graphical setting, every second there would be a short hiccup and the game would freeze. Date Completed: 2017-08-02 Playtime: 5.5h Enjoyment: 8/10 Recommendation: If    Five Word Review: First typing game experience positive.
    Favorite Thing: I didn't know what to expect going into this but I was pleasantly surprised by the exploration and challenge.
    Lease Favorite Thing: No matter my graphical setting, every second there would be a short hiccup and the game would freeze.

    Date Completed: 2017-08-02
    Playtime: 5.5h
    Enjoyment: 8/10
    Recommendation: If you are decent at typing then absolutely.    … Expand
  10. shado474
    Jan 21, 2018
    8
    An interesting concept in a beautiful environment that unfolds as you progress in the game. This title's mysterious atmosphere and narration hold a surprisingly deep story that feels fresh from the start and ends wonderfully.
  11. aditya1101
    Oct 5, 2017
    9
    Easily one of the most surprising games I've ever played. I absolutely adore the game. At its core it's quite simple - it's just a typing game, which has been made a hundred times over. But the art, the atmosphere, the story, and the way that the typing was integrated into the gameplay made this game an absolute treat to play. I was completely engrossed from start to finish.
  12. SinitarGaming
    Jul 14, 2018
    9
    Have you ever imagined a mix of beautiful adventure in origamy-looking fantasy world and RPG, where effectiveness, speed and combo strength of your characters skill depends on your typing skill?
    Me neither. Though it's not only just possible, but results in one of the most charming, original and somewhat addictive game I played this year.
    Epistory is a mix of adventure when you found    Have you ever imagined a mix of beautiful adventure in origamy-looking fantasy world and RPG, where effectiveness, speed and combo strength of your characters skill depends on your typing skill?
    Me neither. Though it's not only just possible, but results in one of the most charming, original and somewhat addictive game I played this year.

    Epistory is a mix of adventure when you found yourself in fantasy paper world on the back of giant fox. You have no idea what you're doing here, lost in it, and wandering around, opening new locations and new secrets, you collecting shards of your own memory, building a storyline around yourself. But the most original part here is that absolutely EVERYTHING is controlled by your typing. Be it obstacle blocking your way, a chest with treasures or hungry enemy - you'll the words, typing which correctly will launch an attack, so your ingame progress is directly dependant on your typing skills. Expirience gained depends on the very same - eac htime you hit something, you have decent timespan to hit again to stack the expirience bonus, so the more continuos typings you will make, the more expirience you can get in the same situation. It also has classic RPG elements - for your actions you receive upgrade points which you can spend on plenty of combat and utility skills. Increase your speed passively, sprint, make more powerful combos, knockback your enemies, master 4 different elements - fire, spark, ice and wind for various elemental bonuses and crowd control.

    Epistory walkthrough itself is literally a book that you are writing on fly. Evertyhing you do has an impact on a world around you, it appears as writings on the earth and walls, voiced by the storyteller. While you are starting without any knowledge of what's happening, just a few minutes later you're getting into it, completely getting used to the shape of your protagonist. The deep, magical voice of female storyteller is just great - after some time your are starting to understand that this voice became one of the reasons you're playing through storyline - to just hear it.

    Beautiful semi-2dimensional world with paper art style, vibrant and each time different looking levels, beautiful soundtrack are only adding to the charm of this game. And that's no matter if you are an MMO veteran and have insane typing skills or just a person who was intrigued by this game, don't worry - ingame diccifulty is adaptive, meaning that if you are typing slow, it will give you more simple words, if you're typing fast - you will have enough challenge to be satisfied and not get bored. There is also an arena mode where you control fully-developed hero with all skills and your task is to survive as long as possible in endless waves on enemies, and your result you can share and see in global rating of all Epistory players.

    From the cons I can probbaly name two. From time to time, just a bit clunky movement controls system, but that's what yo ucan easily get used to and it doesn't affect the combat, as in most of important battles your character is standing until the battle is complete. Second one is that veriety of enemies in game could be bigger - there are like 5 or 6 enemy models in total, different mostly only in stats and element type. But this is more like "what would make this game absolute amazing" than "it's a big problem" - because during gameplay, you're not focusing in enemies apperance - you need to focus on typing.

    Besides definitely original and, I'd say, addictive gameplay, this game will also inmprove your typing skills and vocabulary. Dive into beautiful-shaped storyline, listen to bewitching voice acting, and levelup both the skills of your character AND your own language and typing skills. That's just a one great combination!    … Expand
  13. Tomicsavo
    May 2, 2020
    9
    Cozy, nice game. Many times you can’t pay attention to what the story is because you have to focus on typing. If someone can type well you can go through the game quickly.
  14. Animus_V0x
    Jul 25, 2022
    9
    I had a surprisingly good time on this game. First time for me trying a typing kind of game and i really liked the idea.
  15. yazazuyo
    Aug 10, 2023
    10
    I love this. It has a world that is build up out of pages of the book. It builds when you unlock new areas. The switching between normal and typing mode in very cool. It's a cool story too and the graphics are amazing. Only thing is that it got too easy at the end when I already had all upgrades.

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
74

Mixed or average reviews - based on 16 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 16
  3. Negative: 0 out of 16
  1. GameCritics
    Apr 23, 2018
    75
    Minor quibbles aside, Epistory is a solid typing adventure. The story mode is around five hours long, and a leaderboard offers plenty of opportunities to test typing skills against the rest of the world. While the plot never builds to the kind of interesting levels that the introduction suggests (in fact, an end-game twist is something of a headscratcher) the gameplay is so well-made that it’s hard to fault the rest.
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  2. Games.cz
    Feb 6, 2017
    70
    Epistory is an imaginative adventure game with sophisticated RPG elements and well-designed typewriting learning cleverly disguised as a game. Too bad the game content is often repeated.But still, Epistory is worth trying not only because it supports Czech language.
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  3. Pelit (Finland)
    Sep 28, 2016
    70
    Combining an ARPG template with typing-based combat is a brilliant idea. Unfortunately, Epistory is a bit too easy and simplistic to really pull it off. I can only hope for a sequel with more challenge, enemy types, skills and the like. [Aug 2016]
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