The Good
- Very unique visuals with its paper and origami like graphics reflecting the themes of a person struggling to write their own story
- Sound design is honestly excellent, the sound of turning pages, of the various elements being used from the lightning sound of sparks to the strong gust of wind, and the narration is stellar. The music is honestly quite a beauty with its serene and zen like vibe even in the most tense moments with instrumental musical instruments of almost traditional music
- The story is great and stellar, reflecting someone struggling with inner turmoil and experiencing great memories of joy as well
- The sense of progression feels worth it, with every word being type slowly enhancing your typing skills along the way enjoying the inspirational story that takes place
- It’s a blast to jump and use the various elements to beat various enemies each skill set having various unique purpose. Adds a layer of depth and strategy
- The various dungeons makes it worthwhile to experience not only because of the incentive of gaining experience to level up but the story it unravels
- Each area feels distinct and have a great sense of place
- Surprisingly quite a bit of variety to the enemies

The Bad
- At times the UI is a bit clunky especially in relations to the map
- Puzzles are really quite simple and basic but they serve their purpose
- Music for combat is sadly on the repetitive side

Gameplay 9 – Personally I really enjoyed this game more than I expected. Had a lot of fun using the various elements and strategically using them to defeat my enemies. Jumping from fire to quickly burn the next word as I type or using sparks to crowd control enemies to slow them down. However there needed to be more variety use for the puzzles

Graphics 8 – It’s a joy to see the origami and page turning like graphics. From the swamps and how the ocean gets cleared up to reveal the drowning halls with its paper crumple looks to reflect ocean. There is a serene like artistry to it. The animals and enemies looks gorgeous as well

Sound 8 – The music is really good from the orchestral beats and instrumental tunes with flutes creating Zen like moments to epic scores. The sound design is great with the pages turning to the sound of paper being written. The narration is honestly the best part, it made me feel so invested in taking this journey with her and her muse. However most of the enemy encounter music were pretty similar

Story 10 – To me it deserved its full marks for speaking to me in so many ways. A delightful and inspiring journey especially for those struggling with depression

Seeing those words appear on the paper landscape, I was transfixed with the narrator and her muse journey of self-discovery. The writer in me was constantly drawn back into the mystical lands of Epistory : Typing chronicles and its forgotten memories. It touched me profoundly because it spoke to me in so many ways. A writer trying to find my own voice. To express my own ideas. My own sense of self. Epistory: Typing Chronicles is developed by Fishing Cactus and was released in 2016. I remember first purchasing it on sale, casually looking for a game that might help with my typing skills but this game did more than just improve my typing skills. It honestly made me fall in love with writing again.

You play as a girl who rides a great fox in a magical paper like land. It starts with a simple narration of “Once a upon a time” about this girl riding the fox being lost with a path soon appearing and the world slowly starting to unravel around you as you walk a path that mysteriously shows. You discover that there is a corruption in the land with insect like creatures spreading forth from it. And like getting passed a writer’s block you slowly find the words to defeat these creatures and unravel the mystery of this strange land filled with memories. It slowly becomes apparent, you are somebody trying to write a story while you feel the loneliness creeping by you. To say anything more would be to take the joy away of discovering this hidden gem of a story.

At its core, Epistory is an action RPG with typing being its main game mechanic. Typing words to defeat enemies, solve puzzles and open chest. However what elevates Epistory to more than just another typing game is how well the typing is integrated with its combat, puzzles and the flow of the story. Words pop up on various creature varying in difficulty in terms of how long the words are. There is a great sense of variety given in the words use to defeat as you type them out as quickly as you can. Getting more XP combos the less mistakes you make and how quick you type is exhilarating as the enemies slowly inch towards you. It is remarkably satisfying to beat new enemies and learn new spells that help you to strategically eliminate your enemies. Some slow enemies down like ice, while others are used for crowd control killing multiple enemies like sparks which electrocutes enemies based on your writing combo. The enemy variety does not only come with the word count but some can only be defeated by using specific spells. This gives a lot of depth and strategy in experimenting with these spells.

Acquiring these spells is another highlight in itself, as you slowly explore the map which give some clue to the events that happen. More so it feels like it has very strong purpose in telling a story. The location to acquire these spells shows a level of depth and attention to detail. The ice mausoleums with tombs of abandon skeleton hints at forgotten memories to be kept, while uncovering the lightning city tower of mechanical devices uncovers a sense of wonder and fear at discovery. The color coded spells also reflect their respected word elements. Fire spells would have words like combustion, pyre and spells like sparks have words like TV, lightning and so forth. Every word feels like it has a purpose. The sense of progression is also really good as there is a leveling system for you to upgrade your spells. There are various nest of corruption for you to clear in order for you to level up and dungeons to explore to make more sense of the world in order to explore this beautiful mystical land. Visually I think it’s quite a looker. All of the paper like locations have so much attention to detail from the webs in the swamp forest to the jagged sand dunes. The words slowly popping up with the narration add that sense of beauty with its fonts as well. The music and narration is stellar.

If there are flaws in this game, it would be the UI for the map and the menus. They feel a bit stiff with the map especially focused on you not allowing you to view the whole area. Zooming in and out is also very basic. With that being said Epistory is a journey worth taking even though this might not be a game for everyone. There is a sense of replayability with arenas and seeing how fast you can write to beat your new word count per minute.

There is so much to say but alas we have to end here. Epistory is to me more than just another educational typing game, it’s a work of art that I will come back to experience when the going gets tough. When it feels like everything will fail, I remember the girl’s journey of self discovery with her muse, the trusty fox who never gave up on her at all times.