Epistory - Typing Chronicles is an original game developed by the Belgian studio Fishing Cactus which is officially launched since March 30 after a few months of early access.
In this fable, we play a young woman on her fox who evolves in a world corrupted by strange insects. Determined to fight the infection and discover the cause, the atypical duo set off on an adventure through a world made entirely of paper.
The game begins with a short tutorial phase where the controls are presented. Thus, it is possible to steer the fox with EF for the left and JI for the right. Not very practical (well, especially unusual), this combination can however quickly be forgotten because the classic ZQSD is also supported.
The world unfolds under our paws, more pages being added as we go forward. This floating universe is beautiful, entirely created with origami paper models in shimmering colors. The story text is directly integrated into the decor, on the grass.
A little further on, I discovered the possibility of interacting with certain elements of the decor by passing through write mode (space key). The names are then displayed in large letters above each object. I just have to type them flawlessly on my keyboard for the object to be activated: obstacles disappear, flowers bloom, trees bud ... And the faster we type, the higher the combo score, and therefore the final score. accumulated, is important!
The combat is based on the same concept: the enemies arrive with letters on the head and we must type these words as fast as possible to destroy them before they touch our character. The character quickly masters a fire magic which has the advantage of consume the words of any target that has been started: it is therefore important to distribute your attacks in the event of multiple arrivals so that the fire does its work (damage over time). The words are rather simple at the beginning (3 or 4 letters) but it gets thicker little by little!
Any error is fatal: the character dies as soon as he is hit. Fortunately, this is absolutely not punitive. After a black screen, the game immediately starts over at the point of failure.
Elements are to be found in the world, coffers containing fragments. Obviously, they tend to be well hidden which gives an additional desire, if necessary, to walk in this superb environment.
Caring for carte allows you to navigate even if it is rather summary.
A few puzzles are to be resolved in order to move forward, although the difficulty is for the moment very limited (in this case, you have to go through the digits in the right order or even redial the code).
Finally, a last point concerning the mechanisms: skill points are unlocked as and when the accumulated score. It is thus possible to improve the speed of the fox (faster walking and running, running with SHIFT), to increase the score (lengthened combo time) as well as to facilitate the fight (push back enemies, damage over time more rapid) or exploration (by displaying the points of interest on the map or the paths not to be missed).
Before concluding, some screenshots of environments ... I limit myself voluntarily (and with difficulty) in order to leave you the joy of discovery!
Beautiful and admirably well designed, Epistory is a very nice poetic adventure game, fully translated into spanish, which leads into a simple but gripping story. The discovery of this paper world armed with its keyboard is magical and I can not wait to put an end to this corruption through the multitude of paintings offered thanks to the power of words. In order to fully enjoy the game, it is of course preferable to type quickly because the monsters quickly become mean and full of letters, accents and "ç" will become your worst enemies! Fortunately, the easy mode combined with the possibility of resuming the adventure without penalty will help you enjoy the adventure even if you don't type 100 words per minute!
