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.
