Epistory: Typing Chronicles

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Epistory: Typing Chronicles is a single player open world role playing game with a fantasy theme. It was developed by Fishing Cactus and was released on March 30, 2016. It received mostly positive reviews from critics and overwhelmingly positive reviews from players.

#GJGDC2017 GDC Showcase! [Media 2152718] GAME DESCRIPTION Epistory is an atmospheric adventure typing game that tells the story of a writer lacking inspiration who asks her muse to help write...

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95%

Audience ScoreBased on 3,774 reviews

story1.2k positive mentions

grinding77 negative mentions

Unique and enjoyable typing-based gameplay with strategic elemental magic use
Beautiful, origami-inspired art style with immersive narration and soundtrack
Adaptive difficulty that caters to a wide range of typing skills, making it accessible and challenging

Frustrating and clunky movement controls, especially on ice puzzles
Repetitive gameplay with limited variety in puzzles and enemy types
Some achievements are grindy or difficult to obtain; story and narrative delivery may feel weak or disjointed for some players

story
3,078 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
39%
58%
3%
Epistory: Typing Chronicles features a minimalist, poetic story that unfolds gradually as the player explores a paper-crafted world while riding a giant fox, blending narrative with typing-based gameplay. Though praised for its charming presentation, immersive atmosphere, and emotional moments, many found the story vague, abstract, or underdeveloped, with a predictable or unsatisfying ending that may leave players wanting more depth or clearer resolution. Overall, the story serves more as an atmospheric backdrop complementing the unique gameplay rather than a deeply engaging or complex narrative.
- “The story, about a writer overcoming writer's block and a girl on a fox exploring, unfolds beautifully as you play.”
- “Epistory – typing chronicles is a well-presented game with a story about growth and self-discovery that really hits home, especially for those who’ve left the nest.”
- “The story unfolds as you travel and type, it's one of the most spell binding games I've played that is a typing game, it enthralls and captures your attention and the hours have passed before you know what's hit you.”
- “Epistory is a game I expected to focus on the "story", since the title seems to be a clear portmanteau of epic and story, but I have to say, I was majorly disappointed.”
- “Like I can't imagine anything more disappointing than a typing game that drops the typing in favor of storytelling and then proceeds to suck at that.”
- “The story unfortunately is where this game suffers.”
gameplay
1,286 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
44%
53%
3%
Epistory's gameplay centers around a unique and well-executed typing mechanic that integrates exploration, combat, and puzzle-solving in a visually stunning origami-inspired world. While some players find the repetitive nature of continuously typing words somewhat monotonous, the addition of elemental powers and adaptive difficulty keeps the experience engaging and challenging. Overall, the gameplay is praised for being innovative, enjoyable, and a fresh take on typing games, balancing simplicity with enough variety and strategy to maintain player interest.
- “The gameplay is well balanced and adapts to the skill of the player.”
- “It seamlessly blends typing mechanics with exploration, combat, and puzzle-solving in an origami-inspired world.”
- “Epistory is a delightful and challenging typing RPG that successfully merges captivating storytelling with innovative gameplay mechanics.”
- “The typing mechanic is just a gimmick, as such you will find typing the same words over and over and over again for hours.”
- “And with the stupid burn mechanic you can't actually type all the words for one enemy but instead are forced to context switch after every single word.”
- “A lot of these end up being pretty simple puzzles, but it added to the gameplay.”
graphics
1,178 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
66%
33%
1%
The graphics of this game are widely praised for their stunning, unique origami and papercraft art style that creates a visually captivating, storybook-like world unfolding as you explore. Reviewers consistently commend the beautiful, colorful visuals and polished animations that perfectly complement the gameplay and narrative, making the aesthetic a standout feature. While some minor technical issues and lower graphical fidelity on certain systems are noted, the overall presentation is regarded as charming, immersive, and integral to the game's appeal.
- “The visuals in Epistory are absolutely stunning. The art style effectively combines a paper origami aesthetic with a storybook theme, creating a beautiful and immersive world that literally unfolds as you explore.”
- “Epistory boasts gorgeous papercraft-esque graphics that are both charming and unique. The world is designed with colorful, lush visuals reminiscent of origami and pop-up books, perfectly complementing the gameplay and narrative.”
- “The art style is the game's greatest strength — it's genuinely gorgeous, featuring a paper-based aesthetic with neat origami-like animations and environments that feel alive. Coupled with a lovely soundtrack, the graphics create an enchanting atmosphere that enhances the overall experience.”
- “Frustratingly, performance is abysmal, even on the lowest graphic settings - maybe there's a problem specific to my setup?”
- “The graphics could also be problematic: during certain battles pieces of the environment would obscure all or part of a word (even when the enemy was in the open), and in other areas some of the colors used made it extremely difficult to read the words, an almost white-on-white overlay.”
- “Unfortunately if you lower the graphics everything becomes unreadable.”
music
587 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
38%
2%
The music in the game is widely praised for its calming, atmospheric, and fitting qualities, enhancing the immersive origami art style and storytelling. While the soundtrack is generally beautiful and well-composed, some find it repetitive during extended combat sequences or sparse in variety. Overall, the music strongly contributes to the game's unique charm and mood, especially noted for its relaxing and emotional impact.
- “The audio creates the perfect atmosphere, with music and sounds suited to each setting; the narration is perfectly understandable and will accompany you every step of the way, telling you the story.”
- “The art style is absolutely gorgeous, the music is great and suspenseful, and the battle style is unique and challenging without being impossible.”
- “The music is really good, it sets the mood for the occasion, and the ending piece is just so relaxing that it makes you feel good after completing the game.”
- “The background music problem was more annoying, as it meant that what could have been exciting combat instead remained whimsical explorer music that failed to capture the sudden change in pace.”
- “The combat music was kind of repetitive and lacked variation, which ruined the excitement for me during battles despite loving the type-attacking mechanic.”
- “Some of the arena typing portions of the game last a while, and the music wore me down; a greater variety or more intensity in the combat music would improve the experience.”
atmosphere
155 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
70%
28%
2%
The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its beautiful, charming, and immersive qualities, blending origami-inspired visuals with poetic narration and a fitting, atmospheric soundtrack. Players find it relaxing yet engaging, with a unique storybook fantasy vibe enhanced by excellent voice acting and sound design. While some note the story is simple or occasionally lacking, the consistent and captivating atmosphere remains the game’s standout feature that deeply draws players in.
- “The art, narrative, and atmosphere in Epistory are absolutely amazing; Epistory is easily one of the most memorable games in these aspects that I've experienced from any genre, and I've played a lot of games over the years.”
- “The music is atmospheric, and this game is worth it on aesthetic alone.”
- “The game creates a great atmosphere with a lovely graphics style, really nice background soundscape and soundtrack.”
- “The quality of the graphics wasn't as high as I expected, and as a result it also didn't have the atmosphere I had hoped for (this might be less of an issue on a small screen).”
- “It is the ending that really brought this game down, and I thought could have easily been a thousand times better if it continued to follow the atmosphere and provided reasoning to all of the parts of the game (the stones, the insects, the reason for the different powers you unlock...) and having it remain in the world's universe.”
- “It comes together in the end, even though the atmosphere leading up through the game to the ending is a lot better crafted than the actual ending itself.”
emotional
97 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional impact of Epistory: Typing Chronicles is divisive among players, with many praising its heartfelt, touching, and uniquely crafted narrative that evokes warmth and introspection through its poetic storytelling and art style. However, some find the story vague, predictable, or insufficiently engaging, leading to a lack of emotional connection despite the game’s artistic ambitions. Overall, the game is widely regarded as an emotionally relatable and surprising experience, especially for a typing game, with several players moved deeply by its ending and atmosphere.
- “The emotional depth in this game is staggering.”
- “I don't know if I've ever had as emotional a connection and a reaction to a game as I did to this one.”
- “Each chapter has its own emotional theme that is so relatable and beautifully depicted.”
grinding
79 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
3%
97%
Grinding in the game is frequently described as tedious and excessive, especially regarding certain achievements like killing 10,000 enemies, which require hours of repetitive arena combat. While some players find the grind manageable or even somewhat enjoyable, many note that grinding detracts from the overall experience and may frustrate completionists who seek 100% achievement completion. Mods can alleviate the grind, but the mandatory farming and repetitive nature of arena mode remain a common complaint.
- “A lot of grinding is required.”
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “The "arena" mode is the only way to really get through this in a manageable timeframe and it is one of the most tedious extra modes I've encountered in a video game, because it's just the typing section endlessly until you either mess up or lose the will to live.”
- “Also, the last and hardest achievement was just way too grindy and took too long (beat 10,000 monsters), thankfully there is a workshop mod to help you with it if you don't want to spend an additional 10 hours or more just for that.”
- “Finally, multiple achievements have requirements so excessive that you can't unlock them without grinding in arena mode, where enemies spawn endlessly and your only goal is to achieve a high score.”
stability
41 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
7%
93%
The game features enjoyable elemental abilities but is marred by frequent bugs and glitches, including occasional freezes, graphical issues, and awkward interactions that sometimes disrupt gameplay. While the core mechanics remain functional and the overall experience is engaging for typing game fans, the stability is inconsistent, with some users needing to restart due to glitches. Despite its early access state, the game runs well on strong hardware but could benefit from further polishing to improve stability.
- “Runs great on my gaming desktop.”
- “The mechanics are straightforward, with no glitches, blips, or issues in their functionality.”
- “The music is beautiful, the sound design is fantastic, the game runs great, and the story is really emotional, which isn't what you'd expect from a typing game.”
- “Good for typing practice but a bit buggy.”
- “Unintuitive and buggy.”
- “While I did not encounter any major issues, the game has lots of small glitches and feels rather unpolished.”
replayability
39 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
15%
77%
8%
Replayability is generally limited, with most value coming from the arena or survival modes that offer score challenges and skill improvement, especially in typing. While the core story lacks variation for multiple playthroughs, these post-game modes and achievements provide some incentive for repeated play, though many players do not feel compelled to revisit the game extensively after completion.
- “There's also a survival mode if you played through the story, so it theoretically has infinite replayability.”
- “The replay value of this game for me is huge considering it's one of the very few games I've ever played more than once, let alone multiple times completely through.”
- “In addition to the story mode, you'll get replay value out of the game by taking on arena mode, where you can test your skills against waves of bad guys.”
- “There's an arena, but the replay value is a bit low.”
- “Besides the arena mode, which focuses on the core gameplay mechanics, there isn't a lot of replayability value though, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, because the game you play beforehand is such a well-rounded, fantastic experience.”
- “No replayability.”
optimization
31 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
32%
52%
16%
Optimization for the game is mixed across platforms: it runs smoothly and well-optimized on Windows and Linux with decent hardware, but suffers from poor performance and inconsistent framerates on some setups, including Mac and lower-end systems. While graphics are impressive, several users report frustrating lag or stuttering even on high-end machines, indicating optimization issues remain unresolved for certain configurations. Overall, the game performs well on many systems but could benefit from broader performance improvements.
- “Played on Linux (native), excellent performance and no bugs.”
- “Then I played on battery, no CPU boost, on 3/4 graphics quality at a resolution of 1920x1080 and the game was running smooth, almost no stuttering.”
- “The optimization does count, and in this case, the game is very well optimized, with a few not-so-important exceptions.”
- “Gameplay-wise, it's very poorly optimized; you need much better hardware than expected.”
- “Frustratingly, performance is abysmal, even on the lowest graphic settings—maybe there's a problem specific to my setup?”
- “This game also lags on my professional gaming laptop, meaning it's poorly optimized.”
humor
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's humor is generally appreciated for its lighthearted and refreshing tone, offering funny moments and amusing nods from the developers. While not as comedic as some other typing games like Typing of the Dead, its charm lies in its approachable, quirky style and enjoyable gameplay that blends humor with engaging mechanics.
- “Rather hilarious game mechanic.”
- “Funny refreshing gameplay, somewhat basic, approachable and not bland.”
- “Such a funny typing game with beautiful graphics.”
character development
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
33%
Character development is minimal, with a barebones storyline and little plot progression, though character designs are highly praised for their creativity and quality.
- “I could gush continuously on the character designs and the world assets.”
- “Amazing concepts, artworks, level designs, and character design (good job!).”
- “The storyline is pretty barebones; there is very little character development or plot.”
monetization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
67%
Monetization in the game is met with mixed feedback: while some praise the game for avoiding aggressive microtransactions common in the industry, others are frustrated by intrusive advertising that disrupts the user experience.
- “An imaginative little gem in a game culture inundated with violent shooters and microtransactions.”
- “The game's title screen menu system has been recently broken by the advertisement for their new Nanotale game.”
- “I certainly don't plan on purchasing Nanotale after this ridiculous advertising bug that ruined the enjoyment of the game I already paid for.”

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78%Critics’ scoreBased on 7 critic reviews

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8h Median play time

21h Average play time

5-11h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 25 analyzed playthroughs

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Frequently Asked Questions

Epistory: Typing Chronicles is a open world role playing game with fantasy theme.

Epistory: Typing Chronicles is available on Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac OS, Windows and others.

On average players spend around 21 hours playing Epistory: Typing Chronicles.

Epistory: Typing Chronicles was released on March 30, 2016.

Epistory: Typing Chronicles was developed by Fishing Cactus.

Epistory: Typing Chronicles has received mostly positive reviews from players and mostly positive reviews from critics. Most players liked this game for its story but disliked it for its grinding.

Epistory: Typing Chronicles is a single player game.

Similar games include Nanotale: Typing Chronicles, Bastion, Seasons after Fall, Transistor, Ori and the Blind Forest and others.

Epistory: Typing Chronicles

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