Epiphany City

If you like puzzles, you’re going to love Epiphany City. Get yourself ready for a game that will have you saying “Oh, I get it” more times than you can count. An astoundingly cute but very clever game filled to the brim with quandaries that will get your noggin pumping out steam as you are finally forced to actually think about a game instead of just being pointed the correct way with a vibrantly colored marker. Hilariously written and charmingly animated, if you’re looking for a game that actually challenges you, this is the right place to be. Let’s get into it.

Gameplay

A top-down game, this looks a lot like an independently animated Pokémon game but its actually got a lot more personality than those games often do. Lily must traverse through many situations where her abilities and your logic and reasoning skills are tested. This game thrives on out-of-the-box style puzzles where you really have to switch your perspective to figure out a few of these mysteries.

If you like games like Superliminal, Portal or The Stanley Parable, then this is the kind of game that will pique your interest, without a doubt.

The primary tool of the puzzle system is that Lily has a picture frame that is empty. Whatever she holds the frame over can be moved from its position in the world to somewhere else. You can also rotate whatever is captured in the frame to alter your perspective of it. An example is when waiting for a store to open in the middle of the night, Lily can take the face from a nearby clock, rotate it so it is actually the middle of the day and the store opens. How does that work exactly? Magic. I’m glad you asked.

Story

You take control of Lily, a struggling artist who is desperately trying to find a job. Down on her luck, Lily stumbles upon a strange prophecy and a unique power, which she elects to steal and become the hero of this bizarre story. There is an evil out there, looking to change the world and not necessarily for the better, so its up to Lily to hijack a prophecy and get to putting a stop to the nefarious ne’er do well.

The writing of the game is astonishingly funny. Some incredibly relatable scenes will unfold out before and you can’t help but feel for Lily, the main character. Its silly, its whimsical, its amazing fun and I had a great time from start to finish with it.

Art Style

The visuals of this game are very nice. It definitely looks like an independent game, that I cannot deny, but that’s not always a bad thing. The art is unique with a delightful bright and clean look to it all. It is somewhat reminiscent of Celeste with its hand drawn feel. And it is hand drawn, over 1000+ uniquely hand-drawn character portraits and sprites.

Pros

• Excellent Visuals
• Fantastic Gameplay
• Hilarious Writing
• Loveable Characters
• Amazing Puzzles

Cons

• I wish it was longer