Epiphany City

В целом, добрая простенькая игра, которая при желании проходится за пару-тройку часов. История наивна, персонажи ей под стать — если не ждать каких-то откровений, то неплохо.

Cautious recommendation. This reminds me of something you'd get in a shareware collection or play on Newgrounds 15 years ago. The core conceit of manipulating the environment with picture frames is a very cool idea. Several of the puzzles were very creative and fun, especially the math ones in the park. The puzzles are sandwiched, though, by a long intro story dump and a long series of quick-time events, leaving me just a little unsatisfied with the amount of puzzles. I would have loved for the intro backstory to be done through some easier puzzles to get players acclimated to the game, and the fight sequences to be some harder puzzles, since the point of the prophecy is supposedly that it accentuates one's inherent abilities, making Lily's sudden talent for Chun-Li kicks and Kamehamehas appear out of nowhere. The writing is a mixed bag. The game opens with a very long sequence consisting of a pastiche of Superman mocking wealth inequality and a very realistic and sardonic depiction of Lily's struggles. Then in the actual game, the surroundings oscillate between wacky side character exploits and a fantastical war against evil. The wild blend of tones is rather jarring. I found it hard to know what kind of emotions the writing was cueing me towards at any given moment. The actual diction and flow of the writing is well done. The art is pretty good, too, especially the parodies of online platforms in the intro. I think this is a great pickup on sale to spend an evening, but I don't know that there's enough puzzles for the full asking price.

I can't recommend this game. It had a lot of potential but abandoned its premise at the end, going from a puzzle game to a quick time event fighting game. Even though a few puzzles felt nonsensical, I still really enjoyed the puzzle parts! But the ending giving up on puzzling and being a ridiculously long QTE section killed the game for me. Lily turning into a kick boxer instead of continuing to use art also feels wrong to me. She uses her smarts and her artistic skills to defeat evil, but at the end she turns into a "better" version of Superb Man? It shows a lack of faith and thought into the premise and how you could defeat the army using art and puzzles, instead of physical force.