Epiphany City

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.

Nice little game. Its a bit weird and rough but this makes it unique. Game is ~3 hours long.

A clear passion project and a banger.

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 [spoiler]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[/spoiler]. 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 …

This game is painfully underrated! The artstyle is so cute and charming, the story has a really nice message to it and is pretty well executed. But the real star is the gameplay! The gimmick seemed really interesting to me and the puzzles make great use of the concept! I felt really clever solving them and none of them felt like too big of leaps in logic to figure out! And there is an incredibly clever moment near the end that I think back to a lot! If you are considering giving this one a try, please do. The game needs more love!

Easy game, bad story that can't be skipped. It awright.