Buy Blackwell Epiphany

111 reviews, only 15 bucks, published way back in April... how unfortunate.

Only one guide for this game. One. The only one that I could find anyway. I only really looked for it because I had a slight difficulty with something I missed. I'd seen what I needed to do earlier, I just didn't remember, probably because I'd run out of coffee quite a while ago.

Anything I could rag on this game would pretty much be nitpicking. In all honesty, if this game made any screw-ups, they are no worse than certain AAA titles that get stupidly enormous amounts of undeserved praise. The ending wasn't perfect, I kinda saw it coming, but it gripped me and it didn't piss me off. Granted, yes, a few holes were left unfilled, but ultimately they can somewhat be ignored due to the way things were wrapped up being quite final. It did seem a tad abrupt, though, but I've seen far worse endings, believe me.

The gameplay tries to draw elements from all the previous titles and succeeds rather well. I felt it was a bit of a challenge without being completely convoluted and irrational as torturing your neighbor's dog for no reason, so I'm happy. At no point did I really need a guide, but nothing was excessively easy. This and the last game both did this pretty well, unlike Convergence which felt rather too straightforward to me.

Maybe the series could have kept going, wrapped a few more loose-ends up, but overall I think this was a fine conclusion to an excellent series. It's a shining light at the end of it all.

Incredible ending to a great series.
Cried like a baby at the end lol
If you like great writing, dialogue and characters, this series would be right up your street.

Sad that it's over but glad that I got to experience it.

Rosangela Blackwell is a struggling author living in New York, and a medium. Enter Joey Mallone, a ghost and spirit guide tied to the female members of the Blackwell family. When Rosa's aunt, Lauren Blackwell, passes after being in a coma for decades, Joey is 'released' from Lauren and enters Rosa's life. Details are revealed throughout the five installments of the Blackwell series regarding the female members of the Blackwell family, how Joey came to be, what happened to Aunt Lauren to trap her in a comatose state, etc. Together, Rosa and Joey seek out and help tormented ghosts trapped in the physical world cross over to "the other side" throughout the series.

In BLACKWELL EPIPHANY, the fifth and final installment of the game series.
Rosa’s now fully embraced her quest to find trapped spirits in New York and help them to move on. We finally discover the origins of the two most prominent characters of the series, and learn a little more about a shadowy organization that is the antithesis of everything Rosa and Joey stand for. Many answers to things will be brought to light which have been hanging over the series since it's inception. The Blackwell series has always been focused on human stories, which has made this series so special. It definitely stands strong on its own merits with the incredible writing of Dave Gilbert.

EPIPHANY begins and immediately takes a serious dark turn when people's souls are ripped apart right in front of Rosa and Joey's eyes. And there's the ghost of a little girl which hits Rosa and Joey harder than others -- but, for the most part, not treated as all that different or special than the others along their journey. Death is unfair. Rosa and Joey know and accept that. It's the race to get the little girl's ghost ‘safe’ before whatever is destroying souls can take her death as easily as it took her life. There are other ghosts to be dealt with, too. From the TV news anchor desperate to leave her past behind, to the brother and sister striving to deal with childhood abuse.

How does one end such a phenomenal series? When you get to the last act, everything kicks into high gear heading for the finish line ... the grand finale. And, wow! What a finale! The very last scene is ... dare I say ... perfect!
Thanks, Dave, for such a wonderful experience over the past decade with the Blackwell series. Kudos!!!

(To enjoy the story at it's best, the games should be played in order of creation. 1st 'LEGACY' -- 2nd 'UNBOUND' which explores the events and time that Lauren Blackwell and Joey were working together in the 1970s (while Unbound turned out, unintentionally, to be a prequel to Legacy, it should be played after Legacy to not only help enlighten the player as to what happened in the first installment, but also gives the player clues as to what is coming in future installments) -- 3rd 'CONVERGENCE' which takes place about six months after the events in Legacy -- 4th 'DECEPTION' which takes place some time after Convergence -- and 5th 'EPIPHANY', which is the final installment in the Blackwell game series.)

Epiphany really nails the final and most ambitious chapter to a charming and engaging supernatural detective series. The production quality has taken an obvious step up with Ben Chandler stepping in as lead artist, and Dave Gilbert honing his writing skills and puzzle design to near perfection. We get further backstory, a tying together of previous story threads, and closure.

I have more to say about the unique strengths & weaknesses of the series, but I'll put them into my 'The Blackwell Legacy' review. The above is a simple thumbs up for those who've completed previous installments.

Overview: Blackwell Epiphany is the fifth and final installment in my favorite point-and-click adventure series in this century. The Blackwell series definitely has a special place in my heart. Epiphany tells the story of Rosangela Blackwell, an experienced medium (aka Bestower), and Joey, a spirit stuck with the Blackwell family, and they both go about solving mysteries in NYC and investigating cases related to ghosts who couldn't move on to the afterlife.

Pros:

• Despite having ghosts and all, characters are very realistic, well-developed, deep, interesting, funny, and loveable
  
• The story is interesting and solving the mysteries is really fun (despite the whole game being really on the depressive side)
  
• Great and unpredictable ending to the series--I've read some bad reviews about it, but I thought it was awesome
  
• Everything you've ever wanted to know about the series will probably be answered
  
• The puzzles are kept to a sober level of difficulty, but there's no handholding, either--if you're used to the series, you shouldn't get stuck or need any guides
  
• The dialogues and the voice acting are really outstanding, I can't stress it enough.
  
• Has a very interesting mechanic in which you combine clues instead of items to solve puzzles, and that works really well with the investigation theme. This feature is even improved in this game, as good as in Deception or probably slightly better.
  
• Once again, you get to control both Rosa and Joey (whose roll is even bigger then in Deception), adding a lot to the puzzles
  
• Like in Deception, having the smartphone to do research and calls makes the game flow even better than the first three games
  
• Really gorgeous retro graphics, always going up in quality throughout the games
  
• BGM is awesome

Cons:

• No in-game way to change the resolution
  
• Alt+tabbing and alt+escing kinda screw the game (keyboard stops being recognized, some dialogues get cut down in a split second and you can't listen to/read them anymore), so you'll probably have to quit it and load it again to solve this issue
  
• A few minor inconsistencies, like characters not reaching the conclusion at the right time, or combining clues not working until after it was reasonable for it to work and stuff like that (most of those were indirectly justified in the commentaries, like "this was added in the last week of production" or something like that)
  
• IT'S OVER!!! =(

Bought on: Steam Store for R$ 11,19 (US$ 5.99 in the US at that time). I would've bought it last holiday sales even if it had no discount (and I wouldn't be disappointed).

Verdict: This is the last game in the series. Epiphany is considerably better, deeper, longer, more clever and more emotional than its prequels. Definitely the most serious, depressing (in a good way) and enjoyable game in the series. It's really fun and brings you back to old-school adventure games, while still bringing fresh elements to the table. Epiphany also imerses you in this intricate plot in a way like no other Blackwell game does (and they were already good at that). If you're into classic point-and-click games, you most definitely have to try it! Don't forget to play the other titles first! While you could play Epiphany as a standalone game, you'll miss a lot if you haven't played the other games. So don't do it! Start at the beginning. One thousand thumbs up!

This game has achieved something I would not have thought possible: It made me cry! The last time that happened was somewhere around the release of the movie 'The Green Mile' (the killing of that mouse just hit me hard).

I started playing the Blackwell series because the first game was on sale and I really enjoy the 'adventure' games with great stories. After I finished the first one I couldn't stop and played through all of the other ones as well. The grand finale of the series, Blackwell Epiphany, is in my opinion the best of them all.
The ending was just overwhelming and beautiful. These games had, no pun intended, soul!
Dave Gilbert, thank you.

A fantastic and emotional conclusion to a wonderful series.

A hugely enjoyable finale to the beloved series. It doesn't tie up every loose end, and not every plot development makes quite as much sense as you might like, but as a chance to reconnect with these characters and see them through one last, sweeping adventure, it is not to be missed. The voice acting and pixel-art backgrounds have never been better, and the story itself is longer by far than any of the previous entries, giving you chance to really lose yourself in the spectral mysteries and companionable snark of the Blackwell world. If you enjoyed the other Blackwell games, it is unthinkable that you will not get a tremendous kick out of this one.

Q. I liked some of the other Blackwell games, but not all. Which features does this use?
A.You can still swap between Rosa and Joey, you can use inventory objects on the outside world, and you can once again combine entries in your notes to make fresh deductions (a feature I deeply missed). The art is SVGA-ish pixel art, as opposed to the cartoony drawings in some versions of earlier games, and as I say, it's probably the best art in the series (though the oddly stiff walk animation from Deception seems to have lingered just a bit).

Q. Do I have to play the other games first?
A. Technically no- most major plot points are recapped or alluded to in the game. You will, at the very least, be able to follow the gist of the story. But why punish yourself that way? The earlier games are funny, clever, and quick to play, and give the events of Epiphany a real impact. To say nothing of the countless grins and gasps you get from recognizing some long-forgotten plot development suddenly blossom on the screen. Unlike the vast majority or videogames, the Blackwell series has a real sense of *history* to it, and it's a treat worth savouring.

A nice sendoff for this adventure game series,

I strongly recommend playing the other Blackwell games first, as this one wraps up the overall story.
It's a classic style point and click adventure game, that avoids most of the more frustrating missteps of the genre like pixelhunting, mazes, illogical puzzles, etc.
This one probably has the best production values out of the Blackwell games, it's neat to see how they've gotten better in that sense, the commentary tracks they all have provide some interesting insight into the production as well.

One of the better modern point and click adventure games,

Recommended.

Uhh, what even to say. If you're here it's probably because you played the other games in series, or at least one of them. It's not the best in the series plot-wise but it's still good in that regard, and it's great in terms of game design. People complaining about the ending are 100% in the right to do so, though I'm not especially bothered by it. But yeah. If you liked 1-4 then 5 will be enjoyable too.

The following is my opinion on the Blackwell series (and not just this fifth and final installment

Though the design, length and quality of these games vary from one another (the production span is 8 years), it is nearly impossible to take them apart. Sure, the gameplay can change drastically, the tone may shift from giddy to utter dark but it never feels wrong. That's hard to explain but Dave Gilbert sure did great.

The writing is excellent, the voice acting is great, the puzzles are logic (which is not a given in adventure games) and the overall feel of the series is spot-on.

If you're a fan of point n' click you cannot miss those games. For the others, it may rest on your ability to enjoy a game under 480p with a slow pace. But it is absolutely worth it.

Oh, and Ben Chandler, the God-on-Earth-of-AGS-community has worked on the penultimate game as well as this one here. Just so you know.

If you liked the first 4 games, you'll probably enjoy this finale. Play the first 4 though! The final installment has the best graphics and the most gameplay time. I enjoyed the story and I think most of the loose ends were tied up satisfactorily.

The whole serie of Blackwell is pretty much must have for adventure fans. Something about those games, just gets you from first screen of Legacy to a final conclusion of Epiphany... What else to say? Blackwell franchise tells a story about Rosa Blackwell and her ghost friend Joey, their work is to help spirits accept their death and help them to move on to the other side. Anyone can recall another game about medium job? That would actually includ just that, been a medium? As far as I know, Blackwell uniq in that matter. It kinda blurs in final installment, but nevertheless stays true to it's origins. Charecter development is amazing! Voice acting is cheesy at first and second games, but overwhelmengly great at later instalments. Gameplay is easy and relaxing, for adventure game it doesn't have too difficult puzzles or even pixel hunting, it based around dialogues mostly. Also all games are releatively short, but entertaining.

Aw shucks. Dunno what else to say... Just that I guess: You love adventures? Get Blackwell!

Blackwell Epiphany may not be the best ending of the Blackwell series, but it’s totally worth playing.It takes you inside the story by introducing fantastic music and dialogue. With plenty of well thought puzzles and cases to crack, the game is worth spending time and money on, especially for those who have been with this series for years. Full Review.

If you enjoyed the previous Blackwell games, pick this up. Wraps up the series well, with even better production values than the last game.

I'm a fan of the previous blackwell games, though they have some weird quirks that bug me. I really can't get behind Epiphany though. Part of my problem is I just find Joey as completely unlikeable as before and I don't care for the story behind his character. He's just a smarmy jerk. Rosa seems to less fleshed out in this version too. I can't quite put my finger on how but it just doesn't really feel very much like the character I was really liking in the other games.

Without getting into spoilers, the plot is a mess. The creator claims he had the ending planned all along but it certainly doesn't feel that way. Plot holes pop up all over the place and certain characters just all but vanish in the second part of the game. Everything feels very contrived and coincidental. There's also a point where all of the work you've been doing in the beginning of the game is completely wiped out.

As for gameplay. It drops a lot of the note taking and deduction stuff from the previous games for more nonsensical puzzles. Joey's blowing power either doesn't work on things you'd expect it to work on or does work on things that it shouldn't (Like blowing a surgical scalpel down a long hallway.)

The voice acting and art direction are still top notch as would be expected from a Wadjet Eye game, but in the end it just didn't really interest me the way the previous games did.

Great end to a great series.

this game is verry good and it is a verry good ending to this series of games my only issue is with that you are left with more questions than answers in the ending

Final episode of the serie, best one ! Fantastic storyline

Fantastic conclusion to the series on a character and emotional level. Some of the plot stuff is a bit out there for a series that started off relatively grounded. But still, it wraps up pretty much every dangling thread of the series, touching on various past antagonists and even giving closure the characters in the prequel game (the second one) and ends with a closed book for the most part, which is pretty rare for video games in their constant bid for sequels. Game is a bit meatier than the rest of series, lasting me about 5 hours when the rest lasted about 3, and continues the trend of the series refining as it went along when it came to its' mechanics. Most of the puzzles are pretty well done save for a couple pixel hunt moment. Snag it if you like adventure games, and if you haven't played the series at all, they're a great little run of games that know when to not overstay their welcome.