Sephonie
Release date: Apr 12, 2022
Developers: Melos Han-Tani, Marina Kittaka
Publishers: Analgesic Productions
Genres: Action, Adventure, Indie, RPG, Simulation, Sports
Categories: Single-player, Steam Achievements, Full controller support, Captions available, Adjustable Text Size, Camera Comfort, Color Alternatives, Adjustable Difficulty, Keyboard Only Option, Playable without Timed Input, Save Anytime, Steam Cloud, Family Sharing
Supported languages: English, Japanese, German

Jump through cavernous depths In this 3D, story-driven platforming adventure, explore an uninhabited island's massive cave network. Learn about the heroes' psyches as you explore lush caverns, subterranean oceans, and surreal cityscapes, all while meeting surprising creatures! By Anodyne & Angeline Era's devs! Platform with acrobatic moves Use an acrobatic moveset to navigate lush, jade canopies and rusty sandstone spires. Fling yourself over high ledges using the satisfying Teledash Vault and deftly Wallrun across dangerous outcroppings. Grapple through the air with the help of long-tongued Ribbats or climb tall cliffs via sticky-ridged Gripshrooms. Linking with certain creatures will grant you new abilities to reach the farthest depths of the island. Solve puzzles to learn about creatures Research the island's unknown creatures by Linking with them! Using the one-of-a-kind 'Puzzle Grid' system, overcome each creature's challenges by freely placing a series of colored tiles, forming large islands of one color. A story of shipwrecked scientists In the near future, three biologists are on a joint mission to use their state-of-the-art ONYX implants to research the creatures of the uninhabited Sephonie Island. But as they approach the island, a sudden storm leaves them shipwrecked. Amy Lim, Taiwanese-American and bold leader, hails from the midwestern USA town of Bloomington. Riyou Hayashi, an analytically-minded Japanese-Taiwanese researcher, calls the bustling Tokyo his home. And Ing-wen Lin, a kind and considerate Taiwanese scientist, lives in Taipei. The trio will find their motivations and loyalties put to the test as they navigate Sephonie’s caverns, facing not only physical challenges but also their deepest memories and dreams. As they grow more intimate with each other and the island, an ancient force, brewing deep in the island's abyss, may threaten their newfound relationship, and the world...  Explore a 3D platformer like never before A 6-8+ hour, one-of-a-kind, experimental, story-driven 3D platformer adventure. Master a parkour-esque moveset to sprint, wallrun, jump, and fling yourself through Sephonie Island’s rocky and physical caverns! A beautiful and varied cave system filled with all manner of large and surprising creatures. A deep, emotional story about the close bonds of a trio, the priorities of nations, and the delicate connection of humans and nature. The postgame “Bubble Adventure” and fiendish hidden items provide a fun challenge for advanced spelunkers. A human experience crafted entirely by the IGF Grand Prize-nominated duo of Marina Kittaka and Melos Han-Tani, behind works such as Anodyne and Angeline Era. Sephonie does not support square resolutions (Less wide than 16:10). Sephonie will run fine with these resolutions but some UI may be cut off, which you can fix by using the in-game UI Scaling option or by running the game in a 16:9/16:10 windowed resolution. The same goes for UWHD resolutions in fullscreen. Sephonie only officially and natively supports certain controllers (PS4/5, XB1/XB360). Other controllers may work with Steam Input, but functionality not guaranteed. In particular the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller is NOT supported although players have gotten it working. See forum for details. Sephonie has been tested to work on Linux with Proton, although there may be some lighting errors depending on your OS so we have chosen to not have an officially supported Linux version. 

Press reviews: “To put it briefly, Sephonie is a miracle. It swings between life and death, classic genre convention and thoughtful subversion, the mind-bendingly global and the heartbreakingly personal. It holds its own against giants of science fiction by refusing to be pinned down, floating between genre and tone with the unknowable elegance of flight. It’s tragic and triumphant, a vision of the narrative work games could do without the frivolous constraints that tie them to convention. Like the island itself, Sephonie layers metaphors to build a distant vision of a tragic and hopeful future.” 10/10 – Gamepur “It excels as both a platformer and a puzzle game, but what makes Sephonie a Game of the Year contender... is how its mastery of familiar gameplay tropes ties into one of the best video game stories ever created.” 10/10 – Inverse “Sephonie is an incredible masterclass in proving that the 3D Platformer genre still has plenty of tricks up its sleeve.” YourFriendJacob