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I liked Endacopia but less than I thought I would. Harsh but important criticism: I think it suffers from performative weird (likewise ENA, which Andy alluded he wants to be different from, and mostly is except this aspect):
I believe in two different kinds of weird. "Performative weird" is basically random: doing anything except what's normal and expected. There's no soul or deep meaning behind it, it's just weird to be labeled weird, performative. Then there's "true weird", where the artist genuinely tries to express themselves, not being weird on purpose, but not censoring themselves to conform to norms or expectations. The best art is true weird, I think (because) it's often more normal than society; in the sense that, society has lots of taboos that exist because of peer pressure, but don't fit reality or our internal values/emotions (yes, I'm talking about this site), and true weird lets the audience see through them. Even if I don't hold the same opinions as a true weirdo (which is almost always the case), it still illuminates reality and my values/emotions, by showing me novel ideas, letting me mix and match to form better ideas of those.
...anyways, I did overall like Endacopia, I do think there are parts that are true weird, and maybe I call the other parts performative only because they don't resonate. For example, I think the characters aren't very interesting or endearing (with exceptions, most notably Mellow). But I really liked Andy's signature, the pixelated warm but uncanny classroom aesthetic (for example, the blue room with the red floor and clock).
I also highly recommend its evil twin, Perfect Tides: Station to Station
It's weird you say this because I felt as if the game was exceedingly sincere, and something I specifically liked was that it never really came off as performative (I think this was true for ENA: Dream BBQ, but not for Endacopia). I also don't think it was doing anything particularly unexpected or weird in context, and this is largely because the 90s adventure game genre that Endacopia is trying to emulate is actually just that strange and fever dream-like, for the most part, and features stuff that I would say makes Endacopia look very normal. See The Neverhood as an example of a game from the time period that's just bizarre.
Really, in comparison to many of the exemplars I can point to, Endacopia is a lot more coherent than I expected it to be. It has its fair share of non-sequiturs, but so did many of the type examples of the genre it's trying to emulate, and much of the weird diversions like the random little songs throughout the game just felt like it was meant to be fun, not particularly high-brow or seeking out a specific label.
I do think the selling point of something like Endacopia very much hinges on whether you resonate with the vibe and approach or not, and if it doesn't there's not really an argument one can make to convince one otherwise.
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