I'm not going to rate this simply because I did not put enough time into it to give it an honest rating. But I can say that unfortunately the Overdrive combat system is not clicking with me. I know it's an added strategic mechanic to the combat but I feel it's limiting how I want to play the game, and I'm just not feeling it.
I'm reminded of CrossCode, a game with high praise from players and critics. On paper, it should have been right up my alley. Beautiful pixel art, inspired by the JRPG classics I grew up with it. But I did not like the puzzles in it, at all, to the point where it dragged down my inspiration to see it through.
I like the art and environments of Chained Echoes. Story and characters seem okay so far, but I wouldn't say I'm attached to any of it. Time is precious and I'm going to move on to something else that I'd like to play (maybe I'll finish one of the 8 other games I'm currently playing).
I'm gonna shelve this indefinitely and maybe I'll revisit it someday...but it's unlikely.
I'm reminded of CrossCode, a game with high praise from players and critics. On paper, it should have been right up my alley. Beautiful pixel art, inspired by the JRPG classics I grew up with it. But I did not like the puzzles in it, at all, to the point where it dragged down my inspiration to see it through.
I like the art and environments of Chained Echoes. Story and characters seem okay so far, but I wouldn't say I'm attached to any of it. Time is precious and I'm going to move on to something else that I'd like to play (maybe I'll finish one of the 8 other games I'm currently playing).
I'm gonna shelve this indefinitely and maybe I'll revisit it someday...but it's unlikely.
So far so good. A little gem with much to say about the current state of turn based RPGs and much to play with the genre’s tropes. Very early currently
Fantastic loveletter to JRPGs from the Super Nintendo era
I bought this game on a whim after seeing it for the first time on the release date and I don't regret it for a second. The chrono games are one of the few JRPG series I can tolerate and I saw many comparisons in the reviews. Safe to say I was not disappointed.
This game takes a lot of what I consider obnoxious about playing JRPGs and streamlines it. The greatest example being automatic healing after all battles which removes the dread from dungeon encounters and allows all encounters to be more interesting on average. I personally really enjoyed the battle system. The overdrive meter was weird initially, but I think it added some necessary depth so you don't just mash your best skills. There are some times where the combat got a bit grating and that was during backtracking and some sky armor sections. The sky armor combat is decidedly less fun for me. Also there is effectively zero grinding. Bless.
The story is serviceable, and it's not really anything to write home about. It never really goes above and beyond. You'll begin to notice some patterns and tropes that can be distracting. The writing has some low points and sometimes some more modern slang slips in that feels out of place.
What this game does NOT streamline is the MENUS. I began to groan every time I got new equipment and skill points to spend because the obscene amount of menus it entails. Skill points is only really an issue when you hit a critical mass of party members, but equipment can be brutal. There is a gem system that involves collecting, combining, and embedding effects into your equipment. It is not very intuitive to do and can get really overwhelming. My biggest issue was spending a bunch of time upgrading and embedding by weapons just to find something better in the next dungeon. Thus I would have to upgrade and move gems all over again. All this exacerbated by the menus being really weird in general.
I encountered a number of goofy bugs but nothing that ruined or crashed the game. Apparently most of this game is by one guy so I can forgive some jank for all it does well. It's not often that I can enjoy a whole 60 hours of a game. Big ups to this one.
This game takes a lot of what I consider obnoxious about playing JRPGs and streamlines it. The greatest example being automatic healing after all battles which removes the dread from dungeon encounters and allows all encounters to be more interesting on average. I personally really enjoyed the battle system. The overdrive meter was weird initially, but I think it added some necessary depth so you don't just mash your best skills. There are some times where the combat got a bit grating and that was during backtracking and some sky armor sections. The sky armor combat is decidedly less fun for me. Also there is effectively zero grinding. Bless.
The story is serviceable, and it's not really anything to write home about. It never really goes above and beyond. You'll begin to notice some patterns and tropes that can be distracting. The writing has some low points and sometimes some more modern slang slips in that feels out of place.
What this game does NOT streamline is the MENUS. I began to groan every time I got new equipment and skill points to spend because the obscene amount of menus it entails. Skill points is only really an issue when you hit a critical mass of party members, but equipment can be brutal. There is a gem system that involves collecting, combining, and embedding effects into your equipment. It is not very intuitive to do and can get really overwhelming. My biggest issue was spending a bunch of time upgrading and embedding by weapons just to find something better in the next dungeon. Thus I would have to upgrade and move gems all over again. All this exacerbated by the menus being really weird in general.
I encountered a number of goofy bugs but nothing that ruined or crashed the game. Apparently most of this game is by one guy so I can forgive some jank for all it does well. It's not often that I can enjoy a whole 60 hours of a game. Big ups to this one.
“Surrounded by walls, all I knew was the sky above me and the mud beneath my feet.”
Chained echoes is an ambitious indie jrpg inspired by some of the stable classics of the snes and psx era. Stated by Matthias Lind(the only sole developer for the game for the most part) the main influences being Xenogears, Suikoden II, Terranigma, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy VI. A setting that mixes fantasy with steampunk and sci-fi; envision; Mechs meet magic. All of this sounded fantastic to me leading up to release that I was almost worried it was too good to be true, despite everything I seen about the game disputing otherwise. Well after spending 60 hours to reach full completion of the game I can ecstatically confirm it is indeed as magical as it sounds.
The gameplay chained echoes has to offer is unique in a lot of ways; the game is simply brimming with all types of mechanics that tie into exploration, tactical depth, party formation, and even the way you purchase and sell. Focusing first on the character customization chained echoes ditches the traditional level system and replaces it with skill upgrading and class oriented investments. Each character is given a unique role in which they fill in an unnamed set class that determine the action skills and passive skills they can obtain throughout the game. Rather than gaining EXP from a battle you instead gain SP and for boss fights you additionally gain a grimore shard. Skills slowly gain SP from using them in battle but you eventually rack up stored points so you can speed up the process for some of the skills you don’t use as much. Grimoire shards are used to unlock more skills as well as leveling up your stats. Additionally to the skills only each character can learn, you can find class emblems which not only give a nice stat boost, but also allow anyone who has it equipped to eventually learn that skill when the moves are maxed. Due to this thought out well polished system there is really no grinding at all as you can explore semi freely at the start and as act 2 opens you can go wherever you want granted you have the ability and skill to do so. Battles are split between two types: on foot and sky armors. On foot you’re presented with a meter called the overdrive system. It is color coded between orange(regular reciprocated damage on both ends), green(taken less damage and deal more), and red (receives more damage and deal less). Every action by the player, and by the enemies, influences the bar. A skill type pop up when reaching green will show up that will allow you to lower the bar as well as expending your special move that charges after actions also lowers it. On foot you’re able to command a set of 4 characters while also having the ability to swap those in the back. This allows many different combinations since you can easily access 8 characters within a battle. Sky armor combat is a little different but I won’t be speaking on that and I’ll leave it as a surprise. HP and SP are automatically refreshed after every seamless overworld encounter which encourages the constant use of expending skills. The default difficulty for the game is honestly pretty perfect for the most part in my opinion. Throughout the entire game I found myself trying to strategize and use any tactical means necessary especially in boss fights. If you find the game too challenging or easy there is a custom difficulty option available from the start that can raise or lower certain things like the overdrive bar. The exploration between each area throughout the world map is fantastic since there’s a decent amount to do. Each area consistent of loose orbs that are categorized as loot. Pickups which are used only for selling which will net you some things such as materials for upgrading gear and gear itself. Additionally there’s buried treasure, and hidden areas as well. There’s a lot more to exploring and other mechanics than this such as unique monsters that appear under conditions but I’ll leave the rest as something the player themselves can experience.
The backtracking tunes attached to this adventure are really something special. You can clearly hear the direction they were envisioning from the description prior to the games release and they really nailed it. Marianukroh was able to capture that magical nostalgia those legendary osts that the golden era of jrpgs had we all hold dear. While the game itself doesn’t have a huge variation of battle tracks there’s tons of area themes and event tracks. Quality over quantity was definitely the goal and man is it quality. It’s hard to pick my favorite since I genuinely enjoyed every single track this game presented. To list some; the Flower Fields of Perpetua is definitely one up there, as well as one of the more serious toned boss themes “Death Approaches”, and I cannot leave out the extremely suspensive “Down the Corridor of Rustling Swords” that is played between some transitions. I highly recommend if you’re unsure about the game you at least check out some of the music, it’s glorious.
Chained echoes is at glance a product made by a lad who just loves jrpgs with no shame wearing their influence on their sleeve. There’s countless Easter eggs, references, and callbacks throughout this 30-40 hour jrpg. Some might say the more classics listed above you’ve played, the greater your experience it’ll be, and I’d have to agree. Your journey takes place on the continent of Valandis, a land that has suffered from war spanning over around a century. Peace finally seems like a realistic outcome when something happens to completely shatter even the hope of the idea. Magic is pretty much a product of the past, with only a select few being able to use such sorcery. The main focus is on three kingdoms engaging in a gruesome conflict that holds no punches and sparing no respect for your emotions. The story is split between 4 arcs, the first being the longest narrative wise but things open up at the second where there’s loads of content that’ll have you busy. The writing for the game itself has a really nice contrast of being humorous and unexpectedly dark. Between enemy designs, witty dialogue & puns, as well as just some random event within a sidequest or title there will be some chuckles and feel good laughs. On the other side of the coin you have some pretty gruesome scenes that took a turn further than I thought they would. The game is rated M for a reason and I really wasn’t expecting it to push it to the point where the rating itself was definitely warranted.
There is really so much to offer, especially if the snes and psx era is something you hold special to you. Despite being a major throwback to those times, the game still feels widely ahead of it with its modern integration while still sticking to close that classic formula that blends together into what I’d consider a new classic. Even with obvious blood of its predecessors being out in the open exposed for the player to see, chained echoes manages to set its self apart from the rest and thrive as its own product. Expectations are always high when you see a piece of media that feels like it was really made for you. But the true magic is when the experience you were hoping for not only smashes those expectations, but you find yourself desperately trying to savor every moment you have because you know eventually you’ll have to say goodbye. I was dreading the moment the credits rolled and I’d have to look at the title screen in awe, but when I did I can’t say I wasn’t satisfied. Thank you Matthias Lind and Eddie Marianukroh you’ve truly created something special. One life is more than enough, as long as you live it to the fullest…
Chained echoes is an ambitious indie jrpg inspired by some of the stable classics of the snes and psx era. Stated by Matthias Lind(the only sole developer for the game for the most part) the main influences being Xenogears, Suikoden II, Terranigma, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy VI. A setting that mixes fantasy with steampunk and sci-fi; envision; Mechs meet magic. All of this sounded fantastic to me leading up to release that I was almost worried it was too good to be true, despite everything I seen about the game disputing otherwise. Well after spending 60 hours to reach full completion of the game I can ecstatically confirm it is indeed as magical as it sounds.
The gameplay chained echoes has to offer is unique in a lot of ways; the game is simply brimming with all types of mechanics that tie into exploration, tactical depth, party formation, and even the way you purchase and sell. Focusing first on the character customization chained echoes ditches the traditional level system and replaces it with skill upgrading and class oriented investments. Each character is given a unique role in which they fill in an unnamed set class that determine the action skills and passive skills they can obtain throughout the game. Rather than gaining EXP from a battle you instead gain SP and for boss fights you additionally gain a grimore shard. Skills slowly gain SP from using them in battle but you eventually rack up stored points so you can speed up the process for some of the skills you don’t use as much. Grimoire shards are used to unlock more skills as well as leveling up your stats. Additionally to the skills only each character can learn, you can find class emblems which not only give a nice stat boost, but also allow anyone who has it equipped to eventually learn that skill when the moves are maxed. Due to this thought out well polished system there is really no grinding at all as you can explore semi freely at the start and as act 2 opens you can go wherever you want granted you have the ability and skill to do so. Battles are split between two types: on foot and sky armors. On foot you’re presented with a meter called the overdrive system. It is color coded between orange(regular reciprocated damage on both ends), green(taken less damage and deal more), and red (receives more damage and deal less). Every action by the player, and by the enemies, influences the bar. A skill type pop up when reaching green will show up that will allow you to lower the bar as well as expending your special move that charges after actions also lowers it. On foot you’re able to command a set of 4 characters while also having the ability to swap those in the back. This allows many different combinations since you can easily access 8 characters within a battle. Sky armor combat is a little different but I won’t be speaking on that and I’ll leave it as a surprise. HP and SP are automatically refreshed after every seamless overworld encounter which encourages the constant use of expending skills. The default difficulty for the game is honestly pretty perfect for the most part in my opinion. Throughout the entire game I found myself trying to strategize and use any tactical means necessary especially in boss fights. If you find the game too challenging or easy there is a custom difficulty option available from the start that can raise or lower certain things like the overdrive bar. The exploration between each area throughout the world map is fantastic since there’s a decent amount to do. Each area consistent of loose orbs that are categorized as loot. Pickups which are used only for selling which will net you some things such as materials for upgrading gear and gear itself. Additionally there’s buried treasure, and hidden areas as well. There’s a lot more to exploring and other mechanics than this such as unique monsters that appear under conditions but I’ll leave the rest as something the player themselves can experience.
The backtracking tunes attached to this adventure are really something special. You can clearly hear the direction they were envisioning from the description prior to the games release and they really nailed it. Marianukroh was able to capture that magical nostalgia those legendary osts that the golden era of jrpgs had we all hold dear. While the game itself doesn’t have a huge variation of battle tracks there’s tons of area themes and event tracks. Quality over quantity was definitely the goal and man is it quality. It’s hard to pick my favorite since I genuinely enjoyed every single track this game presented. To list some; the Flower Fields of Perpetua is definitely one up there, as well as one of the more serious toned boss themes “Death Approaches”, and I cannot leave out the extremely suspensive “Down the Corridor of Rustling Swords” that is played between some transitions. I highly recommend if you’re unsure about the game you at least check out some of the music, it’s glorious.
Chained echoes is at glance a product made by a lad who just loves jrpgs with no shame wearing their influence on their sleeve. There’s countless Easter eggs, references, and callbacks throughout this 30-40 hour jrpg. Some might say the more classics listed above you’ve played, the greater your experience it’ll be, and I’d have to agree. Your journey takes place on the continent of Valandis, a land that has suffered from war spanning over around a century. Peace finally seems like a realistic outcome when something happens to completely shatter even the hope of the idea. Magic is pretty much a product of the past, with only a select few being able to use such sorcery. The main focus is on three kingdoms engaging in a gruesome conflict that holds no punches and sparing no respect for your emotions. The story is split between 4 arcs, the first being the longest narrative wise but things open up at the second where there’s loads of content that’ll have you busy. The writing for the game itself has a really nice contrast of being humorous and unexpectedly dark. Between enemy designs, witty dialogue & puns, as well as just some random event within a sidequest or title there will be some chuckles and feel good laughs. On the other side of the coin you have some pretty gruesome scenes that took a turn further than I thought they would. The game is rated M for a reason and I really wasn’t expecting it to push it to the point where the rating itself was definitely warranted.
There is really so much to offer, especially if the snes and psx era is something you hold special to you. Despite being a major throwback to those times, the game still feels widely ahead of it with its modern integration while still sticking to close that classic formula that blends together into what I’d consider a new classic. Even with obvious blood of its predecessors being out in the open exposed for the player to see, chained echoes manages to set its self apart from the rest and thrive as its own product. Expectations are always high when you see a piece of media that feels like it was really made for you. But the true magic is when the experience you were hoping for not only smashes those expectations, but you find yourself desperately trying to savor every moment you have because you know eventually you’ll have to say goodbye. I was dreading the moment the credits rolled and I’d have to look at the title screen in awe, but when I did I can’t say I wasn’t satisfied. Thank you Matthias Lind and Eddie Marianukroh you’ve truly created something special. One life is more than enough, as long as you live it to the fullest…
"Even in times of peace, one is not spared from the cruelty of man.”
Every time I play a game I always ask myself if this game is the one that will wow and impress me. And most of the time I'm usually left with good, great, all right, meh and other regular platitudes to describe my experience after the end of a game. Chained Echoes is none of that. The game strives to become something bold and new all while standing tall on its own and merely showing what it has to offer. Matthias Linda who created the game and Eddie Marianukroh who composed the soundtrack have remarkably impressed me to a degree I haven’t seen since I played Omori. So yes this is one hell of a bar they raised.
The game doesn’t boast to wear its proud laurels touting the best of the best jrpgs of the past. Instead, the game simply describes itself as a “16-bit SNES style RPG set in a fantasy world where you follow a group of heroes traveling around the continent of Valandis to bring an end to the war between its three kingdoms.”
Not the most exciting catch to pull every consumer, but I feel it gets the job done. Because right off the bat, it is not saying they’re going to be the next classic since the time of Chrono Trigger or whatever RPG that is simply the best. Nor are they comparing their game to the JRPGs of old like other games on Steam. The devs are merely detailing what their game is going to be about. And that’s it. The game will show what it has to offer through the gameplay, story, music, characters, and more. And so the question remains. Does the game deliver? And is there a lot of content?
Chained Echoes does have a lot to offer. You have mecha gameplay. A big colorful cast of party members. The gorgeous visual style and soundtrack are worth listening to. An engrossing story, with a plot that is grounded and paced well. And scenes that left me shocked and unpredictable throughout. All of these hit me in such a way, I couldn’t stop myself from seeing one more scene, one more battle, and one more secret to find. I lost myself in the game and was chained, not willing to let me go.
Before I start, I need to preface this with some critique of the game. While excellent and remarkable in its own right, I feel the game could’ve used a bit more scenes to flesh out the characters. Not bad mind you. About three moments in the game, I feel could’ve transitioned better. Possibly, been padded a bit more to allow players to digest what happened from moment to moment between party members. It wasn’t jarring or abrupt. I just felt some scenes needed a bit more oomph in a way to let players digest a bit more context and exposition. Although, I find myself battling this point because if there is too much or too little it could break the pacing or remove the player from being immersive in the game. I equate this to deleted scenes in movies. While not strictly necessary, some additional scenes could've explained or refocused the scene differently.
Secondly, several villains except for some since they’re brilliant. Could’ve been fleshed out a bit more to make them more compelling. I noticed in their dialogue they would be in their role to be evil and explain motives and more etc. Except, during their final moments. Their character shifts in a way that is acceptable and decent, but I feel can be perceived as a tad abrupt. Not horrendous or bad. But my mind couldn’t help but consider alternatives if the scenes were rewritten or tweaked a bit. It's not a knock on the character as a whole since they performed as expected and in some cases unexpectedly, but the dialogue felt off and forced in a way. So more scenes to flesh them out really.
That’s all I can name off the top of my head.
Now let's dig into the real good stuff.
The story, caught me off-guard because I expected a standard JRPG trope affair full of references non-stop along the lines of Ready Player One. Instead, I got something the likes of Xenogears except much more grounded and taking me on a roller coaster ride. As if Chrono Trigger devs blessed the team to perfect the formula of introducing scenes to intrigue players, quick meaningful battles, excellent usage, and placement of antagonists scenes with well-placed humor sprinkled here and there that is fun and not forced.
The gameplay is fun and fresh and not all that complicated. Get into overdrive and stay there. Don’t overheat. And as I continued to gather more party members and when the game introduced mech gameplay, oh boy my grin was ear to ear. Plenty of bosses and unique enemies to fight, along with encountering a host of different creatures and beasts and humanoids here. Whereas, other games would usually change the color of an enemy and call it a day. None of that lazy stuff is in Chained Echoes. Each enemy fits their environment. Hell, there is a reward board ala FF12 style. So you can complete tasks while out on the field and get rewarded for doing so. None of the simple fetch quest and kill ‘x’ creatures stuff here. You have sidequests, buried treasure, hidden caves, unique requirements to finish off a group of enemies, defeating unique monsters, and more. Heck, the game doesn’t even have a level system so you don’t need to grind!
The game felt balanced since there are options to manage skills and upgrade them. And options to reduce enemy health and aggressiveness if you so desire. Overall, I didn’t feel tired from the combat system since the whole package of the game from reward boards, mecha gameplay, and unique enemies and bosses made the experience all the more satisfying to complete.
Visually the game is stunning and the art style works to its favor, a great deal. I was constantly impressed not seeing copy-paste areas and looking for templates where Mathias cut corners and I could not find one! Every environment is unique with a gimmick to earn your way out through small puzzles or clever switches and hidden areas to traverse. And these puzzles are implemented in such a way I wasn't truly frustrated. A nice change of pace and a breather from the regular travel and battle. Enemy design is terrifying and cute in some ways. The scenes throughout the game felt natural with animations not too sudden or too rigid. Smooth is key here and I can’t for the life of me recall a bad scene or egregious bugs.
On the soundtrack, I am just in awe of Eddie's work. It’s not the greatest thing since Mitsuda or Okabe. But holy hell does Eddie demonstrate MAXIMUM EFFORT here. I felt so much passion and emotion in Eddie’s soundtrack. Field themes that left me breathless and where all I wanted was to listen to the track on a loop. Catchy battle themes I never got tired of listening to these. Feeling pumped and invigorated to hear this again and again. And appropriate themes in cutscenes leave me shifting my mood to what is currently happening in the game. Serious scene. Cue slow track. Sad scene. Cue sad track. Funny moment. Cue funny track, and so on. And these cases were placed with such care I couldn’t predict what was coming next. Yet, transitioned well to match what is shown on the screen. Brilliant synergy to know what scene and track to use and display that to the player enhances their experience. Excuse me as I go back to listening to Iron Scraps for Breakfast and Flower Fields of Perpetua and so much more on repeat.
It is this pacing I want to talk about next. There is a great deal of freedom given to the player in the middle of the game that doesn’t ruin the pacing of the game at all. I feel Mathias managed to balance player freedom with nudges here and there on the main plot to give you just enough to be satisfied with your optional content and then focus back on the real task at hand. And this is exemplified again and again when I was played like a damn fiddle. Since I wasn’t exposed to constant exposition or repeated reminders of what to do, nor were there scenes where villains regurgitated lines they said previously. Character development was the answer here. Nothing too crazy and none too ambiguous or slow to manifest. Instead, used in such a way I found myself nodding. The cast struggles and learns, fails, succeeds, tries to learn to be better, fails again, and yet keeps trying is admirable and moving. It's not exactly what happens in the game, but just a rough estimate. Other elements can be injected of course like other cast members' motivations, feelings, history, and current relationships can tip the scales quite a bit to create drama or more. Keeping you the player invested in what happens next.
And this is what Chained Echoes demonstrates to an excellent degree. The pacing coupled with character development balanced it with optional content.
Before I forget, I have to give praise to the characters. Since, I doubted every single one of them and by the end of the game came away very impressed by how far each has come. Some more so than others, but for the most part, I felt attached to my characters. I hated one character quite a bit for a good chunk of the game. And yet by the end after seeing said character's struggles and scenes I couldn’t help but begrudgingly admit how hard they suffered and what they had to go through to see what becomes of them in the end. And this extends to my other party members who more or less undergo remarkable development throughout. In a manner, I found realistic without taking my suspension of disbelief to a whirlpool and flushing it down the ocean. There is a heartwarming amount of care Mathias has done to create characters with feelings that are so human and in the opposite spectrum create characters, so twisted and disgusting I can’t help but feel conniptions towards them.
Still what remains is a loveable cast of quirky characters and antagonists who are more than a simple villain here and there. A riveting story the likes I haven’t seen since Chrono Trigger and Xenogears and other wonderful JRPGs of old. Very fun and satisfying gameplay loop taking me over 40+ hours to 100% the game without being tired. Visuals aesthetically pleasing with no copy-paste artwork and unique enemies/characters/environments everywhere. The soundtrack is very satisfying to listen to, taking my breath away every time I listen to the main theme and more. Pacing and character development are balanced and excelled with nothing coming to my mind that felt forced or unnatural. And while it could’ve been improved on some villains and moment-to-moment scenes, I can forgive that since the game as a whole more than makes up for those very minor critiques.
Chained Echoes isn’t trying to become good nor does it profess to become one of the greats as classic well regarded JRPGs have done in the past of which we hold them fondly as favorites and more. Chained Echoes is one man’s vision with the help of a fantastic composer to bring to life an indie RPG with a story they want others to experience.
It’s a humbling, heartwarming game in homage to old JRPGs of the past. With enough content to stand tall with the greats. If you love JRPGs, Indie RPGs, or have a desire for a starter in the genre. And wish to be wowed like I did, to a point where you hold your favorite games close to your heart. Perhaps Chained Echoes will be that one game to impress you just as it had with me.
Every time I play a game I always ask myself if this game is the one that will wow and impress me. And most of the time I'm usually left with good, great, all right, meh and other regular platitudes to describe my experience after the end of a game. Chained Echoes is none of that. The game strives to become something bold and new all while standing tall on its own and merely showing what it has to offer. Matthias Linda who created the game and Eddie Marianukroh who composed the soundtrack have remarkably impressed me to a degree I haven’t seen since I played Omori. So yes this is one hell of a bar they raised.
The game doesn’t boast to wear its proud laurels touting the best of the best jrpgs of the past. Instead, the game simply describes itself as a “16-bit SNES style RPG set in a fantasy world where you follow a group of heroes traveling around the continent of Valandis to bring an end to the war between its three kingdoms.”
Not the most exciting catch to pull every consumer, but I feel it gets the job done. Because right off the bat, it is not saying they’re going to be the next classic since the time of Chrono Trigger or whatever RPG that is simply the best. Nor are they comparing their game to the JRPGs of old like other games on Steam. The devs are merely detailing what their game is going to be about. And that’s it. The game will show what it has to offer through the gameplay, story, music, characters, and more. And so the question remains. Does the game deliver? And is there a lot of content?
Chained Echoes does have a lot to offer. You have mecha gameplay. A big colorful cast of party members. The gorgeous visual style and soundtrack are worth listening to. An engrossing story, with a plot that is grounded and paced well. And scenes that left me shocked and unpredictable throughout. All of these hit me in such a way, I couldn’t stop myself from seeing one more scene, one more battle, and one more secret to find. I lost myself in the game and was chained, not willing to let me go.
Before I start, I need to preface this with some critique of the game. While excellent and remarkable in its own right, I feel the game could’ve used a bit more scenes to flesh out the characters. Not bad mind you. About three moments in the game, I feel could’ve transitioned better. Possibly, been padded a bit more to allow players to digest what happened from moment to moment between party members. It wasn’t jarring or abrupt. I just felt some scenes needed a bit more oomph in a way to let players digest a bit more context and exposition. Although, I find myself battling this point because if there is too much or too little it could break the pacing or remove the player from being immersive in the game. I equate this to deleted scenes in movies. While not strictly necessary, some additional scenes could've explained or refocused the scene differently.
Secondly, several villains except for some since they’re brilliant. Could’ve been fleshed out a bit more to make them more compelling. I noticed in their dialogue they would be in their role to be evil and explain motives and more etc. Except, during their final moments. Their character shifts in a way that is acceptable and decent, but I feel can be perceived as a tad abrupt. Not horrendous or bad. But my mind couldn’t help but consider alternatives if the scenes were rewritten or tweaked a bit. It's not a knock on the character as a whole since they performed as expected and in some cases unexpectedly, but the dialogue felt off and forced in a way. So more scenes to flesh them out really.
That’s all I can name off the top of my head.
Now let's dig into the real good stuff.
The story, caught me off-guard because I expected a standard JRPG trope affair full of references non-stop along the lines of Ready Player One. Instead, I got something the likes of Xenogears except much more grounded and taking me on a roller coaster ride. As if Chrono Trigger devs blessed the team to perfect the formula of introducing scenes to intrigue players, quick meaningful battles, excellent usage, and placement of antagonists scenes with well-placed humor sprinkled here and there that is fun and not forced.
The gameplay is fun and fresh and not all that complicated. Get into overdrive and stay there. Don’t overheat. And as I continued to gather more party members and when the game introduced mech gameplay, oh boy my grin was ear to ear. Plenty of bosses and unique enemies to fight, along with encountering a host of different creatures and beasts and humanoids here. Whereas, other games would usually change the color of an enemy and call it a day. None of that lazy stuff is in Chained Echoes. Each enemy fits their environment. Hell, there is a reward board ala FF12 style. So you can complete tasks while out on the field and get rewarded for doing so. None of the simple fetch quest and kill ‘x’ creatures stuff here. You have sidequests, buried treasure, hidden caves, unique requirements to finish off a group of enemies, defeating unique monsters, and more. Heck, the game doesn’t even have a level system so you don’t need to grind!
The game felt balanced since there are options to manage skills and upgrade them. And options to reduce enemy health and aggressiveness if you so desire. Overall, I didn’t feel tired from the combat system since the whole package of the game from reward boards, mecha gameplay, and unique enemies and bosses made the experience all the more satisfying to complete.
Visually the game is stunning and the art style works to its favor, a great deal. I was constantly impressed not seeing copy-paste areas and looking for templates where Mathias cut corners and I could not find one! Every environment is unique with a gimmick to earn your way out through small puzzles or clever switches and hidden areas to traverse. And these puzzles are implemented in such a way I wasn't truly frustrated. A nice change of pace and a breather from the regular travel and battle. Enemy design is terrifying and cute in some ways. The scenes throughout the game felt natural with animations not too sudden or too rigid. Smooth is key here and I can’t for the life of me recall a bad scene or egregious bugs.
On the soundtrack, I am just in awe of Eddie's work. It’s not the greatest thing since Mitsuda or Okabe. But holy hell does Eddie demonstrate MAXIMUM EFFORT here. I felt so much passion and emotion in Eddie’s soundtrack. Field themes that left me breathless and where all I wanted was to listen to the track on a loop. Catchy battle themes I never got tired of listening to these. Feeling pumped and invigorated to hear this again and again. And appropriate themes in cutscenes leave me shifting my mood to what is currently happening in the game. Serious scene. Cue slow track. Sad scene. Cue sad track. Funny moment. Cue funny track, and so on. And these cases were placed with such care I couldn’t predict what was coming next. Yet, transitioned well to match what is shown on the screen. Brilliant synergy to know what scene and track to use and display that to the player enhances their experience. Excuse me as I go back to listening to Iron Scraps for Breakfast and Flower Fields of Perpetua and so much more on repeat.
It is this pacing I want to talk about next. There is a great deal of freedom given to the player in the middle of the game that doesn’t ruin the pacing of the game at all. I feel Mathias managed to balance player freedom with nudges here and there on the main plot to give you just enough to be satisfied with your optional content and then focus back on the real task at hand. And this is exemplified again and again when I was played like a damn fiddle. Since I wasn’t exposed to constant exposition or repeated reminders of what to do, nor were there scenes where villains regurgitated lines they said previously. Character development was the answer here. Nothing too crazy and none too ambiguous or slow to manifest. Instead, used in such a way I found myself nodding. The cast struggles and learns, fails, succeeds, tries to learn to be better, fails again, and yet keeps trying is admirable and moving. It's not exactly what happens in the game, but just a rough estimate. Other elements can be injected of course like other cast members' motivations, feelings, history, and current relationships can tip the scales quite a bit to create drama or more. Keeping you the player invested in what happens next.
And this is what Chained Echoes demonstrates to an excellent degree. The pacing coupled with character development balanced it with optional content.
Before I forget, I have to give praise to the characters. Since, I doubted every single one of them and by the end of the game came away very impressed by how far each has come. Some more so than others, but for the most part, I felt attached to my characters. I hated one character quite a bit for a good chunk of the game. And yet by the end after seeing said character's struggles and scenes I couldn’t help but begrudgingly admit how hard they suffered and what they had to go through to see what becomes of them in the end. And this extends to my other party members who more or less undergo remarkable development throughout. In a manner, I found realistic without taking my suspension of disbelief to a whirlpool and flushing it down the ocean. There is a heartwarming amount of care Mathias has done to create characters with feelings that are so human and in the opposite spectrum create characters, so twisted and disgusting I can’t help but feel conniptions towards them.
Still what remains is a loveable cast of quirky characters and antagonists who are more than a simple villain here and there. A riveting story the likes I haven’t seen since Chrono Trigger and Xenogears and other wonderful JRPGs of old. Very fun and satisfying gameplay loop taking me over 40+ hours to 100% the game without being tired. Visuals aesthetically pleasing with no copy-paste artwork and unique enemies/characters/environments everywhere. The soundtrack is very satisfying to listen to, taking my breath away every time I listen to the main theme and more. Pacing and character development are balanced and excelled with nothing coming to my mind that felt forced or unnatural. And while it could’ve been improved on some villains and moment-to-moment scenes, I can forgive that since the game as a whole more than makes up for those very minor critiques.
Chained Echoes isn’t trying to become good nor does it profess to become one of the greats as classic well regarded JRPGs have done in the past of which we hold them fondly as favorites and more. Chained Echoes is one man’s vision with the help of a fantastic composer to bring to life an indie RPG with a story they want others to experience.
It’s a humbling, heartwarming game in homage to old JRPGs of the past. With enough content to stand tall with the greats. If you love JRPGs, Indie RPGs, or have a desire for a starter in the genre. And wish to be wowed like I did, to a point where you hold your favorite games close to your heart. Perhaps Chained Echoes will be that one game to impress you just as it had with me.
Chained Echoes is a reflection on a lifetime of JRPGs. You can see the inspiration pouring from almost every character, location, item, and system. It's a combination of many great things, which builds up into a phenomenal experience.
While the writing is predictably corny at times, the story has fun twists and surprisingly solid cutscenes for a game presented in this style. The Act structure is well-formed and breaks up appropriate story beats. A particular Act introduces a radical change to the game world, giving the player an all-powerful feeling that is hard to come by.
The turn-based combat is practically perfect. On standard difficulty, you will have to depend on strategy to succeed. The progression system does not especially reward grinding, so you'll need to depend on your equipment and skills.
One additional area where you can get ahead of the competition is the Crystal system. And this is unfortunately an under-developed feature. The menus are clunky and it takes some time and error to fully find its potential.
Speaking of clunky - I can forgive the efforts of a solo dev, but I do need to call out the occasional bugs and stutters that creep up. I had to restart the game a few times to correct some funny issues.
But like previously mentioned, this is an indie title developed by a single guy. And yet it exudes big budget studio energy, making its contemporaries look like the indie titles in comparison. Someone please get Matthias Linda some money and a studio and see what he can do.
While the writing is predictably corny at times, the story has fun twists and surprisingly solid cutscenes for a game presented in this style. The Act structure is well-formed and breaks up appropriate story beats. A particular Act introduces a radical change to the game world, giving the player an all-powerful feeling that is hard to come by.
The turn-based combat is practically perfect. On standard difficulty, you will have to depend on strategy to succeed. The progression system does not especially reward grinding, so you'll need to depend on your equipment and skills.
One additional area where you can get ahead of the competition is the Crystal system. And this is unfortunately an under-developed feature. The menus are clunky and it takes some time and error to fully find its potential.
Speaking of clunky - I can forgive the efforts of a solo dev, but I do need to call out the occasional bugs and stutters that creep up. I had to restart the game a few times to correct some funny issues.
But like previously mentioned, this is an indie title developed by a single guy. And yet it exudes big budget studio energy, making its contemporaries look like the indie titles in comparison. Someone please get Matthias Linda some money and a studio and see what he can do.
By-the-numbers classic JRPG. Absolutely herculean, monumental effort for a mostly solo-dev project! 2022 has been a big year for the indie JRPG between this and Crystal Project.
Rich soundtrack and gorgeous art, but I didn't find anything to love in the characters. The combat has a few slight twists to enjoy, but the skills are painfully boring while encounters and enemy design are dead simple. The UI has a lot of friction in its map, inventory, and character management. Still had a nice time exploring the world, finding treasure, and loved its area-based quest board for leveling up.
Worth mentioning that I had to slog through serious bugs. I experienced softlocks or crashes about once per hour, seemingly at random. The autosave wasn't always recent, so I found myself habitually saving every minute to avoid losing progress. My 100% playthrough was about 50 hours, so this was a real tax on my patience.
Rich soundtrack and gorgeous art, but I didn't find anything to love in the characters. The combat has a few slight twists to enjoy, but the skills are painfully boring while encounters and enemy design are dead simple. The UI has a lot of friction in its map, inventory, and character management. Still had a nice time exploring the world, finding treasure, and loved its area-based quest board for leveling up.
Worth mentioning that I had to slog through serious bugs. I experienced softlocks or crashes about once per hour, seemingly at random. The autosave wasn't always recent, so I found myself habitually saving every minute to avoid losing progress. My 100% playthrough was about 50 hours, so this was a real tax on my patience.
The last time I saw such a small team take this huge a swing at a game was Hollow Knight.
Chained Echoes is a top down 2D turn-based RPG that is equal parts Chrono Trigger and Xenoblade Chronicles. It’s a 40 hour character driven JRPG with an extremely cool world that blends mechs with Game of Thrones.
It’s also extremely smart. It doesn’t waste your time and ensures you’re always engaged and in the action at all times. Its Overdrive mechanic is one of the coolest new video game things I’ve seen in a long time, and it includes so many QOL options it’ll make your head spin. Also the gameplay shift halfway (you get mechs) adds a ton of new traversal options and flips an already great game on its head.
Difficulty is good. Hard at first but if you’re doing side stuff it gets pretty easy to manage around the halfway point.
It is telling that I never do side stuff but I finished Chained Echoes having done most of its side content. I’m also writing this review at 3am because I stayed up late playing the game.
If I had to list any imperfections, I’d say that while the scenario and characters are quite strong, the writing at times can get a little sloppy. In part, I suspect, translation issues, and in part some clunky dialogue that at times conveys serious topics with the gentle touch of a sledgehammer. Still, I get the feeling this game’s heart is in the right place, and I have high hopes for improvements from a sequel.
Overall, Chained Echoes is a brilliant rethink of what it means to be a 2DJRPG in 2022. It’s smart and sleek, and has an enormous amount of high quality content that makes its price tag a steal at full price. A lil rough around a scant few edges, but man what a huge swing this game took.
Chained Echoes is a top down 2D turn-based RPG that is equal parts Chrono Trigger and Xenoblade Chronicles. It’s a 40 hour character driven JRPG with an extremely cool world that blends mechs with Game of Thrones.
It’s also extremely smart. It doesn’t waste your time and ensures you’re always engaged and in the action at all times. Its Overdrive mechanic is one of the coolest new video game things I’ve seen in a long time, and it includes so many QOL options it’ll make your head spin. Also the gameplay shift halfway (you get mechs) adds a ton of new traversal options and flips an already great game on its head.
Difficulty is good. Hard at first but if you’re doing side stuff it gets pretty easy to manage around the halfway point.
It is telling that I never do side stuff but I finished Chained Echoes having done most of its side content. I’m also writing this review at 3am because I stayed up late playing the game.
If I had to list any imperfections, I’d say that while the scenario and characters are quite strong, the writing at times can get a little sloppy. In part, I suspect, translation issues, and in part some clunky dialogue that at times conveys serious topics with the gentle touch of a sledgehammer. Still, I get the feeling this game’s heart is in the right place, and I have high hopes for improvements from a sequel.
Overall, Chained Echoes is a brilliant rethink of what it means to be a 2DJRPG in 2022. It’s smart and sleek, and has an enormous amount of high quality content that makes its price tag a steal at full price. A lil rough around a scant few edges, but man what a huge swing this game took.
Chained Echoes is a fantastic game with a couple issues that prevent it from being the masterpiece it could be.
At the beginning of the game you're introduced to your main cast of characters and get to play around with them a bit before their paths converge and are thrown into a conflict bigger than any of them. This leads the party into a story with tons of twists and turns that is just beautifully executed. The main focus of the story is the war in Valandis. This isn't a Fire Emblem game, this war is taken with the utmost seriousness and severity. War is cruel and dark and inhumane, and this game executes those themes perfectly. Because it's an RPG, there's also a lot of supernatural and magical aspects to the story as well. Those are great as well, but I think the war setting was the more well-baked of the two ideas. There are a couple things that go unresolved at the end, but they are relatively minor in the grand scheme of the story.
The main cast of characters consists of Glenn, Kylian, Lenne, Robb, Victor, and Sienna. There are a few others you meet down the road, along with some optional party members, but these are the main six, get to know 'em while you're here. Out of the six, Glenn and Robb end up being the weakest links. While Robb is just...annoying, Glenn suffers from being a protagonist with no agency—he simply lets the plot happen around him rather than being the one who drives it forward. That's just about the worst thing a protagonist can be aside from boring...but he suffers from that too, unfortunately. His backstory and motivations are cool, but his personality is just as stale as a rice cake. Fortunately, the other four get a ton of great moments during the story and are easily some of the best characters in the game. Also Sienna is gay. So like...always a plus.
The side characters don't get skimped either. The game has some incredible villains that are really good at portraying just how vile and desparate people can be under the wrong circumstances. I won't name names in fear of spoilers, but one of them is one of my favorite characters in the game.
The overall writing in this game is just top-notch, there were so many occasions where I would have to take a step back and let the words sink in. So many great conversations, monologues, and one-liners. Oh yeah, the game has a great sense of humor, by the way. There's this point early on where you can bet on racing turtles. It lasts like twenty seconds and plays the most intense metal music my poor ears have ever heard.
Gameplay is an absolute delight. The first thing I noticed upon starting the game up for the first time was just how FAST everything was. You move fast, picking up items is fast, combat is fast (and can get even faster if you press R2), talking with NPCs is fast, I can't sing enough praise for how much this game appreciates your time.
Something I was quick to notice was that the game doesn't give you EXP. Rather, you get what're called Grimoire Shards for defeating bosses or filling up a certain number of reward board squares (touch on that in a bit). Now for those of you worried that this'll be something like Paper Mario Sticker Star, allow me to alleviate those worries. I LOVE how levelling was handled in this game. It's not like SS where you can avoid battles and be better off without them, you're still rewarded for participating in fights with SP, points you can use to level up your skills. Also, fights are just mandatory most of the time. There are a handful you can skip by walking around the trigger for them, but why would you when combat is so much fun?
Combat is pretty standard fare, you got an MP bar, you can buff, debuff, heal, use items, and the like, but the main differences are that turn order is determined by speed—meaning a faster character could go twice before a slower character even gets to act—and the additions of the Overdrive and Ultra Move bars.
Ultra Moves are pretty self-explanatory. A big bar that everyone can build towards, and then you get a big attack with one character before building it back up again. But the Overdrive bar is the fun twist this game brings to the table. The bar is split into three sections, yellow, green, and red. Yellow is neutral, green is overdrive, and red is overheat. While in overdrive, your attack and defense are both boosted, but in overheat, both are decreased. You build this up by doing literally anything. Attack, magic, buff, you get the idea, go for a bit and you'll enter overdrive, but go too long and you'll end up in overheat. "But if everything builds up overdrive, how do you prevent overheat?" I'm glad you asked—all your moves have a chance of being given yellow text. These will decrease the overdrive bar instead of increase it. That, along with defending and swapping to another character and certain items will all decrease the bar, leaving you with a push and pull mechanic that you have to manage during combat. It's a lot of fun.
If you like sidequests, you're gonna have a field day with Chained Echoes. While there are only like...seven(?) eight(?) traditional sidequests in the whole game, they are all very much worth your time and have some great rewards tied to them. What fills the need for filler quests is in the reward board—this huge board with 150 little tasks that you can complete whenever you want—usually by accident. Because it's all right there, you don't have to talk to 150 separate NPCs to trigger all the challenges, you can just do them at your leisure. It's so handy and something that I think should replace traditional filler sidequests altogether.
I was bobbing my head to just about every song in this whole soundtrack. Some of the best music I've heard in an indie game, and that's saying a lot. I think I have like half the soundtrack in my mega playlist.
The two big issues I have with gameplay are crystals and Sky Armor combat. Crystals are basically Materia, where you can put them on weapons and armor to increase your stats. Problem is, the requirements are annoyingly specific, and if you fuck up and remove the crystal from your gear, they get big and lose all their purity, punishing you for making a simple mistake, or just finding better armor.
Sky Armor you get at the beginning of act 2. Basically just fights with bigger enemies and bigger numbers. They kinda screwed with the overdrive feature, there's no more overdrive, it's just default and overheat—remedied by the additions of the gears, where 1 is attack mode, and 2 is defend mode. 1 moves the bar to the right, while 2 moves it to the left. There's also a gear 0 that (if I remember correctly) is identical to gear 1 except for the fact you can't use skills and replenish MP at the end of every turn. This sounds cool on paper, but the execution felt a bit...wanting. I found that I was usually forced into gear 2 no matter what I wanted because enemy attacks still move the bar to the right, then I'd run out of MP way too fast and be forced to do nothing for a turn. Rinse and repeat. It doesn't help that, while you are still rewarded for combat, it's far less substantial than what you earn on foot. Depending on the weapon you're using, you get a set number of skills in a set order before you need to swap around your weapon to get new stats. You can't even keep the skills if you master them like you can with Class Emblems. Hell, you can't even master skills. It's super bare-bones and feels like a cool idea they had early in development but didn't know what to do with it and left it in anyway.
Despite those issues, I loved this game and am very glad my friend recommended it to me. If you like Chrono Trigger or any other classic SNES RPG, you're gonna love this one.
At the beginning of the game you're introduced to your main cast of characters and get to play around with them a bit before their paths converge and are thrown into a conflict bigger than any of them. This leads the party into a story with tons of twists and turns that is just beautifully executed. The main focus of the story is the war in Valandis. This isn't a Fire Emblem game, this war is taken with the utmost seriousness and severity. War is cruel and dark and inhumane, and this game executes those themes perfectly. Because it's an RPG, there's also a lot of supernatural and magical aspects to the story as well. Those are great as well, but I think the war setting was the more well-baked of the two ideas. There are a couple things that go unresolved at the end, but they are relatively minor in the grand scheme of the story.
The main cast of characters consists of Glenn, Kylian, Lenne, Robb, Victor, and Sienna. There are a few others you meet down the road, along with some optional party members, but these are the main six, get to know 'em while you're here. Out of the six, Glenn and Robb end up being the weakest links. While Robb is just...annoying, Glenn suffers from being a protagonist with no agency—he simply lets the plot happen around him rather than being the one who drives it forward. That's just about the worst thing a protagonist can be aside from boring...but he suffers from that too, unfortunately. His backstory and motivations are cool, but his personality is just as stale as a rice cake. Fortunately, the other four get a ton of great moments during the story and are easily some of the best characters in the game. Also Sienna is gay. So like...always a plus.
The side characters don't get skimped either. The game has some incredible villains that are really good at portraying just how vile and desparate people can be under the wrong circumstances. I won't name names in fear of spoilers, but one of them is one of my favorite characters in the game.
The overall writing in this game is just top-notch, there were so many occasions where I would have to take a step back and let the words sink in. So many great conversations, monologues, and one-liners. Oh yeah, the game has a great sense of humor, by the way. There's this point early on where you can bet on racing turtles. It lasts like twenty seconds and plays the most intense metal music my poor ears have ever heard.
Gameplay is an absolute delight. The first thing I noticed upon starting the game up for the first time was just how FAST everything was. You move fast, picking up items is fast, combat is fast (and can get even faster if you press R2), talking with NPCs is fast, I can't sing enough praise for how much this game appreciates your time.
Something I was quick to notice was that the game doesn't give you EXP. Rather, you get what're called Grimoire Shards for defeating bosses or filling up a certain number of reward board squares (touch on that in a bit). Now for those of you worried that this'll be something like Paper Mario Sticker Star, allow me to alleviate those worries. I LOVE how levelling was handled in this game. It's not like SS where you can avoid battles and be better off without them, you're still rewarded for participating in fights with SP, points you can use to level up your skills. Also, fights are just mandatory most of the time. There are a handful you can skip by walking around the trigger for them, but why would you when combat is so much fun?
Combat is pretty standard fare, you got an MP bar, you can buff, debuff, heal, use items, and the like, but the main differences are that turn order is determined by speed—meaning a faster character could go twice before a slower character even gets to act—and the additions of the Overdrive and Ultra Move bars.
Ultra Moves are pretty self-explanatory. A big bar that everyone can build towards, and then you get a big attack with one character before building it back up again. But the Overdrive bar is the fun twist this game brings to the table. The bar is split into three sections, yellow, green, and red. Yellow is neutral, green is overdrive, and red is overheat. While in overdrive, your attack and defense are both boosted, but in overheat, both are decreased. You build this up by doing literally anything. Attack, magic, buff, you get the idea, go for a bit and you'll enter overdrive, but go too long and you'll end up in overheat. "But if everything builds up overdrive, how do you prevent overheat?" I'm glad you asked—all your moves have a chance of being given yellow text. These will decrease the overdrive bar instead of increase it. That, along with defending and swapping to another character and certain items will all decrease the bar, leaving you with a push and pull mechanic that you have to manage during combat. It's a lot of fun.
If you like sidequests, you're gonna have a field day with Chained Echoes. While there are only like...seven(?) eight(?) traditional sidequests in the whole game, they are all very much worth your time and have some great rewards tied to them. What fills the need for filler quests is in the reward board—this huge board with 150 little tasks that you can complete whenever you want—usually by accident. Because it's all right there, you don't have to talk to 150 separate NPCs to trigger all the challenges, you can just do them at your leisure. It's so handy and something that I think should replace traditional filler sidequests altogether.
I was bobbing my head to just about every song in this whole soundtrack. Some of the best music I've heard in an indie game, and that's saying a lot. I think I have like half the soundtrack in my mega playlist.
The two big issues I have with gameplay are crystals and Sky Armor combat. Crystals are basically Materia, where you can put them on weapons and armor to increase your stats. Problem is, the requirements are annoyingly specific, and if you fuck up and remove the crystal from your gear, they get big and lose all their purity, punishing you for making a simple mistake, or just finding better armor.
Sky Armor you get at the beginning of act 2. Basically just fights with bigger enemies and bigger numbers. They kinda screwed with the overdrive feature, there's no more overdrive, it's just default and overheat—remedied by the additions of the gears, where 1 is attack mode, and 2 is defend mode. 1 moves the bar to the right, while 2 moves it to the left. There's also a gear 0 that (if I remember correctly) is identical to gear 1 except for the fact you can't use skills and replenish MP at the end of every turn. This sounds cool on paper, but the execution felt a bit...wanting. I found that I was usually forced into gear 2 no matter what I wanted because enemy attacks still move the bar to the right, then I'd run out of MP way too fast and be forced to do nothing for a turn. Rinse and repeat. It doesn't help that, while you are still rewarded for combat, it's far less substantial than what you earn on foot. Depending on the weapon you're using, you get a set number of skills in a set order before you need to swap around your weapon to get new stats. You can't even keep the skills if you master them like you can with Class Emblems. Hell, you can't even master skills. It's super bare-bones and feels like a cool idea they had early in development but didn't know what to do with it and left it in anyway.
Despite those issues, I loved this game and am very glad my friend recommended it to me. If you like Chrono Trigger or any other classic SNES RPG, you're gonna love this one.
Played about three hours of this. I can see what people may enjoy about this game, but it really didn't grab me. The combat is a bit of a chore to keep Overdrive active, and I didn't particularly feel enticed to keep playing. Maybe another time.
Kinda bummed, because I really wanted to like it.
Kinda bummed, because I really wanted to like it.
Notable alto en todos los aspectos. Que no engañe su aspecto de jrpg clásico y del montón: se trata de lo mejorcito que ha dado el género en los últimos años. Fresquísimo y muy innovador. Mención especial a su trama y personajes.
Solid fuckin' JRPG. Pleasantly surprised; just play it already.
Look there's not enough good things i can say about this game. FF VI is one of my favorite games of all time and this game basically uses that as a blueprint while introducing new modern mechanics that make the turn based gameplay even better.
Removing all the annoyances of old school JRPGS made me want to always be in combat and I wanted touse my abilities more because i would get replenished at the end of battles anyway. Add to that the Overdrive mechanic which made me have more balanced characters for every situation and made switch characters constantly, this was a delight of a game. Don't even get me started on the writing and how good all the characters are!
5/5
Removing all the annoyances of old school JRPGS made me want to always be in combat and I wanted touse my abilities more because i would get replenished at the end of battles anyway. Add to that the Overdrive mechanic which made me have more balanced characters for every situation and made switch characters constantly, this was a delight of a game. Don't even get me started on the writing and how good all the characters are!
5/5
This game is good because it loves SNES JRPGS more than I ever will, and it shows every step of the way
The inspirations are clear and it never shies away from it, it is a love letter to everything that makes the genre special
Love it to death, very very good game
The inspirations are clear and it never shies away from it, it is a love letter to everything that makes the genre special
Love it to death, very very good game
It has those stupid "dumb down the game for me" option on the settings, so that's an instant garbage, lazy and boring game for me. Make a proper hard mode or something.
Thanks god we have refunds on PC.
Thanks god we have refunds on PC.
DISCLAIMER: This review is incomplete. I will update it upon finishing with my final thoughts.
Pros:
+ Surprisingly comical dialogue and story-telling along with a pleasant soundtrack
+ Having health and action points restored after every battle is great; encourages using your resources and it's refreshing not having to hoard and expend items between battles
+ Lack of RNG encounters makes the world and combat feel purposeful
Cons:
Pros:
+ Surprisingly comical dialogue and story-telling along with a pleasant soundtrack
+ Having health and action points restored after every battle is great; encourages using your resources and it's refreshing not having to hoard and expend items between battles
+ Lack of RNG encounters makes the world and combat feel purposeful
Cons:
Uma obra-prima dos RPG retrô modernos
Ok, eu nem sei se esse termo existe, mas por hora vamos fingir que sim. O que importa é que Chained Echoes me surpreendeu profundamente e é, pra mim, um dos grandes lançamentos do ano. É também um RPG obrigatório para os fãs do gênero.
Digno de um grande clássico da era de ouro dos RPG’s, Chained Echoes prova que o estilo está mais vivo do que nunca. Não devendo em nada para os lançamentos de grandes publishers, impressiona mais ainda o fato de o jogo ter sido feito quase que inteiramente por uma única pessoa.
A forma com que ele mescla o tradicional com o moderno é brilhante, sendo uma aula de game design e de como inovar em um gênero que já está há tanto tempo na indústria e que as vezes parece que não tem mais para onde evoluir.
O diretor Matthias Lindas não esconde suas inspirações, muito pelo contrário, espalha diversas referências de jogos clássicos em Chained Echoes, como você deve ter notado pelo nome de Glenn e Lenne, mas entrega um jogo que se sustenta por si só de forma incrível. Eu não posso deixar de recomendar esse jogo sempre que possível.
Review completo: https://gamelodge.com.br/critica-chained-echoes-e-brilhante-e-digno-da-era-de-ouro-dos-rpgs/
Ok, eu nem sei se esse termo existe, mas por hora vamos fingir que sim. O que importa é que Chained Echoes me surpreendeu profundamente e é, pra mim, um dos grandes lançamentos do ano. É também um RPG obrigatório para os fãs do gênero.
Digno de um grande clássico da era de ouro dos RPG’s, Chained Echoes prova que o estilo está mais vivo do que nunca. Não devendo em nada para os lançamentos de grandes publishers, impressiona mais ainda o fato de o jogo ter sido feito quase que inteiramente por uma única pessoa.
A forma com que ele mescla o tradicional com o moderno é brilhante, sendo uma aula de game design e de como inovar em um gênero que já está há tanto tempo na indústria e que as vezes parece que não tem mais para onde evoluir.
O diretor Matthias Lindas não esconde suas inspirações, muito pelo contrário, espalha diversas referências de jogos clássicos em Chained Echoes, como você deve ter notado pelo nome de Glenn e Lenne, mas entrega um jogo que se sustenta por si só de forma incrível. Eu não posso deixar de recomendar esse jogo sempre que possível.
Review completo: https://gamelodge.com.br/critica-chained-echoes-e-brilhante-e-digno-da-era-de-ouro-dos-rpgs/
While playing Chained Echoes, I could just tell that the director of this game played a shit ton of JRPGs and knows all about the conventions and clichés. I love how they managed to circumvent all of the more tedious bits that are commonplace in a game like this.
Firstly, there are no random encounters. Enemies are clearly visible in the gameworld and while they can't always be avoided, you can always run away with a 100% chance to fix your party or reset the battle if it goes wrong. Since your party is always at full health at the start of a battle, every fight is allowed to be somewhat demanding. You can just go nuts with you abilities and use whatever you want.
The cool part about this however, is the overdrive system. A gauge on the top of the screen that you can raise or lower by using specific actions or swapping out characters. The idea is to keep that gauge at a certain point to gain various benefits in battle. It adds a really interesting layer to battles, because you have to decide whether to focus on your overdrive bar or use an option you would rather use at the moment. It creates really interesting decision making and kept battles really engaging. There are some really cool twists to that system later on, as well. It's neat!
Skillpoints are only obtained by defeating bosses and working on your reward board, which is a cool twist on the sphere grid of FFX. Where doing specific challenges unlock new tiles and creating a chain of said tiles unlocks skillpoints and other rewards. It's a motivating system for doing side content that is much preferred to just grinding levels.
Another cool thing about battles is that weaknesses are openly shown to the player. Instead of looking that stuff up or painstakingly analyzing every foe and then remembering all the weaknesses, that step gets skipped and you can go crazy. It also shows if you can steal from an enemy or if they're consumable (yes, there is a blue mage in this game)
Boss battles constantly offer unique twists and are seldom pure bloated trash mobs. They really went out of their way to make them a special event that requires additional thinking.
The mechs you unlock fairly deep in the game are another really cool addition to the game. They not only give you more freedom in exploration (suddenly being able to fly around feels amazing) but also introduce yet another style of combat that puts yet another twist to the battle system. It also uses the overdrive system, but in a whole different way that felt fresh. Even the basic idea of how to customize the mechs is quite cool and different from the actual characters.
Talking about exploration: Side quests aren't really hidden and are openly placed on the map. They often feel like part of the main story in terms of writing and content and there is no fetch questing to be found here. The actual exploration is more about finding unique minibosses, treasure chests or entire dungeons that can hold new items or class statues, that can unlock specific class items which can customize your party even further and are gated behind combat challenges. It's so awesome stumbling upon such a shrine, solving a combat challenge and getting a strong buff for one of your characters with additional skills. Being able to freely switch those around offers a lot of freedom. I really enjoyed exploring the entire world and there's plenty to be found.
For example clan members! At one point you unlock a Suikoden-style base and get to recruit NPCs that level up your base and offer various bonuses. The game doesn't even really hide those from you. There's a clairvoyant that gives you advice on where to find those. Same thing goes for the glossary, which documents which enemy drops what item. You barely have to use guides for this game, because the developers knew there is no point in hiding stuff from you!
The story of Chained Echoes is really well written. I admit, it lacks the spectacle or "epicness" of a Final Fantasy game, but it makes up for it with mature and believable writing. It doesn't shy away from really dark themes and each of the party members have a proper reason to travel on your side. The backstories are mostly very captivating (I loved the backstory of Glenn and Ba'Thraz in particular) and the game does it's utmost to escape tropes. Some of the revalations of this game really blew my socks off and I utterly enjoyed how the storyline concluded.
There are some things that did not really blow me away, though. The music, while pretty good, did not really stick in my head all that much. I'd argue JRPGs are the games that benefit the most from an amazing soundtrack (I can't even explain why, it's just that a good soundtrack carries this genre even more than others for me) yet Chained Echoes is mostly just "alright" in that regard. I would love to give it another listen once the OST is available on YouTube, but from purely playing the game it felt a bit unremarkable. Though some of the calmer pieces were nice.
Another thing I felt indifferent about was the gem system. It's another layer to character customization and stuff, but fusion those bad boys felt a bit too convoluted and a bit tedious, so I mostly just used the auto fusion and put the first thing that sounded good into my gear. I like that you can take them out at any time to put it into your new stuff, but I wish it was more steamlined.
Some enemy groups also seemed to have a bit too much HP at a late point of the game. Maybe I my gear wasn't amazing at that part, but there was a brief sections where fighting enemies was a bit of a hassle. Not a big deal, but I need to justify that half star that's missing, lol.
Despite those complaints: Chained Echoes is a fantastic RPG that deserves to stand right beside it's clear inspirations. There is a bit of FF6 in there, a bit of Chrono Trigger, a bit of Xenogears, Suikoden and more. It seems like a game from a person, who really loves the genre and tried their best to put all their favorite aspects into one game while cutting away all of the bad stuff. I think it really succeeds in most regards and deserves to be played by anyone who loves the genre.
Firstly, there are no random encounters. Enemies are clearly visible in the gameworld and while they can't always be avoided, you can always run away with a 100% chance to fix your party or reset the battle if it goes wrong. Since your party is always at full health at the start of a battle, every fight is allowed to be somewhat demanding. You can just go nuts with you abilities and use whatever you want.
The cool part about this however, is the overdrive system. A gauge on the top of the screen that you can raise or lower by using specific actions or swapping out characters. The idea is to keep that gauge at a certain point to gain various benefits in battle. It adds a really interesting layer to battles, because you have to decide whether to focus on your overdrive bar or use an option you would rather use at the moment. It creates really interesting decision making and kept battles really engaging. There are some really cool twists to that system later on, as well. It's neat!
Skillpoints are only obtained by defeating bosses and working on your reward board, which is a cool twist on the sphere grid of FFX. Where doing specific challenges unlock new tiles and creating a chain of said tiles unlocks skillpoints and other rewards. It's a motivating system for doing side content that is much preferred to just grinding levels.
Another cool thing about battles is that weaknesses are openly shown to the player. Instead of looking that stuff up or painstakingly analyzing every foe and then remembering all the weaknesses, that step gets skipped and you can go crazy. It also shows if you can steal from an enemy or if they're consumable (yes, there is a blue mage in this game)
Boss battles constantly offer unique twists and are seldom pure bloated trash mobs. They really went out of their way to make them a special event that requires additional thinking.
The mechs you unlock fairly deep in the game are another really cool addition to the game. They not only give you more freedom in exploration (suddenly being able to fly around feels amazing) but also introduce yet another style of combat that puts yet another twist to the battle system. It also uses the overdrive system, but in a whole different way that felt fresh. Even the basic idea of how to customize the mechs is quite cool and different from the actual characters.
Talking about exploration: Side quests aren't really hidden and are openly placed on the map. They often feel like part of the main story in terms of writing and content and there is no fetch questing to be found here. The actual exploration is more about finding unique minibosses, treasure chests or entire dungeons that can hold new items or class statues, that can unlock specific class items which can customize your party even further and are gated behind combat challenges. It's so awesome stumbling upon such a shrine, solving a combat challenge and getting a strong buff for one of your characters with additional skills. Being able to freely switch those around offers a lot of freedom. I really enjoyed exploring the entire world and there's plenty to be found.
For example clan members! At one point you unlock a Suikoden-style base and get to recruit NPCs that level up your base and offer various bonuses. The game doesn't even really hide those from you. There's a clairvoyant that gives you advice on where to find those. Same thing goes for the glossary, which documents which enemy drops what item. You barely have to use guides for this game, because the developers knew there is no point in hiding stuff from you!
The story of Chained Echoes is really well written. I admit, it lacks the spectacle or "epicness" of a Final Fantasy game, but it makes up for it with mature and believable writing. It doesn't shy away from really dark themes and each of the party members have a proper reason to travel on your side. The backstories are mostly very captivating (I loved the backstory of Glenn and Ba'Thraz in particular) and the game does it's utmost to escape tropes. Some of the revalations of this game really blew my socks off and I utterly enjoyed how the storyline concluded.
There are some things that did not really blow me away, though. The music, while pretty good, did not really stick in my head all that much. I'd argue JRPGs are the games that benefit the most from an amazing soundtrack (I can't even explain why, it's just that a good soundtrack carries this genre even more than others for me) yet Chained Echoes is mostly just "alright" in that regard. I would love to give it another listen once the OST is available on YouTube, but from purely playing the game it felt a bit unremarkable. Though some of the calmer pieces were nice.
Another thing I felt indifferent about was the gem system. It's another layer to character customization and stuff, but fusion those bad boys felt a bit too convoluted and a bit tedious, so I mostly just used the auto fusion and put the first thing that sounded good into my gear. I like that you can take them out at any time to put it into your new stuff, but I wish it was more steamlined.
Some enemy groups also seemed to have a bit too much HP at a late point of the game. Maybe I my gear wasn't amazing at that part, but there was a brief sections where fighting enemies was a bit of a hassle. Not a big deal, but I need to justify that half star that's missing, lol.
Despite those complaints: Chained Echoes is a fantastic RPG that deserves to stand right beside it's clear inspirations. There is a bit of FF6 in there, a bit of Chrono Trigger, a bit of Xenogears, Suikoden and more. It seems like a game from a person, who really loves the genre and tried their best to put all their favorite aspects into one game while cutting away all of the bad stuff. I think it really succeeds in most regards and deserves to be played by anyone who loves the genre.
A perfect love letter to the SNES RPG era.
Chained Echoes is great. This is inspired by the RPGs that were on the Super Nintendo. The style, art, and design here feel like the entire move to the third dimension didn’t happen. Beyond just imitating what was on the Super Nintendo, it feels like the developer evolved the formula to modernize it without ruining it.
This is a solid experience. There’s an excellent Overdrive system, which means you can’t just use the same attack every turn. Your characters fully heal between battles, which means you can use any ability you want. Even leveling has changed, where the focus is on skill points and leveling is based on how many bosses you have beaten.
Pick this up if you like turn-based RPGs, or like these graphics. This is a title that shouldn’t be missed. It’s a twenty-plus hour experience, and the only reason I stopped is I’m planning on playing through the entire game soon, and I didn’t want to leave it half-finished. I also picked this up on Steam as well to both support the dev and have it in my collection.
I covered this game as part of the Game Pass for December 2022, if you enjoyed this review or want to know what I think of other games on Game Pass, check out the full review on or subscribe to my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/zMUphOC2gMI
Chained Echoes is great. This is inspired by the RPGs that were on the Super Nintendo. The style, art, and design here feel like the entire move to the third dimension didn’t happen. Beyond just imitating what was on the Super Nintendo, it feels like the developer evolved the formula to modernize it without ruining it.
This is a solid experience. There’s an excellent Overdrive system, which means you can’t just use the same attack every turn. Your characters fully heal between battles, which means you can use any ability you want. Even leveling has changed, where the focus is on skill points and leveling is based on how many bosses you have beaten.
Pick this up if you like turn-based RPGs, or like these graphics. This is a title that shouldn’t be missed. It’s a twenty-plus hour experience, and the only reason I stopped is I’m planning on playing through the entire game soon, and I didn’t want to leave it half-finished. I also picked this up on Steam as well to both support the dev and have it in my collection.
I covered this game as part of the Game Pass for December 2022, if you enjoyed this review or want to know what I think of other games on Game Pass, check out the full review on or subscribe to my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/zMUphOC2gMI
Voy a intentar ser comedido, porque el mal humor que tengo ahora es intenso. El 90% del juego es una maravilla. No inventa nada, pero profundiza en tropos conocidos de forma adecuada y perfecciona mecánicas de su género. La historia es rica y diversa (a veces bebe de Mass Effect, otras de Code Geass, pero casi siempre de manera elegante) y tanto los personajes (un amor todos ellos) como el enfoque de la trama plantean unas temáticas e ideales muy interesante e incluso necesarios.
Y entonces llega la recta final. Y todo se va al garete gracias a una narrativa torpe e inexperta y por soluciones de guion que parecen hechas por otra persona diferente al resto del juego. La historia, a lo largo de 30 horas, cada vez abarcaba más y más, y en el último arco uno ya empieza a pensar que no va a poder cerrar correctamente todo lo que ha abierto. Pues bien, la mitad de los frentes... o directamente no los cierra o lo hace a medias. La otra mitad lo hace con ideas completamente antagónicas a las que, en teoría, el juego lleva defendiendo desde su primer minuto. Llega hasta a perderle el respeto a los personajes.
Me da igual que algo no me guste, pero me molesta sobremanera que algo me guste mucho y me lo arruinen. Una de mis alegrías del año durante 28 horas. Mi gran decepción durante 2.
Y entonces llega la recta final. Y todo se va al garete gracias a una narrativa torpe e inexperta y por soluciones de guion que parecen hechas por otra persona diferente al resto del juego. La historia, a lo largo de 30 horas, cada vez abarcaba más y más, y en el último arco uno ya empieza a pensar que no va a poder cerrar correctamente todo lo que ha abierto. Pues bien, la mitad de los frentes... o directamente no los cierra o lo hace a medias. La otra mitad lo hace con ideas completamente antagónicas a las que, en teoría, el juego lleva defendiendo desde su primer minuto. Llega hasta a perderle el respeto a los personajes.
Me da igual que algo no me guste, pero me molesta sobremanera que algo me guste mucho y me lo arruinen. Una de mis alegrías del año durante 28 horas. Mi gran decepción durante 2.
Solid turn-based RPG. The overall mechanics of the game are well polished, from slight job-system pieces to free form skill selection to build your party. All battles end with HP & TP fully replenished which lets the combat shine more on tactics instead of conserving resources over long stretches. Some fights were a little odd/frustrating, but overall great system.
Music is good (will need to recheck the soundtrack later to get the most memorable tracks), art is good, and overall execution is good. The story felt slow in the first third, started getting interesting after that, and then stumbled a bit in the very last few minutes of the game for me. I think some things needed more 'identity' overall to stand out for me. That being said, cool concepts and mechanics abound in this game. Absolutely worth grabbing if you need a simple one-off RPG that harkens back to the classics while maintaining a modern polish.
Music is good (will need to recheck the soundtrack later to get the most memorable tracks), art is good, and overall execution is good. The story felt slow in the first third, started getting interesting after that, and then stumbled a bit in the very last few minutes of the game for me. I think some things needed more 'identity' overall to stand out for me. That being said, cool concepts and mechanics abound in this game. Absolutely worth grabbing if you need a simple one-off RPG that harkens back to the classics while maintaining a modern polish.
If I do Quality : Production ratio of a game then this would probably in top 10 for sure. What do you prefer in an RPG? Story? Characters? Music? Combat? The World? This game checks on everything. It started slow at some point I thought of dropping it but then something happened which completely 180 my prespective of the game. The story is really good DON'T DROP IT JUST BECAUSE IT STARTS SLOW TRUST ME IT WILL GET BETTER. If you are an RPG fan then this is a must play. It's on gamepass. You don't have to pay a thing to play this masterpiece. The world is soo vast and rich with lore. It definitely need a sequel or something on that Universe because the world definitely has much more to show.. Overall really great game definitely one of the best Game of this year even if somebody claims that this is their game of the year I wouldn't be surprised. 10/10
"Took them 24 years but they finally managed to make a good Xeno game" - Kylian, probably.
Damn this game fucking SLAPS. I did not expect it to be this good, hearing it's main influence being Xeno I expected it to just be something I'd moderately enjoy, at worst drop after 15 hours and never think about again.
What I got is the best indie RPG I've ever played and something that's as good as some of the classics.
This game is basically everything I love about the genre, good dungeon design, complex battle system with some nice but light customization, while also emphasizing the uniqueness of each character, a story that's compelling but isn't just a goddamn movie (I'd say of my 31 hour playtime, maybe 5 of them were cutscenes.) Characters are lovely, I can definetly see the archetypes they were inspired from but the games writing is so charming and everything is paced so tightly that I never felt like it was a bore, which is a problem a lot of JRPG writing can run into.
The combat feels very much in it's own field, the overdrive system is so unique that I even made the mechanic tougher to invest more into it, It was that fun to manage the bar alongside trying to win fights as fast as possible. The gear combat I like slightly less then the human combat but unlike something like Xenogears, it's fun enough that it carries the handful of hours you spend in them.
Honestly it's hard to not gush about this game in every aspect but don't let the artstyle fool you, this is a game that wears it's influence on it's sleeve but feels very unique in it's own right. I would say it's primary influences are Xeno and Final Fantasy Ivalice (Tactics and XII, especially Tactics). so If you dig the storylines in those games, you'll love this one.
Surprisingly I'm not crazy for most of these stories (outside of FFT) so I was kinda shocked how much I liked this one.
This game is just crazy fucking fun and investing in every aspect and I can't recommend it enough. I know a lot of people on this site are willing to instantly dismiss indie games but there's definetly a great handful of them and this is sure as hell one of them.
TL;DR: Chained Echoes is everything I love about this stupid ass genre, Victor best boy.
Damn this game fucking SLAPS. I did not expect it to be this good, hearing it's main influence being Xeno I expected it to just be something I'd moderately enjoy, at worst drop after 15 hours and never think about again.
What I got is the best indie RPG I've ever played and something that's as good as some of the classics.
This game is basically everything I love about the genre, good dungeon design, complex battle system with some nice but light customization, while also emphasizing the uniqueness of each character, a story that's compelling but isn't just a goddamn movie (I'd say of my 31 hour playtime, maybe 5 of them were cutscenes.) Characters are lovely, I can definetly see the archetypes they were inspired from but the games writing is so charming and everything is paced so tightly that I never felt like it was a bore, which is a problem a lot of JRPG writing can run into.
The combat feels very much in it's own field, the overdrive system is so unique that I even made the mechanic tougher to invest more into it, It was that fun to manage the bar alongside trying to win fights as fast as possible. The gear combat I like slightly less then the human combat but unlike something like Xenogears, it's fun enough that it carries the handful of hours you spend in them.
Honestly it's hard to not gush about this game in every aspect but don't let the artstyle fool you, this is a game that wears it's influence on it's sleeve but feels very unique in it's own right. I would say it's primary influences are Xeno and Final Fantasy Ivalice (Tactics and XII, especially Tactics). so If you dig the storylines in those games, you'll love this one.
Surprisingly I'm not crazy for most of these stories (outside of FFT) so I was kinda shocked how much I liked this one.
This game is just crazy fucking fun and investing in every aspect and I can't recommend it enough. I know a lot of people on this site are willing to instantly dismiss indie games but there's definetly a great handful of them and this is sure as hell one of them.
TL;DR: Chained Echoes is everything I love about this stupid ass genre, Victor best boy.
Chained Echoes started out feeling like a classic, lighthearted jrpg and ended feeling like a classic, introspective jrpg. The most surprising part of the game for me is the high bar of quality it holds for an indie game, where the music, designs, art, and scope of content feel like 'more' than it should be capable of, given that it was made by a single developer.
I ended the story feeling very attached to the main character and without very many questions, which was surprising given how many plot threads were running only a few hours prior. The narrative feels like so much is happening all at once in a world where no one waits for the main characters before acting, but it never felt like it lost focus or that it wasn't on track to its final destination.
The star of the game is definitely the world and exploration though. NPCs, surprise encounters, the enemy designs, the various secrets lying around are all what made the game so enticing for me. I spent the majority of my time running around trying to complete the reward board (which was a great way to add optional content without muddying up the player with side quests) and kept being surprised until the very end of my 39 hour playthrough.
The turn based combat system wasn't anything insane on its own, but the decision to pace the game with regular setpiece encounters really made the difference. Combat very rarely felt like a chore because the only times I felt forced to do it were in encounters that progressed the story or had some other draw that made them feel special. If the world building is the star of the game, the combat encounter pacing is the bread trail that keeps you playing just a littttle bit longer.
All in all, as someone who doesn't have a ton of experience in jrpgs (Pokemon, Persona, Xenoblade, and Fire Emblem mainly), Chained Echoes felt fresh, but also really digestible and quality throughout my entire playthrough. Recommended even if you dislike jrpgs.
$25 makes it a great price too.
I ended the story feeling very attached to the main character and without very many questions, which was surprising given how many plot threads were running only a few hours prior. The narrative feels like so much is happening all at once in a world where no one waits for the main characters before acting, but it never felt like it lost focus or that it wasn't on track to its final destination.
The star of the game is definitely the world and exploration though. NPCs, surprise encounters, the enemy designs, the various secrets lying around are all what made the game so enticing for me. I spent the majority of my time running around trying to complete the reward board (which was a great way to add optional content without muddying up the player with side quests) and kept being surprised until the very end of my 39 hour playthrough.
The turn based combat system wasn't anything insane on its own, but the decision to pace the game with regular setpiece encounters really made the difference. Combat very rarely felt like a chore because the only times I felt forced to do it were in encounters that progressed the story or had some other draw that made them feel special. If the world building is the star of the game, the combat encounter pacing is the bread trail that keeps you playing just a littttle bit longer.
All in all, as someone who doesn't have a ton of experience in jrpgs (Pokemon, Persona, Xenoblade, and Fire Emblem mainly), Chained Echoes felt fresh, but also really digestible and quality throughout my entire playthrough. Recommended even if you dislike jrpgs.
$25 makes it a great price too.
Chained Echoes is a game of contrasts....
Really, this game is so polished and well-designed for being an amateur, almost sub-indie game. It does a lot of things better than not only competing indie JRPGs, but actual mainstream JRPGs. It has some of the best map design and exploration in a 2d 16bit JRPG, at times feeling like a 3d zone from Xenoblade Chronicles or Final Fantasy 12. Once you unlock your mechs, it recontexualizes many zones by basically adding a Z-plane. It shouldn't work but it does. It's like if 2.5D actually meant something.
This game really shines in the mechanical, gameplay aspects. An interesting battle system (that does get stale unfortunately but less so than the vast majority of JRPGs), the map exploration, the feeling of constantly unlocking new systems to toy with. I didn't think I enjoyed any traditional JRPG gameplay but this game reminded me devs are just not doing a great job making it engaging these last decades.
It initially opens with a very interesting premise and an engaging cast of characters. The first act I would recommend to basically any old school fan, especially fans of Suikoden and Xenogears. However, this is where we get to my opening line about the contrasts here. This game in some ways is so impressive and polished and well-designed that- when its at its best- competes with massive developers like Monolith Soft and Square Enix. However, as you get further into the game, it stops sucking its gut in. Cracks begin to show. It's hard to pinpoint, but there's a lack of focus and coherence that was making me start to lose interest in not just the story and character arcs but the game itself. Features and system mechanics pile up going from generous to aimless. There's a distinct amateurish vibe, like the writing of a flash game. One prominent example is the wild variance in tone and quality of writing, most times being a standard JRPG a child could play then at other times veering of course with overt sexual themes, swearing, hanging corpses in town, or a party member ruefully retelling a memory of a gang rape. It's not that I'm particularly sensitive to this, but you need to pick one or the other. This is not a mature JRPG for adults, and it's also at times not appropriate for pre-adolescents whatsoever.
I made it to the beginning of Act 3, and it was really just starting to feel like there wasn't a vision here for what this story is trying to tell. It was just piling on new things. This happened, then this happened, oh I just made up a cool backstory for this character, let me add that in now. As I haven't seen the end, maybe I'm mistaken and everything comes together and wraps up really nicely, but that's not the impression I've gotten at all with my experience.
Still, I'm probably much more critical on this than other people would be. MOST JRPGs have a pretty dogshit story or dull characters. People just accept it as part of the genre. If you think, say, the Tales Of games or Trails games have good characters and plots, what this game offers will likely be sufficient (yes, that is a dig at you but it's ok).
So, why am I eviscerating this game and giving it 4 stars? The first act is THAT good. This games high points in design philosophy and mechanics are so well-done that any fan of the genre should play it to the end of Act 1. If you're compelled to finish it, great; if you start to slowly lose interest as I did, big deal, you still had a great time with Act 1. I'm bitter that it didn't follow through, but I'll be interested to see what this developer does next. There is a lot of potential here.
Really, this game is so polished and well-designed for being an amateur, almost sub-indie game. It does a lot of things better than not only competing indie JRPGs, but actual mainstream JRPGs. It has some of the best map design and exploration in a 2d 16bit JRPG, at times feeling like a 3d zone from Xenoblade Chronicles or Final Fantasy 12. Once you unlock your mechs, it recontexualizes many zones by basically adding a Z-plane. It shouldn't work but it does. It's like if 2.5D actually meant something.
This game really shines in the mechanical, gameplay aspects. An interesting battle system (that does get stale unfortunately but less so than the vast majority of JRPGs), the map exploration, the feeling of constantly unlocking new systems to toy with. I didn't think I enjoyed any traditional JRPG gameplay but this game reminded me devs are just not doing a great job making it engaging these last decades.
It initially opens with a very interesting premise and an engaging cast of characters. The first act I would recommend to basically any old school fan, especially fans of Suikoden and Xenogears. However, this is where we get to my opening line about the contrasts here. This game in some ways is so impressive and polished and well-designed that- when its at its best- competes with massive developers like Monolith Soft and Square Enix. However, as you get further into the game, it stops sucking its gut in. Cracks begin to show. It's hard to pinpoint, but there's a lack of focus and coherence that was making me start to lose interest in not just the story and character arcs but the game itself. Features and system mechanics pile up going from generous to aimless. There's a distinct amateurish vibe, like the writing of a flash game. One prominent example is the wild variance in tone and quality of writing, most times being a standard JRPG a child could play then at other times veering of course with overt sexual themes, swearing, hanging corpses in town, or a party member ruefully retelling a memory of a gang rape. It's not that I'm particularly sensitive to this, but you need to pick one or the other. This is not a mature JRPG for adults, and it's also at times not appropriate for pre-adolescents whatsoever.
I made it to the beginning of Act 3, and it was really just starting to feel like there wasn't a vision here for what this story is trying to tell. It was just piling on new things. This happened, then this happened, oh I just made up a cool backstory for this character, let me add that in now. As I haven't seen the end, maybe I'm mistaken and everything comes together and wraps up really nicely, but that's not the impression I've gotten at all with my experience.
Still, I'm probably much more critical on this than other people would be. MOST JRPGs have a pretty dogshit story or dull characters. People just accept it as part of the genre. If you think, say, the Tales Of games or Trails games have good characters and plots, what this game offers will likely be sufficient (yes, that is a dig at you but it's ok).
So, why am I eviscerating this game and giving it 4 stars? The first act is THAT good. This games high points in design philosophy and mechanics are so well-done that any fan of the genre should play it to the end of Act 1. If you're compelled to finish it, great; if you start to slowly lose interest as I did, big deal, you still had a great time with Act 1. I'm bitter that it didn't follow through, but I'll be interested to see what this developer does next. There is a lot of potential here.
Juego tremendamente sorprendente con un sistema de combate muy inteligente y capas y capas de nuevos eventos a cada paso de la historia para hacerla más grande y profunda en todos lo niveles.
Es lo más parecido a un Xenocosa que puede haber en 16bits. Pena que esté en inglés y que visualmente no de más de sí porque esto hecho por un equipo actual con algún detallito más sería muy bruto.
🍈/🍉
Es lo más parecido a un Xenocosa que puede haber en 16bits. Pena que esté en inglés y que visualmente no de más de sí porque esto hecho por un equipo actual con algún detallito más sería muy bruto.
🍈/🍉
I soyjak pointed at like 10 different nods towards PSX/SNES JRPG's and even then I'm genuinely amazed at how well-crafted and unique it's world, story and characters are.
It's taken nothing but the best from it's inspirations and wears them on it's sleeve - and so it's an absolute blast to play through if you have any love for the genre whatsoever.
Gameplay's ridiculously good too, the Overdrive system keeps you on your toes and makes sure you don't just spam your strongest moves and I absolutely adore that it has a leveling system akin to Chrono Cross and gets rid of grinding entirely.
Just a really solid game on all fronts honestly, I absolutely loved it.
It's taken nothing but the best from it's inspirations and wears them on it's sleeve - and so it's an absolute blast to play through if you have any love for the genre whatsoever.
Gameplay's ridiculously good too, the Overdrive system keeps you on your toes and makes sure you don't just spam your strongest moves and I absolutely adore that it has a leveling system akin to Chrono Cross and gets rid of grinding entirely.
Just a really solid game on all fronts honestly, I absolutely loved it.
I can't understand how a single dev can make such a good game. I didn't love JRPGs as much as this one: I tried playing FF quite some time ago but I felt like it wasn't as balanced as Chained Echoes. This game felt more enjoyable, with a delightful 16-bit style, an Overdrive mechanic that works beautifully, very nice boss fights (I hated Djinn though, simple concept but I really couldn't get past him) and and some really, really really good writing. Loved the characters, their development and, of course, the story.
This is already a blessing going into 2023, and definitely one of the best games of the year. I really hope it gets some prizes.
This is already a blessing going into 2023, and definitely one of the best games of the year. I really hope it gets some prizes.
Chained Echoes is a wonderful retro 2D turn based RPG. Despite the game mostly being made by one person, Chained Echoes feels like a full robust and deep RPG made like the big boys. It's wonderfull style and charm carries throughout the 30-50 hour epic. Gameplay is balanced really well. The combat feels like you need real strategy and team composistion to make it through. Status effects and combo's play a large part in victory. There are enough characters to make it feel like you have your own prefered team to match your pallete. The story is pretty engaging throughout and there is lots to do and explore. Lots of side activities and post game content are included as well. Honestly it was a pretty memorable RPG and the only real negitives are minor ones and things that would have made quality of life better. A defiinite top tier indie RPG for sure and one I'm sure that could be on many's game of the year lists.