Here is a out-of-context spoiler I said out loud while playing Chained Echoes: "In hindsight, I should've guessed that they were gay."
Indie RPGs are incredibly fascinating to me. A genre famous/infamous for their length and complexity usually are more bite-sized in scale and scope when created by a few, maybe even one, passionate dev. Then you have other developers truly committed to creating full-scale RPGs reminiscent of the SNES/PS1 era of RPGs as a (mostly) solo project. The influence of Chrono Trigger is very apparent. From the opening shot being a direct callback to Crono awakening in his bedroom, to the little details like being able to walk even while talking to NPCs, encounters taking place on the same map while also not being random at all, and a end-game skill being a familiar looking spinning sword attack. The developer was very open about his other influences such as Xenogears, Suikoden 2, Final Fantasy VI, and the like.
What's critical though is that this isn't a game with constant references to other works around every corner, its very tasteful while having a identity wholly its own, like with its combat. You control four party members at once in a turn-based battle system, but you also have four reserved members paired up to another character of your choice. For a free action, you can swap a character with their partner. This comes with some obvious advantages with being able to have a ton of options available with up to eight distinct characters with their own unique skills and utility, yet there's also more subtle advantages such as with buffs. Characters buffed with a skill that is then swapped out will retain the buff indefinitely till their swapped back in, whereas normally the buff in under a turn limit. The same applies though to status ailments and debuffs, so you can't keep them out of battle safely as they would wear off naturally. Swapping also lowers the overdrive meter, the most integral part of the combat system.
Attacking and getting hit increase the overdrive meter, once it gets high enough the party will enter 'Overdrive Mode' where you'll deal more damage, take less damage, and every skill costs half as much MP (its called TP but its the same as Magic Points, or SP too...). Downside being is that if you continue to increase the overdrive meter too much then you'll Overheat, where all the benefits of Overdrive are gone plus you take massively increased damage. You will have to lower overdrive by defending, swapping characters, using a limit break called a Ultra Move, or using a specific type of skill that the game specifies. Sometimes it'll ask for magic skills, other times it'll be healing skills or maybe even a debuff. The text of a skill will also be in orange to let you know that if you use it it'll lower the Overdrive meter. Overdrive is all about balance, doing what you need to do while not getting overzealous with yourself. I do find it though that it can be really hard to comeback from mistakes sometimes. Remember that getting hit also increase Overdrive, so I've had times where I was perpetually stuck in Overheat as my characters kept getting one-shotted after being revived. Thankfully restarting a fight is very painless, even gives you a opportunity to readjust your party before jumping in. Point being is that it can be easy to take Overdrive for granted and have everything blowup in your face if you're careless.
Chained Echoes is unique for not having traditional experience points. You can only earn SP instead, which is used to upgrade combat and passive skills. Passive skills can be used to increase your stats, but only as long as they're equipped. Grimoire shards are how you are getting permanent stat ups, which also allow you to unlock all the character's skills. This system in theory makes Chained Echoes a very balanced RPG, as you are always roughly where your suppose to be at any point in the story in terms of power level. At most, there are optional bosses and side quests that reward more Grimoire shards, but it still sounds like you can't get too powerful, right?.... Nope. Just need to build your party just right and you can be like me who, by the endgame, was ignoring the superbosses mechanics and two-shotting them. They're preparing a party wipe attack in two turns? Why don't you prepare for this laser from my magic lizardman and cease to exist. It was kind of ridiculous how I beat the games hardest boss on my first try and didn't really get to see any of their strong attacks, but it did feel cool as Hell I won't lie.
Chained Echoes takes place in a world of magic and mechs, the best kind of world if you ask me. Its a story about the horrors of war, redemption of your past actions and what forgiveness means, and the sacrifices people will make for their ideals and beliefs. Whether they're likeable or not, nearly every character in this massive cast is given context and reasoning for who they are and why they do the things they do. Even some of the more quirky characters can experience some hard-to-stomach trauma. Even now I'm torn if this game justifies every awful event that happens. One of which that I can't spoil here but it felt a bit "Did that really need to happen?" Most of it does seem appropriate enough for a war story, "War is Hell" as everyone says. There are many sides to the overall conflict and I feel no side doesn't get enough time to showcase why they're here and what they fight for. Like the combat its mostly balance, and even with the occasional imbalance its nothing that's frustrating or unreasonable. Of course just like most RPGs there's much more to the world then just the war, and Chained Echoes is pretty solid on what is revealed and when. Its always fun when a revelation makes you look at previous events from a new perspective. They do "cheat" with one of the bigger twists of the story where they change the scene from what you saw previously and that felt a bit artificial, but I can let it slide since it leads to one of the more impactful scenes of the story.
While this isn't my favorite indie RPG, it is a shame that more aren't giving this the time of day I feel it deserves. A lot of passion and effort was put into this game, and it is well worth its asking price.
More games should have laser-shooting lizardmen
Indie RPGs are incredibly fascinating to me. A genre famous/infamous for their length and complexity usually are more bite-sized in scale and scope when created by a few, maybe even one, passionate dev. Then you have other developers truly committed to creating full-scale RPGs reminiscent of the SNES/PS1 era of RPGs as a (mostly) solo project. The influence of Chrono Trigger is very apparent. From the opening shot being a direct callback to Crono awakening in his bedroom, to the little details like being able to walk even while talking to NPCs, encounters taking place on the same map while also not being random at all, and a end-game skill being a familiar looking spinning sword attack. The developer was very open about his other influences such as Xenogears, Suikoden 2, Final Fantasy VI, and the like.
What's critical though is that this isn't a game with constant references to other works around every corner, its very tasteful while having a identity wholly its own, like with its combat. You control four party members at once in a turn-based battle system, but you also have four reserved members paired up to another character of your choice. For a free action, you can swap a character with their partner. This comes with some obvious advantages with being able to have a ton of options available with up to eight distinct characters with their own unique skills and utility, yet there's also more subtle advantages such as with buffs. Characters buffed with a skill that is then swapped out will retain the buff indefinitely till their swapped back in, whereas normally the buff in under a turn limit. The same applies though to status ailments and debuffs, so you can't keep them out of battle safely as they would wear off naturally. Swapping also lowers the overdrive meter, the most integral part of the combat system.
Attacking and getting hit increase the overdrive meter, once it gets high enough the party will enter 'Overdrive Mode' where you'll deal more damage, take less damage, and every skill costs half as much MP (its called TP but its the same as Magic Points, or SP too...). Downside being is that if you continue to increase the overdrive meter too much then you'll Overheat, where all the benefits of Overdrive are gone plus you take massively increased damage. You will have to lower overdrive by defending, swapping characters, using a limit break called a Ultra Move, or using a specific type of skill that the game specifies. Sometimes it'll ask for magic skills, other times it'll be healing skills or maybe even a debuff. The text of a skill will also be in orange to let you know that if you use it it'll lower the Overdrive meter. Overdrive is all about balance, doing what you need to do while not getting overzealous with yourself. I do find it though that it can be really hard to comeback from mistakes sometimes. Remember that getting hit also increase Overdrive, so I've had times where I was perpetually stuck in Overheat as my characters kept getting one-shotted after being revived. Thankfully restarting a fight is very painless, even gives you a opportunity to readjust your party before jumping in. Point being is that it can be easy to take Overdrive for granted and have everything blowup in your face if you're careless.
Chained Echoes is unique for not having traditional experience points. You can only earn SP instead, which is used to upgrade combat and passive skills. Passive skills can be used to increase your stats, but only as long as they're equipped. Grimoire shards are how you are getting permanent stat ups, which also allow you to unlock all the character's skills. This system in theory makes Chained Echoes a very balanced RPG, as you are always roughly where your suppose to be at any point in the story in terms of power level. At most, there are optional bosses and side quests that reward more Grimoire shards, but it still sounds like you can't get too powerful, right?.... Nope. Just need to build your party just right and you can be like me who, by the endgame, was ignoring the superbosses mechanics and two-shotting them. They're preparing a party wipe attack in two turns? Why don't you prepare for this laser from my magic lizardman and cease to exist. It was kind of ridiculous how I beat the games hardest boss on my first try and didn't really get to see any of their strong attacks, but it did feel cool as Hell I won't lie.
Chained Echoes takes place in a world of magic and mechs, the best kind of world if you ask me. Its a story about the horrors of war, redemption of your past actions and what forgiveness means, and the sacrifices people will make for their ideals and beliefs. Whether they're likeable or not, nearly every character in this massive cast is given context and reasoning for who they are and why they do the things they do. Even some of the more quirky characters can experience some hard-to-stomach trauma. Even now I'm torn if this game justifies every awful event that happens. One of which that I can't spoil here but it felt a bit "Did that really need to happen?" Most of it does seem appropriate enough for a war story, "War is Hell" as everyone says. There are many sides to the overall conflict and I feel no side doesn't get enough time to showcase why they're here and what they fight for. Like the combat its mostly balance, and even with the occasional imbalance its nothing that's frustrating or unreasonable. Of course just like most RPGs there's much more to the world then just the war, and Chained Echoes is pretty solid on what is revealed and when. Its always fun when a revelation makes you look at previous events from a new perspective. They do "cheat" with one of the bigger twists of the story where they change the scene from what you saw previously and that felt a bit artificial, but I can let it slide since it leads to one of the more impactful scenes of the story.
While this isn't my favorite indie RPG, it is a shame that more aren't giving this the time of day I feel it deserves. A lot of passion and effort was put into this game, and it is well worth its asking price.
More games should have laser-shooting lizardmen