To consider Chained Echoes as a "hidden gem" would be an understatement and does not do this game enough justice to show how much this title was under appreciated. After finally getting around to 100% this game even though I beaten this last year. I still consider Chained Echoes should've been contender for "JRPG" of 2022. It's just a shame it dropped at the near end of 2022, so it was under a lot of peoples radar. Many who have played it though, those people would agree that Chain Echoes beautifully pays homage to JRPG genre, where influences/easter eggs in a measured way, never allowed them to overshadow the game. Although in my opinion, this game felt like an anniversary to every great JRPG title over the decades and condense every idea that made those series great, into one game.

From the town building system that similar to that of Suikoden. To the names of characters, combat system and star level up system that shares resemblance to Chrono Trigger and Wild Arms. The game also uses some inspiration from Final Fantasy 6 & 12 for it's NPC designs, location designs and the reward system (reward board). Hell, even one of the post-game secret bosses (that's a Kickstarter reward design btw) shares inspiration of Seymour from Final Fantasy X, although it's probably paying homage to Chel from Okage: Shadow King.

As a die hard Xenoblade and (more importantly to my life growing up) Xenogears fan, I can not forget to mentioned how much I absolutely love the OST that give me a sense of reminiscence, especially when you enter in Rohlan Fields for the first time, heavily reminiscent of Xenoblade's plains in design and music. The Flower Fields of Perpetua seem to be strongly inspired of Satorl Marsh (one of my favorite locations) from Xenoblade as well. Let's not forget when you're roaming around the vibrant/uniquely different locations, Chain Echo also has pick-collectables, although unlike for Xenoblade series. These pick-ups are not necessarily important towards level/gear progression, but they do unlock "special deals" from merchants that will sell you bundles that can be a variety of things, like material, items and weapons that can help alleviate the burden on your wallet when buying gear or upgrading said gear. So there's less incentive to actually grind but more encouragement to explore because of it. Which this game does an exceptionally good job "trimming the fat" by not having you to grind at all or as much. Unique Monsters are also present in this game too, some of which require a bit of RNG to spawn, but overall. Most of them spawn under certain condition that are never a hassle to get them to spawn, which is a huge plus.

What really caught my attention however, is how insanely similar the main characters/story points are from Xenogear. Right off the bat, the game starts off with the annihilation to a city and death of many people that feels similar to the destruction of lahan scene at the very start of Xenogear. That has Glenn (one of the main characters) over the course of the story, overcome the trauma and repercussion over his action that was out of his control and learn acceptance from it. Even to go far as to contemplate suicide. Despite the high-spirited/vibrant sprite-art aesthetic, this game does not shy away from darker tones that doesn't try to use edgy tones just for the sake of going "look at how dark this is, ain't it gritty?!!" but to have a realistic tone to the story. If you're a huge Xenogear fan, as you progress towards act 3 & 4, you'll really see how similar the plot points are to that game. You might even spot which one of the main character shares some resemblance to Elly as well.

Even back 2022, playing this was such a breath of fresh air. A combination of both traditional JRPG and modern quality of life implementation that made it such a joy to play through to the end. For example. You can retry battles right away without going back to a save point, run away from battles instantly and without fail and you can retain your super meter so you can easily farm limit breaks or whatever if you're having a tough time with a fight. Starting with a full super meter in every boss encounter so you don't need to run around for 10 minutes getting monsters to beat you in the face to build it up.
Aliment afflicting is so damn good and does what I wished most games does with status effects. By removing RNG. Each time you inflict an ailment, they gain a resistance to that ailment. Resistance (in this instance or from equipment, items, etc.) means that you avoid that many instances of the ailment. So, the first time you inflict Blind, you need to do it twice to inflict it again. Then three times. Then four and so on.
Since ailment effects are also predictable (Blind status means if an enmy does a doing physical attacks, they WILL always miss) means you can completely plan your actions. It also means you can hold your guaranteed blind/silence/inact attacks until you KNOW you need to avoid something. It's completely predictable and you can use it to your advantage.

During the game's development, the one thing that really had me overly excited to point of considering Chained Echoes a spiritual successor to Xenogears, was the Mecha battle system but it does indeed do some things that differentiate it from Xenogear's gears/fuel system, and that's "gear switching". A system that plays together with Chained Echoes overdrive system. Once you're in a mech, you have options to switch between three modes. Gear 1 lets use skills that consume less "MP" and reduces your overdrive meter, but Gear 2 consumes more "MP" but does more damage, as a result though, it increases your overdrive meter. While switching to Gear 0, disables you from using skills at all but it replenishes your "MP", not only that but doing this reduces the amount of damage you take greatly if you decide to defend. So you have a complex system of planning out when to go "all out" but also finding the right time to conserve "MP" and defend against team wipe moves while playing a constant tug-of-war with the overdrive meter that determines how much damage/heals you can dish out. Some people may hate this system or some will love it, but I absolutely love that more thought was put into the mecha combat than it just being attack/defend. It's a nice change of pace from the hectic and at times, nerve racking ground combat.

On that note, ground combat uses a sort of FFX-esque/Octopath Traveler CotC switching system where you can switch between front and reserve party members during battle. With characters and their abilities all feeling fairly unique, they all serve a defined roles which incentivizes team work and synergy around the implementation of the Overdrive system (located at the top corner of the screen during combat) that works like a thermometer for abilities, warning players when they overdo specific actions you'll not only deal less damage/heals but you could suffer even more damage as a result. The goal of Overdrive is to balance turn-based combat and encourage players to diversify their attacks by not brainlessly spamming OP skills. It's a really creative and a engaging system. Added by the fact that you regain full life after every battle, the gameplay is balanced around. So it removes the incentive of having to save money for HP/MP items outside of battles like most JRPG. So it always keeps back-to-back combat engaging at all times. By far one of the most creative JRPG combat system of recent years.

Love it or hate the game (for it's ending), Chained Echoes was clearly made by someone who truly loves and understood the genre. I'm grateful that I backed this game years back and got to play something like this in my lifetime, if you're a hardcore fan of the genre (or Xenogears), absolutely give this game a try. It's quite the experience.

Ahhh how I'm reminded of the good ol days when PS1/PS2 era RPGS were at their most peak.

As a long time Steam Ocean Fan I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the series was alive and still kicking but SO2 out of all titles in the series would be getting the (Octopath) remake treatment. Hesitant at first, knowing how companies and studios like to make shoddy remakes/remasters as a mean to make a quick buck but boy howdy was I disproven. Square is a lot of things but if there's one thing they get right now of day, it's trying to bring old titles back from the dead one last time for a new audience Legend of Mana, Live A Live, SaGa Frontier Remastered, Tactic Orge and Romancing SaGa are such examples (still holding out hope they'll bring Xenogears back from the dead).

Just like the additional dimension that the elder cousin Tales series is known for, SO2 is a party based action JRPG that takes place in a 2D space all the while happening in real time. With the remake rendition, triAce truly went above and beyond to bring in a whole host of new changes like complete 3D backgrounds, revamped 2DHD sprites and a plethora of QOL changes like adaptable spell animations that no longer take hours to cast, combat revamps, no enemy encounters, new enemy systems.. fishing?!
SO2R also has an in-depth item crafting system as an extension of its skill system that gives you plenty of room to create many items you wouldn't otherwise be able to access through regular game play or access powerful weapons early if you put the time into leveling up your skills and experimenting with combining items together. Plus, along with the deep leveling/specialization systems, it makes up for a meaningful way to refine your party, becoming more self-sufficient the further along you get. This complements some battle encounters that are deeper than many other RPGs on the market, always keeping you on your toes if you ever decide to foolishly to speed blitz the game without paying attention to the game mechanics. Since replayability is also a defining factor because of the different paths throughout the game, there are multiple difficulties that can ramp up the challenge if you so crave it (do be warn, if you see any dragon that's about to cast dragon breath, back the ♥♥♥♥ the away please!) and as part of triAce tradition, Star Ocean 2 features a pretty extensive post game that will really test your knowledge on the game's various systems.

Not only that but throughout the game, the events you see, the choices you make and the people you take into battle with you will start to cause characters to build affinity toward your player character and for each other. Not only does this open up more side story events, but plays into the game mechanics as well, such as, characters get enraged if someone they care for falls in combat. As a result of character pairing, each possible pairing also has multiple possible endings based on the pairing's affinities for each other, leaving you with a so much possible ending combinations.

It should also be noted that I applaud the team for trying to appease both old and new fans with fully voiced Japanese and English characters with the ability to pick two separate Japanese tracks that are recorded by the voice actors from not just the original PS1 release but the PSP version as well!! You also have the ability to freely swap between from the original OST or the newly arranged OST, all of which are remixed by the main man himself, Motoi Sakuraba, who composed the original soundtrack.

Truly a fine display of what a remake SHOULD be, modernizing old time classics with QOL improvements but not completely removing its identity on what made them enjoyable to begin with.
For new fans, welcome, enjoy one of the best Star Ocean games in the series and one of the most underrated JRPGS.
For long time fans, finally, we are eating good today. T-T sniffles