A real diamond in the rough if I've ever seen one.
Chained Echoes lacks polish, and with polish I don't exactly mean bug-fixing or balancing things around, as the word is commonly used, but rather refining and iterating on the ideas concerning its story, combat and progression. Sure, it was made by a solo dev, and polishing a game of this scope all alone is no easy task.
I really liked some of the ideas going into it, though, and think that this game's got enough personality so as to differentiate itself from its inspirations. The story beats can be quite tropey at times, but even then it was possible to perceive the charm behind it all.
An overall great experience that, even though shallow and unpolished sometimes, successfully states what it wants to, and is not only a neat love-letter to 16-bit JRPGs, but also a glimpse of the future of the genre and how it can evolve going forward.
Chained Echoes lacks polish, and with polish I don't exactly mean bug-fixing or balancing things around, as the word is commonly used, but rather refining and iterating on the ideas concerning its story, combat and progression. Sure, it was made by a solo dev, and polishing a game of this scope all alone is no easy task.
I really liked some of the ideas going into it, though, and think that this game's got enough personality so as to differentiate itself from its inspirations. The story beats can be quite tropey at times, but even then it was possible to perceive the charm behind it all.
An overall great experience that, even though shallow and unpolished sometimes, successfully states what it wants to, and is not only a neat love-letter to 16-bit JRPGs, but also a glimpse of the future of the genre and how it can evolve going forward.