first of all. i'm of the firm belief that you need to play OG echoes so you can truly appreciate this demake. i will spoil OG echoes in this review. i'll keep hush hush about some of the major story changes though
a good place to start would be some of the issues i had with OG echoes! here's how sacred echoes addresses them
- lack of supports: sacred echoes has supports coming out of its ass from a variety of writers :)! in a full playthrough i only got like a handful. luckily you can keep grinding for them in postgame, which is good because there are a few that are cross-army and can only even be accessed postgame. some characters have paired endings if you get them to max support, even! and not just the basic ones like clive/mathilda and mae/boey. even many supports from the original game were given more depth, like leon and valbar's!
- questionable misogynistic writing choices: unfortunately you still have a lot of women to rescue on alm's route. but celica's gets quite a few overhauls to preserve her agency, and conrad is still integrated in a fun way without stepping on her toes as much as he did in OG. the changes for act 4/5 in particular made my jaw drop.
alm's story has quite a few changes too! mostly with berkut, fernand and rinea. berkut and fernand's arcs are done a little more slowly and rinea is given a bit more of a role and a fun friendship with fernand :) i like it. good stuff
- map design: i actually. um. i actually don't have as much to say because i made the mistake of deciding "oh i played echoes already! let me try on hard this time". IT WAS A BAD IDEA. I WAS FIGHTING FOR MY FUCKING LIFE EVEN IF I WAS STILL ON CASUAL DUDE. but the maps give you a lot more to work with. even celica's hell is less hellish. for example in the desert maps they have some excuse as to why mages don't have their speed impeded by the sand and i was overjoyed
visitable villages are another big change. an incentive not to turtle for too long lest they be destroyed. some of them give you items some just offer flavor text but there's one village in alm's act 4 on one of the last maps that has this beautiful woman with a black veil over her face and you need to visit her with alm. Please. you get lore ported straight from the drama cds and an item too
- character integration: I FORGOT TO EVEN MENTION THIS IN OG ECHOES BUT the optional recruits actually have shit to say about the story instead of there just being a few characters with plot armor. i'm not sure how the reverse works though with plot-armor characters dying in the middle bc i was on casual
speaking of the drama CDs, the dev team incorporate extra lore and character backstories from a variety of sources! valentia accordion, drama CDs, even stuff from gaiden and its own adaptations that didn’t return in echoes. you can tell this was done with so much love and care because even the backstory changes make a good level of sense.
i'm using leon as an example because his support chain with valbar goes into his lost love (their relationship is altered here. it hurts so muchies) while his support chain with sonya puts forward a reason or two for leon to become a merchant in his ending. it's good. speaking of leon he's already pretty good gay rep in the OG but even minor additions like for example a joke about how he likes bears (THE GAY KIND) made me giggle like a little girl. i needed to mention this because i love him.
ok. continue. here are some stuff echoes did right that sacred echoes also does right
- the art is amazing. they look so good in the GBA style it's crazy!!! the CGs are ported well enough but there are a couple of upscales or originals because main dev is quite the skilled artist. the new characters (acantha and hyas) look SOOOOO GOOD DUDE. even minor NPCs have banger designs like this hot bald pirate lady from act 2 and whoever worked on those i wish you have the best lives ever. also the combat looks awesome because it's GBA of course it does.
- the music is also ported into the GBA style very masterfully. not every track makes it and i'm a little bitter about some of them (praise this despair... T_T) but that shit takes so much effort to transcribe that i can't be mad about it.
there are a couple of originals, namely act 3 gives alm and celica original battle tracks, and admittedly they're not as good as the ones they got from echoes and gaiden but they're alright.
the arrangement of the sacrifice and the saint is one of my favorites bc i didn't like that song very much before but i do now. main dev's music tastes really show in this but i don't mind i think it's great.
- SUPPORT FOR MULTIPLE LANGUAGES BABY!!!!! sacred echoes has translations in both chinese (up to act 5) and spanish (currently up to act 3), including all the original supports, with more to come in future patches ^_^
overall it's a wonderful experience. honestly the voice acting in OG echoes is the big plus it has over sacred echoes and that's not really sacred echoes' problem! it makes up for it with much better writing that doesn't need a good performance to sound believable. go play this game. don't make the same mistake i made. if you're sad about the lack of turnwheel get your own from home if you know what i mean. and when you are done with this review or even this game i suggest these next steps
- go follow the sacred echoes tumblr blog. you get dev updates for the next patch, character analysis, even soundtrack analysis for the Free Price of Free
- go sub to the unofficial sacred echoes support channel! or at least watch some of the supports they have posted. if you don't have the energy to obtain all of them (god knows i sure don't) this is a very good place to look.
a good place to start would be some of the issues i had with OG echoes! here's how sacred echoes addresses them
- lack of supports: sacred echoes has supports coming out of its ass from a variety of writers :)! in a full playthrough i only got like a handful. luckily you can keep grinding for them in postgame, which is good because there are a few that are cross-army and can only even be accessed postgame. some characters have paired endings if you get them to max support, even! and not just the basic ones like clive/mathilda and mae/boey. even many supports from the original game were given more depth, like leon and valbar's!
- questionable misogynistic writing choices: unfortunately you still have a lot of women to rescue on alm's route. but celica's gets quite a few overhauls to preserve her agency, and conrad is still integrated in a fun way without stepping on her toes as much as he did in OG. the changes for act 4/5 in particular made my jaw drop.
alm's story has quite a few changes too! mostly with berkut, fernand and rinea. berkut and fernand's arcs are done a little more slowly and rinea is given a bit more of a role and a fun friendship with fernand :) i like it. good stuff
- map design: i actually. um. i actually don't have as much to say because i made the mistake of deciding "oh i played echoes already! let me try on hard this time". IT WAS A BAD IDEA. I WAS FIGHTING FOR MY FUCKING LIFE EVEN IF I WAS STILL ON CASUAL DUDE. but the maps give you a lot more to work with. even celica's hell is less hellish. for example in the desert maps they have some excuse as to why mages don't have their speed impeded by the sand and i was overjoyed
visitable villages are another big change. an incentive not to turtle for too long lest they be destroyed. some of them give you items some just offer flavor text but there's one village in alm's act 4 on one of the last maps that has this beautiful woman with a black veil over her face and you need to visit her with alm. Please. you get lore ported straight from the drama cds and an item too
- character integration: I FORGOT TO EVEN MENTION THIS IN OG ECHOES BUT the optional recruits actually have shit to say about the story instead of there just being a few characters with plot armor. i'm not sure how the reverse works though with plot-armor characters dying in the middle bc i was on casual
speaking of the drama CDs, the dev team incorporate extra lore and character backstories from a variety of sources! valentia accordion, drama CDs, even stuff from gaiden and its own adaptations that didn’t return in echoes. you can tell this was done with so much love and care because even the backstory changes make a good level of sense.
i'm using leon as an example because his support chain with valbar goes into his lost love (their relationship is altered here. it hurts so muchies) while his support chain with sonya puts forward a reason or two for leon to become a merchant in his ending. it's good. speaking of leon he's already pretty good gay rep in the OG but even minor additions like for example a joke about how he likes bears (THE GAY KIND) made me giggle like a little girl. i needed to mention this because i love him.
ok. continue. here are some stuff echoes did right that sacred echoes also does right
- the art is amazing. they look so good in the GBA style it's crazy!!! the CGs are ported well enough but there are a couple of upscales or originals because main dev is quite the skilled artist. the new characters (acantha and hyas) look SOOOOO GOOD DUDE. even minor NPCs have banger designs like this hot bald pirate lady from act 2 and whoever worked on those i wish you have the best lives ever. also the combat looks awesome because it's GBA of course it does.
- the music is also ported into the GBA style very masterfully. not every track makes it and i'm a little bitter about some of them (praise this despair... T_T) but that shit takes so much effort to transcribe that i can't be mad about it.
there are a couple of originals, namely act 3 gives alm and celica original battle tracks, and admittedly they're not as good as the ones they got from echoes and gaiden but they're alright.
the arrangement of the sacrifice and the saint is one of my favorites bc i didn't like that song very much before but i do now. main dev's music tastes really show in this but i don't mind i think it's great.
- SUPPORT FOR MULTIPLE LANGUAGES BABY!!!!! sacred echoes has translations in both chinese (up to act 5) and spanish (currently up to act 3), including all the original supports, with more to come in future patches ^_^
overall it's a wonderful experience. honestly the voice acting in OG echoes is the big plus it has over sacred echoes and that's not really sacred echoes' problem! it makes up for it with much better writing that doesn't need a good performance to sound believable. go play this game. don't make the same mistake i made. if you're sad about the lack of turnwheel get your own from home if you know what i mean. and when you are done with this review or even this game i suggest these next steps
- go follow the sacred echoes tumblr blog. you get dev updates for the next patch, character analysis, even soundtrack analysis for the Free Price of Free
- go sub to the unofficial sacred echoes support channel! or at least watch some of the supports they have posted. if you don't have the energy to obtain all of them (god knows i sure don't) this is a very good place to look.