Chained echoes really brought out what I love about JRPG. The turn based combat is very enjoyable. It defines itself with the overdrive feature having moves fill up the overdrive gauge and others bring it down is so simple but an effective way to keep you engaged with the combat. While I feel like it can be a bit hard to get moves to lower the gauge at the right time it just means you need to play a bit different than usual since it does feel like its random at times. Each characters feels so unique in what they do each feels like they have a roll they serve and you can chose which playstyle you prefer. Each character comes with a variety of skills which I appreciate more options the better. While I'm not the biggest fan of the sky armor battles they're fine, i just enjoy the normal combat more because of how much variety their is in making the characters. Overall the game looks amazing, the pixel art is top notch. Each area feels distinct from exploring forests, mountain ranges, or a place which was consumed by fungus. Exploring each area felt so rewarding getting different cores, armor, and emblems to upgrade your characters, it all tied in nicely. I didn't want to leave each area without getting all the chest or emblems it was that good. Not to spoil much about the story but it was pretty good idk if its just brainrot but it feels like it takes inspiration from one piece and aot. Echoes reminding me of wills being passed down, having a heavy burdens being passed on to you, and especially the ending. I read a couple of reviews before writing this one and i didn't see much about this but the worldbuilding in this game is superb. The seven true kings, the harbringer, the academy of (spoiler), the masked man, the church, the other branches, Markus, etc. There's so much lore to this game but maybe a bit to much. We don't really get answers to some of the lore that was brought which is really unfortunate, like they're dangling a carrot on a stick and we cant reach it. I'm hoping in the future we can get a sequel to this game because I feel like we barely scratched the surface of what the world has to offer. The only real downside I have with this game is by having more team members, some get more screen time than others (just like op fr) its the trade off for having more options for combat I guess. I believe the story telling could have been a bit better definitely felt like some uninteresting gaps in the story, but overall it was fine.
Chained echoes really surpassed my expectations with amazing combat gorgeous artwork and great world building. If you're a fan of turn based games and worldbuilding this game is for you