Chained Echoes Overview – RPGamer

Echoes of Greatness

Chained Echoes is a recreation that evokes superlatives. It lovingly embraces its 16-bit JRPG inspirations whereas by no means feeling spinoff within the slightest. It efficiently units out to reinvigorate the well-worn turn-based fight formulation discovered in lots of video games of that period whereas including many good and well-considered parts to the combination, in the end making a daring and involving fight expertise that feels traditional and recent on the similar time. A crisp pixel-art fashion and stellar musical compositions wow the attention and ear because it weaves an concerned and prolonged narrative stuffed with twists and turns. In brief, developer Matthias Linda has tapped into a really particular area of interest, setting a high-water mark of high quality within the course of.

Chained Echoes takes place on the war-torn continent of Valandis, a spot continually embroiled in conflicts between its three dominant kingdoms. Struggle has been a lifestyle for its residents for a whole bunch of years, with complete generations residing and dying by no means realizing every other lifestyle. The sport follows an ensemble forged of characters of assorted fantasy races from all around the continent, introduced collectively for numerous causes however in the end in search of a technique to carry the fixed hostilities to an finish.

The sport’s intro chapter sees Glenn and Kylian, two succesful Sky Armor pilots — this recreation’s model of flight-enabled mechas — who’ve joined a band of mercenaries on a mission behind enemy traces to destroy a magic stone referred to as the grand grimoire. Upon being positioned, the stone reveals itself to be a robust weapon and causes a calamitous explosion, killing hundreds and kicking off the sport’s chain of occasions. The following forty to fifty hours see events from all corners of Valandis chase after the grand grimoire with a view to win the conflict, as Glenn and Kylian, having survived the explosion, discover themselves criss-crossing the land, entangled in an internet of machinations and joined by an ever-growing retinue.

A darkened throne room stuffed with threatening dangerous guys. How brooding.

For its appreciable size, the sport’s narrative is paced exceedingly effectively. There are not often any stretches of time that don’t characteristic not less than a few attention-grabbing story beats, with nearly all occasion members receiving their fair proportion of progress and screentime. That’s to not point out a satisfying rogue’s gallery of villains, ever scheming new plots and machinations for the heroes to foil. At the same time as new characters proceed to be added to the occasion till pretty late within the recreation, together with some elective ones, the narrative continues to develop and evolve in intriguing, if not wholly bombastic, methods. The writing is well-considered, stuffed with attraction and humor, and delivered through an impressive English translation as well.

Equally as spectacular because the story is the sport’s fight system, notably in the way it manages to take the often-copy-and-pasted turn-based fight fundamentals and innovates on them moderately than merely iterating. It takes nearly zero effort to return to grips with the ground-level fundamentals: flip order is displayed on-screen, whereas characters have commonplace fight choices similar to assault, defend, expertise, and objects. What stands out is how extra nuanced methods are steadily launched, not changing the acquainted core fight choices however subtly nudging them to new heights.

Possibly it simply desires to play fetch?

Take, for instance, character expertise. Chained Echoes treats the time period “expertise” as a catch-all that comes with particular bodily assaults, magical spells, therapeutic skills, and extra. Every of those expertise falls into considered one of six households, which coincide with the fight overdrive gauge. The on-screen overdrive gauge indicator strikes left and proper alongside it relying on the actions characters and enemies take. So long as the indicator stays within the impartial zone, injury taken and obtained is at commonplace ranges. Pushing the indicator into the inexperienced “candy spot” zone raises the occasion’s offense and protection ranges, however changing into careless will push the indicator previous the inexperienced zone and into the crimson, giving enemies the higher hand.

As fight performs out, the gauge shows a random ability sort; whereas most ability households will inch the indicator towards the dreaded hazard zone, utilizing a ability of the displayed sort truly lowers it. This seemingly small tweak provides a surprisingly deep layer of technique to what’s normally a taken-for-granted fight system. Second-to-moment determination making may even see gamers forego a devastating assault in favor of one thing much less damaging that may decrease the gauge as a substitute, or threat getting into the crimson zone with enemy turns arising with a view to forged that last-ditch therapeutic spell. It’s a supremely engrossing juggling act that ensures fight by no means turns into rote and dry. In brief, there are an ideal deal extra ways baked into this battle system than one would possibly discover in a devoted tactical RPG.

There are nonetheless additional methods wherein the fight system innovates, and the sport continues to introduce new twists lengthy after it’s begun. As much as eight characters could be positioned within the fight occasion, paired in 4 teams of two, with the 4 actively collaborating in battle in a position to tag in or out with their companion at will. The Sky Armors launched within the opening sequence return in a while and supply further choices for each overworld traversal and fight in opposition to enemy powerhouses. All of those choices come to fruition within the recreation’s many required and elective boss battles, which frequently characteristic additional gimmicks to cope with. It’s a great factor, then, that the sport is comparatively forgiving to those that fall in fight or barely scrape by on the final minute: fleeing from regular battles is a given, the occasion is mechanically rejuvenated after each battle, and a failed battle can merely be reattempted with out penalty.

Staying within the inexperienced “candy spot” of the overdrive gauge could be fairly a enjoyable but irritating juggling act.

None of that’s to say that that is a simple recreation. In truth, Chained Echoes is deceptively onerous; even with the usage of Sky Armor mechas and an overdrive gauge to provide one an edge in battle, enemies are inclined to hit onerous and are fairly spongy. A bunch of them can rapidly wipe out your complete battle occasion, and even simply two or three collectively could make for some edge-of-the-seat moments. That is coupled with the truth that defeating enemies doesn’t web the participant any expertise factors within the conventional sense; moderately, victorious characters achieve a useful resource known as SP, which can be utilized to slowly strengthen their fight skills. Earlier than they are often upgraded, nonetheless, new skills should first be realized. This requires the usage of grimoire shards, that are solely earned via boss encounters and could be exchanged for one everlasting new ability, stat buff, or passive potential per character. To mitigate the sport’s problem, a handful of unorthodox adjustable settings are included within the choices menu, similar to the flexibility to decrease enemy stats or widen the overdrive gauge’s protected zone.

As if the engrossing narrative and tactical fight system weren’t already proof sufficient of excellent recreation design, Chained Echoes additionally affords its gamers a lot to do between the traces. Although many of those actions aren’t instantly out there and should be naturally unlocked by progressing via the story, they make sure that the sport’s latter half affords loads of respiration room for many who need it. Revisiting earlier areas turns into out there early on through waypoint crystals, and an airship ultimately permits for journey to yet-undiscovered areas, the place extra sidequests could also be discovered. In a transfer clearly impressed by the Suikoden collection, the occasion ultimately attains an island stronghold and may journey the world recruiting new non-playable clan members to affix their ranks and populate their stronghold. A reward board gives challenges to perform in every of the sport’s areas, and becoming a member of the Adventurer’s Guild affords rewards for monitoring down and felling particular uncommon beasts. Suffice to say, there’s tons to do to set the completionist coronary heart aflutter.

There’s no scarcity of aspect actions to provide the story just a little respiration room within the recreation’s latter half.

It definitely doesn’t damage that the sport additionally appears to be like and sounds superb. The 16-bit artwork fashion is used to nice impact right here. The world is vibrant and specified by a fascinating method. The big forged of characters are all distinct, generally fairly imaginative, and effectively animated to convey emotion. Massive, crisp character portraits throughout dialogue play a substantial half on this as effectively. True to type, there isn’t a voice appearing within the recreation, however the soundtrack is excellent. Every location has a definite musical theme that simply will get the participant buzzing alongside throughout exploration, with high-energy tracks enjoying whereas in a bustling market city or to provide a frantic edge to fight. On the opposite finish of the spectrum, the soundtrack can dip into moody ambiance when the sport requires it, or simply sluggish issues down and sound fairly. There’s even a little bit of humor when a turtle race is hilariously accompanied by a snippet of ultra-heavy thrash metallic. In comparison with the very best soundtracks of the 16-bit period, Chained Echoes can effortlessly and proudly maintain its personal.

It’d be simple to easily examine Chained Echoes to a number of the classics that clearly impressed it and name it a day. However the recreation brings to the desk much more than easy callbacks to Chrono Set off, Closing Fantasy, or Suikoden. It builds on the spectacular groundwork set by these family names in such spectacular ways in which it simply establishes its personal identification. Even those that have by no means performed any of the above titans will have the ability to get into Chained Echoes with none bother, and all that make the leap are positive to be fairly pleased they did so.

Disclosure: This assessment relies on a free copy of the sport offered by the writer.