Echoes of Greatness
Chained Echoes is a recreation that evokes superlatives. It lovingly embraces its 16-bit JRPG inspirations whereas by no means feeling by-product within the slightest. It efficiently units out to reinvigorate the well-worn turn-based fight system discovered in lots of video games of that period whereas including many good and well-considered components to the combo, finally 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 consistently embroiled in conflicts between its three dominant kingdoms. Conflict has been a lifestyle for its residents for a whole lot 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 everywhere in the continent, introduced collectively for numerous causes however finally in search of a technique to convey 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 strains to destroy a magic stone generally known as the grand grimoire. Upon being situated, 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 the intention to win the battle, 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 unhealthy guys. How brooding.
For its appreciable size, the sport’s narrative is paced exceedingly effectively. There are hardly ever any stretches of time that don’t function not less than a few attention-grabbing story beats, with nearly all occasion members receiving their justifiable share 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 optionally available ones, the narrative continues to develop and evolve in intriguing, if not wholly bombastic, methods. The writing is well-considered, stuffed with appeal and humor, and delivered through an excellent English translation in addition.
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 quite than merely iterating. It takes nearly zero effort to come back to grips with the ground-level fundamentals: flip order is displayed on-screen, whereas characters have customary fight choices reminiscent of assault, defend, expertise, and objects. What stands out is how extra nuanced techniques are steadily launched, not changing the acquainted core fight choices however subtly nudging them to new heights.
Possibly it simply needs to play fetch?
Take, for instance, character expertise. Chained Echoes treats the time period “expertise” as a catch-all that includes particular bodily assaults, magical spells, therapeutic talents, and extra. Every of those expertise falls into one in every 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 acquired is at customary ranges. Pushing the indicator into the inexperienced “candy spot” zone raises the occasion’s offense and protection ranges, however turning into careless will push the indicator previous the inexperienced zone and into the purple, giving enemies the higher hand.
As fight performs out, the gauge shows a random talent kind; whereas most talent households will inch the indicator towards the dreaded hazard zone, utilizing a talent of the displayed kind really 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 an alternative, or danger getting into the purple zone with enemy turns arising with the intention 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 incredible deal extra techniques baked into this battle system than one would possibly discover in a devoted tactical RPG.
There are nonetheless additional methods during which the fight system innovates, and the sport continues to introduce new twists lengthy after it’s begun. As much as eight characters may be positioned within the fight occasion, paired in 4 teams of two, with the 4 actively taking part in battle in a position to tag in or out with their associate at will. The Sky Armors launched within the opening sequence return in a while and supply extra choices for each overworld traversal and fight towards enemy powerhouses. All of those choices come to fruition within the recreation’s many required and optionally available boss battles, which frequently function additional gimmicks to cope with. It’s a superb 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 routinely 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 may be fairly a enjoyable but tense juggling act.
None of that’s to say that that is a simple recreation. In reality, Chained Echoes is deceptively laborious; even with using Sky Armor mechas and an overdrive gauge to provide one an edge in battle, enemies are likely to hit laborious and are fairly spongy. A gaggle 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; quite, victorious characters acquire a useful resource known as SP, which can be utilized to slowly strengthen their fight talents. Earlier than they are often upgraded, nevertheless, new talents should first be discovered. This requires using grimoire shards, that are solely earned via boss encounters and may be exchanged for one everlasting new talent, stat buff, or passive means per character. To mitigate the sport’s problem, a handful of unorthodox adjustable settings are included within the choices menu, reminiscent of the power 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 strains. Although many of those actions aren’t instantly obtainable and need to be naturally unlocked by progressing via the story, they be sure that the sport’s latter half affords loads of respiratory room for many who need it. Revisiting earlier areas turns into obtainable early on through waypoint crystals, and an airship finally permits for journey to yet-undiscovered areas, the place extra sidequests could also be discovered. In a transfer clearly impressed by the Suikoden sequence, the occasion finally attains an island stronghold and might 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 heaps to do to set the completionist coronary heart aflutter.
There’s no scarcity of aspect actions to provide the story a little bit respiratory room within the recreation’s latter half.
It actually doesn’t harm that the sport additionally appears and sounds wonderful. The 16-bit artwork fashion is used to nice impact right here. The world is vibrant and specified by an attractive method. The big forged of characters are all distinct, typically fairly imaginative, and effectively animated to convey emotion. Giant, crisp character portraits throughout dialogue play a substantial half on this as effectively. True to kind, there isn’t any voice performing 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 one of the best soundtracks of the 16-bit period, Chained Echoes can effortlessly and proudly maintain its personal.
It’d be simple to easily evaluate Chained Echoes to a few 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, Last 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 id. Even those that have by no means performed any of the above titans will be capable to get into Chained Echoes with none hassle, and all that make the leap are certain to be fairly glad they did so.
Disclosure: This overview relies on a free copy of the sport supplied by the writer.
BATTLE SYSTEM
INTERACTION
ORIGINALITY
STORY
MUSIC & SOUND
VISUALS
Fight system has been tweaked to go from easy turn-based to deeply tactical
Prolonged, well-paced story retains boredom from ever a lot as approaching
Soundtrack can stand proudly subsequent to a few of the titans of the style
Thoughtful gameplay choices to fine-tune the expertise to your liking
Fight is usually fairly tough on the really helpful settings
Enemies by no means really feel not spongy
