Chained Echoes Evaluation | TechRaptor

Regardless of plenty of high-profile failures over time, Kickstarter has nonetheless managed to assist fund plenty of wonderful video games. Chained Echoes, efficiently crowdfunded in 2019, regarded prefer it had the potential to be one other success, promising a “16-bit SNES model RPG” with a mixture of mechs and magic. However does it handle to stay as much as that golden age of 2D JRPGs?

Chained Echoes sees Glenn — a younger mercenary expert in piloting big mechs often known as Sky Armors — and a ragtag group made of varied backgrounds and races, as they attempt to survive within the war-torn continent of Valandis. Your band of the Aristocracy, thieves, and the occasional beastman usually finds themselves having to take care of the newest scheme being thought up by the story’s 3 principal factions, taking you throughout the realm looking for solutions.

Whereas the general playable solid exceeds 10 celebration members, the core group usually consists of half of this. Some can be found throughout the principle story however don’t have an excessive amount of influence on the narrative, whereas just a few others are optionally available — you will not even see them throughout cutscenes. Fortunately, Chained Echoes’ opening chapter offers you a good period of time to get to know the solid. You’ll soar between plenty of them, detailing the occasions that happen earlier than everybody finally ends up teaming up later down the road.

Even after the brief character introductions are over, the story nonetheless strikes shortly. Whereas there are moments of downtime, you’ll continuously be visiting new areas, assembly new individuals, and studying extra about Valandis’ lengthy historical past of battle. As talked about earlier than, this brisk tempo additionally sadly results in some characters having little display screen time. They do get some scenes right here and there, however they may have maybe completed with some aspect story chapters devoted to them.

Nonetheless, there’s sufficient intrigue to hold Chained Echoes’ 25+ hour story, with numerous twists and turns throughout every act. I’d have favored a number of the ultimate story sections to have been fleshed out extra (some story beats really feel rushed by the tip), although I’d say the story principally manages to stay the touchdown total.

Relating to exploration and fight, Chained Echoes does loads to include fashionable gameplay design whereas additionally preserving what you’d count on from an SNES-style RPG. Quick journey is obtainable early on, however you’re nonetheless required to discover most of every space first. You additionally get entry to a tracker that particulars what number of unopened chests or different secrets and techniques are left to search out on a map. Easy issues like this don’t take away from its traditional really feel and are welcome methods to modernize issues with out going too far.

The fight follows an analogous sample, taking acquainted turn-based battles and including just a few twists right here and there. Most notably, all battles begin you with full HP and TP (the useful resource used for expertise). Due to this, you’re in a position to make use of buffs and talent mixtures freely, as a substitute of simply utilizing primary assaults to avoid wasting assets. It additionally permits Chained Echoes to throw tougher common encounters at you, one thing that may make the early hours considerably tough if you happen to aren’t paying consideration.

To aim to cease you from simply spamming the strongest expertise every encounter, an “overdrive” system is current throughout all battles. That is represented by a bar break up into orange, inexperienced, and purple sections. To start out with, all actions will make the marker on the bar transfer to the precise till it reaches the inexperienced part. From there, all expertise have their TP price halved, and sure sorts of expertise additionally change into highlighted. Utilizing highlighted expertise will make the marker return, with the purpose being to maintain it within the inexperienced part of the bar. Having the marker go too far proper will as a substitute trigger your characters to take elevated harm, so it’s one thing you’ve all the time received to control.

Initially, this method appeared like a novel option to steadiness fight round the way in which HP and TP work. However after some time, this method doesn’t actually really feel that attention-grabbing. Certain, you’ll nonetheless should control your Overdrive meter, however it turns into a gentle annoyance than one thing that enhances battles. It’s a disgrace since a small handful of encounters do attempt to play with the system a bit of — typically the totally different Overdrive sections are moved, or it’s made tougher to remain within the inexperienced the additional the battle progresses. If there was extra of this, then it’d really feel impactful reasonably than merely inconvenient.

Fight additionally ties into numerous Chained Echoes‘ different methods. Relatively than ranges, characters can change into extra highly effective by gaining Grimoire Shards, objects which are primarily dropped by defeated bosses. Shards permit characters to unlock new expertise, whereas additionally granting the occasional stat bonus. It’s an attention-grabbing approach of dealing with development, although you find yourself buying most expertise by the tip anyway. There’s additionally no option to refund any spent Grimoire Shards, although it’s normally pretty apparent what you must unlock first.

One other supply of Grimoire Shards is the Reward Board, which acts as an in-game achievement system. Discovering treasure, killing sure enemies, and finishing aspect quests will fill in squares on the reward board, and also you’re inspired to chain collectively accomplished goals to realize much more bonuses. It’s an ingenious system, giving your travels extra construction with out fully dictating what you must do.

Visually, Chained Echoes doesn’t attempt to absolutely emulate SNES RPGs. You get some good 2D character sprites and environments, although the latter can often be too cluttered. Usually, it’s a nice-looking recreation that may often look stunning. The problem I’ve comes within the type of cutscenes, the place characters are sometimes not given something aside from their default standing sprites. Dialogue can be given by way of character portraits, of which there are, you guessed it, just one per character. A simple instance of that is Glenn’s portrait, which appears fully disinterested in no matter’s taking place regardless of how severe it could be.

And but, regardless of some minor points, I nonetheless loved my time with Chained Echoes. Even when not going by means of the strong principal story, it was enjoyable simply to discover to find new objects and secrets and techniques. I haven’t had this a lot enjoyable clearing out every space in an RPG since CrossCode (a recreation that additionally occurs to be printed by Deck13). Chained Echoes manages to forge its personal id regardless of its SNES-era inspirations, and deserves to be given an opportunity by any JRPG fan.

TechRaptor reviewed Chained Echoes on PC utilizing a duplicate offered by the writer. This recreation can be out there on Nintendo Swap, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.