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Chained Echoes is a MASTERPIECE!

3K View2022-12-10

Chained Echoes (Reviewed)

Developer: Matthias Linda

Publisher: Deck13

Released: Dec 8th, 2022

Price: 21 USD

Chained Echoes is a turn-based JRPG created by a single man. You play a group of heroes, traveling the vast continent of Valandis to bring an end to the war between its three kingdoms that have never witnessed an end to conflict.

If you're one for classic games with great story, fun mini-games and intriguing dialog / characters, then you're in for a treat! This game gives you a genuine throw-back to the golden age of video games like Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger, Secrets of Mana and TerraNigma all bundled together with charm.

One of many references

If you did play through Chrono Trigger at least once then this scene should be familiar. It's a shot by shot recreation of the opening of Chrono Trigger, that is until Glenn's mother slaps him awake. I was quite honestly speechless.

It's the small things like this that convey a sense of nostalgia and meaning to the players, especially the ones that can appreciate it the most.

The Combat

Has no random encounters

Unlike most JRPGs this game does not have random encounters. You will not have to run around fighting the same reappearing battles, which really just wastes time. Instead you can visibly see the enemies and potentially avoid them if you're tired of fighting. You do, however, lose out on bonus loot if you do!

Is paced well

In some JRPGs the game puts you in a forced mindset, where the faster you make your next move, the more things you can do before the next targets turn. Here you can just like old-school games, take as much time as you need.

You are not going to be punished for moving slowly or too quickly in this game. Choose your pace, take your time if you need it.

Uses a fight and restore type playstyle

If you play your fair share of JRPGs you'll be familiar with how combat normally works. You fight enemies, you take damage, you leave the fight and visit an Inn and use items or spells to fully heal. This game does it slightly different.

Every time that you finish combat, no matter how much damage you have taken or how much TP you have consumed you will be fully restored upon leaving the battle. I actually like this a lot, because it doesn't change the difficulty of the battles, it just makes it more convenient for the player to keep pressing forward.

You can and still have to use items to keep yourself alive in combat or topped up on TP. I'm glad they threw out that type of tedious gameplay mechanic.

TP will restore on basic attacks

When you are low on TP (Mana) you of course can't use your special skills.

If you do happen to run out of supplies and can no longer cast heals or support effects, you can easily gain a little by attacking with your default attacks. This is a great little addiction to this type of genre, due to many games relying so heavily on item use which in the early games tend to be in such short supply.

Once the battles are over, your TP and HP are fully restored automatically.

The overdrive makes it even more of a strategic game

While in combat you have a bar on the top leftmost corner of the screen. Performing actions will move this bar to the right through the encounters.

If you're in the first section of the bar you will have no bonus effects. If you are in the central section of the bar you will gain very useful bonuses to your attack and defense. But once you reach the furthest section you become exhausted, or overheated as this game calls it, and take massive damage from opponents.

While you are within the green, you can see a symbol on the far left within the diamond. If you match this skill / action you will cool yourselves down a bit maintaining the bonuses for much longer.

Character Building

Characters gear

Each party member can use a specific type of weapon unique to them, unfortunately there is no class building. However, characters can wear any armor from multiple categories, changing their attributes accordingly.

You can only wear one accessory, this is kind of a bummer in my eyes considering logically we have 10 fingers, 2 ears and a neck. The amount of accessories could be numerous, though we are often content with the one

Anti-grinding

This game has a stat growth system where party members do not earn EXP in battle. Instead they gain SP points, which are used to upgrade skills. So in the above reference, we are level 6 currently so we have 6 skills on every single character. No more hassle of leveling each character individually!

It’s possible to have a total of 8 Action and 5 Passive skills equipped per character, with no limit for Stat Boosters. You will unlock more as the game progresses, so choose wisely early game to make a good team synergy.

Would you recommend this game?

YES

There are still things I have not experienced, in the short amount of hours I have played, I can tell that a lot of passion and charm has mixed into this game and it is astounding. It has me fully glued to the story, characters and world an I love it.

Do you call yourself a JRPG gamer? Then you should at the very least have this game in your library right now, the price of $21 is extremely reasonable for a game that can easily offer you 30-50 hours of solid gameplay and fun.

This concludes my review of this game, while my opinions may be met with criticism, that's what makes gamers unique, you don't have to like the same things that others do, nor do you have to agree with them.

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- Pawkt

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