Chained Echoes

This JRPG draws heavy inspiration from the likes of Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI and was a total delight from beginning to end.

I played this game entirely on Steam Deck with few issues. At one point I got strong nostalgic feelings of playing Golden Sun as a kid while playing in bed!

Story and Length

There isn’t much to dislike about the narrative in Chained Echoes. It was hopeful as JRPGs usually are, but kept things mature but never hesitated to inject humor where appropriate. The world building was sublime and plot beats kept me guessing the whole time. The writing overall did a good job balancing fun and serious, but the English localization was stiff and unnatural at times.

My clear file was 50h with extras but not 100%. Some of this might be Steam Deck weirdness, some is from retrying longer encounters. I think the story could be cleared in 35h. The game dragged on a little at the end of the second of four acts, but ultimately I wanted more time in this world, not less. Make sure you read the flavor text!

Combat

The unique spin on turn-based combat didn't get old, and even now I’m considering going back to fight some of the optional bosses. There are no random encounters, so battles are tuned to require strategy more than brute force. There are several encounters that flip the battle system on its head that made me really feel like this solo developer had complete understanding of the ins-and-outs of his systems in a way that felt refreshing and rare.

I thought the skill system that replaces traditional levels is great, despite some of the discourse online. It keeps you from needing to mindlessly grind, which I was more than happy not to do. What takes its place is exploration and puzzle solving, which while sometimes frustrating was ultimately a lot more enriching and rewarding as time spent.

Unfortunately, the crystal system for modding equipment, while promising, is too clunky. It feels like a nice homage to materia in Final Fantasy VII, but is hampered by clunky menuing and a heavy handed approach to balance that ultimately hinders experimentation too much. The good thing is you can clear the game without paying attention to this system at all. The bad thing is it’s so close to being good that it’s haunting for the entire playthrough.

Sound and Visuals

The land of Valandis is beautiful and the sprites feel like a natural evolution of FF6 had 3D not taken hold in gaming's fifth generation. There’s a myriad of environments and the largely 3x3 maps per zone felt like the right size to tuck in lots of little secrets without getting too overwhelming. That being said, I consistently ran into issues pathing (invisible chunks of terrain that made my character stop or stutter when) and had trouble knowing where I could and couldn't go. There are some nice things—doors are clearly marked with green arrows if you can enter them—but I wish the same care was placed in the overworld sometimes.

The music was great and never got old, but I wouldn't say it's a legendary soundtrack. I did think, “do I want to buy this soundtrack…?” which is rare for a PC game at least. Jury is still out on whether I will. However, the sound design in general was very rich with effects that gave scenes a lot of life.

UI and Menuing

I’m a designer so I came back to add this section as I’d be bereft to not mention it. The UI is generally very clean and unobtrusive, but there’s a lot of menuing quality-of-life features I’d like to see.

Menus don’t have memory, so usually when you go up a level (B button) you are placed back at the top, which is frustrating because there’s no quick traversal. In most JRPGs, the left and right directional buttons let you traverse up and down one full page at a time so you can get through faster. Not here. This is mainly a problem in the aforementioned crystal system, but proved annoying in other contexts like navigating loot as well.

Sky Armor being not only separate from Equipment, but also spaced away by a whole menu item proved very annoying, as I think I went into the Equipment menu every time when adjusting mech pieces.

This is major nitpicking, as the menuing here is much better and cleanly presented than in most games. However after 50 hours, something’s start to grate on you!

Summary

There's a lot I could say about this game, but I think you should just play it instead. Did I mention this was mostly a solo developer? At $25, this is a steal if you like JRPGs and worlds with rich lore. This is a game any fan of turn-based games should play.