Originality is not one of the most important traits in an indie RPG. It is perfectly normal to be open about what classic games a new indie is taking inspiration from. The reason is that the new generation of indies has access to new hardware, game engines and other development tools that the classics did not. With all that in mind, originality is not an important factor in an indie game’s overall quality. How well they can improve and innovate on the classics is a much more important factor. One game that takes many traits of the classics and puts a refreshing spin on them is Chained Echoes.
The Role You Play
You play mostly as Glenn: a talented Sky Armor pilot and soldier for the Crimson Wings. He is talented with swords and can learn several techniques to make him a more skilled fighter. He is joined by many others who all have their own unique talents, including his fellow sky armor pilot Kylian, the Princess of Celestia Lenne, and a katana-wielding thief named Sienna.
Each character has their own unique skills and abilities that match their class. As you progress through the game, you can upgrade your equipment and skills as you choose.
Plot
There is a long war that has been going on throughout the continent of Valandis. However, after a catastrophe leading to the destruction of the city of Wyrnshire, the three kingdoms agreed to a ceasefire and it brought about the first year of peace in a long time. During the attempt to keep peace talks going, monsters invaded the Kingdom of Fonset and ruined negotiations. It also opened the door for other nefarious deeds to occur, including deeds that could restart the war. It will be up to Glenn, Lenne and company to stop a war from starting.
Gameplay
Chained Echoes uses a rather straightforward turn-based combat system. Each character takes turns performing an action, either attacking, using an ability, an item or defending. As combat progresses, you can increase or decrease your overdrive bar depending on which skill you use. When it is in the green, your skills will cost fewer tech points to use. When it is in the red, your skills cost more and enemies can do more damage to you.
As you get further on in the game, you will have the ability to use Sky Armor in combat. Fighting in Sky armor does more damage, but can not be used in confined spaces like caves and towns.
Length
Chained Echoes does not have the same type of linear progression that most other RPGs have. There isn’t a traditional experience system and characters don’t get stronger simply from defeating enemies. This means that there is a lot of opportunity to travel back and forth from different parts of the world to complete side quests and collect items to craft equipment. There is a lot of potential to diverge from the main quest as much or as little as you want. On average the main game takes roughly 30 hours to finish.
Music
The soundtrack is pretty much what you would expect from a retro-inspired soundtrack. It is full of very immersive tracks that capture the spirit of the 16-bit era.
Where Chained Echoes excels is in the tone of its tracks. There is a clear distinction between the moods that are supposed to be conveyed by each piece. Some are meant to be happy and uplifting, while others are meant to be sad and dour, and the difference between them is not at all ambiguous.
Notable Features
One interesting aspect of Chained Echoes, especially as it pertains to the combat is the pacing. You have the option to make the pacing of the game go as slowly or as quickly as you desire. During combat, you can speed up the speed at which the battles take place to make encounters take less time.
There are also a lot of sidequests that involve traveling back and forth to areas of the maps, there can be that you have been to before. Because the gameplay does not get excessively more difficult as you move on to new areas, there can be a lot of incentive to pursue sidequests that involve traveling to unexplored parts of areas that you previously could not reach before.
The Talking Parts
The dialogue in Chained Echoes is a bit more crude than your average fantasy RPG. There is plenty of cursing throughout the game and there are a lot of references to violence and murder. There is even one part where you can see an NPC peeing off the side of a building. It feels like a more grown-up and uninhibited version of the dialogue from the games it is taking inspiration from. It doesn’t hold anything back because it is not being censored in any way and it is better for it.
Z…We’ve Reached the End. Anything Else?
Chained Echoes Has some pretty obvious inspirations. Its art style is very reminiscent of Chrono Trigger, the dialog boxes look a lot like Final Fantasy Tactics, and the battle system looks a lot like the ones from traditional Final Fantasy games. Those three sources are prevalent in a lot of other aspects of the game as well, from the tone of the dialog to the types of items you collect to the overall level design. The whole game feels like it was designed to cater to people who grew up as longtime SquareSoft fans.
Final Summary
Chained Echoes is the perfect homage to classic SquareSoft RPGs of the 90s. It can live up to all of its potential without being hindered by censorship or graphical limitations. It is everything a retro RPG fan could want and so much more.
Final Score: 10/10
2D Action Adventure Asymmetric Cellar Door Games Colorful comedy cute Cyberpunk Deck13 Dungeon Crawler Enix fantasy FIrst-Person Greg Lebanov Hack and Slash Humble Games indie Isometric LGBTQ+ Magic metroidvania Multiple Endings Natsume nintendo pixel graphics Platformer Playstation Quintet retro roguelike RPG Sci-Fi Simulation Singleplayer Square Square-Enix Squaresoft story-rich Super Nintendo Taito turn-based Turn Based Vampire Zelda-Like