Of all the RPGs that are available on the market I will admit that turn-based action is one style that I do enjoy. Games like Persona and my all-time favourite, Final Fantasy made good use of the turn-based action and I used to enjoy them very much. When I had an email about a retro-style RPG called Chained Echoes naturally I was very curious to see what it is all about. So, we will have a look below to see if it lives up to expectations or not.
Developer: Matthias Linda
Publisher: Deck 13
Release Date: 8 December 2022
CPU: Intel Core i5 / AMD Equivalent
GPU: Geforce GTX 1060 / AMD Equivalent
RAM: 8 GB
HDD: 5 GB
Review code was provided.
Chained Echoes started life as a Kickstarter and has been in development for 7 years. Its inspiration has come from the old-school turn-based RPGs on the SNES and Playstation. The main character is a guy called Glenn who is a mercenary for hire who works for any kingdom who pays good. However, one day he finds a mysterious crystal that causes a big, massive bang that killed all his friends and thousands of others, so now he is looking to find and destroy the crystal to make amends.
Any worthy RPG has a great story and Chained Echoes is no exception in this department. The characters are very believable, you have a lot of emotional points in the story and you build relationships as you progress which you end up feeling for. You meet people as you go along on your quest, each have their own uniqueness and traits to make you get invested. And an interesting thing is that the bad guys have backstories that are nice to hear to draw you in more.
The combat will feel familiar as its the turn-based that every RPG player knows and love. Like Final Fantasy the four team members take their turn at attacking enemies using either their weapons or special abilities. Some offer a buffer for abilities while others allow a single attack to hit multiple enemies which means strategy is needed to best win the battle you are in.
During combat there is an overdrive meter which is at the top of the screen every time you use an ability you fill it up. The skill here is keeping the meter in the middle green zone as this is the sweet spot to inflict maximum damage. Go into the red and the team take more damage and deal very little damage. After fights you have items called grimoire shards that level up all the members of your parties and these replace the tradition experience points in classic turn-based combat.
Your real power comes after several hours of gameplay and you unlock the mech suits. These give you the ability to deal bigger damage in the ranges of thousands of hit points to enemies. Again, the overdrive meter plays a part in maximising the damage in combat and it will need to be managed just like in earlier combat.
You get to explore the vast and beautiful world and you will find yourself spending as much searching the map as you are killing the many enemies along the way. Each area is open and there are many little areas you will find yourself curious about. You get rewarded for searching well by the way of chests and buried treasure that makes it all the fun spending the hours doing so.
The graphics looks stunning and the environments are well detailed and charming characters. Also, the soundtrack is just amazing and adds to the whole game and is probably the best I have heard for a few years now. The only issue which is minor is that the next objective is not always given in a clear clue and this can make it a little annoying until you work it out.
Final Thoughts
It has been a good few years since I have played a RPG that really gripped me and I will admit Chained Echoes did this for me. The combat works well and visuals are amazing while paying homage to old school RPG games on the SNES and Playstation. This is a worthy purchase.
Combat System Works Great
Characters Are Endearing
Plenty of Hours of Gameplay” negatives=”Objectives Are Always Easy to Understand”][rating title=”Gameplay” value=”9.5″]
[rating title=”Graphics” value=”9.5″][/review_summary]