Chained Echoes

I only played 3 hours so far and I have a weird feeling about this game... - There are NO icons for applied statuses in combat. I have NEVER played an RPG where this is the case. You are sleeping? Bleeding? The enemy is? Wait for your turn and READ to find out. There is even a status effect that skips your turn if you try to act and even that one has no icon, no sprite change, no color change... And when a character is asleep? They look wide awake. No "Zzzz", no closed eyes, no paused animation... they are literally exactly the same as when they are awake. - You regens all your HP and mana between battles, and you can flee all non-boss battles for free and without fail. So there are basically no stakes because you can always flee with 1hp and try again with full HP one second later. - Why can I see, equip and even sell the equipment of FUTURE party members I have never met yet and who aren't actually in my party? Not only does it not make sense, it's literally spoilers... - So many attack animations / effects are reused. - Navigating the world is clunky... I know it's isometric perspective, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to go behind the decor a little bit. For example, if there is a 3 blocks tall pillar, I'm supposed to be able to walk behind it, not to have to walk around the top of it. And more other details that give me unpolished, unfinished even, vibes. Not sure I will feel like opening the game again. Pretty bummed out.

This is a strong [b]"Yes, but.."[/b] game for me. The biggest problem with Chained Echoes is that it takes on more than it can chew. Everything is unfocused and scatterbrained. This applies to everything the game offers -- the characters, the story, the length, the areas, the mechanics. There's too much going on. I appreciate that there's a whole evocative world underlying the story that's being told, but it's too much to take on too quickly and leads to Proper Noun fatigue within the first hour. There are a lot of really smart gameplay choices in this game, but the best ideas are smothered by the volume of sub-par or average ideas. Chained Echoes seemingly aspires to be a "grindless" RPG, but there are so many fiddley grinding mechanisms to make your characters superpowered. Equip inefficient skills to level them up for future niche needs. Run around collecting randomly generated crystals to slot into your equipment. Two completely different modes of combat -- both of which are pretty good on their own merits! -- are bogged down by the sheer volume of accompanying mechanics and loot drops and characters and everything else this game has going on. Chained Echoes attempts to tell a multi-layered story with a vast cast of complex characters and scheming villains replete with twists and turns. But like everything else, there's too much here. I want to love these characters, but the story seems so concerned with showing me shocking revelations and convoluted machinations that it completely lacks heart. Chained Echoes is so caught up in delivering me "moments" -- cool portraits! great character designs! climactic scenes with thrumming music! -- but all of the epic storytelling is lost because every character is play-acting their roles instead of acting like people. Chained Echoes ends up being Plot Twist: The Story. This is a kitchen sink game. It's almost like the developers felt like they had one chance to pack as much into a single game as humanly possible. And I can sympathize with that instinct! But the result is something that is pretty decent but too unfocused to be great. I don't have the heart to [i]not[/i] recommend this game. This isn't a bad game. There's a lot of fun and joy to be had here. This is a clear labor of love. But I have to imagine that we all have a very large backlog of games and I don't think this one rises so high above the rest that it demands your attention the way other games do.

[h3]王道要素をしっかり押さえた海外製JRPGの良作[/h3] クリアまで30時間ほど。 数々の名作JRPGの影響を色濃く受けた作品と感じました。 昔のFF、ゼノギアス、クロノトリガー、幻想水滸伝など… そこら辺のJRPGが好きな層はすんなり入っていけると思います。 全体的にかなり快適なRPGで特筆したいポイントがいくつかあります。 [list] [*]1戦毎にHP/TP、状態異常全回復(そのせいか雑魚は強め) [*]どこでもセーブ可、オートセーブ有、雑魚戦含め全滅時に再戦可。 [*]MAP移動速度が速い(オプションで速度変更も可)空も飛べる！ [*]どこでもファストトラベル可(シナリオイベント中以外) [*]まだ会話していないNPCに目印が付く。 [/list] 痒い所に手が届くシステムが多く最後まで楽しくプレイできました。 仲間同士の絡みやキャラ掘り下げもテキスト量多めで充実していて、 シナリオもテンポ良く進み、王道を押さえつつ上手くまとまっていました。 が、終盤の展開が駆け足気味で[u]真の戦いはこれからだ！[/u]で終わる点や、 大勢いる幹部級の敵キャラが謎に雑に処理されるのが勿体無く感じたかな… 多少不満点もありましたが、海外製JRPGの中でもかなり完成度が高い作品でした。 JRPG好きに十分オススメできる作品です。続編が出たら間違いなく購入します！

For someone who is visually impaired the text is way to tiny for me, I wanted to like it and try it but not for me

Objectively a pretty ok game but it's just not for me, don't buy if: - You prefer a more traditional progression style in your RPG with levels, progression in this game mainly involves unlocking and upgrading skills which means progression is mostly horizontal and it's hard to tell if you are too strong/weak for an encounter. - You don't like long and lethal encounters with regular enemies, the game is designed in such a way that there are less encounters but regular enemies are quite tanky and can hit harder than bosses sometimes. - You prefer a less restrictive style of turn-based combat. The overdrive system, while innovative, often forces you to choose moves that are suboptimal or deviate from the strategy you originally had in mind in order to keep the bar in the green. - You are particular about dialogue and character writing. IMO the overall plot is fine but I had a hard time getting attached to any of the characters, the game introduces 6 party members over 2-3 hours and the dialogue often feels heavy-handed. Characters will literally just explain their backstories and motivations in detail out loud which felt kind of forced, and didn't get enough individual time in the spotlight to get me to care about them.

Did I have fun? Yes. Can I recommend anyone play this game? No This game was clearly created by someone who has played turn based RPGs and at least some what enjoys playing them. They are also clearly of the apologist camp. This game levels through boss fights so progression seems story based. Except it's not. Instead there is a lot of hidden bull crap systems that are more annoying then regular leveling so when you start hitting a wall in the game all the advice online is you must be stupid since the game was designed perfectly balanced for you at every point of the game. Except it wasn't and the lie is the worst part. Anyway the progression system isn't even the worst part. First what I liked: Story: I liked the Lizard guy. Every story beat with him was great. Victor the old man bard was a joy to experience. Rob by the end grew on me even though I still can't forgive him for being insufferable most the game. Mechanics: It was an interesting idea. the Sky Armor was fun to fight in but there wasn't enough reason to fight in them. They were under utilized and restricted to point of annoyance. But I did like them when they were available. The magic and buff/debuff combat was solid. What I didn't like. Story: The red head's whole character who she is, what she does, what she stands for, and her character progression. I wish she wasn't so good at fighting. It sucked having to see her in my active party the whole game. Her only redeeming quality is her ability to make things bleed. The self righteous princess was so weird. Lenne wants you to believe she is a good person and left the castle so that she could be a good princess at some point. The whole game is basically telling her that she is selfish and abandoned her duties which lead to the death and destruction of entire countries and thousands of people. The world is a worse place because she took a vacation from being a princess. Yet the game tries to tell you that she is in the right and carries no blame for any of it. She is the villain but some how ends up being the victim of the narrative. To even talk about the other party members would be to spoil the game. So lets do this. There is death, betrayal, "surprise" twists, and all the other dramatic stuff that you expect from a jrpg narrative. Except this game doesn't earn any of it. A character will pop up and before I have time to care about them they are dead or have "betrayed" me or they get hurt or someone they love is in danger or something. I continuously found myself in the game thinking the music tells me I should care. The characters dialog tells me I should think what that character did was wrong. But I commonly just found myself thinking why is this a big deal or why am I fighting the good guys? Am I secretly the bad guy of the story? And honestly after beating the game. I'm still not sure. Did the good guys win. No, for sure that didn't happen. Did the bad guys win? Maybe? Depends on your definition of a bad person I guess. Did this game frame itself as a morally gray game? No it didn't. It thinks the good guys won and the day was saved and it so clearly wasn't. If a sequel game is made the only logical BBGs are the party members that survive the story and that's just sad. Mechanics: The crystal sources and the whole powers system of the crystals is garbage. Throw it in the trash and come up with something new. I tried. I really did. But there is to much RNG for not enough reward. Eventually I just started choosing the money option because that helped me to progress in the grind of having enough money to keep your weapons and armor up to date. If anyone says this game has no grind then they haven't been looking for materials to upgrade their armor so the crabs stop killing them and they can get the class emblem finally. The leveling system is meh. I liked it because it was unique and experiencing a fresh idea was fun, but if I see this leveling system show up in a future game it will automatically disqualify it from my wishlist and future purchase. The problem is that you can make mistakes early on in the game that can cause massive problems later. Oh the secret to this boss is a move the character can learn through leveling? Well what if I chose something else instead? To bad because its almost impossible to level early game outside the main story so if you get stuck its grind time. Your gonna need to hope you can muscle through it with money and items. Lastly the overdrive system was an interesting idea but poorly executed. To many times I would be in overdrive and strategically it was better for me to stay in overdrive then waste a turn trying to bring it down. I saw that Glenn gets a move to help reduce the overdrive so I got it and tried it out. That was a waste of a turn and of TP. By the time it was Glenn's turn again the gauge was always back where it had been before or worse. It made more sense to instead focus on dealing as much damage as possible before you went into the red and then if you couldn't win fast enough start focusing on buff/debuffing so that you could survive while staying in the red. I wish it was a better system. It seemed like it was going to make combat a lot more interesting. I thought I'd be switching out party member constantly in order to keep the overdrive stable, but the second buffs got introduced switching was almost always a bad idea. the party member you were switching it wouldn't have the buffs the current active members had so any protections the rest of the team had the new switch in character wouldn't have. So many boss fights where this problem would lead to the death of that character. And because they are dead the party member you switched out that had all the buff is lock out. It just didn't work, and I don't think it was fully thought through or properly balanced. All in all it was an interesting experience. I'm not mad I bought the game, because it was a break from the normal RPG's I play. But I miss playing a game that actually lets me get strong, lets me strategize properly, and has characters worth cheering for.

I started Chained Echoes but nearly uninstalled it within the first hour or two. Luckily, I persevered, and I’m glad I stuck with it. The Good: ∙ The characters are superb and fun to follow through their adventures ∙ The story is really great overall (but had some stretches here and there) ∙ I love the combat system overall ∙ The dialogue is mostly alright, and the world feels believable for the most part The Not-So-Good: ∙ I’m not keen on the overdrive/overheat feature, and the crystal system is clunky to use—I had to fiddle with it way too often because weapons and armor drop constantly (though I don’t mind the drops themselves) ∙ Some textures are difficult to read—it’s hard to tell where to climb up/down, traverse, etc. ∙ Mixed feelings about the Sky Armors, but that’s just my taste; I’ve never been a fan of mechs Final Verdict: Overall, a really great game with some weaknesses (in my opinion). I managed to finish it despite not fully engaging with the crystal system and overdrive mechanics. Definitely recommended! Especially on Steam Deck!

스카이아머 탑승하자마자 게임 삭제해버렸음 제작 잘했고 게임성 좋고 숨겨진 요소 찾는 거 재밌었는데 제작자가 뭔지 몰라도 로봇 뽕빨에 취해가지고 개 오바쌈바지랄을 해놓은게 로봇 타자마자 느껴져버렸음 그래서 원래는 씹강추 게임이었는데 절대 비추게임이 되어부렀음... 나처럼 게임 초반에 불끈해서 재밌게 즐기다가 븅쉰봇 타고나서 꼬무룩 해버릴 피해자들이 없길 바랄뿐임..

可以算我近五年玩过的最好的JRPG（除了某只懒狗几年做一章的某半成品）。尤其考虑到中文汉化版差不多是和年度独立JRPG[strike]神[/strike]粪作《星之海》一起出的，我是先玩的《星之海》再玩的本作，可谓是先苦后甜，好好洗了个眼。当然，说是最好，本作离神作还差不少，量化来说大概能给个8.5分。主要还是JRPG的米娜桑都太区了，平均分不及格，能拿到这个分数已经很不容易。作为全网最尊重JRPG的严父，我必须要再强调一遍我的观点：“玩其他类型游戏的时候，我会优先关注长板和创新的地方；但玩JRPG的时候，我更看重他们对短板的改进。因为这B类型糟粕实在太多，能意识到并改善这些屎味儿，已经很值得夸奖了。”所以《宿命残响》值得我好好夸一夸。它作为几乎单人制作的低成本、高体量的独立游戏，对传统JRPG的反思和现代化做得尤其好。 地图探索方面，作者很清楚要减少不必要的刷怪和跑图时间，所以整个系统做了很多优化：明雷遇敌；打怪不给经验，经过关键节点（比如击败boss、重要剧情）后才统一升级；地图刷新逻辑也更合理（大地图切换才刷新野怪，而随机战利品和独特怪只要小地图切换就能刷新）；游戏前中期就给出了徒步、机甲低飞、机甲高飞、飞空艇飞行四种节奏不同的探图方式。这点尤其值得说一嘴——很多游戏的“致敬”根本就是童年滤镜下的不思进取复刻，是个JRPG就在那儿喊致敬《超时空之轮》。CT里的“时之翼”要大后期才能到处飞，但那时候地图早就被反复踩烂了，这种便利功能玩家根本享受不了多少，显得特别鸡肋。包括《星之海》在内的一大票后继者都完美复刻了这个毛病，而《宿命残响》的处理就很巧妙：第一章结束主角团就能驾驶机甲、乘坐空艇上天入地，此时地图才解锁了不到一半，既可以碾压式地回头探索旧区域，也能去探索那些基于新探图维度设计的新区域。游戏地图的总体设计水平算是比较出色的，层次交错、路线复杂，各种探索、收集、隐藏和挑战要素都安排得恰到好处，很让人舒服。 战斗和叙事部分是JRPG的重头戏，整体表现可以说虽没顶级惊艳，但也算扎实有趣。战斗的超载条系统算不上什么惊天创新，但确实给公式化回合制带来了些变数。构筑方面，每个角色技能风格都很鲜明，徽章系统让12名角色搭配12种职业，能折腾出属于自己的build，比如男主搭配战士徽章，既适配上属性，又能弥补单体技强悍但极其缺乏AOE的问题。无代价切人和过载系统的存在，让每个角色都有独特的定位，像游侠罗布就属于那种上来放个毒、减个速，然后就可以换下顺带降个过载的后卫型角色。实际要去组一个上场4人加备战4人的完整八人小队，养成感还是挺足的。此外，明雷遇敌可无损逃跑，战斗结束后自动回满血蓝，角色属性上限固定不用刷刷刷——这些便利设计也让玩家能把精力更多放在战斗决策本身。叙事采用了群像宏观叙事，日式RPG那种舞台剧般的演出风格很有魅力，你能看到格伦和蕾妮在科塔拉山脉并肩前行，也能看到与凯镰在雨城托蒙德楼顶的交心夜谈。本作被玩家戏称为“十二方旅人”，但角色间细腻的情感互动和命运交织感，是隔壁八人割裂感极强的《八方旅人》没法媲美的。我尤其喜欢序章的高潮部分：前铁牛团的两个佣兵、瓦兰蒂斯的公主、公主的忠心侍卫、臭名昭著的大盗、知名的剧作家爵士……六个角色怀着不同目的误打误撞聚到一起，亲眼目睹王城阴谋，联手击败闯入的怪兽Boss，再就此结伴踏上旅途。一切都充满了戏剧感。 游戏也确实存在不少问题，虎头蛇尾的后期尤为明显。前期技能解锁、装备强化的节奏把控得不错，可到了后期，经常一把武器还没捂热就得换掉，连升好几级却感受不到实质玩法上的提升。队伍bd成型后，包括最终Boss在内的所有敌人，都扛不住公式化乘区猴戏后女主两三回合的一枪，导致后期一路秒秒秒，几乎没有战斗体验可言。后期入队的角色，刻画和塑造严重不足，食之无味。剧情更是宏大叙事一旦展开就收不住，轮回设定强行反转实在让人无力吐槽。最终战前，支线任务居然还在铺陈背景和世界观，结局更像是前面步子太大扯着了蛋，看完只让人觉得蛋疼。游戏的汉化质量也相当不稳定，各种影响体验的错翻频出，这还是在口碑不错的轻语汉化组手里搞出来的。看来JRPG汉化差，也算某种“天意侵蚀”的定番了吧。 总的来说，《宿命残响》离我理想中完美的作品还有差距，但确实能看到不少扎实的进步。我不仅能看到对《装甲机兵》、《超时空之轮》、《最终幻想》、《伊苏》等老作品的致敬，更能各种细节里都看出作者对JRPG的反思与感悟。我觉得本作走在了一条正确的路上，值得肯定，也值得推荐。