Ultimately this game deserved a thumbs up from me because it satisfied the most important quality in a game - It made me look forward to playing it more the next day. The graphics are charming and the story is solid. The most controversial aspect of the game, to me, are the mechanics and gameplay. Chained Echoes does a lot, some of which I think is great and some of which I think is frustrating, and this is what I'll mostly be examining in the review. I look forward to seeing a future game by the same developer and what changes they make.
[h3]Pros:[/h3]
[u]Leveling system[/u]. This game offers a milestone level up system as opposed to an experience system, and I think it's amazing. This means no grinding. It also means a very planned and balanced game; If you are fighting a boss, you should be able to beat it. If a mob feels too strong, you might have to come back to the area later. This could've had the downside of making mobs that block your route feel unnecessary to fight, except for progression, but the inclusion of the Reward Board means you do get benefits for beating them.
[u]No macro[/u]. By this I mean you full heal after each fight, because this means you never need to use healing items outside of combat, and there is no need for Inns at which to heal. This ties into the "no grinding" aspect in that it removes time sinks from the game to help you focus on exploration and progress. This also allows for all enemies in the game to be stronger than they otherwise would be, since your only goal in the fight is to beat it, as opposed to feeling a secondary motivation of "don't let any characters fall" that would otherwise require items to re-prepare.
[u]Party Size[/u]. While I appreciate games with a lot of choice in who you put in your party, this game does it the best. A lot of that is thanks to the milestone leveling system mentioned above, because anyone you choose to add to your party will be the appropriate level, as opposed to having an assortment of different levels on characters and feeling the need to grind some of them to catch up. However, it's also a pro in and of itself because it's fun having access to 8 characters during a fight. Being able to switch during a turn is another way in which mobs can be made to be stronger, once you start having more than four characters in your party.
[u]Kit Size[/u]. Towards the beginning of the game, my belief was that the earlier skills would be obsolete by the time I unlocked the next tier of skills, but this generally isn't true - Each has its potential use. Options are great.
[u]Skill Types[/u]. While the skill types feel like they primarily serve the Overdrive system, there are other benefits. The most basic one is that each category gets its own icon, and the icons are a nice quality of life addition in knowing what each skill does even if you aren't accustomed to it yet. They can also help you get around debuffs like being Silenced, as only magic-type skills gets silenced.
[u]Loot[/u]. The inventory is split into categories, which is true for most games, but specifically this game as its own "Loot" tab. The only purpose of these items is to sell them to merchants to unlock deals to acquire. This means you're never left wondering if an item is potentially useful. If it's in the Loot tab, you always sell (and the Sell All feature is great, even if I only noticed it halfway through playing...). Key Items also have their own tab, so an item that may not do anything for now but is useful later goes there. It's a nice quality of life feature.
[u]Escape[/u]. In non-boss fights you have the ability to back out whenever you want. I saw another review where someone did not like this because it removed any sense of danger, but I disagree. In RPGs it can become habit to save often to avoid losing a ton of progress should you lose a fight. This is yet another quality of life feature that avoids that mentality and time sink. Furthermore, this feature allows you to switch up your skills, if necessary, so you can immediately try again.
[u]Retry Fights[/u]. Should you lose a fight, the game allows you the option of retrying the fight, but before you get sent to the action it brings up the menu to allow you to switch your formation, skill set, items, etc. This means you don't have to save right before a big fight, and it means you don't have to sit through the same cutscene for each attempt.
[h3]Cons:[/h3]
[u]Overdrive/Overheat[/u]. The concept of the overdrive system is creative and intriguing, but ultimately it feels like it makes the game worse than better. This isn't to say that the concept can't work, so much as it doesn't currently. The biggest issue is that while it feels like it's supposed to be a benefit, it simply serves as an obstacle - something to consider in order to avoid being punished. Having to endure longer combats while worrying about this punishing feature is a net negative to the feel of combat. Another reviewer said that it felt like it often removed a sense of agency, that they had to act in accordance with the Overdrive bar instead of normal combat variables, and I agree. As opposed to feeling like a part of combat, it instead feels like it interferes with it.
[u]Sky Armor Combat[/u]. If the Overdrive system is normally annoying, the frustration more than doubles when it comes to Sky Armor combat, and is made worse by mixing TP into it. I dreaded mandatory Sky Armor segments of the game. It also messed with my identity in game, like all the choices I made about my party largely didn't matter when it came to these parts.
[u]Sky Armor Function[/u]. While flying is a wonderful addition, the inclusion of Sky Armors largely felt like they were necessary to fight bigger, stronger enemies. But then you have to face the strongest enemies (bosses) in the game without the Sky Armors, so what purpose do they really serve? Are the characters strong without Sky Armors or aren't they? It felt messy.
[u]Map Navigation[/u]. It feels odd how the map feels so disconnected. Sometimes, you can go from one part of the map to the other with no issue, like from a city to the area outside of the city. But other times, this isn't true - There are places where you can't transition from one screen to the next. That's totally okay when an area is meant to be isolated, but it doesn't feel okay when there's no obstacle. For example, there's a city where you literally can't leave due to it leading to nothing. I also hated when you attempted to go places and the game simply said "no, not right now" in a random text box, as opposed to an NPC stopping you, or a literal obstacle that goes away when you eventually gain access. Not only is it lazy, but it also leads to unnecessary repeated attempts as you were never sure if this would be the time you finally gained access to the area.
[u]"75% chance to act first"[/u]. Most of the time, this might as well read "100%" due to the ability to escape and re-enter the fight, which only took an extra second. The only times the 25% fail rate mattered was against bosses, and even then the boss could be reattempted should you fail. I guess another potential reason to avoid making it 100% is that you can have this on multiple characters, reducing the odds of each of them getting it, but since I didn't use it that way and only ever had one equipped, I felt unnecessarily punished.
[u]"Retry" option cannot be summoned[/u]. I listed "Escape" as a pro earlier, and the flipside of that is you can't escape against bosses. That's fine, but I was never able to find a way to retry a boss fight without having to die first. This meant that if I were pretty sure I was going to lose, I had to either reset the game or wait for the boss to finally kill me. Perhaps I was just impatient, but for a game that enables that impatience through the Escape feature, not being able to retry boss fights on command felt odd. The above "75% chance" complaint adds to this.
