Earlier this year, I did a preview of indie RPG Chained Echoes, a title that has garnered tons of attention in the gaming community. Now it's finally time for a proper review.
I don't usually do "initial thoughts" or anything like that, but there was so much buzz surrounding Chained Echoes I had to strike when the iron was hot. It takes me a while to complete games nowadays, especially long RPGs, but I'm finally done and ready for a proper review. I like to make sure I beat games, at least the main stories, before I write anything up because you never know what could happen. I feel like a lot of reviews are just based on an hour or two of gameplay and while that is okay for some genres, I don't think that's the case for RPGs.
By now I think the story around Chained Echoes is pretty common knowledge. It was created by a single developer, Matthias Linda, over the course of seven years. Linda, a German national, grew up creating fan games in RPG Maker. He was largely inspired by 4th-generation RPGs like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI. Chained Echoes had a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2019 and was published by a company called Deck 13. It finally arrived on the scene in late 2022, landing on pretty much every modern console. The influence of the aforementioned games and their contemporaries is on full display. While it did have its modern amenities, Chained Echoes is firmly rooted in the classics, this is a legitimate old school RPG that doesn't shy away from the more formative years of the genre.
I will start with the story, which follows an ensemble cast. First, we meet Glenn an Kylian, mercenaries in the Band of the Iron Bull who come across a mysterious stone during a mission at Wynshire castle. Touching said stone causes a huge explosion...and a shift to our next set of protagonists, Lenne and Robb, two members of the Farnsport City Watch who are preparing for a celebration of peace on the continent of Valandis. After overhearing plans to sabotage the event, the duo follows a suspicious thief to the nearby Termina Caves. After catching up to him...the story shifts again to Victor, a wealthy man and well-regarded playwright who has decided to attend the celebration in Farnsport. He is a guest of the monarchy but decided to have a go at some of the festival games in town before an upcoming banquet at the castle. He wins some cash to exchange for items...only to have it stolen by a mysterious red-haired thief. The woman's name is Sienna, and she owes some of her former compatriots quite a bit of money. She has no intention of actually paying this debt, but unfortunately finds herself cornered into doing so. She agrees to break into Farnsport Palace during the celebration to steal a valuable gem. Deciding to sneak in through the sewers she meets an unlikely pair...Glenn an Kylian, who are also trying to enter the palace to find any information they can about the incident they caused in Wynshire. The trio succeed in entering undetected...only to be stopped by Lenne and Robb. Just when it looks like the groups are about to fight, a monster attacks, forcing them, along with Victor, to battle it as a team. Now working together out of necessity, the group of six leave Farnsport to determine just where the monster came from and prevent war from once again breaking out in Vlandis.
Yeah, that's a lot, but it does make for an interesting plot. Things become much simpler here, your group of six will stay largely together throughout most of the game. Party members will come and go, but this isn't a case of where there are multiple scenarios or anything like that. Before I continue, I want to get some housekeeping stuff out of the way. Usually I don't care about giving spoilers, but I am definitely going to avoid them here. Most of the games I play are 20+ years old, so if I don't spoil it for you the rest of the internet will. But Chained Echoes is so new that it doesn't even have a plot synopsis on Wikipedia, so I am going to try and avoid giving away too much. Second, when I review an indie game like this, I would hope that any criticism I do give is taken as constructive. One guy programming a game by himself is a lot different than having a massive studio crank out some big AAA title with a huge budget, or even a more mid-level title on a small to moderate one. When a mistake happens in the latter kinds of games, it's usually an oversite that could have or should have been avoided. When it happens in the former, it's probably more due to a lack of time, resources, money or all of the above. That's not to say Indie developers don't make stupid mistakes or that programmers at big companies don't make honest ones, but the gulf between the two kinds of operations is night and day.
I have played a lot of indie games, but Chained Echoes might be one of the most well-done I've ever seen from a presentation standpoint. The graphics are amazing, they offer some of the best pixel artwork I have ever seen with a fun and unique color palette. Everything just pops off the screen and the visuals give the world of Vlandis life in a way that's hard to describe. Anyone who's played a lot of 4th or 5th gen RPGs will feel instantly at home, as the influences of golden era titles are on display. However, Chained Echoes has an art style that is completely and uniquely its own. It's equal parts bright and dingy, whimsical and frightening, welcoming and disturbing. The music further adds to the atmosphere, the soundtrack in Chained Echoes is on par with any top-level game I've ever heard. Every single one of these tracks, from the overworld songs to the town themes to the battle and boss battle music convey feeling and emotion in ways that aren't often seen in video games. It's up there among the best JRPG soundtracks ever, and that's not an exaggeration. The soundtrack was composed by a gentleman named Eddie Marianukroh, so hats off to him for that. I don't know if he was responsible for the sound design as well, but whoever decided on the music for the turtle race is a genius.
While I don't want to give too much away, I will say the overall plot is strong, at least in theory. I think Chained Echoes does a good job presenting multiple antagonists, all of whom are morally gray to at least some degree. Your characters are less so, they are clearly the good guys here, but most of the bad guys seem to have some level of method to their madness to the point that much of what they are trying to accomplish kind of makes sense. Your characters are fairly well developed, some are more interesting than others but none of them are complete duds and you really start to care about these people as the game goes along. The game really shows the process of a relationship based on convenience and necessity evolving into one based on genuine love and care. While the game has what you might consider an ensemble cast, it becomes pretty apparent a few hours in that Glenn and Lenne are really the main characters. As you progress through the game, you will quickly learn that not everyone is who they say they are, for better and for worse. I can't really say much at all without spoiling the plot, but Chained Echoes dives pretty heavily into the past of all of its characters, especially the two mains.
While I do love a good story with a lot of twists and turns, I think Chained Echoes does overdo it a little bit. They occasionally do throw out twists that seem like they exists just for the sake of saying there was a plot twist and a few never really get paid off. There was one twist towards the end I found to be particularly nonsensical, like, Final Fantasy VIII orphanage level nonsensical. I do think a large part of this comes from the localization, which I don't think was great. I mentioned this in my initial thoughts post, but I could tell Linda was German without even having to look him up. Look, I'm one to talk as I only speak one language. But the localization in Chained Echoes made a confusing-by-design plot even more confusing and made it so in a way that's somewhat frustrating. Characters don't always do a good job of explaining their actions or laying out scenarios, and I think its more the culprit of weak localization than bad storytelling. It also seems to get worse as the game goes along, at some points presenting several lines of dialogue that just straight up don't make sense. It kind of reminds me of Front Mission 3. Again, though, this game was developed by one guy who English is his second (or third or fourth) language, so I understand why. I will reiterate, if there is ever a Chained Echoes 2 I would love to see this improved. If by some stroke of luck the developer comes across this post, I would totally be down to help, I already localize tons of German-to-English content as part of my job.
Even without the localization issues, the plot can be heavy handed at times. Certain elements feel very forced and there are a few attempts to shoehorn deeper meaning into certain story beats where it doesn't need to go. Certain entities within the story also feel a little bit tacked on, like they were added just for the sake of having another antagonist. That being said, the world building overall is pretty strong and the towns and dungeons are some of the most unique I've ever seen. You start the game in Farnsport, and it's immediately apparent that it's a huge party town and has been even throughout the war. The perpetually dark, rainy Tormund is one of the bleakest JRPG cityse I've ever seen. Chained Echoes also does a really good job of showing how war-obsessed the continent of Valandis is and how badly it effects the citizens. A conversation with an NPC in the aforementioned Tormund will lament that scientists in the city created sky armors, giant mech suits used in battle, long before they invented the basic umbrella. Again, sometimes it goes over the top with this kind of stuff, but Chained Echoes still crafts a very unique and compelling world.
Comments
Post a Comment