One year, two retro inspired JRPGs. Comparisons between Chained Echoes (which I guess actually came out in 2022, but very late) and Sea of Stars were inevitable and I am going to jump on the bandwagon, but I want to do something a little different.
Welcome to what I hope is going to be the first of many Gaming Off the Beaten Path 10 Round Fights. I'm going to take two games and pit them against each other for 10 rounds with boxing/MMA style scoring. Basically, the winner of each round gets 10 points, the loser gets nine or less. I know I already scored both of these games, but those numbers are always fluid, so there is always the chance one could surpass the other on a second look. Each round will be based on a different category, some will be the same regardless of genre, but others will be specific. You are going to be looking at graphics and sound no matter what, but obviously you are going to be looking at story and characters more in an RPG while something like hit detection might not matter so much. Since these games are both RPGs, our rounds will be:
Rd 1 - Graphics
Rd 2 - Sound
Rd 3 - Story
Rd 4 - Characters
Rd 5 - Combat
Rd 6 - Leveling and Progression Systems
Rd 7 - Exploration and Overworld Design
Rd 8 - Dungeon Design and Mechanics
Rd 9 - Sidequests and Postgame Content
Rd 10 - Effective use of Mechanics
As for our competitors, first, out of the red corner:
Chained Echoes
Release Date: Dec. 8, 2022
Origin: North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Developer: Mathias Linda
Publisher: Deck 13 Spotlight
Platforms: All 8th and 9th gen consoles, PC
and in the blue corner:
Sea of Stars
Release Date: Aug. 29, 2023
Origin: Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
Developer: Sabotage Studios
Publisher: Sabotage Studios
Platforms: All 8th and 9th gen consoles, PC
So, without further ado, let's get in the ring.
Round 1 - Graphics.
Chained Echoes features some very nice, really well-done pixel art. Its world feels very alive and its characters, especially enemies, are extremely well animated. Heck, even its background objects are well animated. It has a good variety of locales, from the depressing Tormund to the gritty Rockbottom to the exotic Flower Fields of Perpetua. Overall, it's a great looking game that really takes advantage of having an old school style on new hardware.
Sea of Stars also features some really nice, well done pixel art...but it's a lot cleaner and less rough around the edges. Like, literally, less rough around the edges. Some assets in CE look pixelated and choppy around the edges and SOS doesn't really have that. It's also a bit more unique when it comes to visual design. Chained Echoes does a great job presenting a war torn, half dystopian half fantasy world without it being too flat or colorless. But Sea of Stars pops off the screen, it features some of the most bizarre and unique color combinations I've ever seen in an RPG. I was a weird, weird kid and one of the things I used to do when I got bored was adjust the contrast, tone, etc. on my TV so the games I was playing would have weird color combinations. Some of the locales in SOS look like they have those weird colors, but, like, on purpose. I love that and it stands out in this era of everything being bland, gray and so dark you have to crank up the brightness just to see anything. It's close, but round one goes to Sea of Stars.
Score after 1 - SOS 10 - CE 9
Round 2 - Sound
Sea of Stars pairs its beautiful graphics with an outstanding soundtrack. The music here does a great job of matching the atmosphere and most of the commonly played tracks are strong. There are a few different battle themes here, but I especially like the primary boss battle theme. It really does match the whole "spectacular journey" vibe that the game was trying to go for and while a few tracks fall flat, it's a good solid RPG soundtrack. You can really hear the influence of the old school RPGs SOS pays homage to.
And yet, this might be a 10-8 round in favor of its competition. Because while SOS had a really good to great soundtrack, Chained Echoes' soundtrack is an all-time classic. In terms of quality, atmosphere, emotion, everything. The sound in CE is on par with all-time great, AAA RPGs. I would put this up against any Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Star Ocean or whatever big name RPG series you can throw out there. It was composed by Eddie Marinukroh over the span of a few years and you can tell how much time, effort and passion went into every note. I liked listening to SOS's soundtrack as I played through the game. But I listened to CE's soundtrack outside the game on more than one occasion. Words don't do it justice, we may be dealing with a top 20, maybe even top 10 RPG soundtrack of all time here. CE wins big.
Score After 2 - CE 19 - SOS 18
Round 3 - Story
So here, we have a case of a great story that wasn't particularly well told vs an okay story that was well told.
Chained Echoes had some wonky translation the led to quite a few story elements not coming off like they were supposed to. However, it also told an ambitious, almost overwrought political tale that had tons of depth. It covered deep topics like family, loyalty, the horrors of war and the depravity of people when they are in conflict with others. A lot of things were well covered here and while they weren't always clear or concise, they did go deep on a lot of these topics. The identity crisis that the main characters go through is fairly well done and the payoff is solid, though there is one really bad plot twist at the end.
Sea of Stars was much cleaner in terms of translation and there wasn't very much lost in that regard. Both games were written and developed by folks whose first language was likely not English, but I would imagine the folks at Sabotage grew up speaking it along with French, I know I never had an issue with language when I visited QC (it was actually quite impressive how effortlessly everyone there switched between the two languages). The problem is that the story in SOS just doesn't go as deep and doesn't touch on nearly as many intense issues. Sure, there's plenty in here about self-discovery and living under an oppressive force, but it really feels more like a generic "friends on and adventure" plot than what's on offer in CE. Both titles have time travel elements, but I think SOS gets a little more knotted up in these elements than CE does. Overall, I had an easier time understanding the story in SOS, but once I dug in, I found less to like with it than I did with CE. So, this round goes to Chained Echoes.
Score after 3 CE 29 - SOS 27
Round 4 - Characters
We have yet another case of the two similar games excelling at polar opposite ends of the spectrum. Sea of Stars is carried by its secondary characters, while the two protagonists are fairly weak. Serai, Re'Shan, Teaks, Erlina, Bugraves and, especially, Garl all have far more depth and receive far more development than Valare or Zale. There are a lot of RPG tropes on display with their backstories, but I am okay with that in a game that's supposed to be a love letter to the games that established those tropes. There are a lot of twists involving these characters, almost to the point of there being too many, but they are usually at least compelling.
Chained Echoes is carried by its main characters, while it's supporting cast leaves a little to be desired. I am considering your original six characters, Glenn, Kylian, Sienna, Victor, Lenne and Robb as the "main" characters, maybe you could throw Ba'thraz in there as well because he joins so early. Lenne and Glenn are really the "true" main characters and I found them both to be compelling and well designed. Honestly, this whole crew is great, and you really grow close to them as the secrets of their pasts are revealed and they come to terms with what they've had to do to survive. Everyone plays their role well, Victor is the wise old father figure, Robb is the stuck up, spoiled brat, Sienna is the overconfident thief, you get the idea. However, the secondary characters here are kind of weak. Late additions to your party like Egyl and Amalia don't really offer much outside of battle and many of them get introduced so late that they don't feel like they matter. The NPC characters also don't really stand out like some of the ones in Sea of Stars do.
This is going to come down to villains, strong points for both games. The Fleshmancer is more of an ominous threat than an immediate one, his presence lingers over SOS like a black cloud and it really feels like a big deal when you meet him for the first time. There is some level of explanation for his motives and while it was a bit difficult to understand, it did give him some redeeming qualities. However, I think CE's ensemble cast of villains was a bit stronger. Your primary antagonists were Frederik, reigning king of Tormund and his advisor Gwayn. I don't want to spoil the plot too much, but they end up having different motivations for their common goal, which I kind of like. But the biggest thing with CE is the villains kind of have a realism to them, their warlike tendencies and desire to achieve those goals at any cost really make them feel like amalgamations of real-life warlords than mythical beings. This one is close, Garl is probably the strongest character across the two games, but CE's cast is stronger overall. I'm going with Chained Echoes.
Score after 4 CE 39 - SOS 36
Round 5 - Combat
Have you played Super Mario RPG? Then Sea of Stars' combat will have you feeling right at home. Attacks can be added and damage reduced with timed hits, each special attack has some sort of activity involved in performing it, you get the idea. It does go a little deeper than that, hitting enemies with regular attacks will cause them to drop orbs, which you can use to power up your attacks and deal elemental damage. You can interrupt enemy attacks by breaking locks, which involves hitting them with the appropriate elements before they can get the attack off. It's a good, simple combat system that works well. I also like the combos and the buildups required for ultimate attacks, it's very simple but it works.
Chained Echoes is different and a little more complex. You need to keep your overdrive gauge in the right spot to keep your party from overheating and taking extra damage. You can manage this bar by defending and using skills, which can increase or decrease the gauge. You are healed completely after each fight, but the game is balanced around this, and you are pretty much required to use your special skills to beat even common enemies. You bring four characters into battle, with a backup behind each one. You can switch at any time during your turn, so you pretty much have eight at all times. Each character has a wide variety of skills and unique attacks, along with a special attack that can be charged up. That's just the regular battles. You will also fight in sky armor, giant mechs that have different mechanics involving gear shifting. They aren't totally different, but they definitely provide some variety. I will close this category by saying this: the first paragraph tells you all you need to know about combat in Sea of Stars. But the second barely scratches the surface of combat in Chained Echoes (check out my review of CE to learn a bit more). So, I'm going to go with Chained Echoes once again.
Score after 5 CE 49 - SOS 45
Round 6 - Leveling and Progression
Another round, another lead about Sea of Stars being simple. If you've played an RPG, you know exactly what to expect with Sea of Stars. You fight enemies, you gain experience, you level up. Each time a character levels up, you will get to choose from one of four random stat boosts, allowing you to have some level of customization. Some skills and combo moves are learned by leveling, but most are found via items. Because there are so few skills, leveling up sometimes feels anti-climactic. However, it's a perfectly sound system that has always worked and will always work for the genre.
Chained Echoes is, once again, way more complex. You don't really earn experience points, but you can earn skill points through fights. Every skill in CE, whether it's passive or active, has three levels. You spend the SP to move up these levels. But how do you actually learn skills? You need Grimoire Shards, which you only get from fighting bosses and story events. Each shard will teach you one skill and if you learn enough skills in a level category, the next one opens up. The characters all have tons of skills, but many of their kits are disjointed and they don't always flow well. Oh, you also have to upgrade your weapons and armor. I guess this isn't really leveling up per se, but I think it should be included here. You can attach crystals to give bonuses to the weapons and pay to upgrade their stats. The problem here is that this isn't a game where you have one weapon, you get new gear in just about every town. It takes up tons of resources and, more importantly, takes waaaay too much time. To me, this was a massive pace killer, especially when you are late in the game with 12 characters. It may be a little simplistic, but I never actively groaned about having to upgrade my stuff in SOS. In this instance, simpler is better, Sea of Stars wins this round.
Score after 6 CE 58 - SOS 55
Round 7 - Exploration and Overworld Design
When I discussed combat, I talked about how heavily Sea of Stars borrowed from Super Mario RPG. Well, it's exploration borrows just as heavily from Chrono Trigger. It's the same kind of world map, where you move from area to area without the threat of enemy encounters. You have towns, dungeons and what I like to call "dungeon adjacent" areas. In SOS, these areas typically connect portions of the world map to others and usually open the way to true dungeons. I like that once you complete most of these the game gives you a way to circumvent them, though not always. Most of them are pretty solid and offer some level of challenge, as well as a strong sense of exploration. The world has plenty of hidden and secret spots that aren't so obtuse that you will never find them. However, it is a little sparse and there aren't really that many places to go. Most of the world opens up pretty early, which I kind of like, though it really is more the illusion of openness.
Chained Echoes manages to be similar while also being entirely different. There is a world map, but you don't see it until much later in the game and it's more for airship travel purposes. On a negative note, this does kind of make the early game very linear. However, it's very easy to get back and forth via fast travel points. These are well placed; they don't make the game too easy, but they aren't so out of the way that they're worthless. Instead of a world map, you just enter the "dungeon adjacent" areas from towns or dungeons. And here, these areas are huge. They almost kind of behave like a world map and a transitional area at the same time. I think there are two things that set CE apart here. The first is the reward board. This is a grid with a list of exploration tasks you can complete. These can range from finding hidden areas to fighting special monsters to visiting certain portions of the map. Each one of these will fill in a square and you can trade them in for items, with more connected squares netting better loot. The other is the sky armor. These aren't just for battle; you can hop in them at any time to access new areas and speed around the map looking for hidden items. You also avoid most enemies, encounters here are touch based, and put yourself in a position to demolish any that do cross your path. This makes exploring past areas and completing sidequests much easier, something that's fairly tedious in SOS. This round goes to Chained Echoes.
Score after 7 CE 68 - SOS 64
Round 8 - Dungeon Design and Exploration
Sea of Stars has some truly memorable dungeons with great aesthetics, fun puzzles and outstanding design. Areas like the Clockwork Castle, Witch's Lair and Tower of Antsudlo are throwbacks to some of the good, old fashioned dungeon design of the games we grew up with. I know I've talked a lot about how SOS is almost too much of a call back to old games, but I think this is the best example of them putting their own spin on that style rather than trying to just match it straight up. In addition to just being really cool from an aesthetic and environmental standpoint, the dungeons are all well put together, they flow really well, they aren't too long or short, the have challenging but reasonable puzzles and fair enemies. I'm not sure there is a single dungeon in this game that dragged or felt like a chore.
Chained Echoes, at times, doesn't really feel like it even has traditional RPG dungeons. Some of the transitional areas feel like dungeons, some don't. A lot of the areas that would be prototypical dungeons feel short, almost like afterthoughts between the next big open area and story segment. They usually aren't bad, just a little bit underwhelming. It's not like there isn't plenty to explore or do, it's just that CE doesn't really use dungeons for this aspect of the game. Honestly, I'm not really a fan of this. I think they definitely could have made the dungeons a little more fleshed out. I think the one place where CE does better than SOS in this regard is the final dungeon, it isn't the best but the last dungeon in SOS is a little too easy and kind of underwhelming. That's still not enough to prevent Sea of Stars from winning this round.
Score after 8 CE 77 - SOS 74
Round 9 - Sidequests and Post-Game Content
Sea of Stars has plenty of sidequests, though they all kind of feel like you are doing the same thing over and over again. The big one is the rainbow conches, which is just an overblown fetch quest that I think goes on too long. I like the wheels mini game, though it is a little to random for my taste. The quizzes were a good idea, but I just felt like they took too long and didn't give enough in return outside of give you something for the endgame easter egg. I thought fishing was meh, I really wish RPGs stopped including it. There are a few post game dungeons, which are solid, but I think the optional bosses are a bit weak. I will say there is some pretty good post game content and I like the fact that there's a true ending. But unlocking it only requires you complete the sidequests you are already working on, which I think is a bit disappointing. There is a new game plus option, but I never really touched it because I felt I already did all the game had to offer.
Chained Echoes didn't have as much in terms of post game content, but I think its sidequests were way better. Here, you get side missions that tell additional stories, which I really like. These are all fun to do and many of them help you learn more about your party. You also get rewards that feel like they matter immediately while also giving you stuff that is important later to get things like ultimate weapons. There are special enemies throughout, which get harder as you go, and a truly powerful special boss you can face at the end. Even for the things you do have to collect, like the class abilities, it's a lot easier to deal with because you can fly to them in your sky armor. I do wish it had some level of consistent mini game, so that makes it a close one, but I am going to have to give this to Chained Echoes as well.
Score after 9 CE 87 - SOS 83
Round 10 - Effective Use of Mechanics
Both games have a good combination of both old and new mechanics, most of which are executed fairly well. Sea of Stars has relatively simple combat and exploration mechanics, but they are all implimented just about perfectly. The timed hits work, the unique moves feel fun to use and the combo system is well done. The world map is well designed and the shortcuts are a nice touch and the only thing I think fell flat was the climbing mechanics. The sun/moon mechanics were good and I actually wished they were used more and not just for puzzles. It's nice that the sound changes a little bit if it's night or day, but I feel like it should cause more consistent gameplay changes. I think SOS leaned a lot more on old school style combat and exploration, which was cool. I am all for simple stuff done right.
However, I think Chained Echoes did just as good a job with more unique and complex mechanics. I initially hated having my HP and MP restored after each battle, but it kind of grew on me and it was nice to feel incentivized to use my skills instead of being punished for it. I think the characters would have benefitted from skill trees, but the actual mechanics behind their growth works fine. The weapon upgrades are the bigges issue here, but they can largely be ignored until the end of the game. I really liked the reward board, I liked the big field areas, I liked the island hideout, there was just so much to like. But to me the biggest new mechanic was the exploration in the sky armor. This eliminated what, for me, is one of my least favorite part of RPGs: backtracking to challenging areas. Both games were mechanically sound, I think I just liked the mechanics in Chained Echoes more.
Winner - Chained Echoes 97
Sea of Stars 92
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