Before the Echo combines elements of both rhythm and role-playing games to create an entirely unique experience.
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I really dropped this, the concept was cool but the thing is really slow to truly make me able to take any kind of action without going AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
This review contains spoilers
A nice game that was unfortunately for me ruined by a terrible ending.
The mix of rpg and rhythm game is quite well executed.
You scrambling between three "lanes", one for defense, one to generate mana, and one to cast spells. While each lane still boils down to just hiting the right keys in rhythm, they still have a different feel with how they interract with the gameplay, punishing the player in different way for missed notes. Missing notes in the defense lane means you take damage, the spell lane means you failed to cast a whole spell, losing time, while the mana lane means you have less resources to cast spells with.
The battle music by Ronald Jenkees got me well into the groove of the game. It was only a bit disappointing to have songs reused several times each for the various enemies. Especially since you're going to fight each of those enemies several times each to get enough materials for the required crafting recepies.
Now, about that ending...
Spoiler (trying to keep it not too specific):
The villain of the story is revealed to be an eugenicist that brought the protagonists here for their high "genetic potential". And the protagonists only seem to be bothered by his method, not even making really any comment on just how messed up his fondamental worldviews are.
I was already bothered by the general pretentious attitude of the protagonists, and how it was portrayed as a way to showcase their "intelligence". For example, the whole tirade they have at some point about how astrology is stupid. (I myself don't believe in astrology, but it was still extremely obnoxious.) That ending really heightened the trash.
It's really a bummer for me. I remember this game fondly from my teenage year, I hadn't finished it then and had wanted to revisit it for a while to get to the end. If I didn't have that nostalgia, I'd probably be tempted to drop the score even more.
The mix of rpg and rhythm game is quite well executed.
You scrambling between three "lanes", one for defense, one to generate mana, and one to cast spells. While each lane still boils down to just hiting the right keys in rhythm, they still have a different feel with how they interract with the gameplay, punishing the player in different way for missed notes. Missing notes in the defense lane means you take damage, the spell lane means you failed to cast a whole spell, losing time, while the mana lane means you have less resources to cast spells with.
The battle music by Ronald Jenkees got me well into the groove of the game. It was only a bit disappointing to have songs reused several times each for the various enemies. Especially since you're going to fight each of those enemies several times each to get enough materials for the required crafting recepies.
Now, about that ending...
Spoiler (trying to keep it not too specific):
The villain of the story is revealed to be an eugenicist that brought the protagonists here for their high "genetic potential". And the protagonists only seem to be bothered by his method, not even making really any comment on just how messed up his fondamental worldviews are.
I was already bothered by the general pretentious attitude of the protagonists, and how it was portrayed as a way to showcase their "intelligence". For example, the whole tirade they have at some point about how astrology is stupid. (I myself don't believe in astrology, but it was still extremely obnoxious.) That ending really heightened the trash.
It's really a bummer for me. I remember this game fondly from my teenage year, I hadn't finished it then and had wanted to revisit it for a while to get to the end. If I didn't have that nostalgia, I'd probably be tempted to drop the score even more.
Such a fun game. Such a unique idea! There have been a couple of takes on the idea of doing a rhythm RPG, but none of them have really captured as perfect a system as this game did. It's really good. Just unfortunate that it doesn't have more songs.
When I first played this game it was still called Sequence (no idea why the name changed). Dialogue was a little cringe-worthy, but the battle gameplay was treated as multiple simultaneous rhythm game boards that you would use swap to attack, defend, and do magic.