Echo: Route 65

released on Jun 16, 2018

When Chase hears that his friends are going to a party that he wasn't told about, he sees it as an opportunity to avoid going home and confronting his parents about his sexuality.


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you better play this shit right before jennas route or i WILL get you

A super simple side story for Echo. Play it before Jenna's route.

This is a short, interactive retelling of something that appears in Echo as a reminiscence about the start of Chase's relationship with Leo. It's technically an independent story, but it relies too much on the player's familiarity with the cast and setting to really be called a standalone.

Route 65 is overall much lighter in tone than the main game. There are some elements of horror, but they're closer to being allusions to later events than active plot elements.

It has the same problems as the main game with bizarre (or sometimes just British) turns of phrase, but is saved by a lot of well-done character humor. The main character's anxieties about coming out and being seen differently by his friends and family will likely be familiar to any gay reader, even if the circumstances of their coming out don't quite match his.

Le début d'une grande histoire

in my post-Echo clarity i played through Benefits and Route 65 just to destress from the day (much needed!) and while I still have a lot to say about Echo that will end up being an MLA styled essay, in the meantime I can digest and write about Route 65 a bit

I think this is a really, really nice piece of companion media for Echo. Sure, Route 65 gets a scene taken directly out of it and put into Echo (and it works so well!) but I honestly just wanted more of the Gang in a younger state. Being able to see them at an age where they were coming into their own skin and becoming the people we would know and love/hate in Echo, acting like kids while this heavy trauma just sits around, unspoken, was awesome! I think going through each sort of scenario of Chase coming out to his friends was really nice, and just sort of this precursor to how they are in Echo. Flynn, the smug asshole who secretly just wanted his friends to be happy by getting Leo and Chase together. Carl, who exposes some of his secrets to help make his best friend feel better about his awkward experience. TJ, who, despite his religious background and that (to be fair, usually correct) stigma of Christians not being accepting of gay people (as evidenced by his end text scene) tries his best to be their for Chase and to make him feel better. Jenna, who just wants to be there for her friend and have an ear lent to him despite the shit going on in her home. And Leo, who immediately rejoices because this friend he's cared about cares about him too.

This isn't to say each of their coming out scenes don't come with a negative quality because this is Echo, after all. Like I said, these scenes are indicative of how they will end up being in the main story.

I mean, personally (as a gay furry former-Mormon (yeah gotta flex those things about me) who was terrified of coming out), this little short was almost cathartic. And, I'll be honest, had me feeling wistful, and jealous.
I resonate with Chase here because the process of coming out was a very stressful one for me. It didn't happen all at once, and on accident (although my mom did have her fair share of seeing furry porn saved on my phone at the age of 18) (it was only once), but I remember agonizing about the prospect of what could happen for two fucking years after my older sister came out. Funny, how I was so stressed about being abandoned when my parents were more than fine with my sister, but I guess like in Chase's case, when things hit the fan and you're stressed and anxious, you don't think about these things. Especially as a teen!

But, I digress! The writing here is nice and reminiscent yet different of Echo's main story, because it's sort of this adolescent story and it feels like it! It clocks in at a very short hour-ish, and while I think all the short stories in the Echo anniversary update are far better than Route 65, I still think Route 65 is a nice, not required but beneficial companion story to Echo for those that just want more of this cast. Like me!

side note, I really liked the individual phone-screens at the end of the credits each time, just nice little pokes at the future of these characters! Jenna's definitely didn't spook me!
second side note, i feel like i'm forgetting more here, but I also think I just have said what I needed to say. I might edit this if I think of anything else to put here but whatever! Echo's awesome!

while i gather my final thoughts about echo for a review i decided to play this little prequel (probably clocks in at around a hour) about events that are already told in the main game but here are revisited and explained better (the house in fata morgana a requiem for innocence type beat if you know what im talking about) and if you want to read some more about echo (im positive you will) this is a good addendum

as for the game itself its about things you already know starring characters you already know and music you already listened to a hundred of times and honestly im good with that

narrative wise its pretty straightforward they just put a slice of life mood over everything and just go with the goofy story with some horror-ish elements here and there to remind you that this is in fact still echo

im assuming you already read echo when you get to this and i can say that seeing the characters in wholesome friendships opposed to what they live through in echo is very nostalgic and somehow bittersweet when you know how they will inevitably stray away from one another in the main game

as a standalone expansion to the story i do think this is a competent one (better than benefits for sure) so i guess theres no reason to not check this out if youre curious

that being said i wanted to talk about something more personal here to the 3 people that will read this review

the main story plot in this prequel revolves around chase trying to cope with his homosexuality after his parents caught him watching gay porn on the laptop (what a cliche) and trying to tell his friends about it basically coming out

as a gay guy these themes struck with me closer than they shouldve and i was brought almost to tears during a lot of scenes here and there

again this aint like the best written stuff in the echo universe or even the deepest but something about it made me so sad and reminiscing and in a way even wish i had friends like these or even a supportive boyfriend like leo growing up

everything chase does and thinks sounded so personal to me his anxiety for something that was and is generally considered shameful (even more in a small and closed town like echo) the stigma of being gay growing up as a "different" human being from the others his need for affection that led him to make contact with online people the terror that made him flee from his home due to the possible reactions that this would cause his parents and the isolation that he feels in a world where queer people are nothing more than something to just "put up with"

thanks to his confrontation with and support received by his friends and leo he learns how to live with this step by step in a motion to accept his sexuality as a whole and move on with his new boyfriend even accepting to discuss this situation with his parents

at the end of this game i felt a lot of weights on my chest and i needed some time to fully recover from it and even now i still am somehow startled from everything in here

maybe it was because im still very emotional about all the stuff in echo or maybe its because i love leo a not so normal amount but i hope the events unfolding here will resonate with any lgbt pal out there or this is gonna show how much of a crybaby i am

to this day i still struggle with my sexuality and its something im not proud of and reading stuff like this gives me a catharsis of some sort to just pull through and be happy

i grew up a in situation like chase: gay and alone in a small little town with nobody to talk about this stuff and nobody like me to share a teenage young love with so i know what this vn is trying to convey and i see it

echo is definitely something that i will remember forever for talking about the most human stuff and also the worries that people like me have to endure on a day to day basis and i wish i couldve read this vn when i was around the main characters age so i could just tell myself that theres people out there who understand what i went through and am going through and that it gets better somehow (i have yet to find an hispanic extroverted wolf bf who calls me estupido and puchica but that doesnt sound so hard to do)

i havent come out to my parents yet in my 20 years of life span but maybe someday i will have the phone call that pulls the theatre curtains to this short story and who knows how it will go

in the meantime im glad i experienced something that had such a massive impact on my life as echo

didnt expect to write something like this for a gay furry vn but the tenderness that oozes from every single dialogue is something that few things managed to accomplish in the videogame landscape

i hope everyone who reads this has someone supporting them through life and i hope you enjoyed echo as much as i did

ok back to my normal self this review is so fucking long shit and its not even the main game i can only imagine how much time i will spend on that one damn

leo why arent you real