This review contains spoilers
I will start this off by saying I was a very very big fan of the original Echoes. I remember when it was first announced(I was still in high school), it was one of those games I saved up money to get when it came out asap, and I played through the whole thing in a pretty fast timespan. I found certain maps really unpleasant and I didn’t even bother with the postgame due to burnout but for what it was I loved it. I replayed it during college a few years later, still mostly having fun but noticing the game’s flaws a little more, and then never gave it much thought after that. When I learned there was a gba fan demake made last year I was really interested but not sure when I’d give it a try.
I’m so glad I did, this game is incredible. This could actually be an official licensed FE game which is maybe the biggest praise you could give to a romhack of this sort. The adaptation of the 3DS graphics to spritework looks absolutely gorgeous, the remixes of the Echoes OST sound amazing, and the additional songs they added to pay homage to previous games was a very nice touch as well. It’s been almost 5 years since I last replayed Echoes so I can’t always tell what they changed from the original script unless it’s really explicit(I.E. the explicitly lgbt stuff which I found very sweet), but I thought a lot of the changes they made were very intelligent. A fair criticism you hear of the original script is how demeaning the later bits are to Celica’s character, where she’s basically made a damsel in distress and then briefly turned evil before Alm saves her. The rewrite they did here wasn’t perfect but did make Celica’s actions more organic. In terms of gameplay, I found the balancing mostly fair, though it does slog on a bit in a way I notice more now that I’m older. If I wanted to nitpick, I realize they would not be able to fully adapt the side dungeon exploration from the original, but having to go through entire maps to get to the Mila statue whenever you need to promote your units is a little annoying. In full fairness I think they recognized this because most of the later dungeons have the statues right next to where your units start off.
If you are a big Echoes fan like me, or somebody who found the original Echoes a little off putting but was otherwise intrigued, I’d definitely recommend this one. Really is a testament to the dedication of fans that something this good exists in the first place.
I’m so glad I did, this game is incredible. This could actually be an official licensed FE game which is maybe the biggest praise you could give to a romhack of this sort. The adaptation of the 3DS graphics to spritework looks absolutely gorgeous, the remixes of the Echoes OST sound amazing, and the additional songs they added to pay homage to previous games was a very nice touch as well. It’s been almost 5 years since I last replayed Echoes so I can’t always tell what they changed from the original script unless it’s really explicit(I.E. the explicitly lgbt stuff which I found very sweet), but I thought a lot of the changes they made were very intelligent. A fair criticism you hear of the original script is how demeaning the later bits are to Celica’s character, where she’s basically made a damsel in distress and then briefly turned evil before Alm saves her. The rewrite they did here wasn’t perfect but did make Celica’s actions more organic. In terms of gameplay, I found the balancing mostly fair, though it does slog on a bit in a way I notice more now that I’m older. If I wanted to nitpick, I realize they would not be able to fully adapt the side dungeon exploration from the original, but having to go through entire maps to get to the Mila statue whenever you need to promote your units is a little annoying. In full fairness I think they recognized this because most of the later dungeons have the statues right next to where your units start off.
If you are a big Echoes fan like me, or somebody who found the original Echoes a little off putting but was otherwise intrigued, I’d definitely recommend this one. Really is a testament to the dedication of fans that something this good exists in the first place.