Every now and again a game will come and just completely surprise you. I had only heard about this game from some random people on Twitter, praising it as one of, if not the best JRPG indie game in existence. When you hear people say things like "it's inspired by X game" for an indie game, it usually is true to some extent, but never really captures that magic of what it's trying to emulate.

Not only is this game reminiscent of SNES JRPGs like FF6 and Chrono Trigger (it wears the latter inspiration on its sleeve), it also creates its own identity strong enough to rival those games and leave you wanting more from the world you get to experience.

I would say that my only gripe with it is that the crystal system is far too RNG to be worth farming a lot (I only had enough patience to perfectly spec out one character). The benefits are great (you don't even need crystals to beat the hardest boss in the game) but the time investment is too much.

That said, everything else, the combat, music, characters worldbuilding and story, were all top notch. I truly hope this game gets a sequel. It is truly one of the best JRPGs I have played in a very long time.

I don't want to be this guy but I feel like it's my duty to be this guy. I can't stay silent about this. I can't just skirt around the edges. Chained Echoes isn't just LIKE Chrono Trigger or FF6 it's BETTER than Chrono Trigger or FF6.

The game is just way more fun to play mechanically, it has a lot more customization with a lot less bloat in its systems. On screen enemies, all the homies love on screen enemies. The overdrive system combined with fully healing your characters after every battle turns the normal MP attrition management of a SNES era JRPG into DPS/party optimization. Which my monkey brain loves: The enemies make the big numbers, I make the big numbers, everybody wins.

You get the Sky Armor suits and the airship and it completely recontextualizes the world and previous areas making them worth revisiting and exploring.

The world is cool, the lore is cool, the characters all rule. I read a book that talks about a land of big fungus and then I go and see the big fungus. YES. One of the characters talks to a big bird and decides to become a better person. YES YES. There's a mountain that's just a big meditating monkey. YEEEEEESSSS.

It felt like a weird cross between Berserk, Les Mis, and the first book in a Cosmere trilogy. I think if this was just a book I would have still been satisfied but it also excelling so hard mechanically within its genre. I need to clean my pa

What an ride. The combat is honestly the best I've played in any JRPG. You're restored after every battle, which in means you're able to go all out for every one of them. In turn, the enemies are difficult, allowing almost every encounter to be strategic and engaging. The Sky Armour combat added an extra layer of variety that was much appreciated.

Rarely did battles feel repetitive or tedious which is a trap almost every other turn-based JRPG falls into. It's kind of a miracle just how smooth the experience was.

The story is also pretty great, even if it took a while for it to really grow on me. I was a little lost on a few aspects of the plot by the end, but for the most part the characters and their trials were fun to follow. The world set up was also surprisingly interesting for what appears cookie-cutter fantasy on the surface.

My only real complaints are that the music can be quite repetitive due to a limited number of tracks (though the tracks themselves are excellent!), the UI can be a bit un-user friendly, especially for gem-crafting and the like, and some of the Sky Armour bosses can be a little frustrating.

Otherwise, this is a polished, engaging, content-rich JRPG that soars among the greats that inspired it. To think one person can develop a game better than the majority of AAA of its year.