I just... man, it's so close. So much about this game is awesome, and extremely impressive as a solo dev project. But I know this might be blasphemous to say, but I think this really could have used another person working on it. It's ideas are fantastic, but there's so much indulgent lore and in-universe buzzwords that are just so unnecessary and detract from the actual narrative of the game. Every time a scene felt like it was going somewhere emotionally, characters just started dumping exposition which prevented any of them from feeling real. The game expects you to not only know, but be deeply invested in like 8 countries, 3 sets of gods, and an entire world history in order to resonate with the plot, and it's just too much, man. There's no strong emotional througline to the narrative besides the lore, and if that never grabs you, the story just feels meandering and frustrating
In contrast to Chrono Trigger's perfect pacing, which this game was openly inspired by, this game feels so muddled in its actual storytelling. The cast is absolutely gigantic which means none of them have nearly enough time to be actual people or develop in believable ways, and the game keeps introducing new characters and villains as soon as you begin to feel invested in one. Frederick is the main villain! Except no, he's not. Gwayn is the main villain! Except no, he's not. The Harbinger is the main villain! Except no, it's not. It feels like every chapter the game is trying to throw a curveball at you, which does keep you guessing, but also prevents you from feeling invested in any one plotline.
This sounds like I'm being super hard on this game, and that's just because it's SO close to being incredible. Despite what I said, I really did want to like the characters, and a lot of the lore concepts are actually really neat. It's also a weird thing to say about an RPG, but I genuinely think the gameplay is what makes this worth playing, not the story. The overdrive system is great, even if it does feel like you're just pressing the button the game tells you to sometimes. The later bosses where you're constantly buffing and tagging characters in and out are phenomenal, and are among my favorite turn-based battles ever. The Sky Armors do suck, though, and I actively dreaded having to use them for bosses, which is the exact opposite reaction you should have to getting into a giant mech suit.
I really wanted to love this game, and sometimes I really did. But some of the choices regarding the story and characters just feel like they needed an entire new draft. This is an extremely impressive project and I will absolutely play whatever this developer makes next, because I really do think he can make a masterpiece with this foundation. I just wish Chained Echoes was that masterpiece.