I don't even know where to begin LMAO, Echo is truly one of a kind, a culmination of passion throughout the years that feels like a genuine dialogue between the writer and the reader. I was immediately drawn to Echo's furries and desert imagery, two of my favorite things, and I left feeling like I just had a spiritual experience.

This visual novel is not without its flaws, as its earliest developed portions suffer heavily from unfocused writing (Carl's route in particular feels strikingly out of place from the rest of the routes), but overall it's an unforgettable story. Pardon the fur, but Echo's characters are some of the most human and sincere I've come across in writing. When I look at Leo, Jenna, and the rest of the gang, I see a little bit of the people around me in them, and sometimes even myself for better or worse.

The emotions felt here are some of the strongest I've come across in writing. I could physically feel the tension whenever arguments arose between the cast, and the horror had me so stressed at times I had to leave my desk. There isn't always a happy ending to be found here, but real life doesn't offer many such a relief. But life isn't about the endings, it's the journeys we take and the people who join along with us. The same could be said about Echo.

I was lucky to have stumbled upon this game through a random comment back in 2018. At the time, I was going through a rough point in my life, and Echo's builds gave me a lot to look forward to and keep my mind off the pain. I could go on and on about this VN, but in the end this is a story that'll stick with me forever. 💕

I'm not sure what was worse, the acting or the lack of anything interesting in the game. There was one interesting level, the ice slopes one, but that was just because it was something different. The game has no interesting movement options and no way to have any fun, as invisible walls will block off any thoughts of creativity.

The characters are really flat too. You could do a lot with a platformer starring a Kangaroo with boxing gloves, and they chose to do practically nothing. He just spouts the most unfunny dialogue or empty eye rolling pop culture references. in this awful voice that I can only describe as "teenage boy struggling with his identity and a cold at the same time". The villain, who comes off as an unfortunate stereotype in his own way (I didn't even know he was supposed to be a monkey until I looked it up he looked like something else), is empty too and only gets a motive in the last 5 seconds. There's this idea where all the fighting schools are turned into other businesses, but nowhere do I see why that's a bad thing.

The collectables are also rather pointless, as you will get literally all of the Runes just by playing through the linear levels, the scrolls give you lore, and none of the other collectables like diamonds or KAO do anything and seem to just be there for the sake of having more collectables. It's also rather unpolished, with no proper transitions, loud sound effects in cutscenes, lots of missing sound effects in boss fights, hell I even took a walk below the death plane once. Oh, and I got a crash on the 3rd Boss fight. Can't forget that.

All in all, I haven't played the game that this is a sequel/reboot of, but if this is any indicator then perhaps it should have stayed in the past.