Chained Echoes is a reflection on a lifetime of JRPGs. You can see the inspiration pouring from almost every character, location, item, and system. It's a combination of many great things, which builds up into a phenomenal experience.
While the writing is predictably corny at times, the story has fun twists and surprisingly solid cutscenes for a game presented in this style. The Act structure is well-formed and breaks up appropriate story beats. A particular Act introduces a radical change to the game world, giving the player an all-powerful feeling that is hard to come by.
The turn-based combat is practically perfect. On standard difficulty, you will have to depend on strategy to succeed. The progression system does not especially reward grinding, so you'll need to depend on your equipment and skills.
One additional area where you can get ahead of the competition is the Crystal system. And this is unfortunately an under-developed feature. The menus are clunky and it takes some time and error to fully find its potential.
Speaking of clunky - I can forgive the efforts of a solo dev, but I do need to call out the occasional bugs and stutters that creep up. I had to restart the game a few times to correct some funny issues.
But like previously mentioned, this is an indie title developed by a single guy. And yet it exudes big budget studio energy, making its contemporaries look like the indie titles in comparison. Someone please get Matthias Linda some money and a studio and see what he can do.
While the writing is predictably corny at times, the story has fun twists and surprisingly solid cutscenes for a game presented in this style. The Act structure is well-formed and breaks up appropriate story beats. A particular Act introduces a radical change to the game world, giving the player an all-powerful feeling that is hard to come by.
The turn-based combat is practically perfect. On standard difficulty, you will have to depend on strategy to succeed. The progression system does not especially reward grinding, so you'll need to depend on your equipment and skills.
One additional area where you can get ahead of the competition is the Crystal system. And this is unfortunately an under-developed feature. The menus are clunky and it takes some time and error to fully find its potential.
Speaking of clunky - I can forgive the efforts of a solo dev, but I do need to call out the occasional bugs and stutters that creep up. I had to restart the game a few times to correct some funny issues.
But like previously mentioned, this is an indie title developed by a single guy. And yet it exudes big budget studio energy, making its contemporaries look like the indie titles in comparison. Someone please get Matthias Linda some money and a studio and see what he can do.