About seven years ago, a solo indie developer named Matthias Linda began working on an idea he had for a new RPG, itself likely the product of many years of producing fan games based on his genre favorites in RPG Maker. After a successful Kickstarter in 2019 and who knows how many hours of painstaking iteration, Linda has finally seen his vision realized with the release of Chained Echoes. Luckily, this one turned out to be well worth the seven-year wait. Chained Echoes exudes confidence and quality at every turn and quickly establishes itself as one of the finest RPGs you can buy on the Switch right now.
Set on the continent of Valandis, it follows a motley crew of nobles, thieves, and mercenaries who all find their fates chained together in pursuit of a common cause. The story begins a few years before events kick off, with two of the mercenaries who will later be in your party inadvertently setting off the in-universe equivalent of a nuke during a battle in the war between three kingdoms. In the aftermath, the three kingdoms come to an uneasy truce, but various political and supernatural forces wish to plunge the continent into war once more, which inevitably leads to your party being formed to prevent this outcome.
It can get a little dry at times, but we overall found ourselves pulled into this plot. We enjoyed how there’s not a designated main character here, instead placing emphasis on the team as a whole and the various relationships that develop between everyone. It makes each character feel equally important, rather than many games which can feel like a leading star who’s stringing along a gaggle of sidekicks, and all the different personalities and backgrounds on offer create plenty of room for interesting exchanges.
Lenne, for example, is the princess of a kingdom, but has chosen to run away from her lavish lifestyle to instead work for the city guard under disguise so she can better understand the life of the average citizen. Glenn, on the other hand, was born and raised in a prison city as a peasant and eventually rose out of that depressing life when he took on work as a mercenary favored for his keen mechanical skills. Everyone brings something worthwhile to the table in this narrative, providing some important and sometimes surprisingly personal stakes for much bigger conflicts.
On the gameplay front, environment design in Chained Echoes feels remarkably open while still not being so wide that you can get too lost. Scouring suspicious-looking routes is sure to reward you with things like treasure chests and secret boss fights, while there are myriad secret paths you can find and caves to explore that are begging to be searched. Sometimes it can almost feel overwhelming having so many things vying for your attention, but Chained Echoes does a good job of steering you towards the locations and quests that are most interesting while still not insisting that you do so.
The Reward Board, for example, provides a wide array of objectives to chase in any order you want. It’s laid out like a game board, with each box representing an achievement like finding a certain number of treasures in a specific zone or killing a specific enemy in an unconventional way. Fulfilling any of the spots on the board will allow you to claim a small reward, and any adjacent spots that you can fulfill will begin a chain. As you make longer chains on the board, you’ll unlock more rewards for hitting certain thresholds, which encourages you to get the most out of each area you visit as you chase getting the longest chain you can.
We enjoyed the kind of pacing on offer with Chained Echoes, as it feels like it notably breaks out of the typical Town>Field>Dungeon loop that many JRPGs fall into. Sometimes things are wide open, and you’re given the freedom to choose where you’ll go next and what you’ll do when you get there. Sometimes things narrow down more and railroad you through linear plot-steered sequences. Our favorite of these was an early-ish section where the party is broken up and some of the members get caught up in a boss fight on a minecart tearing through a vast tunnel system. While fighting the boss, you also have to keep an eye on where the cart is heading and adjust the controls accordingly to keep everyone alive. The point is, Chained Echoes knows when to go hands-off and hands-on with the player, and it very rarely feels like it’s missing a step.
Combat follows a typical turn-based setup but with some notable tweaks to help keep things feeling dynamic and interesting. For example, although you can only have four characters on the field at once, each of them can be paired with a partner who can tag in with a button press and act on the same turn. This adds a nice extra layer of strategy given that you have to consider who you’ll be switching out and how that could affect the team’s current synergy.
Another fun inclusion is the Ultra Move meter, which fills as you give and receive damage and can be used with any of your characters to trigger a powerful effect. Whether this is a screen nuke that also debuffs the enemy team or a powerful healing spell that also refills everyone’s TP (which governs things like magic and skill casting), every Ultra Move feels like it importantly shifts the balance of a battle if you choose your timing for it well.
The most important element of the combat, however, is the Overdrive meter, which boosts your entire team’s stats if you can manage it well. Every action you take will move the ticker on the Overdrive meter up a little further, and once it reaches the green gauge, your party will benefit from dishing out more damage, taking less damage themselves, and having all TP costs for their casts halved. The catch is that if the ticker goes too far, your party will overheat and be significantly depowered. To counter this, the Overdrive gauge will randomly select a certain skill or ability type—such as healing or a buff—and if you can get one of your characters to use an ability that matches the type, the ticker will move back several notches.
We greatly appreciated this Overdrive system for how it adds an extra layer of strategy that breaks combat out of becoming too repetitive. Combat in turn-based RPGs can often stagnate once you figure out the ‘right’ flowchart of actions for your party, but Chained Echoes sidesteps this by giving you good incentive to break protocol. If, say, it’s your buffer’s turn and you want to cast another offense boost on the team, it may nonetheless be a better decision to cast one of their healing spells instead to keep the ticker on the lower end of the safe part of the gauge. Battles thus become a battle not just against your foes, but against the consequences of not smartly managing your Overdrive.
Though Overdrive is the most important feature to keeping battles interesting, there are various other quality-of-life inclusions here that are quite welcome. For example, there’s a small window at the top of the screen that showcases the exact turn order for your party and enemies over the next several turns, and while you can’t monkey around with it the same way you could in something like Star Renegades, we appreciated the ability to plan out our targets in a battle well in advance.
Another important feature is the fact that your health and TP—which governs things like magic and skill casting—are fully healed after every fight. With this, battles are naturally more interesting because you no longer have to be stingy with how you press the offensive; you’re empowered to use all the spells and abilities at your disposal because there are no consequences for doing so once the fight is over.
Suffice it to say, there’s a lot to love about this combat system — and there's even more to it than we've explained above. You later get access to mech suits which change all of the above rules in fascinating ways and give you even more options to consider. The point is, Chained Echoes meaningfully builds on the ideas explored in the combat systems of the many JRPG classics. There’s a little bit of Shin Megami Tensei in here, a dash of Xenogears, some Final Fantasy, and while Chained Echoes borrows many of its ideas, it manages to put them together in a way that feels completely new.
For character progression, none of your party members actually gain levels. Rather, you’ll acquire a new Grimoire Stone after a big boss fight, and this allows you to buy one new skill for each character from a slowly growing list tailored to each one of them. You can either pick up new active skills for casting in combat, passive skills that can raise resistances and add other helpful buffs, or straight stat boosts. Given that there can be long-ish gaps between getting Grimoire Stones, it’s important to consider the kind of build you want to go with for each character. Most of them clearly have specific roles they’re designed for, but there are myriad secondary roles you can spec them into if you put some thought into it.
Winning battles will also net you SP that goes towards any of the skills you’ve equipped to your characters. Each skill can be upgraded a couple of times to increase its effectiveness, and while just having it equipped will see a skill naturally accruing SP, you can also manually distribute some from a separate pool to accelerate the development of the skills central to each character’s build. Also, there are various statues placed throughout the adventure that each bestow an item granting a new sub-class to whoever it’s equipped to. If you can manage to max out the unique skills that come with it, then you can keep those skills on that character permanently and hand the class item to someone else.
Another important measure of character development is tied to the gear that they equip, which is a little more important here than in a typical JRPG. Not only do new pieces of gear offer up important stat distributions that can further lock in a given character’s build, but each can be upgraded several times and slotted with gemstones that imbue them with important passive abilities you can’t access in any character’s skill tree. These gemstones can also be fused together to improve their effects, but there are several limitations in place here to discourage you from dropping any gemstone into any piece of gear without thinking about it. What your character wears can thus have a huge impact on what they can do in a fight.
We appreciated this multi-pronged approach to character development, as it goes a bit askew from the typical linear leveling you see in most RPGs, but without losing that sense of constant forward progress. It feels like you can hardly go more than 15 minutes without another skill gaining enough SP to level up or finding another piece of gear that can improve one of your characters. And while each step forward feels rather incremental, it helps you to view the whole party as one unit rather than as a collection of individuals at varying power levels. This tracks well with the story, which doesn’t have a singular protagonist and instead focuses on the strength of the ensemble.
Visually, Chained Echoes sticks to a faithful 32-bit art style that does an impressive job of capturing that retro aesthetic without feeling cheap. It reminded us quite a bit of CrossCode. Much like that excellent game, Chained Echoes probably won’t exactly ‘wow’ you with its visuals, but we still came across plenty of environments and boss fights that boasted an impressive level of detail. In the best kind of way, then, one could say that Chained Echoes feels like a modern remaster of a classic JRPG—one which aims not to replace all the previous art, but to sharpen it and present it in the best possible light.
The soundtrack, written by Eddie Marianukroh, compares favorably to the moody and whimsical tone present in many Yoko Shimomura soundtracks. The music can be delightfully goofy at times and of course the main battle theme amps up the energy quite a bit, but we would overall characterize this soundtrack as being relatively low-key and focused on building atmosphere. In this regard, it absolutely accomplishes what it sets out to do; though this isn’t one that’ll have us scrambling for a YouTube playlist, the music does a fine job of immersing you in whatever locale you happen to be exploring.
Conclusion
Chained Echoes is a wonderful mash-up of '90s JRPG tropes, masterfully woven together to produce an experience that feels simultaneously nostalgic and fresh. A well-paced story, unconventional progression system, tactical combat system, and expansive world all come together to make for a game that is shockingly one of the very best RPGs that we’ve played this year. Really, there’s no place where it feels like Chained Echoes drops the ball, which is all the more impressive when you consider that the vast majority of it was put together by one person. If you consider yourself a fan of JRPGs, you owe it to yourself to pick this one up as soon as possible. Even if you aren’t a fan of the genre, we’d still encourage you to snap this one up; it stands as a shining example of everything that makes RPGs great.
Comments 67
I'll probably wait for a sale due to having a lot to play already but I've got it on my wish list and will definitely play it eventually. Looks really good.
I will be getting this game for sure! Sounds and looks amazing! Thank you for the review
This one was a no brainer for me, got it day 1, it just oozes quality.
"Another important feature is the fact that your health and TP—which governs things like magic and skill casting—are fully healed after every fight."
Yeah no thanks, resource management is one of the most integral and interesting parts of a JRPG for me.
Games like this make me really want GamePass on the Switch.
This looks and sounds like it hits all the sweet spots I love in JRPG's. I normally would prefer playing a physical copy of the game, but I don't think I can hold out until next summer. This might be my holiday vacation game next week.
I've been hearing a lot about this game, what a surprise, this comes out of nowhere! Will read through the review later, but yes, I will get it FOR SURE! ^^
Once it hits a sweet sale price I am all over this.
I'm 10 hours in on Xbox and it's is really good. The battle system in particular is brilliant.
If you have Game Pass the game is there.
Looks and sounds great! I want to play this, but I'm wrapped up currently with some other games.
Called it! Let's go 👍🏼
Hmm… you’ve convinced me to potentially start this one up on Gamepass. JRPGs can be a struggle for me to get through, but, man, this one sounds classic
Very detailed and excellent review too, as always @SwitchVogel. Appreciate the thoughtful analysis on the title.
Oh, by the way, to reference your Crosscode reference, those visuals actually did blow me away when I played it a couple years back. There’s a subtle something to those visuals that just sort of felt like home, if that makes sense. If this one is the same, well…
well you sold me.
This is on Game Pass too, for anyone on the fence. I just prefer RPGs on a handheld
“Art style is solid, but not spectacular” the art style is the very thing steering me away from this game
Best part about this game is that it's file size is just under 800mb, that's basically almost how much you could fit a game onto a PS1 disc. Not only is it a great RPG but it won't eat up that much storage space on your ssd whether on Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck. The download was no longer than 50 seconds as well. Such greatness they had deliver with the little amount of file size they are aiming for.
Everything about this game just seems wonderful.
I like the part where George Lynch breaks out of his chains just in time to rip the guitar solo.
How developed is the mech combat and customisation in this?
Not a deal-breaker, but don’t want to get my hopes up for a proper Mech-lite game when it’s not really the case at all.
Can’t wait to play it… next year when my physical copy arrives lol 🤪
It's pretty phenomenal.
Wow, I didn’t even know about this one prior to this review. Love me some good RPGs, so to the wishlist it goes!
@DeclanS98 without spoiling, it’s similar with the overdrive gauge, but has a some new mechanics. You have 3 gears that you have to manage, you can change their weapons for a different move-set(and they visually change). The mechs also add some cool traversal options. The game paces these out perfectly and you get the mechs and a spoiler right when it feels right.
I highly recommend this game, it makes playing it fun. And takes off all the crust that makes older games hard to pick up and stick with.
@Ear_wiG It's going to be a long wait! I'm so tempted to get it digitally as well in the meantime.
@BadTango Sounds perfect! Probably a sale pick-up but I’ll keep an eye on this, heard only good things!
Been watching this one for a while. May grab it soon!
@Expa0 I would've said the same thing until I played Live a Live (which I was generally unimpressed by, but this part stood out to me). Healing after each fight removes that nagging uncertainty you have when you have no idea how long a dungeon is, how long until your next tent/inn/save spot/etc. It also removes the perennial problem many RPGs have where the most efficient thing to do with your MP pool is almost always healing (at least insofar as any of your characters can both heal and do anything else with their MP).
Sounds good! It's great if the combat is used in a fun way, sounds like it is.
I have really been looking forward to both this game and Sea of Stars. I am happy to see this one is as good as it looks!
@frabbit the game is only $10 more than a 1 month sub or $5 less than a 2 month sub. Is there really going to be another game of quality content added to GamePass in the next 2 months? Not likely. So pay a $30 rental fee for 2 months or $25 and own it.
There’s also a lot of ways to get a discounted eShop card. Like Costco always has $50 cards for $40.
I think it is almost a crime that FPG got the physical. I can guarantee you will wait at least 2 years for the standard edition and 4 years for the limited edition - if the company is still there by then.
my backlog has become too enormous to even consider this.
Just watched some gameplay and yeah I think I’m getting this. It gives me really good vibes and that intro with the slap was done really well lol
I’m rolling through death stranding again but once I wear out my boots again I’ll look into getting this. Thanks for the thorough review, Mitch! 👍✌️
@dr-gorgo I feel the same way. Was ready to wait for physical until I saw who had publishing rights. Grabbed it day one digital instead and not regretting.
I'm about 10 hours in and have really enjoyed it so far. I could personally do without some of the language (contemporary profanity in particular, such as "s---" or the "f-word", instantly pulls me out of any sense of immersion, especially in a fantasy RPG, but honestly I'd rather not have it at all regardless...at least the option to not have it would be great), but fortunately it hasn't been too pervasive thus far. The story itself is solid and the mechanics are very deep (PRO-TIP: there's NO WAY to go back and review tutorials regarding mechanics after they're introduced, so be sure to READ CAREFULLY; I've read some great tips online including making screen captures or recording the video of the tutorial sequences). A nice, solid, and seemingly sizable RPG to round out 2022 with.
Something about the style of pixel art in this game seems sort of... generic. But it's hard to ignore the almost universal praise it's receiving.
I'll wait for a sale.
Just ordered the switch physical version. Bummer that I have to wait almost a year for it but I have plenty to chew on until then anyway.
I'll put it on the ol wishlist
Game is plenty fun. The exposition that plagues the first hour or two starts to go away once the game settles into its groove.
@Expa0 tell me without telling me that you didn't understand the battle system. The most important thing it's the overdrive gauge. Anyway, in JRPG we always have too much ressource in the end. HP/TP is full at the beginning of each battle because you have to use the maximum of your skill attack for the overdrive gauge. If the overdrive gauge is in the red, then you are in critical danger, if it's in the green then you take less damage. There is a lot of strategy and not just mashing the "a" button like in the majority of jrpg.
Honestly the game looks super generic (like a lot of game maker/rpg maker games)
I probably would have passed on the title instantly had it not been for this review.
Now Im sure to added it to a wish list and check more reviews out when it reaches the right impulse buy price for me.
I would have probably just brought it at the right price but I purchased cross code because of praise ........but I never finished it because of the puzzly nature not gelling with me.
As someone who supported the kickstarter, I'm very pleased it turned out so well.
I was about to get it but I noticed there are mechs so I said "no". Colors look muted like that waste of time Shadows of Adam. But seeing this received a "9" I have to rethink...
@Burntbreadman I get it. It looks like a muted color rpg. I don't like downloading a game and not playing it through because it's not very good. Happened to me twice recently. Shadow's of Adam and Book Quest. Both were terrible.
Looks pretty good and I like hearing good things I'm interested in, but Chained Echoes is going onto my Switch next year. I'm happy enough with Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream (my 2022 GOTY) for this year, any ways.
@Burntbreadman lol it looks like 1000 times better than any cliche Kemco/rpg maker games. Same thing for the story. Unity engine was used for this game
Throwing my hat into the side discussion about RPGs and resource management:
It all depends on how the combat system was designed, whether resource management of items/MP pools was part of the concept or not. For those of us who have been playing RPGs for years, we expect to be conservative in our use of these resources, and so often approach every game in this manner, even if the game isn't "meant" to be played this way.
If the game replenishes your resources at the end of every encounter, then the developer can design every encounter around the constant truth that the player will ALWAYS be ready to throw everything they got at it. It would allow for more varied battles, versus the chance that a random encounter or boss battle will end a drained party and cause frustration.
Neither approach is right or wrong; it's just a bit of a challenge at times to shift gears in our brains, especially when it goes against decades of habitual behavior.
Art style looks generic to me. While it may have it's problems, I will say the best 2d that stood out me in long time of playing 2d games, is "Eastward." For a group of three people, they did a great job creating a breathing 2d world where each character stands out.
@Belatarr Is the exposition/dialogue as bad as God of War Ragnarok? That game had dreadful dialogue. I don’t know if I can play this if it is that bad. I like exposition when done well, but in your face exposition will really wear on me.
Played it a bit on Game Pass, it's as enjoyable as this review says it is, although it just does a lot right without doing anything truly innovative.
I'm probably going to end up buying it for Switch or Steam Deck so I can play it the way it's meant to be played, on a handheld.
Sounds fine but all I can think is either Glenn or Lenne should have been renamed at some point over these seven years.
@theGamerPad GamePass is a library of games , so I’m not paying the subscription just for the new games that are added. That’s beside the point anyway, I’m just saying that I don’t know if I’ll like this one and while it’s not something I’d play on the big screen with the XBox, it’s definitely something I’d have a better chance of getting into on the Switch.
So far my only issue is that you can't re-view tutorials; otherwise solid and has thus far avoided my usual gripes with the JRPG genre (which is the grinding and the combat).
Great game. Got it for my Steam Deck. For me, doing away with that annoying resource management is one of the selling points.
It looks decent, but I can’t muster the strength to put any turn-based RPGs on my backlog/game list.
@frabbit yeah but it doesn’t take very long to get tapped out of all of that library. Then all you have to look forward to are new additions. Similar to netflix. No matter how much content they have, only a fraction of it is appealing to each person, and once you’ve seen it, There’s no need to see again
Heard nothing but great things. I'll have to pick this one up.
@SpeedRunRocks Careful, they might throw your comment “into the fire.”
Now if KS physical pledges can get the games then were all good right?????
This game looked promising so it’s great to hear it delivers the goods. I’m a sucker for games with mechs, too.
I preordered the physical from First Press Games, so hopefully I’ll be playing this at some point next year.
@VR32X
I will fight Tooth and Nail to prevent that from happening!
@Expa0 thanks for highlighting that. I'm skeptical about that approach.
@Belatarr "Played for 20 mins and I’m shocked at how bad the dialogues are. Full of in your face exposition and they feel amateurish."
Lol. Sounds like a proper JRPG then!
But seriously, thanks for the heads up. I've a fairly low tolerance for this particular problem.
Sorry Nintendo. Playing this on Steam Deck and this is this easily the most time I've spent playing on this system. Great game and an easy classic. Buy it if you have a Switch or a Steam Deck, it's a really great RPG, and begs to be played handheld.
@Expa0 I think it depends on how the mechanics of the game work as to whether or not automatic health and mana restoration is good or bad. I agree that it may not work with the more traditional turn-based mechanics described here, although I'll reserve judgment as it may synergize well with that Overdrive mechanic, but it works great in the "Xenoblade" series, for example.
First review ever, I’ve loved a lot of games final fantasy 6 ,earthbound chrono trigger, this game wow right up there with the rest great music great story, im waiting for sea of stars I’m hoping it’s just as good or better. Great writing spectacular ending
Needs a sequel
Tap here to load 67 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...