Chained Echoes

Genre: Turn-Based JRPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Chained Echoes is a Turn-Based JRPG released in 2022 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. A throwback to the classic 16-bit era of the genre, Chained Echoes derives inspiration from many of the classic games of the era like Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana (as well as later JRPGs like Xenogears and Final Fantasy VII, IX, X, and XII), while also including its own unique gameplay mechanics.

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A Chain of Events…

The plot of Chained Echoes is set on a continent divided into three nations that had long been involved in a multi-generational war. A sudden calamity pushes the three nations toward peace, but it’s an uneasy peace with many on each side of the conflict looking to push the three nations back into fighting. In the midst of this, a disparate group of colorful characters from varying backgrounds all find themselves dragged into the center of this conflict, and for different reasons these characters with differing motivations decide to band together to try to stop the war before it’s too late.

One of Chained Echoes’ great strengths is its excellent characters, fascinating world, and great writing. It’s clear that each of the game’s cast of protagonists has their own story to tell, and their personalities all bounce off of one another and clash beautifully. Princess Lenne is clearly looking to uncover the truth behind the machinations of those looking to stoke the fires of war and stop that from happening, mercenaries Glenn and Kylian are (for different reasons) trying to uncover the secrets behind a weapon of mass destruction used in a prior event that they unwittingly became involved in, professional thief Sienna joins the group largely out of a self-serving need to get away from her former comrades looking for her blood after she repeatedly double-crossed them, the mysterious (and possibly immortal?) playwright Victor is assisting the group for his own hidden reasons, and Lenne’s bodyguard Robb is… okay, Robb’s just a big jerk to pretty much everyone except Lenne, but I suppose they can’t all be winners, eh? Anyway, this is just a small handful of the over a dozen characters you can unlock through the course of the game (some completely optional), and most of them seem like a solid addition to the tapestry of the game’s overall story.

That story starts off looking at the politics and repercussions of war, but over time grows in its scope to have far greater implications. I’m going to try to avoid spoilers here, but suffice it to say that out of all the games listed as inspirations in this review’s opening paragraph, perhaps the most pronounced influence here is Xenogears, and not just because one of the major gameplay elements of this game involves battling enemies in mech suits. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention, there’s also mech battles in this game.

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Off the Chain

While Chained Echoes gives players a sizable number of characters to form their party (including multiple optional unlockable characters), players will only be able to make use of eight characters in their active party at any given time – four as your frontline attackers, with four backups you can trade out for during battle. Each backup character must be assigned to the character they’re trading out, and a character who has lost all their HP and has been knocked out cannot be traded out, locking their spot until they’re revived. As such, this is all the more reason to ensure your characters remain alive, and perhaps trade them out when their health is getting low if you don’t think you can heal them fast enough. It also means that what slot you assign a character to is of utmost importance, as the backup character they’re swapping with will never be fighting at the same time that they are.

Even beyond this, character-swapping is a game mechanic that Chained Echoes highly encourages players to use through its overdrive system, a gauge that increases as you attack or use abilities in combat, but can be reduced by swapping out characters, defending, or using specific abilities when the game seemingly randomly decides to highlight them. By using these mechanics to raise and lower the overdrive bar, you can keep the bar in a “sweet spot” that enhances the effectiveness of your moves in combat. Much of the strategy in combat in this game comes from deciding whether to use abilities that will help you in the current moment, or perhaps deciding instead to choose a course of action that will bring the Overdrive bar to where you need it to be so you can better set up other characters for success later.

Another clever feature is the way your characters’ main progression works in this game. You don’t level up using traditional experience and levels like in most RPGs. Instead, you have multiple other ways to improve your characters. You gradually earn points you can use to train up your skills and level them to be more powerful, you have a board full of various goals you can accomplish to unlock rewards. You can upgrade equipment to include more slots for crystals that augment abilities and add buffs, and you can collect and combine those crystals to give yourself more freedom to mold the characters in the direction you want them. And on top of all of this, there’s a job class system with equippable job classes you can gradually unlock through the course of the game.

All of this is, well, a lot to take in and learn, and while this game does provide tutorials for many of these mechanics, it may still take some time to wrap your head around everything. As a result, this may not be the best game in the genre for more novice players. However, more skilled players will find an absolute wealth of ways to improve and customize their party to their liking. In addition, while the game’s opening hours are extremely linear, once you’re out of the game’s starting city, the map opens up considerably, allowing for quite a lot of exploration.

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Echoes of the Past

Visually, Chained Echoes does an excellent job mimicking the style of 16-bit RPGs, with colorful, wonderfully detailed, and fluidly-animated 2D pixel art visuals that convey a lot of personality, filling its world with interesting people and locales. I should note that the world itself has a lot of animations going on in the background, from grass and foliage blowing in the wind to birds and butterflies flying around. As 2D pixel art games go, this is a gorgeous one to look at.

The soundtrack is fantastic as well, though I admit it did take me a bit of time to warm up to it. However, the more I played, the more I really enjoyed both the quality and variety of what’s on offer here. You have relaxed instrumental themes like Rohlan Fields, The Mystic Forest, and the dour Rainy City of Tormund, more intense orchestral themes like Battle Theme 02, high-energy synth metal themes like Class Emblems Battle and Sky Armor Battle, as well as themes with unsettling vocal elements to emphasize the otherworldly nature of their locales, such as Flower Fields of Perpetua or those with a more tribal feel to them like The Empyrian Ruins. Overall, I feel like this game’s excellent soundtrack really helps to bring you into the game’s world.

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Explosive Chain Reaction

Okay, do I have any complaints about Chained Echoes? Sure – as I mentioned before, the complex mechanics do take some getting used to, and I wish the game’s menus were a bit more intuitive. Also, while I appreciate the complex and layered story, I do wish the game eased into its names and places a bit more slowly – in the early hours, you will be seeing a lot of names and places and a lot of it may not quite sink in.

However, overall, I found Chained Echoes to be a true delight, an absolutely wonderful Turn-Based JRPG that not only honors some of the greatest games of the genre, but truly innovates in numerous ways to make this game something truly unique within that genre. This may not be the best JRPG for newer players to start with, but those who are familiar with the genre should consider this an absolute must-have, especially if they pine for the glory days of the great RPGs on the Super Nintendo and the original PlayStation – not only does Chained Echoes fit in right next to the legends of that era, in some ways it even manages to surpass them, and at this point I believe this game deserves to be mentioned in any conversation about the best JRPGs ever made. Do not miss it.

tl;dr – Chained Echoes is a Turn-Based JRPG that takes inspiration from some of the great classics of the genre, but also innovates on its own in multiple ways, with an inventive character-swapping system, its strategic overdrive system, and its deep and complex character progression mechanics. On top of this, the game’s pixel art visuals look great, and it has some excellent characters and writing. Chained Echoes may be too complex for players new to the JRPG genre, but those who are already familiar with JRPGs should consider this game a must-have.

Grade: A

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