Chained Echoes Thoughts

I bought Chained Echoes after seeing it shoot up the Opencritic 2022 Hall of Fame at the end of the year. It's a tremendous one-man effort and a unique mix of systems and features taken from various JRPGs. I was captivated from the beginning and finished it as soon as I could. 

There are 3 main things that made it stand out from the JRPG genre.

Plot -- It is interesting and fairly easy to follow, with the Xenogears-inspired motifs of reincarnation and sin, and an ending with vibes seemingly inspired by Attack on Titan. There's some heavy-handed preaching in the story on important issues which makes some of the dialogue cheesy but the overall arc is really strong and engaging. In particular the creator did a really good job for its opening act -- stylish, taut and impactful.

Characters -- Most of the cast is memorable and don't follow the JRPG mold. All of them have distinct motivations and histories, with Glenn, Lenne, Victor and Kylian forming the central web of the plot. Ba'thraz may be my favorite apart from Glenn; a cursed mage lizard with no arms who materializes weapons to attack.. :chefs kiss:

Combat -- Unlike most JRPGs which have long drawn out boss fights because of HP sponges, the fights here are kept fairly short. It revolves around switching your characters but there isn't a strong counter system like a Persona/SMT, or a mechanical buildup like Octopath Traveller, making the experience of combat a little flatter than expected but the compact fights are really great.

My only two criticisms were that (1) some of the systems designs didn't fulfill their potential and weren't paced well (e.g. crystals, combat and gear upgrading) and (2) the art assets became slightly repetitive towards the mid-end section which is obviously understandable given the one man effort.

Otherwise it's a terrific JRPG. I wish I could've made it.

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