Developer: Matthias Linda
Publisher: Deck13
Release Date: 8th December 2022
Platforms: Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo & Steam
Reviewed on: Xbox & Switch
▫️ Code provided by the publisher ▫️
There’s something to be said about Kickstarter, the platform designed to engage communities to pledge money to a project to help it get off the ground. An internet version of Dragon’s Den if you will…
It was that very platform that in 2019 solo developer Matthias Linda created his Kickstarter for the game he had been working on for 3 years, Chained Echoes. Working full time, Linda spent his nights and weekends re-creating a modern 16-bit SNES JRPG for modern day hardware, and boy what a job he did.
Set in the fantasy world of Valandis, Chained Echoes throws you in the middle of a continent at civil war: Three Kingdoms all wanting to rule. Hardly the most original story, but that doesn’t matter, the proceeding events and characters more than make up for it. A mysterious explosion killing thousands of civilians kickstarts (see what I did there…) the events of the story, seemingly caused by the game’s main protagonist, Glenn.
Throughout the first couple of hours we are introduced to each of the protagonists, largely one at a time, learning a bit of back story, their intentions, and their skills. It isn’t long before you realise how much love Linda has put into the game, the level of detail into each character is fantastic.
What I really love about our characters (of which there are twelve throughout the game, a few of them optional), is that each of them adds something to the story. At every point in the journey there’s a hurdle or junction that Character A can overcome, and the next one, Character B and so on. Each of our characters then feels valued by you, the player, that they aren’t just contributing because they can wield a sword or magic.
What would a turn based JPRG be without great combat? Not very much, and the absolutely greatest part of Chained Echoes is its combat. Turn Based Purists, like myself, will very much appreciate the throwback to JRPGs of old. Think of your SNES, specifically the late generation, into the PlayStation, and games like Final Fantasy 6, Dragon Quest & Chrono Trigger – and you’ll understand right away what you’re in for.
Chained Echoes is definitely more Chrono Trigger than the former I’ve mentioned. Like Chrono Trigger, Chained features no random encounters: enemies are visible on the screen (can often be bypassed if you wish), and the map itself becomes your battle arena. No screen change and zooming to a new screen, battles proceed right where you are stood. This, obviously, is something we’ve become accustomed to in more recent times in JRPGs.
Menu based turn based combat, with no ATB (active time battles), awaits you, with four playable characters at once (and 4 in reserve), each with their own unique job system. Each of your four characters can have a reserve character unique to them, and you can swap them in and out and change formations outside of battle any time you want. It’s in battle where this system works brilliantly though.
One of your characters low on health? Swap them out, and bring in their partner with full health. One of your characters the wrong build and ineffective? Swap them for their partner. Struggling and need two healers in the battle? Again just swap in one of your other healers to give yourself the edge. I love this mechanic, it reminds me a lot of Final Fantasy X, albeit Chained is more restricted than FFX as each character can have one partner, opposed to being able to swap for anyone.
This formation system, means everyone can play the game differently, and you need to think what formations you want to go into a battle with, and you will absolutely chop and change and play around with different formations as you progress through this beautiful world.
During your battle, the most important mechanic is the OVERDRIVE meter. At the top left of the screen, lives your overdrive meter. It starts at amber and moves to green and eventually red. Controlling and managing this meter in battle is the key to victory, do this wrong and even the weakest enemies will have GAME OVER roaming on your screen. The key is to keep your meter green and only green. Do a move, the meter moves up, do another and the meter moves into the green. Every move you do will keep moving the meter up through green, and eventually into red if you don’t manage it.
Why do you want to keep it green? Keeping the meter in green makes your characters do more damage, take less damage, but most importantly use HALF the available skill points (TP) to do a skill move. TP is tight in this game, you can’t spam skill moves, you will run out of TP quickly if you don’t control the Overdrive meter. Throughout the battle you’ll be given a cue in the Overdrive meter – this cue is telling you the type of skill move you need to do to reduce that overdrive meter to keep you in the green. A mixture of all of attack, some defensive moves, and key strategy will keep you in the green and on the road to victory.
The road to victory, even if you control that Overdrive meter, is a difficult one. Chained Echoes is a TOUGH game, even the smallest of enemies can kill your squad at any time – every battle no matter how big or small is like a boss battle. The end of every battle rewards you with the usual experience points and a full health and TP to boot… But when I say experience points, not in the way you think.
Matthias Linda has set up Chained Echoes to remove all the grind associated with JRPGs, this may interest you, or dampen your spirits as a lot of people love the grind. Here you don’t need to though. The XP gained in regular battles is used to upgrade the levels of your skill moves only, and they go from 1-3: each one getting stronger and/or using less TP to perform the move. Levelling comes from pre-determined boss battles, certain quests, certain side quests and finding some optional collectibles.
All the traditional jobs are present: warrior, tanks, white mage, dark mage… You know them all, and they’re all present. What is also really interesting is that characters can learn extra skills outwith their normal job system. There is a charm system, known as Class Emblems, these emblems when equipped to a character offer permanent skill moves if you level them high enough. This means, for example, you can give a Tank character a healing Emblem, or a white mage a warrior emblem if you so wish…mixing and matching the jobs really is quite key to success, having a Tank, like I said, being able to heal comes in very, very handy.
The world contained within the Kingdom of Valandis is just gorgeous, not just because of the 16-bit styling, but the level design just hits all the right OG notes. The luscious green fields of Rohlan, up to the bright white hills of Kortara Mountains and, as you’d expect, deep, dark and dank caves and dungeons are never far away. All the colours and designs just pop off the screen and every area you go into is another throwback to those 90s games we all loved.
Around half way through your adventure you’ll come across the games’ Sky Armour, which are Mech Suits your characters can enter and battle in against the toughest of foes. It’s a unique take on this format of games: usually you’ll have a summon for example. Well, Sky Armours are the replacement of those, offering huge attack and defence, but ultimately the enemies you use them against are scaled accordingly. Personally, I don’t love the Sky Armours, I don’t think there’s any need for them in the game. They suit a very very small narrative purpose that could have been changed, and to be honest the battles with the Sky Armour are nowhere near as fun or engaging.
Is Chained Echoes perfect? Absolutely not. As much as the story is intriguing, it’s deep, it’s social and political and generally interesting and there is a LOT there. A lot of people, and names, and place names, and I found myself a few times going “who?”. The difficulty is no joke also, it’s a real surprise how even basic enemies can catch you out – but a lot of people will like that. The ones who don’t can use some accessibility features to reduce enemy aggressiveness etc. There are some pacing issues in the game when you’re forced to do some annoying puzzles that thankfully are quick to either figure out or Google. They aren’t a hindrance, but sometimes you just want to battle, not push a ball around.
These are minor, arguably nit picky, negatives that are serving the purpose of a review. At no point throughout my 35 hours did these negatives take the shine off this magnificent game. Matthias Linda has filled Chained Echoes with quests, side quests, end game content and host of hidden content that you can go chasing for hours on end if you like.
Picked as #5 in my Pure Dead Gaming GOTY, Chained Echoes is an absolute masterpiece. Everything you love about classic JRPGs is here with the addition of some newer and welcome mechanics. A gentle reminder, ONE man, Matthias Linda, made this game, mostly in his spare time. Incredible, really.
Final Fantasy fans, Chrono Trigger fans and Dragon Quest fans – you know what to do.
-Dony
