Chained Echoes

至今想不到为什么这种游戏不带战斗倍速或者跳过演出动画，每次放奥义和技能都得强制看十几秒动画。

有一些内化在RPG——尤其是广义的JRPG内部的底层逻辑，所有作品都在遵循的，包括一套完整的线性剧情、一个独立完善但不一定前卫的战斗系统、一个没多大但有着充分探索乐趣的箱庭式地图、角色<-->职业、团队叙事、数值成长（练级）……你会发现很少有独立游戏选择我们这里提到的广义JRPG作为题材，并不是因为别的什么原因，而是吃力不讨好，怎么去写一个精彩的剧本、怎么去展现自己巧夺天工的叙事、怎么去让战斗不乏味而又有新意、怎么让地图精致且激发探索欲、怎么设计有深度但不惹人生厌的角色、怎么平衡数值、怎么调整难度曲线……是的，这和独立游戏似乎是不同的领域。一般而言，独立游戏看重玩法，一个有新意有深度的玩法就可以为其赢来掌声；但JRPG尽管在玩法上也有许多突破空间，但更重要的却是完成度，写好故事、串好流程、填好数值，背后是对多个领域的精益求精和对相应内容极高的敏感度。这不是什么容易的事，所以我从未对一个独立游戏在这一领域能做出些什么抱有期待，不过，这款游戏做到的还是有些出乎我意料的。 之前说了很多，无非是想表达高完成度才是一个优秀JRPG的地基，大厂的JRPG作品茫茫多是金玉其外败絮其中，但只要有一群对数值、地图、系统都足够有研究的设计师来操刀，大厂作品已经可以至少通过路径依赖和堆人力做出“金玉其外”了。而那些真正失败的作品往往是“败絮其外”的，它们在之前所言的“底层逻辑”上出了比较严重的问题。而这部作品好在是避免了一些会直接为作品宣告死刑的问题。从完成度而言，JRPG有三个核心、分别是剧情、战斗系统和地图，往大了说，剧情包括故事、叙事、角色人设等等，战斗系统则包含了数值、平衡、难度曲线等等，地图则是探索性、指引、美工等等。 值得称赞的便是作品没有上来就在剧情上踩坑，作品的故事不长，也没用什么独特的叙事手法，因此怎么写好一个能承载其体量的故事便成了作者需要思考的点，作者做得很聪明的一点就是把一个篇幅极短的小品写得足够吸引人，你会发现故事不复杂且有很多传统JRPG套路内容，无外乎身份神秘的主角在战争中邂逅各种队友最后去打倒神的故事，然而精妙的起（侵略战争、角色各司其主）承（王国的故事、教会的秘密）转（王兄的心事、主角的身世）合（主角的选择、Catharsis兼具Novelistic Conversion——一个我很喜欢的结局）填补了一定问题，且为一个无比短小的故事带来了多次高潮，其推进相当流畅，最终也能平稳落地，虽是公式故事但结局却不落窠臼，也很好地传达了作者的意识形态。但遗憾的是，作者贫瘠的文字功底成了故事能更进一步的最大阻碍，有好的故事架构却没有与之匹配的文采，不过也有说法是锅应该是由翻译背而不是作者背，于是我使用英文玩了许久，结果依旧是认为作者的文字功底有失水准——但原作用的确实也不是英文，英文也是翻译得到的，原剧本具体如何我就不得而知了。 系统——首先我们可以一眼看到作者从时空系列借鉴了许多，但这不意味着作品完全没有自己的设计，作者在平衡玩家每回合行动指令这点上做了巨大的努力，单从这一点就可以看出我在一开始提到的，作者必定有着对一些数值的天然的高敏感性。他要杜绝JRPG中一种到了一定等级一定阶段战斗变成连续使用一个技能就能处理一切的现象，要杜绝一种许多指令并没有实际意义和作用的现象，要杜绝一种无限嗑药或练级就能解决所有战斗的现象。而要做到这些，随便往战斗系统中的每个栏里填一些几十年前就已经被摸透的公式化数值显然是不行的。与此同时作者也尊重每一个grinding爱好者，他放了些水晶、收藏品等内容在游戏中供那些爱好独特的玩家刷。然而，作品的战斗系统却又是个让我颇有微词之处，因为这个系统还是没能经过“时间”的考验，这里不是说这套系统行不通，而是数值终究还是在后期填崩了，这一套系统想追求的本质便是多变的战斗和指令策略的平衡，而到了游戏后期随着数值越来越难填这两点也不再能实现了。加之游戏角色和战斗系统本身就没什么成长性，装备系统和技能系统的灵活度不足搭配不够没有构筑体验，这套系统玩到后面终究是乏味的。 地图可以说是作品最出彩的地方之一了。算是传统箱庭设计理念的再现，可以回忆一下每一个优秀的JRPG作品的地图设计，那些不一定大但内容分布合理的场景、那些有特色的城镇、那些隐藏的地点、那些带有谜题的小巧思，极少引导就可带来高探索欲，空间感和美术别出心裁，前面的区域以后再来吧……还有高达开——不得不说我一直想说高达在作品里的设计不够好，系统太浅完成度太低，但可以在地图上开高达穷尽探索地图填补后期探索内容这点又弥补了高达系统的不足。总体而言地图是作品最无可挑剔的地方之一，仅有的问题来自于经过一番探索获得某些道具、装备在后期带来的正反馈不高，而这实际上是上面提到的系统数值没填好的缺陷。 是的，整体而言作品问题不少，别出心裁的地方有是有但不够令人印象深刻。可作为一个独立游戏而言，有如此之高的完成度已经实属不易了，且在剧情、战斗、地图这三个JRPG最重要的领域上的打磨都可以看出作者的设计天赋和心血，纵使有再多不足之处，这款游戏确是近年间indie JRPG的佼佼者。

I genuinely did not expect Chained Heroes to be THIS good. I bought CH, thinking it would just be another fun RPG to pass the time, but it completely pulled me in. The characters are honestly one of the strongest parts of the game for me. Every single one feels memorable and lovable in their own way, and the interactions between them made me way more emotionally invested than I expected. You can really feel the amount of care the devs put into the game. CH honestly became one of those games where I keep thinking about it even months after completing it. Really glad I gave it a chance.

For a single dev, this is a great accomplishment. Especially liked the music and the controls. However, the writing especially the epic level of twists sapped all of the fun out it for me. Characters are good, bad, good, bad... and not who they seem and then not who we are then told they are. And the end twist decision... it really shows what the story is based upon... no matter how bad or evil you can be, no matter how many deaths you cause or atrocities you commit - if you have a reasonable explanation, we are expected to not only accept it but also celebrate it as well. The world isn't black and white but moral constants should still remain reasonable. In the end, I hope the dev makes more games. And I hope they bring in additional writers to help course correct some of these issues.

I wish i could love this game because the art, music and story are so on point for an JRPG But the sluggish and unfair battle, annoying and random overheat system, unnessarily complicated skill and weapon system can never make me finish the game

Finalizado el juego y le doy de nota 9.5/10. Para mi el juego es buenísimo, voy por partes: La historia es muy buena, es un viaje muy bonito con unos personajes increíble y memorables de los que siempre quieres conocer más. El sistema de combate es muy top haciendo que cada combate sea táctico en sí sin necesidad de irte desgantándote los objetos y demás ya que recuperas toda la vida y la mana después de cada combate. Gráficamente es precioso, con un estilo pixel art muy bonito, zonas muy bonitas y unos diseños en general muy top. La idea de la nave y de las armaduras celestes, el clan, etc. lo que aportan a la exploración y como el juego te cambia a partir de que desbloqueas todo esto y le da un soplo de aire fresco a mitad del juego muy top. Para mi, una gran sorpresa ¿Por qué no le pongo un 10? Porque no está traducido al español, entiendo que es un indie que ha hecho solo un chico pero estaría genial que ponga alguna vez una traducción española oficial.

Chained Echoes is a good game weighed down by a lot of small annoyances. I still had a fair amount of fun with it, but by the end I was starting to grow tired of some of its mechanics. The combat system is one of the stronger parts of the game. It feels complex enough to stay engaging without becoming overly convoluted. The overdrive system is an interesting idea, though managing it can sometimes feel more tedious than rewarding. Combat also became repetitive over time, especially during the Sky Armor fights. The difficulty curve felt uneven as well: the early game was fairly challenging, but eventually the game became quite easy. Progression is one of the weaker aspects. Some new skills are genuinely strong and useful, but many feel too situational to matter, if not outright pointless. Character growth outside of that mostly comes down to equipment, crystals, and class emblems. Equipment is largely a straightforward numbers upgrade. Crystals are cumbersome to set up and transfer between gear, and most of them didn’t feel worth using anyway - I mostly defaulted to HP drain, stat boosts, and on-hit status effects. Class emblems also felt underwhelming, since they were mostly just stat boosts paired with weaker versions of skills characters could already learn elsewhere. I liked the writing more than I expected to. For most of the game, I was invested in the world and in much of the cast. The game occasionally veers into odd or quirky territory, but for the most part it worked for me. Unfortunately, the ending was weak and didn’t really pay off that investment. Presentation is a mixed bag. The pixel art is solid and the soundtrack is very pleasant, but the animations - when they exist - and the sound effects feel overused. Some abilities ended up feeling unsatisfying to use simply because of how they looked and sounded. On the technical side, the game ran almost perfectly on my Linux desktop. The native version performed much better for me than Proton: Proton froze fairly often, while the native version only did so rarely, and even that was almost entirely fixed by running it with gamemoderun. Overall, Chained Echoes is a solid RPG with a lot to like, especially in its combat, world, and music, but it’s also held back by repetitive battles, weak progression systems, and an underwhelming ending.

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