Chained Echoes

A great turn based RPG. The music is so cozy, the background art is beautiful. The world building is pretty solid. The sprite work is so cool. The battle system is just unique enough to really hook you and engage you with a heat/cool system to buff/nerf your entire party and it is a lot of fun to play with. There are a TON of party members that I could see anyone having their favorites. The mech combat is really fun as well, just a bit different from the standard but enough to be very engaging. The story was pretty cool, I was fairly surprised by the twist which I think is a good sign, and they built on that to a *very* satisfying end. Overall if you enjoy JRPGs I would recommend supporting Matthias and I look forward to his future endeavors!

8.8/10 Almost everything I wanted from an RPG. Got 100% achieves, wasn't terribly time consuming and was still fun till the end. Will not buy DLC due to no achieves. Unsure why they did that.

Excellent game in the genre. Top storyline.

Chained Echoes tries really hard to harken back to classic RPGs like Phantasy Star and Shining Force. The good: Art for the genre are beyond excellent. Managing inventory is decent. Not having to heal your party after every battle Battles are well balanced and challenging. The ugly: Navigating levels. Sometimes things are near impossible to find. The bad: Storyline Without giving any spoilers - the plot and overarching story line of Chained Echoes is a major let down. The ending was incredibly anti-climatic. Overall a 6.2/10

TL:DR Review: While I have played many RPGs on other systems over a decade, this was one of the first ones I’ve played on Steam and quite enjoyed the entire game! I have purchased the DLC and each of the pillars of gaming have a favorable rating in my opinion. It is a great game to pick up, whether you wait for the next sale or not. Disclaimer / Bias: I have purchased this game on sale from Steam. RPGs are my second most played genre over the course of my life. I have enjoyed series which use unique, challenging mechanics and interesting / fun stories such as Octopath Traveler and Mario RPG rather than others a majority probably likes more such as Final Fantasy series as a whole. Gameplay: The world is quite large, and while there is a direction the game takes you, and some places in the game where it won’t allow you to go to a certain place, the map can be explored, especially when you can start flying around. The game rewards you for exploration with many hidden treasures. The battles are different from any other game I have played, granting you a meter which can cause you to take double damage if you don’t keep your momentum in the yellow range (too little or too much will cause you issues). Each skill increases this drive, while certain skills go in rotation (turning yellow) which will lower the bar. This gives battles more complexity, since the most optimal skill to use in a battle could very well not be the best used in that turn if it is going to put the meter in red. This forces you to build a set 8 skills around different classifications of skills, as well as not using just a set couple skills every turn like some other games reward you for doing. You are also able to pair your field spots with a second character, granting you the ability to battle enemies with 8 party members, which is great to not have too many benched characters just cheering you on for moral support. Leveling doesn’t work like other games, requiring you to kill bosses or do certain things in order to gain levels, making you unable to power level to a point where the game becomes not a challenge, making it less fun. There are also shrines of different classes available to partake in a challenge in order to gain a secondary class. I vividly remember one challenge I entered which I saw the amount of enemies, and the enemy itself, load. I wasn't prepared with enough of an item let’s say… and the first thought of the battle was… “well it’s been a good run without a single game over yet guys, but the time has come to get slaughtered!” Story: The characters are quite memorable, and the story progresses to have you learn more about all of them. There are some ambiguous questions, and a couple of loose looking motivations which I think could have been worked into the character development for some characters, but it works as it is. You also get to build up your ‘guild base’ for your team later on which is always a plus I find in games. You even get an airship to traverse in, but I would have liked to have seen some more customization for it like a couple other RPGs have (such as having a shop and inn within the airship rather than this game which only has the tweaks as cosmetics). Visuals: Art is always a personal preference, though I am quite a fan of the art style they chose for the game! I do like the animations of the skills which blend in well with the sound effects! Sounds: The soundtrack is probably top 10 favorites of all time, and works wonderfully for the setting it takes place in. I have this playlist used at times in the tabletop games I run my campaigns. Some of my favorite themes are their battle ones. SteamDeck Compatibility: I have had only 1 crash of the game when using the steamdeck, with over 150 hours on it. This might be exclusive to the steamdeck, or might have been something I did which confused the game changing maps too frequently. Value and Considerations: With the sheer number of hours I put into the game, I definitely got my money’s worth, even without the steam sale. The game mechanics are unique, I enjoyed the story, and personally recommend this game for any RPG fan.

好玩

有很多老RPG的缺点，比如强制解密，莫名其妙的堆怪等等，但剧情和关卡足够有趣，值得一个好评