Chained Echoes

這款遊戲基本上都是照著攻略跑的 所以該說好玩嗎? 只能說普通吧 畢竟沒照攻略走 就有老毛病 很多東西拿不到 就會顯得很彆扭 不舒服

虽然回合制上抛弃了传统的等级，按理来讲应该更鼓励对策化出招，但每个角色强度差异过大，魔法数值设计又太过超模，加之怪物数值的膨胀，导致到后面依旧是上buff打爆发的回合制传统播片。系统可圈可点但仍然需要打磨。而剧情上可以说非常大胆而不失深度，可以看到作者的宏图壮志，如果这不是个小作坊作品的话。当然得益于小作坊才能如此大胆，很多地方都还需要打磨与深入，可惜步子跨太大还是扯到了，最后也算有些草率地收尾。满分十分我愿意给出8.5分，少见的精品，绝对值得一玩。

Solid artwork, gameplay, and storytelling. I really appreciate being able to adjust battle difficulty anytime, which helps a lot during tougher encounters. The map felt a bit overwhelming at first, but it gets easier to navigate over time. Using a guide also made progression smoother. The story can be confusing early on with lots of terms and world-building, especially since it introduces a whole continent while focusing on a smaller setting. Still, it sets up interesting potential for future games. The main story has some nice twists, and the combat is engaging and challenging. Overall, a recommended RPG.

Me pegou extremamente de surpresa, entregando uma aventura aos melhores moldes dos JRPGs clássicos e a pixel art que tanto me atrai. Campanha longa e completa com bastantes horas, sidequests e itens para grindar à vontade. Merecia músicas mais memoráveis, mas ainda assim um grande jogo pros fãs do antigo e pixelado.

tl;dr, A rock solid indie retro RPG inspired by PS1-era titles like Xenogears, Suikoden, and Final Fantasy Tactics. You should buy it if you liked those other games. Combat is turn-based with a few twists based on resource management, damage-type exploits, and manipulating a stress-bar which can effect the damage players deal/take. The characters are quite customizable, and each character feels unique and useful. The art has a few blemishes. The sprites and portraits occasionally lack polish and have muddy details, but I'm enthusiastically willing to accept that given this is a mostly-solo dev's first project. The music and sound are solid and atmospheric, though occasionally there are sounds that are more cartoony than I'd have gone with. I found myself humming multiple tracks from this game during my daily commute. The story is where Chained Echoes truly shines. You can see the SNES and PS1-era JRPG influences strongly here. The game is full of twists, turns, political intrigue, character drama, ancient lore, and (of course) a large and corrupt religious organization to topple. This is a game that is well worth its cost. If you're an older-school RPG fan, it's a must-play. Chained Echoes has more than earned its flowers, and I'm excited to see what Matthias Linda does next.

(Update: Finished the game! Story completion, didn't really bother with sidequest and side characters. 40 hours playtime) The Final Act was engaging although it was flatter than I had hoped. Nonetheless this is a triumphant achievement for a one-person game, Matthias Linda is absolutely insane. Sadly I already got tired of the game's mechanics and I didn't want to stretch my playtime more than it needed to. The main story alone is very solid and I quite liked the ending, even though I'm sure a lot would disagree. Some of the twists are a little lazy and the grandiose worldbuilding kinda just stopped in the FInal Act lol, but that's okay. My previous impressions still stand, this is not really a game for JRPG beginners. It's a mixed bag with a lot of good ideas and much to love if you're nostalgic with PS1 and SNES era games. ------ OLD REVIEW BELOW: (Update: Previously I was on Act 3 and did not recommend this game.) Currently on the Final Act, aiming for story completion. By all means, this game is a labour of love and there are plenty of clever ideas and mechanics in this game. The beginning of this game was incredible, the systems are there and genuinely engaging. But by the middle of the game as it "opens up", you can really see the cracks forming and the once novel mechanics become boring and frankly not fun. Managing Overdrive just.. isn't it after a while. Forced to choose random moves to lower the OD gauge, while getting attacked by enemies raises your OD kind of seem like the game is punishing you too much. This game also has a strange levelling system similar to Chrono Cross where you don't gain XP but instead rewarded with a star for every boss defeated. The star can then be used either to buy Active Skills, Passive Skills, or a stat upgrade. Active skills are upgradeable via expending Skill Points that you can get from defeating mobs, bosses, or this... interesting in-game achievement board that blocks your progression if you don't get the achievements in the intended order. While this does seem fun this also means you're going to be stuck with the same skills for a loooong time unless you made considerable progress in the story, and you're pretty much gatekept from being too powerful since you don't level up. Another gripe I have is with the crystal system. Crystals are used akin to accessories, imbuing passive skills to weapons and armour and you collect the crystals from random glowing deposits throughout the world. The passives include giving your attacks an elemental affinity, raise your stats, chance for more money, deal extra damage to certain enemy types, etc. Crystals of lower level can be combined to create a stronger one. Seems fine, right? But the thing is you can only equip -and- remove the crystals to your equipment one-by-one, and you can only do it at an anvil/ smithy along with upgrading your equipment. The crystal stays on that piece of equipment when you replace it. So, did you find a chest with a better sword? Too bad! your elemental crystal is stuck on your old one, and you have no means to transfer it unless you find an anvil, remove it from your old one, attach it to your new one... and you have about an hour of gameplay before you find yet another better equipment, find an anvil, repeat the process... etc. For every single party member (that you care about). The pace this game handles equipment lifespan is super fast that it's honestly very annoying. By mid-game there are at least nine characters that you can play as which all have unique skill pools and play strats including one that's basically a Final Fantasy Blue Mage, plus an additional gameplay/battle mode which is Sky Armour which has a separate equipment and skills progression. I think for most people who aren't into JRPGs already, this is just way too many systems, way too much is going on. You can kind of roll with one strategy for most of the game (Sienna as a crit/ petal storm nuke and everyone else supports) hence in my previous opinion of this game i found it boring. But when you unlock the last tier of Skills FINALLY the game lets off the leash and have you fully experiment with team comps for the tougher late game battles. I can't comment on the story yet since I'm still watching it unfold, but it is incredibly ambitious and reminds me so much of FFXII, I did not expect the grand political themes and worldbuilding to be this big in scale, and more since we also have the presence of overarching gods. I loved all the inspirations going into this game and the easter eggs/ references and Matthias Linda is crazy to be able to make all of this on his own as a solo dev. Sadly, unless you are already into JRPGs, Chained Echoes so far is kind of hard to recommend, but if you are a JRPG Veteran it's very much worth a look.

S tier jrpg