Chained Echoes

Chained to (uneven) mediocrity

Why

Why Not

Impressions

Chained Echoes made a strong first impression and was never really bad (other than the dialogue), but also failed to live up to the game it probably could have been.

Its opening has you jumping between the characters who'll make up your party for the remainder of their game, handily establishing their backstories and personalities by having you experience them firsthand. It's a useful approach both narratively and in terms of gameplay, ensuring you'll use them at least once before potentially resigning them to the bench in favour of newer, shinier toys. Even if you go that route you'll always be able to bring them back onto the front-lines whenever it strikes your fancy; experience is global so even if you bench someone the whole game or only find them before the final mission you can still spec them up to your liking and throw them at the final boss.

Unfortunately the rest of the game fails to live up to its narratively impressive opening; despite the plot trying its best to be interesting the dialogue is so unbearably unnatural I found myself outright skipping large chunks. I'd definitely believe it's better in the developer's native German but the English localization reminds me of badly written fanfic. The overall plot is pretty solid for a JRPG though, and the character archetypes for interesting party dynamics are there even if they aren't necessarily used. The dialogue clearly wasn't enough to kill the game for me since I finished it; but it was a constant dampener on the experience and a big reason I skipped most side quests/have no interest in the DLC.

Moving on to more positive aspects, the combat is definitely solid. You get an overdrive bar which needs to be kept in its green middle section for a variety of useful benefits and out of its red endzone in fear of increased damage taken. Most actions advance your position on the bar, with only randomly selected categories of action decrementing it. This sounds like a recipe for frustration and it certainly can be at times; though the game won't select a category you lack access to it'll frequently decide on annoyingly sub-optimal ones. Mech combat uses a slightly modified version of the system but the core conceit is the same. Your Overdrive can be managed by thoughtful selection of movesets and timing of certain actions, but it kinda goes against the rest of the game's streamlined approach to combat and build-crafting.

Grinding won't get you much in this game; only the ability to strengthen skills you already possess. Actual progression comes through Grimoire Shards from defeating predefined story or side quest bosses, which then give you the option of unlocking various active/passive skills and buffs to character's base stats. You can also buy improved weapons with gold, but unless you do this every time you see a new one you won't struggle for money. I didn't need to grind until the final boss gauntlet at which point I simply used some of the accessibility options to make things easier as I was ready for the game to end.

And that's kinda my overall impression of the game; I had a good time playing it but didn't feel anything other than relief at it ending. I'll give it a positive review because I definitely don't think it deserves a negative one, but a "thumbs sideways" would be the most accurate rating.