You’ll gain Grimoire points for every boss you defeat, which will let you unlock a new skill, be it passive or active. Instead, stat boosts are tied into a skill, armour, and weapon upgrade system. Traditional levelling has also been done away with. Oh, and enemies can be seen and avoided in the world. Fast travel has also been implemented with areas unlocking the first time you visit them, so there’s none of that old school tedium of having to backtrack through a winding canyon dungeon so you can hand in a side quest in a small village. There’s also a mech suit for you to run around in, which is more than just a movement mechanic. You can travel on foot, scale cliffs, explore towns, delve into dungeons and, at some point, you’ll gain your own customisable airship. World exploration remains the same as ever. Its inspirations, clearly apparent on its proverbial sleeve, have been improved with the hindsight that twenty years or so can bring. Traditional systems with unconventional twistsĬhained Echoes builds upon the mechanics of RPGs from yore. Coupled with some fantastic writing, especially for our party of heroes, Chained Echoes wonderful story and satisfying exploration chews up the hours relentlessly. There’s a lot of political manoeuvring at play, but the characterisation ans impressive sprite work elevates a story that we have seen before. There are plenty of twists and turns to the story, along with oodles of side quests and world-building that always ensure there’s something new to do or encounter. Everyone has their own backstory and the game often throws you into the shoes of other party members to drive home the point no one here is a throwaway accessory. There’s a wonderfully diverse cast of party members to play with, none of whom feel like a second-fiddle sidekick just there to buff the hero. While the overall story is pretty much par for the course for many role-playing games, it’s really what Chained Echoes does in between the major story beats that make it shine.
Before long, a plot to start a new war between the kingdoms throws Glenn and his friends deep into the middle of an assassination plot in the hope that they can stop it before it begins. But when war without surcease and unreasoning hatred continue to hold sway, peace can only last so long. When an operation to gain hold of a magical artifact unleashes a terrible force of destruction, peace becomes the only option. The kingdoms of Valandis have been at war for several generations. The question now, after such a long time in development, is if Chained Echoes stand amongst the greats of the genre, or was it left in the oven too long? I said Valandis not Vana’diel It’s a spectacular 16-bit inspired progressive JRPG meant to invoke the wonder and joy from what many consider the Golden Age of JRPGs.
After seven years in production, indie developer and mostly one-man army Matthias Linda’s Chained Echoes has finally come out.
0 kommentar(er)
