As an old gamer, I cut my teeth on the original Final Fantasy series, starting with the NES and then SNES, along with the Phantasy Star series on SMS and Genesis. Chained Echoes is deep in its character stories, unique(ish) combat syste, with the advent of the Overdrive mechanic, wonderfully scored, and amazingly pixelated giving the player that 16-bit feeling of nostalgia while having a new world to play around in. I am 17 hours in, and only have completed 19 percent of the achievements. The game feels massive, yet travel is quick, even in walking (kudos to the devs for having running speed be normal walking!). The characters, even though they have a generally defined role, are very customizable to fit your play style. The devs have an amazing opportunity for a franchise here (ala the Trails series). The lore describes a vast world outside of the continent you are on. It may be that the game takes you to the rest of the world, but the way the other land masses were described, if we traverse the whole of the world, then this game is much more massive than I initially thought. Though, on second thought, it is implied that there is an airship in the future, so who knows, LOL. I took off 2 points for not being able to pull up notes/books the party reads for hints and tips (outside of the amazing mapping system), as well as the lore. The other 2 points taken off were due to the tropes in the game, where, though tried and true for the most part, can have only a slight touch of wishing for a 'new' story. Though, since this is a game rooted in nostalgia from amazings titles in the 80s and 90s, this is only a very minor tweak of my want for a new trope. I am looking forward to more JRPG from this dev, amazing title, right price. Chef's Kiss! TL;DR - Put in cart, click cart, click purchase now, install, enjoy - Go! What're you waiting for!
