However, the game’s real strength is its narrative.Īcross the 35 or so hours that it takes to finish the game, Chained Echoes delivers a true epic, with a complex plot that examines and criticises a wide range of different political perspectives, an inter-generational war that has persisted between three mighty nations (and that certain prominent people within each benefit from having it continue), and a ragtag band of heroes that fate brings together to prevent some earth-shattering events. The game plays nicely and even has some neat little homages to the classics along the way (there’s a battle with a giant octopus while your party rides a raft, and yes, every JRPG veteran knows what that’s a reference to). Because they so fundamentally misunderstand what made the greats of that era so memorable, these games are generally little more than hollow, empty pastiche.Ĭhained Echoes is different. Without a narrative that has something to say, these games are generally just exercises of running around in a circle, levelling up, and then fighting ever-more powerful enemies.

Too many retro homage JRPGs are successful in aping the pixel aesthetics and turn-based combat but fall short in the one thing that really matters. Related reading: Another retro homage from this year that is particularly noteworthy is Rise of the Third Power. This is what makes Chained Echoes stand out among all the modern efforts to do retro homage JRPGs. Entire books of philosophical essays have been written about these games. One of the things that made the truly memorable pixel-era JRPGs like Final Fantasy IV-VI, Chrono Trigger, Secret Of Mana and Dragon Quest IV-VI so special was that they backed the classic turn-based JRPG action that people loved with narratives that were genuinely intelligent and had serious things to say.

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