When I used to play SNES, I must confess, I did not play many, or none at all, RPGs. If I did, I do not remember right off the top of my head right now. I remember action games, Megaman games, fighting games, and of course, Super Mario World. Same on the PlayStation One days, I, at the time thought of RPGs, particularly RPGs, as kind of boring. If I wasn't getting any action in the first ten minutes of the game, and instead, lots to read, I was out.
This obviously changed eventually, especially when I started working at the local GameStop, which wasn't entirely local, it was the next town over but the closest one obviously. Then I started revisiting and playing RPGs. I very much remember finally playing Final Fantasy VI, what I don't remember is, if I played it on the Gameboy Advance or in an emulator, I did play a lot of old games like that back in the day.
The thing is, that eventually, I had to catch up with many of the SNES RPGs as well as many from the PS1 eventually giving me a newfound appreciation for these wonderful games.
Fast forward to the present day, and I am a sucker for playing these games on the Nintendo Switch. I find is it the best way to revisit some, and play many I never had the chance to play before, as well, as some new games that are trying to capture that nostalgia of what to many, is the golden era of RPGs.
A game I have been playing these past few days, is Chained Echoes, on the Switch. This was released in early December, of 2022 basically on every main platform., by indie developer Matthias Linda.
I have only put on about three hours into it, maybe four and it has been a delight to play. The combat is the turn-based combat you know and love. Four members of your team get to take turns swinging their weapons or skills at the enemy. Each member has a totally unique moveset and each of them can be paired with another member and you can switch between them in real time without losing a turn. This makes the battles, more strategic, and as my kid would say, much more funner. The combat system has an Overdrive meter that adds an extra layer of complexity to the combat. The meter is displayed at the top of the screen, and it builds up as you attack or use your skills, the more powerful the skills, the faster it builds up. And of course, you want to stay in the green area, rather than go all the way to the red area. While you are on overdrive or green area, you deal more damage vs in the read, you take more damage and enemies get more turns. A few ways to back up the meter, you can just defend, or there are some moves or attacks that may also push it back a bit.
Like in any RPG, there is a lot of exploration to do, and of course, and yes, exploration is rewarded. Random treasure chests, helping someone and in turn, you might get a fancy weapon, sell stands with special deals, etc.
I love the art style of this game, it looks fantastic, with gorgeous environments, and fascinating characters. It pays some homage to games like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI, which in fact, it was what sold me to this game. Again, I need to mention the Soundtrack, it is great!
So far it is presenting a very intriguing story and characters, and I am very eager to see where this game goes. Also, did I mention mechs? There are mechs your character can be equipped with, at some point, I am yet to have one but I know they're there!
Either way, I am happy this game is finally out for everyone to play, I am having fun with it, and worth checking out.
