Chained Echoes - Retro style JRPG inspired by Chrono Trigger, Xenogears and more

R

RanceJustice

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jun 9, 2003
Messages
6,623
Recently Chained Echoes successfully completed its Kickstarter campaign, with many stretch goals included! The game is an interesting homage to JRPGs from the SNES and PSX era, such as the Final Fantasy series, Chrono Trigger, and Xenogears. For more information on the game check out its Kickstarter page here -


It is scheduled for release within the next two years, they support Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4 consoles in addition to Windows/Mac/Linux PC support! At current, the cheapest pledge comes out to about $19 for a digital copy of the game on your platform of choice. There are also more in depth packages and extras/add-ons, including boxed editions for those who prefer physical ownership.

Since the close of the Kickstarter campaign, they have a PayPal-based store hosted on their own website for new backers. Thankfully, all the items include the same content and are at the same prices as KS. You can find it...

http://www.chainedechoes.com/paypal/

They plan to leave up this store at least until the end of March 31, so check it out! Best of all, all purchases via the store continue to apply to the Stretch Goals. Though the game achieved a great many goals, there are still a few (game content related) that have not yet been unlocked. As I write this, we're quite close to the 170K goal for "expanded airships and mech options" as its only a few hundred dollars away, and if we get the word out the 200K goal of "Special tag-team attacks" seems plausible as well

Enjoy!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Q-BZ
like this
Colonel Sanders said:
Agreed, especially for one which has zero originality.
Click to expand...

Oh I don't know about that. Its all about implementation. There are tons of games that run certain mechanics or thematic elements, but their quality can vary immensely between shovelware and classics. As for this particular game I've not seen a serious attempt at including in-depth mech presence or airship customization, so it seems they're trying to do something different.

GSDragoon said:
Looks interesting but I can't spend money on a game before it's actually released anymore. Been burned waaay too many times.
Click to expand...

I can understand that. Hell, I've been burned too. However, I try to bolster small studios and keep my eyes open for interesting titles; I've amassed a whole list of previously crowdfunded titles such as Battlechasers: Nightwar, Moonlighter, Divinity Original Sin (and its sequel), Pillars of Eternity (and its sequel), Consortium (and its sequel) Children of Zodiarks, Wargroove, and Shadows of Adam... just to name a few that I picked off my list. I can toss a few bucks at something interesting and if it pans out that's great - I got a new game at a discount plus some goodies. If not, that's unfortunate but I didn't lose too much. Everyone has their threshold, but even after some foul ups its a pity if everyone gets so jaded that they can't bring themselves to back projects for which crowdfunding is really best suited.
 
doesn't look bad visually, aside from from lack of foreshortening and desperate need for contrast in some cases... I'm guessing there are more than one artist on this as it's not as cohesive feeling as a lot of those other indie games listed above...

theme or character-wise absolutely nothing jumped out at me, girl in airship maybe died in the beginning and halo/destiny/anthem/generic looking robots fly around... maybe they don't wanna spoil it but a good original story and script is about the only reason I'd pick up a game like this anymore...
 
That box design with it's SNES characteristics, and the leather looking holder look fantastic. I'm a huge JRPG fan, but I don't really take part in crowdfunding for a variety of reasons. This looks interesting, may keep an eye on it for sure.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Q-BZ
like this
Yep, looks great. The graphics remind me of CrossCode.. and i get an rpgmaker feeling from it. Promising. Will dig on it when it releases.
 
z936j36w0ma21.jpg
 
Youn said:
doesn't look bad visually, aside from from lack of foreshortening and desperate need for contrast in some cases... I'm guessing there are more than one artist on this as it's not as cohesive feeling as a lot of those other indie games listed above...

theme or character-wise absolutely nothing jumped out at me, girl in airship maybe died in the beginning and halo/destiny/anthem/generic looking robots fly around... maybe they don't wanna spoil it but a good original story and script is about the only reason I'd pick up a game like this anymore...
Click to expand...

I think its worth noting that thus far the game has been developed in someone's spare time over the past several years, so unpolished prototype-level art production is understandable. I'm sure things will be polished quite a bit. Most of the other games listed (depending on many factors including size of team, tools, skills etc...) have artbook with early art that doesn't quite "fit", which is of course hashed out in development in the better titles; Think of all those pages in artbooks where characters look completely different in different designs etc. I'm not sure I'd characterize the robots as generic or inspired by the titles you listed; they seem to have a stronger anime inspiration with a couple other contributing elements (ie Steampunk-ish etc) but that's my perception.

As far as the story and script, we really won't know. I think it has the potential to be interesting indeed but yeah things are still so fluid at this time giving away lots of major plot elements probably may be premature. They haven't detailed the characterization yet as I'm guessing that this campaign may well affect it; for instance, some of the already-met stretch goals added 2 new playable characters. There's a blurb on the story which seems a promising promising start if well implemented and expanded. I expect we'll see more in time and hope it is worthwhile.

BiH115 said:
That box design with it's SNES characteristics, and the leather looking holder look fantastic. I'm a huge JRPG fan, but I don't really take part in crowdfunding for a variety of reasons. This looks interesting, may keep an eye on it for sure.
Click to expand...

They certainly did a nice job and it speaks to the faith they have in the title to prepare physical collector's kits like this. Its also rather neat that the physical PC copies in I am guessing they will have a post-launch physical kit of some sort, but it may have less in it and/or be more expensive. They mention that (at least a version of) the slipcover and one of the collector's coins are backer exclusive, for instance. Likewise, the Limited Edition - the one that comes with the SNES-style box - is noted as follows: "The Limited Edition will be limited to 1000 copies for Switch, 1000 copies for Playstation 4 and 500 copies for PC/Mac/Linux. It will be sold in two batches (500/500/250 each). Every Limited Edition not sold through Kickstarter and late backing will be available in the publisher’s store later but it will not include the Backing exclusive items listed above! So make sure to grab it now! " . So there's the potential for it to be sold out. If you still don't feel comfortable buying before launch that's your choice of course, but just be aware

memnoch998 said:
Yep, looks great. The graphics remind me of CrossCode.. and i get an rpgmaker feeling from it. Promising. Will dig on it when it releases.
Click to expand...

CrossCode is a great title as well, both using initial crowdfunding and later Steam's Early Access release to provide a great game through several years of development; I hope Chained Echoes does as well! As I personally have some concerns about RPGMaker and similar platforms (not that there aren't some well made titles, but the potential for hasty assembly of ready-made engines and assets is a worry in this combination of genre/tools), I always look into retro-style titles to see their engines/assets for my own peace of mind. Chained Echoes thankfully is developed upon Unity according to a FAQ entry and doesn't seem to be using the "throwaway" or common paid asset packages either from a cursory glance at the core of their design. The use of these elements are not always necessarily a disqualification - I've known there are a few RPGMaker or GameMakerStudio titles that are well made and some indie projects that buy a pack of assets rather than contract another artist to specialize - but I always do at least a little digging before I back a crowdfunding project and when I find indie and/or "retro" titles that look like they "could" be made in one of those but are NOT, I give them a little extra attention and increase my likelihood of backing
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top