Thank you to Deck13 and Keymailer for providing us with a copy of this game.
Chained Echoes is a 16-bit era inspired JRPG which sees you travel across the varied, war-stricken continent of Valandis to bring an end to the war between the 3 kingdoms. With a world filled with charming characters, vicious foes, and bakers that use wood as an ingredient, you will fight in turn-based combat utilizing a complex equipment and skill system to fend for yourself. Chained Echoes also features a customizable airship, tons of items to loot and craft, a 30-40 hour playtime, no random encounters, and a fantastic soundtrack inspired by the PSX era. Will you be able to bring peace to Valandis?
Honestly, I absolutely love this game. The 16-bit style graphics, the attention to small little details, the woven in humor, and the combat mechanics all shine bright here. The combat doesn't feel sluggish and I actually felt a desire to talk to the NPCs sprinkled across the world, which is not a normal feeling for me. I also liked that, if I started a conversation with a NPC, I could still walk away. I wasn't forced to hear everything that they needed to say. Overall, as a game, I can't recommend this one enough!
Yeah it runs near perfectly here. Without any changes, you can keep 60 FPS with 6.5 - 7 hours of battery on a full charge. It may not come as a surprise based on the game's graphical quality, but it is still wonderful.
I did encounter a couple stutters here and there, which stalled the game for a solid 1 second, but that was it. This tended to happen on the first attack in combat or entering into a new place, but it wasn't consistent or enough to stop me from enjoying the game.
You can see the spike in the framerate graph there (the single vertical line).
Chained Echoes brings back a lot of memories when playing it. Not because it is something I played before, but because it reminds me of the good times I had with older JRPGs. Chrono Trigger is a big one that I loved from the SNES era and this game gave me those same feelings I had playing back in the day. On top of that, the game performs beautifully on the Deck without any setting changes. I am happy to say it gets our Best on Deck rating! If you enjoy the SNES JRPG era, this is an easy must-buy.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Chained Echoes is a new 16-bit JRPG that shines with its visuals, faster turn-based combat, and attention to detail. It also performs near-perfectly on the Steam Deck!
