Chained Echoes - Review @ Screenrant

Screenrant is another site that likes the J-RPG Chained Echoes:

Chained Echoes Review - What's Old Is New Again

Chained Echoes is one of the year's best RPGs and comes with an engaging combat system, compelling characters, and stellar worldbuilding.

Characters from Chained Echoes behind the game's logo, with the hero having his sword drawn.
Chained Echoes, an indie JRPG from Matthias Linda and published by Deck13, is a pleasant - and pretty much perfect - surprise. On the surface, it may look like yet another indie RPG obsessed with the SNES era, but thanks to an engaging combat system, compelling characters, and stellar worldbuilding, it proves to be much more. Available now, Chained Echoes is one of the best games of 2022.

From the opening seconds - a nice homage to Chrono Trigger - Chained Echoes proudly harkens back to a nostalgic time of wired controllers and chunky game cartridges. However, it quickly subverts expectations (like in that same Chrono Trigger homage). The game walks a fine balance of celebrating some of the best JRPGs of all time while toying with conventions. There are plenty of familiar themes and character archetypes, of course, but one of Chained Echoes' biggest successes is that it never feels lazy when calling back to SNES classics, and it never feels pretentious when it's poking fun at JRPG clichés.

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Fans of SNES-era games (and especially JRPGs) will certainly love Chained Echoes, but there are plenty of quality-of-life improvements (like being able to save at pretty much any time) that keep the game feeling new and distinctly 21st-century. For all the aesthetics of games like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6, Chained Echoes doesn't feel like a '90s game (a trap that many retro-leaning indies fall into). Chained Echoes is a fresh, smart adventure that celebrates classic JRPGs while not being afraid to push into new directions. It's sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking - and always fun. It's a must-play.