You love to see a Small team, spearheaded by One person, and Crowdfunded by the community do better than majority of Triple A companies.

The Game Systems in the game are designed to be simple, but free. In a way that the game gives you a lot of options to tackle a fight differently (via Character Variety, offering versatility per character build in terms of its uses, meaningful consumables) while keeping its progression simple in order to not break the game and keep the flow of the game smooth (Linear Gear progression with a little bit of customization, No level ups and major upgrades to character are tied with a boss fight/ a story point)

Side quests are handled beautifully by limiting its numbers, as well as making it available at certain story points that correlate to said side quest event. Side Quests are also more rewarding with an actual plot and not fetch quests. Even gathering the Crew members for your Clan has some sort of story for each one. It really shows that none of the content exist just to bloat the content of the game. It feels as if they actually planned these things to be in the game, which is rare nowadays.

Soundtrack is hidden banger. It occasionally have some orchestral schabang that is commonly used to wow the ears of the player. In this game however, it is surprisingly tamed. Though none of them truly stuck with me, The quality of the music is there. Noticably, the Horns take the lead of the music for most of the part which range from epic to solemn.

The Plot of the game starts off strong and continues to be strong at the latter part of the game. I do have some issues on how the pacing for the last act is and how the game ended, but none of them are so bad that made me hate the game, just some inconsistencies such as characters making stupid decisions or too convoluted plot devices that either leaves the story with plot holes, or make the actions of the characters in the previous Acts/Episodes inconsistent. With all that said, Every significant character in this game is well written, and their development throughout the game is also handled well. It feels like every character has their own ambitions and goals rather than revolving their story around the main character.

Another sidecomment on this game is on its exploration. Due to the plot, the player is limited access to many things in the game, it is not until you get your major mobility throughout the map that exploring starts to get fun. However, the said device will be present 10 or so hours in the game. that leaves the player leaving areas where they can't access or even soft lock them by placing a difficult monster. Which may be a turn off to other players, specially completionists. Having that said, it is also given that there are a lot and i mean A LOT of backtracking if you want to complete the whole game or experience it thoroughly.

If you are an fan of JRPGs or RPGs in general, I recommend you give it a try. try to be patient with its limiting features early game. Believe me I dropped this game after 7 hours before, but I'm glad I picked it up again.

Chained Echoes is a the game that will bring you nostalgia to what JRPG used to be. story is great, no grinding necessary since the leveling concept is based on how many bosses you have killed.

if you love JRPG from the late 90s and 2000 era, you should definitely try this

Unlike most JRPGs, this is a mature game made for a mature audience. Has that Final Fantasy 6 feel but is improved in so many ways.

10/10.