Retro JRPG Chained Echoes is getting a New Game Plus mode
Seven years of development and still going
Chained Echoes is a retro Japanese-inspired RPG set in a world of dragons and mech suits. It seemingly already has the scope of the 16-bit games that inspired it, but that doesn't mean there aren't post-release updates to come. Its developer is now working on a New Game Plus mode.
In an update on Steam its developers first acknowledged that work is ongoing on fixing various savegame and crash bugs that the playerbase have reported. They're also going to add Japanese language support "probably next week on PC", although "further languages are not planned at this moment" due to the cost of translating its 200,000-word script.
In terms of future content plans, "Matthias is currently working on NG+ and some smaller Quality of Life improvements," says the post. "Anything else, may it be a DLC or a Sequel... honestly, we haven't really thought about that just yet. Once we're finished with patching the critical issues you've found, we'll sit together and discuss possible options."
Katharine was impressed with Chained Echoes when she dove into it pre-release last month. She was particularly taken with its combat system, where you're choosing attacks partly to control an "Overdrive bar" that can either supercharge your attacks or leave your party vulnerable.
Again, it's difficult to say at this point whether its battle system will evolve any further during the game, but based on what I've played so far, it certainly feels like Chained Echoes has taken all the right lessons from its 16-bit inspirations. It feels modern and nostalgic at the same time, and had this released alongside those late 90s classics, I have a feeling we'd be talking about it now in very much the same breath as Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI and everything else. Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself a bit there, but seriously, there is something special here, and you should definitely keep an eye on it if SNES-era JRPGs are your jam.
High praise from Katharine, who knows her way around the best JRPGs