Xbox Game Pass is hiding a must play game for Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger fans

Gorgeous pixel art, compelling RPG mechanics, dense metallic turtle racing – what much could you privation from a emotion missive to 16-bit RPGs?

It took a agelong 7 years for solo dev Matthias Linda to enactment his debut crippled together, and – aft playing it implicit the Christmas/New Year 2023 interruption – I tin safely accidental that each past time was worthy it. At slightest from a player’s perspective. Chained Echoes ran a palmy Kickstarter run mode backmost successful 2019, wherever Linda managed to seizure the imaginations of a clump of 30- and 40-something players that had been craving a instrumentality to the likes of Breath of Fire, Final Fantasy 6, and Chrono Trigger for generations.

I situation you to look astatine this and not beryllium charmed.

But this isn’t a elemental retread. It’s not an Octopath Traveler-like checklist of nostalgia, assembled cynically and clinically. No, it’s amended than that; Chained Echoes observes the tropes and tricks that marque the genre large and tinkers with the look – overmuch successful the aforesaid mode the archetypal 10 oregon truthful Final Fantasy games did. When you’re not ogling the gorgeous 16-bit inspired pixel art, you’ll beryllium beavering distant successful a conflict that’s each astir flow.

You’ll request to scroll done your commands and pop-out menus arsenic you usually would, attacking with weapons and magic and selecting items arsenic is apt 2nd quality to you astatine this point, but you’ll besides request to beryllium alert of your travel and rhythm. Once you get into a torrent of attacks, you’ll beryllium capable to execute Overdrive, wherever you’ll commencement dishing retired much harm and attacking with much zhuzh. Over-reach and over-perform, and your enactment volition permission itself susceptible to crits from immoderate oversized force you’re facing.

It’s a look that comes tantalizingly adjacent to fulfilling the promises of the active-time conflict mechanic from Final Fantasy 7 and 8; a national of turn-based tactical forward-planning and the thrill of real-time action, realised with aplomb. You can’t spell excessively dilatory different you’ll debuff, you can’t spell excessively accelerated different you’ll permission yourself wide open. Already, it sits alongside the Press Turn strategy from MegaTen and Persona arsenic my favourite mode of doing JRPG combat – precocious praise, indeed.

You cognize that erstwhile a combat looks similar this, it'll beryllium good.

Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6 are the astir evident comparisons you tin gully to Chained Echoes, but if you privation a somewhat deeper cut, you’ll astir apt spot much of Xenogears successful there. Per an interview with Linda from our colleagues astatine RPS, it was games similar Xenogears that Linda has tried to transcript – but not transcript successful presumption of code, pilfering brushwood ideas and mechanics. Instead, Linda tried to physique what helium remembers; and that mightiness beryllium wherefore Chained Echoes feels truthful overmuch similar 1 of the aureate epoch RPGs, spiritually.

Better yet, for me, Chained Echoes demonstrates 1 happening a batch of the 90s RPGs sorely lacked: a consciousness of humour. The crippled is genuinely funny, and ribs the conventions of the genre successful the aforesaid mode Garth Marenghi's Darkplace ribs horror, oregon JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure ribs… anything. There’s adjacent a baffling cameo from British mathcore outfit ZILF, and it lasts astir 10 seconds successful 1 of the astir obtuse cutscenes I’ve seen successful years. It was astatine that constituent that I knew this crippled was special; it wasn’t conscionable different cookie-cutter cash-in tumbling, unfinished, disconnected the JRPG accumulation line.

So galore things to learn, truthful galore mechanics to master.

If you’re already a subscriber to Xbox Game Pass, I implore you to play Chained Echoes. If you’ve been stung by the eye-roll genre damp squibs of the past fewer generations (I Am Setsuna, Monark, adjacent arsenic acold backmost arsenic Infinite Undiscovery), this could beryllium the crippled that reignites a spark wrong you and makes you retrieve wherefore you fell successful emotion with RPGs each those years ago. It surely did for me.

Chained Echoes is retired present connected Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and PC (and is disposable astatine nary other outgo connected PC and Xbox console via Xbox Game Pass).