The echoes of inspiration...
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| Console: PlayStation 5 |
For quite a
while now I've been looking for the next Forspoken - and not
in the way you think. Even if it didn’t come close to the ‘big-budget AAA’
games it tried so hard to be, I enjoyed it for what it was. Enough so that I
was open to playing a game like it that would, preferably, be a ‘AA’ title as
that is the headspace Forspoken works best in. Enter: Echoes of
the End.
The above
piece of artwork caught my attention when it, as part of a sale, popped up on
the PlayStation Store. It immediately reminded me of Forspoken and,
after doing a little digging, I took the gamble. The gameplay looked fun and the
good reviews of this improved version indie developer Myrkur Games released told
me that, while the original version might’ve been lacking, they put in the work
to fix it all. That’s a kind of dedication I can appreciate.
Ryn is a
young woman born a vestige: someone who can wield magic naturally,
without the use of devices. Being a vestige grants her amazing abilities but
also makes her a pariah, for most fear their power. While patrolling the
borders of her kingdom to check the status of The Wards, massive glowing
crystals that protect her people, Ryn and her brother Cor encounter a group of
invaders.
To Ryn’s
horror, they brought along a vestige of their own who does the impossible:
crack open one of The Wards like an egg, breaking down its protective shields.
Even worse, they take her brother hostage to act as a guide and nearly kill
her. Saved in the nick of time by Abram, a scholar who was her late father’s
pen-pal, the two decide to work together to stop the invading Dalsmen and free
Cor. Their journey brings them to the ruins of the great, but forgotten, empire
that came before and the dark secrets buried with its downfall.
Do you know
those books that you put down perfectly content even if it was only decent? Yeah,
that’s the story of Echoes of the End if you ask me. A narrative that is
not great by any stretch of the imagination but that is fun to go through
because of some neat ideas, cool sequences and a well thought out and fairly
engaging world.
That world
really is the MVP here. Myrkur Games is an Icelandic studio, and while I can’t
personally attest that the mountainous landscape that you make your way across
is a dead ringer for Iceland, I can say that it stands out in a very positive
way. It reminded me of The Lord of the Rings movies and its breathtaking
landscape shots (and not just because finding the ‘one ring’ and throwing it
down the volcano is an unmarked side-quest here).
I made dozens
of screen captures, from a mountain with a giant hole in it, to the ruins of a
city partially built within a mountain to even a gravity-defying volcano. The
‘up-close’ visuals may show its status as an AA-game with its rather crusty and
simple textures and blurry movement, but the big picture elements such as the
landscapes off in the distance are not affected by these things. Those are
worth taking a moment to stop and just look at, which the game encourages with
a side-activity that isn’t unlike the ‘Heart-to-Heart’ interactions in the Xenoblade Chronicles games.
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| It's a bit of spoiler since it's a late-game area, but this is my favourite scenic scene in the entire game. |
There are
some aspects of the presentation that could’ve used some more work, though. The
story is split up into chapters as a book, which you can replay to your hearts
content, but chapter kind of come and go. Some stop at a natural endpoint while
others most certainly do not. This team also needs a lesson on the ‘dos and
don’ts’ of cutscenes. From the get-go they felt off, awkward, with weird angles
and a lack of sound effects. A mineshaft more or less collapses silently makes
the entire sequence feel jarring and unnatural.
While its
world is quite grand, the story is small and personal. You spent a lot of time
with our two heroes Ryn and Abram and so lots of the narrative falls on their
shoulders. To get the bad thing out of the way first: these two aren’t
exceptional characters. Ryn is stoic and slow to trust while Abram is the mentor
haunted by his past. As the journey progress, the two grow closer, Ryn opens up
while Abram starts to deal with his past. Very common archetypes and character
journeys but Myrkur Games executed this tried-and-true premise well enough.
I think
their growth is earned and the connection they cultivate feels genuine and
doesn’t happen simply because these plot tropes dictate. I don’t think I’ll
remember these two years from now, but I enjoyed the time I’ve had with them.
I did not
enjoy my time with the villain, the commander of the Dalsmen Aurick and his
vestige/rabid attack dog Zarra, much though. My issue with Aurick is that he
never feels like a credible threat with his “might makes right” spiel and boss
fights that are super easy. Zarra is the mad fanatic whose eyes just scream madness
but she fares a bit better than her compatriot. That’s all down to the twist
surrounding her, which I feel stupid for only figuring out 30 seconds before
the actual reveal, and because fighting her was actually challenging.
Speaking of
fights, how do those play out, I hear you ask. Echoes of the End is a
third person action-adventure game split between over-the-shoulder combat and
exploration that relies heavily on puzzles and climbing elements.
Let’s
tackle the latter first since I don’t have that much to say about it. What you
do in these sections is mostly overcome obstacles to get to your destination by
way of climbing, jumping and puzzle solving. Very Tomb Raider if you ask me, just with magic and duller.
For
example, you use your magic to wind back time to recreate a bridge to walk on. After
that, you fight some enemies and then move on to the next area by pushing up a
fallen beam or squeezing in between some rocks or you find an optional goody
such as journal pages or armour sets. Rinse and repeat. I appreciate that the
puzzles got more intricate as time went on, but doing 4-5 of the same type of
puzzle gets old. Really should have paced that better.
Even so, there
are some standout puzzles here. There’s a floor puzzle that has multiple layers
to its solution which combines all tricks you’ve learned up until that point.
My favourite puzzle follows not long after, involving a logic conundrum based
on the lore of the world’s gods. It's not a difficult one to solve but I walked
to my study, grabbed my notebook and got to work writing it all out to solve it.
Those were a good two minutes.
Oh, and
where does 'walking on walls and ledges with a blue energy hit to it' remind me
of? That’s such a specific setup that I refuse to believe no one at Myrkur
Games has ever played Twilight Princess before but I approve!
Moving to
the combat, we need to have a quick talk about why this is an ‘Enhanced
Edition’. The original release received more than a little bit of criticism for
quite a few aspects, but especially for its lacklustre skirmishes. Myrkur Games
took that feedback to heart and released this much-improved version 6 months
later. We have New Game Plus, a reworked armour system, but most importantly:
that adjusted combat loop. They redid the timing and weight of things, and
things like that. While that original version seemed like it was outright bad,
the one we have here I’d say is more than decent.
The core of
the combat is still a very standard affair. Ryn can dodge, block or counter
attacks, swing her sword for light and heavy attacks and call on her magic for
things like a magic blast. It’s basically The Witcher 3, just with a
different camera. As you can imagine, I got used to it pretty quickly, but Echoes
of the End does add in some other things to (try to) make this tried-and-true
system its own.
The first
thing I noticed was the heavy attack. Not only is it an upgrade, but it’s
classified as a magic attack, meaning it’s part of a stamina meter of sorts. I
don’t like that as it really limits your combat options. In the moments that
you have to wait for your magic to replenish you can really only do one attack
and there isn’t much fun in that.
The magic
itself is also nothing we haven’t seen before but it does have some neat
concepts. We have our magic blasts of all different shapes and sizes, Ryn can
throw and control her sword from a distance in a boomerang-like fashion and she
can use her magic to throw objects or even smack two enemies into each other. It’s
not the most reliable to pull off as picking your target is a bit finicky, but
it’s actually very useful and satisfying to do if you manage it.
Chapter 8
gives you a dagger that does the God of War Laufey thing of allowing you
to zip to an enemy or obstacle from afar. Very handy to quickly close the gap
and it has some very good use in the climbing sections too. That all makes it a
shame that the game gives it to you so late. I didn’t get much use out of it
because of that.
What I got
more use out of was Ryn’s draining ability. There are no healing items in Echoes
of the End; only a whole bunch of ‘places of power’ that replenish Ryn’s
health and magic. To heal yourself in a fight you use your magic to, quite
literally, drain your enemy of their health. It’s a very satisfying move to
pull off not only because it heals Ryn, but also damages and stuns the enemy
for a moment. Even bosses get stunned when you drain them, which in the harder
fights gave me some much-appreciated breathing room.
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| It's a small thing but I really like that you use the drain by pressing down on both the L2 & R2 triggers. Gives heft to the move. |
Speaking of the boss fights, these are rather hit or miss for me. Some are challenging, some are cakewalks, but most of them are at the very least cool. The ‘spectral king’ fight is the best example of this. Yes, the 1st phase was easy peasy but the 2nd gave me some genuine trouble, but his design that could’ve been plucked straight out of Dark Souls, the setup, atmosphere and music all made a very cool fight. The armour you get as a reward is the armour I wore for the entire rest of the game so that helped too. The final battle, however, is seriously lacking. It's your 3rd Zarra fight and its basically the same as the first two battles with her. She just hits harder now and you’re given a have a handicap. Challenging? Yes, but also repetitive and underwhelming because of that.
Oh, and that
handicap? There’s an anecdote in that one. Echoes of the End takes a
page out of God of War’s book and has a companion by Ryn’s side that
helps you in both combat and exploration. Abram can stun enemies with the press
of a button, grab mooks and provide general cover fire. It’s not as robust as
Atreus is in God of War but he can be useful especially when it comes to
some of the Abram-specific skills in the skill tree and that’s where my
anecdote to end the review on lies in.
I spent so
much time unlocking that 'revival' skill just before the final battle began
only for the game to say 'no, that skill won't work in the final battle'
because it’s focused around Abram and he sits out the final because of story related
reasons. All that effort ended up for naught. That’s what you get when you
don’t take the time to look at the skill tree proper!
Conclusion
In the end,
Echoes of the End: Enhanced Edition is pretty much what I was looking
for: a smaller-scale action-adventure fantasy game. The world is easily the
highlight, with some genuinely impressive environments to explore even if it’s
lacking polish in many areas. The story and its characters are rather unremarkable
and the combat and puzzles are not the most original or varied bunch, but it’s
all enjoyable and engaging enough to carry you through the adventure.
If you’re
interested in these types of games, there’s enough here to like that I’d say
it’s worth considering especially if you can catch it with a discount. I don’t
regret taking the gamble and I think you won’t either.
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