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(1 edit)

I just finished Echo a few minutes ago after about 6-8 hours of playtime. I kind of have mixed feelings about it, but I'm mostly happy with my experience. I would give my playthrough an 8/10. 

I'm seeing in the other comments that every character seems to have their own route, and I haven't even seen half of the screenshots on this page during my playthrough. I played through Leo's route, but I'm excited to try the others!

Positives: The writing is superb as I've come to expect from EchoProject. The spookiness and tension are really effective. It's a real "page-turner". I felt like the characters were all interesting and unique with their own personalities.  In VN's, a lot of the time the choices don't really change a whole lot, but in this game, it seems like your choices have a really big impact. The illustrations are incredible. There are parts of my playthrough that made me sick to my stomach, which is really great for a horror story. The music and sound effects are really nicely used. The UI is also really unique and clearly a lot of effort when into it.  

Criticisms:  I wasn't really "satisfied" with the ending I got, unfortunately. And I felt like there were a lot of questions and interesting things brought up, but that never got answered/resolved. The game being in 480p took some time to get used to. I didn't mind the fact that the backgrounds just seemed to be real photos with a painterly filter on them, but it did take away some of my emersion when the background lighting did not match the time of day as it was described in the text, Leo's bedroom being one of the biggest culprits. Also, like 3/4 into the game, I started seeing a lot of spelling mistakes.   

Comparing this to Adastra is not really possible, and I've only done one playthrough of Echo, so my opinion might change later. I'd say in terms of atmosphere, this game is stronger. 

trust me... you're gonna love the rest of the routes. if you haven't done route 65, do so BEFORE jenna and flynn's routes !! it's optional for TJ and Carl's, but is really good to have finished before Jenna and TJ's :]

Wait until you try Jenna route ;)

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Unfortunately...that’s just how it is with Echo.


POTENTIAL SPOILER:




All routes in the game are either bittersweet or straight up depressing...there are no “true” happy endings. I mean Jenna’s route isn’t finished so who knows?

I feel like Carl's route has one that can almost be called "Happy" but depends on what you consider that

Not really? It’s stated that the only ones who are still friends are Chase, Leo, and Jenna. As the others have stopped talking to each other completely.

Yea but many of the other routes have WAY worse outcomes that this one doesn't

I think Leo is one of the tamer routes. For new players I always recommending starting with TJ's route first. Flynn's route is also very interesting, and a good followup to TJ's route.

What part of getting manipulated, kidnapped, tortured, and (depending on which choice you make) getting your legs ripped off by a speeding train defines Leo’s route being “tame?”

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It's because of all of those things that make it tame. Those events make it hard for the reader to relate and therefore the psychological side of the horror is a lot downplayed here. I love Echo because of the psychological horror and unlike the other routes Leo's route is almost regular horror (which don't really scare me at all). It also doesn't involve the Echo mysteries much compared to the other routes, so if you play it first it doesn't give you that itch to replay the other routes to figure out the entire mystery.