Hi everyone! In the meantime, I’ve said goodbye to the idea of actually writing this column on a weekly basis. Something always comes up, even if it’s just the fact that sometimes you just don’t have anything interesting to say – but that doesn’t mean I’m going to give it up. In this respect: Even if it has been idle more often lately due to time-consuming game tests or illness, Alt+F40 continues happily. Just not so tightly clocked.
Also: It wasn’t that easy, the last … well, a good two months and I’m far from crying your ears too much. The short version would probably be that we have been passing infections back and forth since October and the children – if they could – don’t feel like going to daycare at all. In this respect, the Bohn-Elias family struggles to cross the finish line in the third year of the epidemic, hoping that the next twelve months will be a little more relaxed, at least for families. All that’s left for me to do is wish you all a happy holiday season and a Happy New Year before we start making everything – including the Alt+F40 frequency – better in January 2023.
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Chained Echoes makes JRPGs look easy
Not sure if you noticed, but one of the best games of 2023 arrived late this year: Chained Echoes has been out for two weeks and is taking the JRPG fanbase by storm. Unfortunately, the game reached me with the worst flu in years. That’s why it wasn’t enough for a test. Nevertheless, I can’t help but give Chained Echoes a few compliments, because one thing makes you wonder: How the hell did a German solo developer manage what even veterans with significantly more resources only manage to do every few years ?
What is that? A classic Japanese role-playing game by Chrono Trigger or Suikoden, which is so convincing both in terms of story and game system that you are sure: Even then it would have been a big hit. Sort of like a Shovel Knight for JRPGs. Admittedly, the genre has gotten worse, Square Enix releases a number of solid to very good games, which are then called I Am Setsuna or Bravely Default 2. But basically, the great classics are just emulated here, often down to the more awkward details like their grind down. But they are never really reached, not even remotely, and some of them seem to be making an effort.
Chained Echoes now thrives on our love of games that came before it. From Xenogears, Final Fantasy and those I mentioned above. But for the first time in a long time I have the feeling that this game doesn’t have to hide from its ancestors and plays with an ease that many copycats lack. This is mainly because Chained Echoes leaves out a lot of the things that annoy you today when you dig up the old classics again. It puts the user first, is comfortable through and through, saves on grind and superfluous fights.
There are even three separate controls that affect difficulty: how tricky should you juggle the Overdrive system that dictates the fight, how good your opponent’s stats should be, and how aggressively should they be? Matthias Linda’s game is flexible. Above all, however, the depth is captivating. The one-man studio, which only got help for some backgrounds and the great music, layers system upon system without overwhelming. This keeps the interest in the mechanical side of this classic role-playing game high, but with a high recognition value of its own.
This is certainly also due to the lack of random battles. You see most of the enemy encounters coming from afar, you can avoid some and yet the fights are a key element because they demand a lot from you. Any single battle can seriously backfire with just a few wrong decisions. Anyone who, like me, likes to ignore buffs and debuffs out of sheer damage fixation will experience a blue miracle. One notices that the time is not just to be filled here, you are to deal with each individual opponent and each of your characters.
And so it happens that I’ve been in Chained Echoes for a good 12 hours and I’m seriously wondering when I last played such a well-rounded, inviting and, despite all the challenges, light-footed JRPG. Matthias Linda makes it ridiculously easy to relive the old days, which raises some awkward questions as to why “the big ones” can’t do it too? My tip over the Christmas holidays, not least because you can play it stealthily under the tabletop on Switch or Steam Deck when the relatives around the roast inevitably get at each other’s hair over politics.
The most important thing at the end of 2022 – Alex Edition
In rotation: Tonight we’re having Glass Onion, actually I quite liked Knives Out. Symphony of War is finally being tackled properly over the holidays and apart from that I’m really just looking for ways to secretly “spice up” my cup of family punch so that no one notices.
Because a lot has happened in 2022, here are the highs, midpoints and lows in the Lexitron fast run!
Highlights 2022: The realization in Andor that there is still life in Star Wars and that Vampire Survivors only needs the stick to intoxicate with game depth. Suddenly seeing a secret in Tunic that you had been staring at for hours without knowing it. In Sifu without getting hit to get to the boss. Getting a very bad idea in Excavation of Hob’s Barrow. Tactics Ogre Reborn was more than just a remaster, the Steam Deck rocks my gaming present and past at the same time, and Marvel Snap credibly reassured me that every game can only get better with a card mechanic.
Then there was this one not looking away scene in the Resident Evil Village DLC Shadows of Rose that still sticks with me. The long overdue announcement of Dragon’s Dogma 2 and my incredible anticipation for Manor Lords, which will probably last for a while. Street Fighter 6’s banned-dorky character editor gave me the biggest laughs this year. The moment I knew Resident Evil 4 Remake was going to be awesome was a big one too, topped by the feeling of boarding an enemy ship and Marauders for the first time. Outperforming the cops in Need for Speed Unbound using a mountain as a jump from street level to the highway was absolutely ecstatic. And the first decision in Infernax would have been one of the smartest surprises of the year if Triangle Strategy hadn’t come up with what might be the best decision system ever.
Oh yes, Norco’s prologue was better than most novels I’ve read in recent years and the most beautiful pixel art graphics of all time are – I’m almost positive – in Songs of Conquest. And hey, my new 21:9 monitor and height-adjustable desk are doing wonders for my work and gaming ergonomics. When I think about it, it wasn’t all bad this year.
Midpoints (!?) 2022: Our two-year-old is a small miracle, but also a miracle of psychological warfare. Dying Light 2 is good, but only a shadow of its promise. Rings of Power was incredibly pretty to look at, had some good characters, but the more you think about it, the more stupid you find it. The excessive public enthusiasm for Stray still irritates me to this day, mostly because I liked the game. And that Respawn’s solo shooter is (probably) not going to be Titanfall, I’ve still got work to do on that.
Midnight Suns talked too much for me. The PS5 finally got VRR, way too late, as Battlefield 2042 tries to shrink itself before the last few players run away from it. I still don’t understand why Horizon is so popular and Remedy is getting Max Payne back, but I’m still not sure if that’s a good thing. I also rediscovered Jan Tenner this year. I did a lot of stupid stuff to please women when I was a student, but having genetic experiments done on me to twine a Tanya around my finger, who gets written off the show in a cruelly casual way in episode four, has still missing on my note. You have to hear this series to believe it. I had no idea what I was getting myself into back then…
Low points 2022: The most obvious would probably be war, the threat of global poverty and the ongoing pandemic ping-pong after Covid caught up with me this year (sport is murder!). On a personal level, our cargo bike has been out of action since the end of August due to delivery problems and is sorely missed. When it comes to games and entertainment, I remember with horror that in Skull & Bones I couldn’t see the actual game for all the bars and gauges and that big game companies have nothing better to do than buy smaller game companies. Missing performance modes in titles like Plague Tale and Gotham Knights shouldn’t start a trend either, otherwise something will happen.
Otherwise? Well, Konami’s uninspired Silent Hill broadside left me totally indifferent and didn’t need to realize that we’re still not noticeably closer to Star Citizen or Squadron 42. Just as I would probably have done better without my deep dive into the world of lying mobile game advertising. It almost turns into a trivial offense how She-Hulk and Ms. Marvel just throw everything away from the middle of the show despite their good facilities. As if the horde of orangutans with ADHD didn’t appreciate the lifetime subscription to bananas that was given in return for the script. Boba Fett was so bad it’s out of competition.
